Sing 2

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Short takes

Not suitable under 5; parental guidance to 8 (violence, scary scenes, themes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Sing 2
  • a review of Sing 2 completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 20 December 2021.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 5 Not suitable due to violence, scary scenes and themes.
Children aged 5–8 Parental guidance recommended due to violence and themes.
Children over the age of 8 Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Sing 2
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Some scenes may scare young children
Length: 110 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Buster Moon (voice of Matthew McConaughey) dreams of making it big and taking his show from Moon Theatre to Redshore City. Turned away by a talent scout who sees little potential in his small group of underdogs, Buster hatches a plan to audition for Mr Crystal (voice of Bobby Cannavale) himself. With the help of his friends Gunter (voice of Nick Kroll) and Ash (voice of Scarlett Johansson), Buster promises a show that will be out of this world. In order to seal the deal, he also promises that the renowned and reclusive rock legend Clay Calloway (voice of Bono) will take part in the performance. Mr Crystal agrees to give him a shot but reminds Buster what he stands to lose if he fails. Failure looks like it might be a real possibility when Johnny (voice of Taron Egerton) struggles to learn the choreography; Rosita (voice of Reese Witherspoon) develops a fear of heights; Meena (voice of Tori Kelly), who has never been in love, must perform a romantic scene with Darius (voice of Eric Andre), a self-absorbed playboy buffalo; and despite their best efforts, Clay Calloway adamantly refuses to perform with them. Though all the odds are stacked against him and countless obstacles come his way, Buster refuses to give up. He keeps trying; he encourages others and looks for creative ways to overcome challenges. Even when it looks like all of their hard work will be wasted, Buster’s team comes together to put on a performance the likes of which Redshore City has never seen and one that it will never forget.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Corporate greed; Materialistic entitlement; Abuse of power and corruption; Reclusiveness as a means to cope with grief.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • Buster is tossed off the side of a car where he flies into a channel filled with water. He lands on a whale who blasts him into the air and he lands back in the water.
  • Clay Callaway shoots Buster’s assistant with paintballs. She is hit repeatedly as is her car. One of her eyeballs is dislodged and an apple is jammed in its place.
  • Buster’s assistant crashes her car into a tree in her desperate attempt to get away from Clay Calloway.
  • A dance master hits his students with sticks every time they make a mistake and even sometimes when they don’t.
  • Two characters are electrocuted by a fence.
  • Mr Crystal tries to throw Buster off the top of his building. He is interrupted and threatens to finish the job later.
  • Mr Crystal’s thugs threaten to kill Buster and his friends. They chase them through the hotel, trying to capture them. It is widely believed that Mr Crystal will kill them all.
  • The dance teacher fights with a dancer on stage, purposely trying to trip him up and humiliate him.
  • Mr Crystal throws Buster off the top of a performance platform where he would have plummeted to his death but Rosa saves him at the last minute.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Clay Callaway is initially shown as a scary, reclusive, shadowy figure who is violently protective of his privacy. He terrifies another character, looks menacing and acts unmerciful.
  • When Mr Crystal gets angry at Buster his face contorts into an evil mask. He doesn’t bother to conceal his rage as he screams at Buster, claws his desk and threatens to kill him (Buster) if the show is not everything he has been promised that it will be.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • Buster is completely terrified as he hides from Mr Crystal’s thugs who have been tasked with finding and killing him. His friends begin to panic as well when they clearly become targeted too.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

  • Nothing further of concern.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • No actual product placement was noted, however, the music of many well-known artists is featured: Ed Sheeran, Alecia Keys, Whitney Houston, Shaun Mendez and Camilla Cabello, to name but a few.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Meena is told that she must gaze at another character like she is burning up with love.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Mr Crystal jumps out of bed, naked. Audiences see the back side of his legs and the horrified faces of his guards who get a full frontal view.
  • Meena is freaking out about a romantic scene that she must do for the show as she has never kissed anyone and must now do so before a vast audience.

Use of substances

  • None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Idiot
  • Go to heck
  • Lowlife loser.

In a nutshell

Sing 2 is an animated adventure with a loveable cast, fabulous soundtrack and powerful message about not giving up and following your dreams. Suitable for all but the youngest viewers, this is a film that the whole family can enjoy together.

The main messages from this movie are that you must fight for what you believe in and that great things are destined for anyone who dares to follow their dreams.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Courage
  • Teamwork
  • Persistence
  • Friendship
  • Helpfulness.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Giving up on what you know to be right.
  • Listening to those who would put you down and tell you that, “you can’t” and that, “you will never be good enough”.
  • Hiding away and refusing to use your talent as a means to cope with the loss of a loved one.
  • Bullying others; threatening them; making things much more difficult than they ever needed to be and when the end product is successful, attempting to steal the glory for yourself.