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Animated 'Sing' hits sharp notes of humor

The animated jukebox musical “Sing” comes from the same studio that brought us “The Secret Life of Pets,” on track to being the most ill-conceived and socially abhorrent children's movie of the decade.

Fortunately, Illumination Entertainment's “Sing” doesn't glorify physically harming others as an effective, acceptable method to get your way, as the pet heroes in “Secret Life” demonstrated.

“Sing” advertises that it features more than 85 hit songs. More accurately, they're mostly short snippets of 85 hit songs, a mix of music with intergenerational appeal for little kids up through baby boomers.

The big surprise of “Sing” comes from Matthew McConaughey, who bumps his voice up into the helium atmosphere to create a nimble cartoon personality for Buster Moon, your standard-issue theatrical impresario koala.

To keep his failing, dilapidated Broadway-style theater afloat, Buster decides to sponsor an “American Idol”-styled talent contest to raise money. He doesn't realize his first-prize offer of $1,000 has been accidentally bumped up to $100,000, sparking instant interest from a menagerie of all-talking, all-singing, all-dancing animals.

Koala Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) consults with Ash (Scarlett Johansson), a punk-rock porcupine, in "Sing."

What follows can be called “A Zoo Chorus Line” with such contestants as Rosita (Reese Witherspoon), an exhausted pig mommy with 25 kids and an inattentive hubby; an emo porcupine Ash (Scarlett Johansson); Johnny the gorilla (Taron Egerton) who'd rather sing than pull bank jobs with Dad; an egocentric mouse Mike (Seth MacFarlane); and three bunnies (one being West Chicago's Jessica Rau) belting out “Baby Got Back.”

“Sing” leans heavily on easy (and expensive-to-license) commercial hits from Katy Perry, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Frank Sinatra and others, plus flicker-fast camera shots and a barrage of silly, kid-friendly jokes to keep its entertainment quotient energized.

But in a year in which major animated features (“Zootopia,” “The Jungle Book” and “Moana”) impart themes far more sophisticated than the tired “follow your dreams” bromide, “Sing” constitutes a mere pretty ditty executed at presto tempo.

“Sing”

★ ★ ½

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, John C. Reilly, Scarlett Johansson, Seth MacFarlane

Directed by: Garth Jennings

Other: An Illuminations Entertainment release. Rated PG. 108 minutes

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