- After Suki Lane rejects his show, Buster decides to chase after her taxi cab on his bicycle to continue their conversation. Special points to Buster sporting a big smile while following the cab Suki is in and having a conversation on her cell phone. However, he eventually loses control of the bike after Suki once again rebuffs him, and drives it right into a nearby canal. The whale briefly shown in the first movie saves him from the drink, only for it to then send him flying through the air with a waterspout from its blowhole.
[Buster falls in the canal]
Crowd: Awww!
[Buster surfaces on the whale's back]
Crowd: [cheers]
[Buster gets blown away by the waterspout]
Crowd: Awww!
- A soaked Buster dries himself off by blowing a hand dryer at his face, resulting in all his face fur being fluffed up for the rest of the evening.
- When her friends are feeling doubtful about whether they're good enough for Redshore, Rosita decides to give them all a pep talk that's both heartwarming and hilarious.
Rosita: Listen you guys, I have dreamt of performing in Redshore City since I was a little kid. And besides, I just convinced my husband to babysit for the next twenty-four hours, and I am not going to waste an opportunity like that! So come on. We've got nothing to lose!
- When Buster and his gang disguise themselves as janitors so they can sneak into Mr. Crystal's auditions:
- While they're sneaking by the receptionist via a floor-cleaning machine:
- Johnny has to support almost all of his friends by himself to keep them hidden out of sight, and he clearly starts to buckle under the strain of it, before he winds up banging his head on the side of a door.
- Ms. Crawly ends up having her head so close to the floor that her glass eye starts rolling on it.
- Ash tries to press herself down to keep hidden, but Gunter accidentally gets his butt pricked by her quills when he does the same. Rosita quickly covers his mouth to stop him yelping in pain.
- Just to add an extra layer of comedy, the whole time this scene is playing out, Billie Eilish's "Bad Guy" is playing in the background: the lyric "duh" is perfectly timed with Johnny beaning his head on the door.
- Finally, the whole group abandon the floor cleaner and stuff themselves into an elevator. It's not a comfortable experience for anyone, but Ash in particular is pressed right up against the glass, face-first. Seriously, how has nobody has gotten any more of her quills stuck in them once they finally exit the elevator?
- Once they get to the top floors and have to make their way through a crowd, they mop as they go while plastering a bunch of fake grins onto their faces that couldn't look any more forced if they tried, all to the continuous squeaka-squeaka-squeaka of the mops.
- Ms. Crawly gets into the mopping in earnest, forcing a seated antelope to lift his feet as she scrubs underneath him. A short while later, she has to rush to catch up with the others, quickly mopping her way across the room with a hurried squeakasqueakasqueaka and forcing a small group to part for her.
- After they've finished mopping up and have left, some giraffes walk into the room and immediately slip on the overly wet floor.
- Just like in the first film, there's a montage of various auditions, this time for Jimmy Crystal's show. Jimmy rejects auditions by pressing a loud buzzer, bringing to mind the various hilarious montages of Hopeless Auditionees on America's Got Talent.
- Near the beginning of the sequence, three cute little ducklings dressed like chimney sweeps a la Mary Poppins sing Eminem's "My Name Is." It's probably for the best that Crystal stops them.
- A hippo and a guinea pig sing Ricky Martin’s "She Bangs" together on a trampoline. The hippo's wild bouncing causes the guinea pig to bounce involuntarily, making him visibly uncomfortable.
- One of the turtles from the audition montage in the first movie makes a return, bursting out of a magic box after a chimp assistant tosses a lit stick of dynamite in it while singing The Steve Miller Band’s "Abracadabra". And yes, the turtle still sings badly.
- A horse with long flowing white hair and a sparkling dress, reminiscent of Céline Dion, steps up to the mike, pauses dramatically for effect, and is only able to get one word of Adele's "Hello" out before Jimmy decides to skip over her.
- The following audition involves a glean of herons playing a set of taiko drums VERY LOUDLY. Jimmy ends up pressing the button, only for it to be almost entirely drowned out by the drums, so his assistant eventually resorts to waving at the herons to stop the drumming.
- The audition right after that is a tarsier with black-and-white face-paint singing Billie Eilish's "Bury a Friend" while vertically turning its head with wide eyes. Jimmy and the others are so visibly and thoroughly creeped out that he quickly hits the buzzer.
- The next act is comedic in description- a sounder of warthogs doing ballet to a suite from an Alice in Wonderland ballet. It's like Dance of the Hours all over again!
- What act (before Buster and company, of course) gets the most out of Crystal before he decides to hit the buzzer? A flamboyance of flamingos on rollerblades singing DNCE's "Cake By The Ocean", to which he can be seen slowly moving his hand away from the buzzer before ultimately pressing it. What does he see in that act that he didn’t see in all the others?
- Suki walks in on Buster and his friends talking to Mr. Crystal and quickly starts to panic.
Suki: Sir, your lunch meeting with… (she gasps) Oh my-
Jimmy: (dismissively) Not now!
Suki: (whispering through gritted teeth) Moon, how did you get in here?!
Jerry: He said 'not now'.
Suki: (frowning irritably) Yeah, I heard him, thanks Jerry.
- Just before Jimmy departs, he decides to give Buster a warning that creeps the koala out. He isn't sure whether it's a really morbid joke or an actual threat, and he really hopes it's the former (unfortunately for him, it turns out to be the latter).
Jimmy: Hey, one last thing. Don't ever do nothing to make me look bad, you got that?
Buster: (beams happily) Oh, I will never let that happen, sir!
Jimmy: You better not, or I'll throw you off the roof!
Buster laughs nervously and begins to wonder for the first time if he's just made a mistake.
- Blink and you'll miss it, but when Jimmy's helicopter takes off, his tiny assistant Jerry is blown over by the gust of wind from the rotors.
- Another blink and you'll miss it moment: as the group are all celebrating and hugging after getting their deal, Ms. Crawly hugs the legs of a very confused looking Suki.
- This exchange between Buster and Gunter.
Buster: Gunter, a sci-fi musical? You're a genius!
Gunter (grinning) Yeah, well, mama always said 'Gunter, you're not as stupid as your papa'.
Buster: (laughing) No you're not!
- It doesn't take long for Buster to realize what he's done, promising to deliver an extravagant show with a big celebrity guest star to Jimmy Crystal in just three weeks, and he's well aware of just how much trouble he's going to be in if the wolf discovers his lies. There's a hilarious contrast between Buster growing more and more scared as he tries to cover everything up, while Gunter obliviously gushes to him about all his new ideas, having the time of his life living out his dream.
Mason: Ah, Mr. Moon. We're your production team, and we're here to start-
Buster: (chuckles nervously) Yes, yes, yes. Uh, you're here to work on the show. And I would gladly invite you all in right now, but-
The door behind him suddenly bursts open, revealing an overly excited Gunter.
Gunter: We should totally do like a battle scene!-
Buster shoves the pig back inside their room, faster than he can blink.
Buster: Gunter, no, not now!
- After he receives a threatening note from Mr. Crystal, warning him not to screw up or else, Buster looks quietly mortified while Gunter exuberantly gushes some more in the background, improvising a musical pitch.
Gunter: Ooh, I've got a better idea! What about the mambo? And everyone's in space suits? A great idea, I think so!
- When Buster reveals his plans for the big show to his cast and crew, Gunter is much more upfront about the amount of thought they've put into it than Buster would like to admit.
Rosita: And how does it end? Do I find the explorer?
Gunter: Oh, we have no idea how it's going to end-
Buster immediately launches forward and clasps his paw over the pig's mouth.
Buster: Gunter, no, no, no!
- Buster asks one of the workers, a walrus named Mason, to hold off because they haven't gotten the production finished; he also asks him to keep quiet about it. Unlike Buster's friends however, Mason has no interest in covering up the koala's lies. He, very loudly, informs all the other workers that Buster has not finished his plans yet as Buster repeatedly begs him to stop talking, ending with "I'm looking into his eyes and all I see is FEAR!!! And a little bit of shame!"
- When Norman and Rosita's kids come to visit her in Redshore City, some of the piglets start to climb onto Buster's ears, which he finds to be both cute and very distracting.
Buster: Uh... help.
- "Tippy toes! Tippy toes! I don't see your tippy toes!"
Johnny: Oh come on! He's having a laugh!
- Meanwhile Buster is joining in with a big grin on his face to try to get Johnny into it.
- Darius's introductory scene is him Shaking the Rump at the audience and dancing sexily while loudly singing Justin Beiber's "Boyfriend", before the camera pans out to reveal this performance is actually part of a music video he's playing back for Meena. He boasts about all his recent accomplishments to her, and she looks less impressed and more quietly bewildered by it all (and Buster feels much the same way in background).
- During her rehearsal with Darius, Meena is cringing pretty hard with discomfort the whole time, due to her partner's cocky attitude and his tendency to get all up in her personal space. One of the lyrics in their chosen song is "I don't deserve this", which certainly sums up how Meena was feeling at the time. If you look closely at the background, you can see Johnny and Rosita staring wild-eyed at her ordeal as well.
Buster: Oh boy.
- Miss Crawly jamming out to "Chop Suey" on her way to Calloway's home. It's even better when you realize this is somehow the second System of a Down song Illumination has snuck into their movies.
- Porsha in general has a lot of great lines, because of her Valley Girl personality. In her introductory scene, she declares that she loves Clay Calloway because "I'm like so into vintage right now", and repeatedly gets "sci-fi" and "sky-fi" mixed up when she's talking about Buster's show.
- Johnny has a small talk with Klaus that makes the proboscis monkey seem more than a bit unhinged.
Johnny: Sorry I'm late, Mr. Kickenklober. I was practicing all morning, I just lost track of time.
Klaus: Oh, I thought maybe you had been involved in a terrible accident and we'd never have to see you again. But never mind.
Johnny: Ugh, seriously? Why do you have to be so mean all the time?
Klaus: Because only when we suffer-
Klaus randomly decides to spank one of his dancers, while grinning deviously.
Klaus: -Can we be great!
- Johnny asks Nooshy to teach him the ways of street dancing, because his choreographer is, in his own words, a "massive weirdo". Nooshy is reluctant to agree to this, since she has no way of knowing if Johnny is some kind of weirdo himself, and she refuses to blindly trust someone she just met. Eventually, Johnny decides to prove his credentials as a performer by bursting into an impromptu cover of "There's Nothing Holding Me Back" in the middle of a diner. Nooshy's reaction to this?
Nooshy: (grinning) I knew you were a weirdo.
- Klaus is not happy in the slightest when he learns Johnny would prefer the methods of another dance teacher over his own, especially someone Klaus looks down upon, so he immediately starts to make snide remarks about Johnny and Nooshy. Nooshy in return has zero problems sharing her honest feelings about him.
Johnny: She's just going to give me some extra lessons, that's all.
Klaus: Oh, because I, Klaus Kickenklober, master choreographer, am not good enough for Johnny.
Johnny: No, that's not what I meant.
Klaus: Yes, I'm irrelevant to him. I'm just a stupid, fat old monkey.
Johnny: I don't think that at all.
Nooshy: (grinning) I do.
Klaus whips arounds and glares daggers at both of them.
- Miss Crawly returning from her encounter with Calloway with an apple in place of her glass eye. Suffice to say, their first meeting did not go very well at all.
Buster: Miss Crawly?
Miss Crawly: You can't go back there, Mr. Moon. Never, never!
Buster: What? What happened to you?
Miss Crawly: That lion. You see, he's crazy! Crazy! Oh, he's crazy! Pew! Pew! Pew!
- Porsha's Bad "Bad Acting":
Porsha: Take that, you nasty alien monstah!
- Just the expressions on Buster, Ash and Gunter's faces after witnessing said bad acting. As Porsha walks off-screen reciting the line in an Arnold Schwarzenegger-esque accent ("Take that, you NAH-sty eh-lien mawn-ster!"), Ash can only stare and shake her head in disbelief.
- This gag is given a callback later in the film, except this time a random technician is gaping at her too, alongside, Buster, Gunter and Miss Crawly.
- A more meta example: Alfonso, who is voiced by Pharrell Williams, is an ice cream vendor. In real life, Pharrell owns a brand called ICECREAM.
- On top of that, he's actually lactose intolerant.
- Miss Crawly's transformation from sweet, dotty old lady to Drill Sergeant Nasty as Moon leaves her in charge, barking orders through a megaphone while riding a scissors lift.
Porsha: (
grinning) Hey, everybody!
Miss Crawly fixates angrily on Porsha while Meena gives a super anxious glare in the background. Miss Crawly: You're two hours late for rehearsal! Porsha: Wait, where's the koala? Who are you?
Miss Crawly: I'm in charge, that's who! Now get your tail to wardrobe, sweetheart! - Buster and Ash decide to ignore Clay's warning about trespassing on his grounds, and their hubris immediately bites them in the backside in an unexpected bit of dark comedy.
Ash: Fine, if you're not coming over here, we're coming to you.
Clay: (suddenly alarmed) No, stay off the fence!
Ash: (rolls her eyes) Don't listen to him.
Buster and Ash put their paws on the fence and are immediately shocked by an electric current until they're knocked out.
- While Porsha and Gunter are practicing their wire-work for the big show, Porsha fails to grab hold of the pig, so Gunter winds up smacking right into one of the stage's prop planets.
Miss Crawly: Stop, stop, stop! Porsha, you're still messing it up.
Porsha: It's not my fault! He keeps missing the catch.
Gunter: I think she's trying to kill me.
- Meena once again tries to practice her routine with Darius, and the results are still just as cringe-worthy.
Darius: Alright, music starts, I step out, do my moves, fancy moves. Step together, drop! Gazing at each other like we're burning up with love- Gah!
The camera cuts to Meena plastering a painfully fake and forced smile onto her face.
Darius: What are you doing with your face? Your face looks broken. What is that?
Meena: (awkwardly) Uh, I was falling in love?
Darius: Yeah, Gina, listen. I'm sorry, that's not what falling in love with me looks like. I should know, I see it day after day, week after week.
- After Nooshy has done what she promised and helped Johnny's dancing skills to improve massively, she quite rightly rubs it in to Klaus and reminds him of their little wager.
Nooshy: Now, didn't you say you were going to eat your hat? Well, there you go. Mmmm. Yum, yum!
Klaus yells out in outrage as Nooshy shoves his hat into his hands, before he storms off in a jealous huff.
- Buster tries to convince Clay to join his show while the antisocial lion is working on a hose, and Clay asks him to turn on the tap. Once the koala obliges, the lion instantly uses the hose to blow the koala away from him, towards a nearby pond.
- Buster's wet fur look after Clay blasts him with the hose.
- While Buster is discussing the future of the show with Porsha, she makes this modest remark:
Buster: Porsha, you know I truly believe that this show, it’s close to being fantastic: maybe even perfect.
Porsha: (grinning) Thank you.
- As Clay and Ash race towards Redshore City on the lion's motorcycle, Ash decides to call Buster and tell him the good news, while Clay can't resist slipping in a jab at her expense.
Ash: Moon! I've got Calloway! Here, he wants to talk to you!
Clay: (smirking) Your friend's even more annoying than you are!
Ash: (chuckles) Don't listen to him. We're heading to Redshore, right now!
- As terrifying as Jimmy Crystal's true colours are, we still get Black Comedy from his first attempt on Buster's life being cut short by Jerry reminding him about a scheduled interview, revealing a trembling Buster clinging to Jimmy's arm like an actual koala would to a tree trunk.
Jerry: (blatantly terrified) I-it might be better if we put a pin on this right now...
- Clay and Ash discover Buster hiding inside a suitcase, in fear of Jimmy Crystal's minions trying to kill him. Ash is confused and concerned, while Clay is not amused in the slightest.
- When Clay answers the door to Buster's hotel room, he finds the rest of Buster's friends waiting on the other side. Most of them look surprised and a bit excited to be meeting the famous lion, while Miss Crawly looks mortified, since she remembers him quite well from their last encounter. She immediately faints, to Clay's amusement.
Clay: I remember you.
(Miss Crawly topples over and faints, while Clay grins)
- After the cut to the next scene, Miss Crawly is mumbling the words "Pew, pew, pew" in her sleep, showing that she's still a bit traumatized from the paintballs incident.
- Buster Moon and his performers are talking about going on with their show, in spite of Jimmy Crystal, when there's a sudden doorbell and banging at the door:
Gunter: (anxiously) Maybe it's like room service?
Jimmy's goon: Open up or you're DEAD, Moon!
Gunter: Okay, it's not room service.
- As they run out of time, Buster and friends decide on a plan, which actually turns out to be kind of fun.
- As the theater animals make their escape from Mr. Crystal's hotel security, Gunter starts to panic about their predicament.
Gunter: Oh, I wish I didn't have-
A tree branch suddenly smacks him in the face, but he keeps on running regardless.
Gunter: Such teeny, tiny legs!
- Porsha is crying inside her bedroom, feeling saddened by her father's rejection, so she doesn't notice Miss Crawly appear outside her window, whipping out her favorite new megaphone.
Miss Crawly: RISE AND SHINE, SWEETHEART!
- During the montage of the cast preparing for their secret performance, the scene cuts to Jimmy none the wiser while he brushes his teeth and prepares to go to bed. He calls to Porsha's room to wish her goodnight and when she doesn't answer back, since she's already snuck out to join Buster and the others, he just assumes she's still upset and gives her his usual fatherly sympathy.
Jimmy: Alright then, be that way, I don't care! Spoiled little brat! (slams his door shut)
- Rosita's solution to deal with security so Buster can inform the masses about the show: let her children loose in the hotel to distract them.
Rosita: (grinning deviously) Norman, release the piglets.
- During the chaos, one of the kids jumps right into a chocolate fountain and splashes around in it with a big grin on their face.
Piglet: This is the best day of my life, daddy!
- While this is happening, Norman is calmly eating some cupcakes as if nothing's wrong.
- After seeing Buster's announcement, Jerry rushes over to wake up Jimmy and tell him that the gang are putting the show on behind his back. Jimmy is so furious that he leaps out of bed with no clothes on, prompting Jerry to let out a terrified shriek while even his stoic goons turn away embarrassed.
- If you look closely enough, you can see that while Jerry is screaming at seeing his employer naked, his eyes actually keep darting back at it.
- Once he learns Mr. Crystal and his entourage have arrived at the hotel, Marcus cracks his knuckles and grins very wickedly at the prospect of confronting the ones who threatened Johnny's life. Nooshy is standing next to him at the time, and if you look closely, you'll notice that she also smiles in approval at what's about to happen.
- When Marcus and his gang come to the theater animals' aid in the climax, they also bring those undersized bunny masks that do almost nothing to conceal their identities with them, because they're eager to have a chance to wear them again.
Jimmy: Hey, who the heck are you? Where's my security?
Marcus: We're security now, mate.
- Just before the scene cuts away to Porsha's performance, one of the gorilla gangsters swoops in to bodyslam one of Jimmy's guards, and considering the size difference between them, the impact is not going to be pretty.
- After seeing Porsha performing in the illegal show, Jimmy decides that he's going to go out on stage to put a stop to this. While he's distracted, Buster sneakily seizes the opportunity to open a trapdoor for Jimmy to fall into. Judging by the fact that the trap itself was clearly made to be as comfortable as possible, it can only be assumed that Buster had planned for Jimmy to come backstage so they could capture him.
Buster: (
anxiously) Miss Crawly put some cushions and snacks down there, so you should be comfortable until the show's over.
Jimmy: You little —!
(Buster closes the trapdoor) - There's a running gag throughout the film that Darius is so self-absorbed that he can't be bothered to remember Meena's name properly, not even when they're about to go onstage with their big number.
Darius: Are you ready, Gina?
Meena: It's Meena.
Darius: Wait, what is?
Meena: Never mind.
- Once he's trapped, Jimmy decides to call his assistant for help while the fight between his security team and Marcus' gang is still going on. Jerry agrees to find his boss and set him free, and then he runs screaming through the chaos, as bigger animals keep getting tossed around all around him.
- The Soundtrack Dissonance adds to the hilarity. Meena and Alfonso's romantic duet is still playing in the background for comedic effect, as the scene cuts away to a whole room full of gang violence.
- When the theater animals decide to take a bow onstage, Buster walks by Jimmy being manhandled by Marcus and shoots the insane wolf a smug little grin - getting in some well-deserved gloating that he's won after all - and it has the desired effect of making his would-be murderer furious. Buster does quicken his pace a little when Jimmy tries to lunge at him again though.
- As the Moon Theater troupe receive their standing ovation, Marcus finally lets go of Mr. Crystal so he can cheer for Johnny at the top of his lungs (like a dad whose son just won the big game), which is both really funny and rather heartwarming, because it's the last thing you would ever have expected to see from this character in the previous film.
- When Jimmy finally goes out on stage and attempts to take all the glory for their impromptu show, he tries to strongarm Buster and the others into continuing to work for him, only to turn around and realize that the cast have already left him alone on the stage while he wasn't looking. It also crosses over with a Moment of Awesome on the gang's part.
- When Jimmy Crystal is arrested after the show, Jerry desperately tries to cover for him. Understandably, none of the arresting officers buy any of Jerry’s words.
- The end credits bring back Ms. Crawly mopping the floor while singing to the opening part of Shawn Mendes' "There's Nothing Holding Me Back" (which appeared briefly earlier in the movie). Then the first of the credits sends her flying, knocking out her glass eye which bounces away. The entire credits sequence has her chasing said glass eye around as it's carried along by a multitude of background dancers from various scenes in the movie proper, bringing the film to a light-hearted finish. Also crosses into Heartwarming when one of the flower dancers gives her back her glass eye at the very end.
- There's a bonus track on the "Sing 2" soundtrack called "Tippy Toes
", that's basically a rhythmical remix of Klaus scolding Johnny over and over again. It sounds more like a YouTube parody sketch than anything you'd expect to find on an official album release, and it's hilarious.
