Movie Review

Sing serves up a heap of mindless, soulless entertainment

It has become readily apparent over the years that no other American animated movie studio is willing to challenge Disney when it comes to making films with complex emotions. Notwithstanding the occasional one-off movie, the other studios are content to stay within the fun/adventure mode, rarely approaching anything that resembles anger or sadness.

Many films have succeeded doing just that, but the problem comes when a film focuses purely on surface storytelling, trying to force fun without actually engaging with its characters. That’s the biggest failing of Sing, a movie that’s designed to make you feel good through song, yet can’t do it because it never makes you care about its characters.

Those characters include Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey), a koala who comes up with the idea for a singing competition to save his failing historic theater. Among the ones attracted by the contest are pig Rosita (Reese Witherspoon), mouse Mike (Seth MacFarlane), porcupine Ash (Scarlett Johansson), elephant Meena (Tori Kelly), and gorilla Johnny (Taron Egerton), among others.

And that’s basically all there is to the film. Writer/director Garth Jennings gives some insight into the personal lives of each main character, but he ping-pongs between each of them so much that nothing ever really sticks. It’s a manic kind of storytelling where they seem to be telling you a lot, but you actually learn nothing at all.

The songs are obviously what the movie hinges on, but here too the movie falls down on the job. They're a mishmash of genres and time periods, assigned to characters with little thought as to why they should be singing that particular song. Unlike the recent Trolls, which integrated pop music into to its story to a fantastic degree, Sing throws out songs as throwaway gags, just hoping to get some kind of reaction.

Its use of a variety of animal characters also makes it pale in comparison to another recent animated movie, Zootopia. In that film, each species, despite walking and talking like a human, had distinct animal characteristics that made it more fun and interesting. In Sing, having the characters be animals makes no logical sense in the context of the film. Aside from making them extra cute or scary as the case may be, they rarely act like animals; having them be humans would have worked equally as well.

The voice actors work well for the most part, although, as usual, the use of big-name actors adds little of substance to the film. But having actors who can actually sing or, like Kelly, be an actual singer, at least serves to make their performances enjoyable. If only the rest of the film lived up to those abilities.

It’s obvious that the makers of Sing viewed the film as mindless entertainment for families during the Christmas holidays. Audiences deserve much more than that; don’t waste your time with this forgettable film.

Taron Egerton plays Johnny in Sing.

Taron Egerton in Sing

Photo courtesy of Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures

Taron Egerton plays Johnny in Sing.

Vinyl Record News

Dallas record store chain Josey Records opens location in Garland

Josey Records

Josey Records

Vinyl at Josey Records

Dallas music maker Josey Records has extended its reach east: The record store chain, whose empire includes one of the largest single independent record stores in the U.S., has opened a location in Garland, at 1005 Northwest Hwy., at the intersection of Centerville Road, where it's selling its trademark assortment of vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, turntables, music posters, new releases, and music accessories.

This is the sixth location and the third in the Dallas area, joining the original in Farmers Branch which owners Waric Cameron and Luke Sardello opened in November 2014. They've since opened locations in Plano, Tulsa, Kansas City, and Vidalia, Missouri.

The original location is a giant place with 16,000 square feet devoted to vinyl, 45s, CDs, turntables, and T-shirts. They do a good job showcasing new releases and collector vinyl — they made CultureMap's list of 5 best places in Dallas to buy vinyl records — and are known to host album release and listening parties such as a recent blockbuster celebrating Linkin Park.

They made headlines in June 2020 when they acquired the vast musical inventory of Bill’s Records following the death of owner Bill Wisener; Cameron and Sardello both worked at Bill’s, and knew the sprawling collection first-hand.

"It has taken us years to even start going through it, but in last two years, we've made some headway," Cameron says. "Bill's has its own audience, so we created a specific Instagram account, just for Bill's Records merchandise called @billsrecordsvault."

They chose Garland because they saw it as an area that was under-served.

"There are very few record stores in that area of northeast Dallas, Casa View, Garland, Rockwall, Mesquite," Cameron says. "We have customers who live over there, so it seemed like a good place for a store."

The storefront they're in was most recently The Music Store, which sold and rented musical instruments and accessories; but coincidentally, it's next to an address that was once RPM Records, a hip record store from the '90s.

The Garland store follows the same model as their others: selling new and used records and merchandise, and buying used goods, as well.

"One thing that's cool is that each location takes on its own identity," he says. "We buy used CDs, vinyl records, cassettes — we're a used resale business — and what we buy from our customers dictates what that store becomes. For example, our Plano store has a lot of classic rock. So we're looking forward to seeing what Garland gravitates to."

Garland does have one thing that the other locations do not.

"Right now, Garland has this incredible collection of jazz," Cameron says. "We bought a great collection of jazz records — someone called and wanted to sell it. We get that a lot, we buy major collections from all over the U.S., we even make house calls. So we saved it for the Garland store."

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