Finally I was able to catch up a new movie that just premiered on a Wednesday. It seemed like it has been ages since I did so with my wife. She happened to be having a function at Pacific Place mall at noon, so she managed to buy the ticket at CGV Blitz for the 7PM show. As it was the 7th of December and since my car's license plate ended with odd number, I could go through the Gatot Subroto area freely (this was due to the regulation in Jakarta to limit the number of vehicles passing through certain areas and avoid heavy traffic jam). So I headed to the mall from my office which took less than 1/2 hour and had a bite for dinner before we go to the cinema. To my surprise, it was not fully packed. Anyway, let's get on to the movie.
Brief Story Line
Buster Moon (voiced by Matthew McConaughey - The Wolf of Wallstreet, Interstellar and many more) was a koala who was the owner of an almost bankrupt music theater due to all his previous play productions failed commercially. He requested the financing from his best friend, the sheep Eddie (voiced by John C. Reilly - Wreck It Ralph, Guardians of the Galaxy etc) who was from a rich family, but he was not able to assist as Buster's track record was not too good. With the help from his assistant, the rather aged iguana Ms. Crawley, Buster sent many flyers to announce a singing competition he wanted to hold in his theater. Buster really needed this to be a success since the theater was going to be foreclosed by the bank due to unpaid loan.
For some reasons, there were so many who were interested in auditioning as they aimed to get the prize money from this competition. The standout performers were including Rosita the housewife pig and mother of 25 pigs (voiced by Reese Witherspoon - Cruel Intention, Legally Blonde etc), Mike the snobby mouse (voiced by Seth MacFarlane - Ted & Ted 2), Ash the teenage moody porcupine (voiced by Scarlett Johansson - Lost In Translation, Black Widow in MCEU etc), Johnny the gorilla (voiced by Taron Egerton - Kingsman: The Secret Service) and of course Gunter the funny friendly optimistic pig (voiced by Nick Kroll).
In addition to those performers, there was also Meena the elephant (voiced by Tori Kelly) who had a lovely voice but she was very shy and always got stage fright so she could not make it through the audition. However, she did manage to get work as stage personnel helping Buster so she get to be involved in the singing completitions as well. There were quite a lot of amazing talents who auditioned and some of them were singing various type of songs, including those funny Japanese group.
Buster who was in desperate need of money, also requested the help from Nana Noodleman, Eddie's grandmother (voiced by Jennifer Saunders) who used to be the main singer in Buster's theater long time ago. She was very rich and Buster was hoping that Nana could be convinced to support this latest effort of saving the theater. Things also got complicated when all of these performers had a problem of their own such as Ash' relationship with her boyfriend, Johnny's relationship with his father, Rosita's dilemma of having to jugle with family, Meena's big expectation from her family and Mike's personal problem with the bears.
So could Buster make the show successful and save the theater that he was so proud of? Could all the main characters resolve their own personal challenges? Find them all and sing (even dance) along while watching this fun & lovely movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Well this movie was a bit different than I anticipated. When I watched the trailer, all I can think of was a movie only adapting the singing competition in the television like American Idol or The Voice with various characters competing to win. But it turned out to be something completely different. I personally was satisfied with the story and characters development. I think we can probably relate to or symphatyze on the characters, even the snobby Mike.
The songs in this movie were a lot. If you think that the movie Trolls has got a lot of songs, then this is even more! You can definitely like some of the songs sung by these characters and probably knew most of them as well. Meanwhile the performances of these characters in the finale were real awesome. You would feel all sort of emotions watching them. Despite the movie categorized as suitable for general audience (including children), I believe the story of the movie was a bit heavy. Children could be entertained in some parts of the movie, or even the singing part. But I feel the movie is more suitable for teens and above to be able to capture the essence/moral message of the movie which was to always pursuit your dreams. There was also a very spirit lifting phrase that Buster said in the movie, which you can see for yourself.
This movie was produced by Illumination Entertainment, the production company that brought to you Despicable Me and those cute Minions. Unlike the previous animated movie The Secret Life of Pets where there was a short very funny movie of Minions before the start of the movie, this one did not have it. There was no scenes after the end credit either. So if you wish to go to the rest room after holding it during the movie, you can go right ahead. Unless of course if you want to see the end credits and wanted to see what songs were there in the movie.
The animations as usual were amazing. I am quite sure there are glimpses of good effects if you watch in 3D. The songs were good, so if you want to enjoy a better music effect, then you definitely can enjoy them better when watching at cinemas with good special effects of Dolby Atmos and 11.1 surround system. Oh 1 thing that I was not happy was the trailer of this movie that had been playing in theaters earlier. I think it revealed too much information and important scenes. But anyway, if you are looking for fun entertaining animated musical movie with lots & lots of songs, then this movie is definitely for you.
Happy watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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