Sing

An animated musical which looks a little like The X Factor, from a Director out of the game for 10 years and released by the commercially popular, but not exactly critic's choice, Illumination Studios sounds like a recipe for disaster but I'm happy to say that Sing is an absolute delight and an early front-runner for the best kid's movie of the year.

Director Garth Jennings clearly was given free rein to let his imagination run wild and came good with a delightful tale about a koala (with the magnetic voice of Matthew McConaughey) whose theatre is close to bankruptcy, putting on a talent show/singing competition featuring such madness as a crooning mouse, a punk rock porcupine, a Cockney gorilla whose part of a Guy Ritchie-esque gang of thieves and a camp, German pig who may just steal the entire movie.

Sure, the plot starts off like a particularly weird episode of The X Factor, complete with some rather hilarious auditions, and then segues into the typical 'it's-all-gone-wrong' rehearsals before finalising with a triumphant success and a 'follow your dreams' message (I wrote this in The Lego Batman Movie review but, surely, occasionally, we can produce a film for a younger audience that tells a more natural story and not dumb things down?)

Regardless of this, and like Lego Batman... before it, this is a 100 miles per hour thrill constantly throwing references (I count three Back To The Future nods), humour and songs (literally countless amounts of songs but, ingeniously, not all of them are predictable or standard) and is so much better than it has any right to be.

As predictable as certain elements may be you'll find yourself, at times, ready to stand up and applaud these characters, all of which have a brilliant and believable story arc.

A visual and musical treat, not just for the little 'uns.

4 stars ****