History WesternAnimation / Sing

* ButterflyOfDoom: Because her glass eye bounces onto the "0" key twice at a crucial moment, Ms. Crawly accidentally changes the advertised amount of prize money to $100,000 instead of the original $1,000, which kickstarts many of the film's conflicts. Ironically, Miss Crawly's mistake actually turns out to be very beneficial in the long run. All of the members of the Moon Theater troupe grow a lot as people, and their lives improve vastly, in ways that they probably never would have if Miss Crawly hadn't made that typing error.

* AlliterativeName: '''N'''ana '''N'''oodleman.

* MassiveNumberedSiblings: Rosita gave up her budding career to care for twenty-five piglets.

* KnightOfCerebus:
** The three Russian bears who relentlessly hunt down Mike have absolutely no lighthearted tendencies to their names, and the mood plummets when they appear. This is most noticeable when [[spoiler:they barge into the theatre during the dress rehearsal with Mike in tow and demand Buster give them the one-hundred thousand dollars that Mike owes them. The casual way they threaten to murder Mike on the spot in broad daylight is chilling, and of course it's this confrontation that ends up ultimately destroying the theatre which leads to the biggest DarkestHour of the whole film.]]
** There's also Marcus, Johnny's father. Though he's not half as malicious as the bears, his comedic scenes tend to skewer more towards dark humor than the rest of the film, and the prison scene where he lashes out at Johnny is a clear showcase of how ruthless and cold he can be. Marcus lightens up significantly in the end [[spoiler:when he has a change of heart about Johnny's passion for singing, escapes from prison to make amends with his son, and [[HeelFaceTurn sheds his antagonistic role]]]], but he never completely loses his air of seriousness.

** [[spoiler: When Marcus breaks out of jail to tell his son [[SoProudOfYou how proud]] he is of him, Johnny is so happy that his father has accepted his aspirations that he willingly lets [[IHaveNoSon what happened]] during their previous meeting be water under the bridge.]]

** Johnny and his father prove this is the case. While their relationship for the majority of the film is tense and argumentative at best and downright resentful on Marcus' part after his arrest, there's no denying Johnny's desire to please his father nor Marcus' desire to make amends after he sees Johnny singing on stage. It comes to a head when [[spoiler:Marcus breaks out of prison and is pursued by helicopters as he goes to tell his son that he does love him, and he's really very proud of him, before giving himself up again.]]

** While the reporter is interviewing the hippo, a bear can be seen picking his nose before realizing he is on camera.
** While Ash and Buster trade a bit of sass about her boyfriend Lance, Johnny smiles in amusement behind them.

* IHaveNoSon: Big Daddy's basic reaction after he and his mates are arrested in the middle of their greatest ever heist, they're sent to prison, their secret identities are exposed to the police, and Johnny admits that he wants to be a singer instead of joining the gang.

** Since Johnny had been raised under a criminal gang, he did pull off some subtly criminal acts like being an accessory to burglary, being a getaway driver for criminals, and when he tries to pull a heist while performing at the theater, he speeds through city streets and causes a T-Bone accident and yet suffers no repercussions despite committing these crimes.

** There's also Marcus, Johnny's father. Though not half as malicious as the bears, Marcus has very few comedic scenes, his crimes are not PlayedForLaughs (aside from those rather ridiculous masks that he and his fellow thieves wear), and his IHaveNoSon moment with Johnny is a clear showcase of how ruthless and cold he can be. Marcus lightens up significantly in the end [[spoiler:when he escapes from prison to make amends with Johnny and he sheds his antagonistic role]], but never completely loses his air of seriousness.

** "Dad, I'm just glad you're not here to see this." / "Dad, I just wish you were here to see this."

** [[spoiler: Johnny's dad, who originally shunned his passion when the gorilla gang was sent to prison because of it, is impressed when he sees him performing on TV and proudly declares him his son, before immediately remembering what he said to him before and becoming sad over it. He breaks out of jail just to apologize to Johnny and tell him how proud he is of him.]]

%%* PunchClockVillain: Judith, the alpaca from the bank. Also Johnny.

** Johnny sings Elton John's "I'm Still Standing", a song about someone who moved forward and discovered their own inner strength after breaking up with someone who was a negative influence on them. Johnny was filled with guilt for having unintentionally let his dad's gang be arrested, his father shunned him for it, and [[spoiler:he saw his dreams collapsing with the theater.]] After going through so much, it would make sense if he stopped singing, but Johnny promptly rejoined the theater gang to help [[spoiler:rebuild the stage]] and sing with all his heart. Best of all, [[spoiler:his singing makes his dad realize how much of a jerk he had been and motivates him to do everything in his power to make amends, instead of "fading away" like the protagonist's lost lover in the song.]]

* PlayAlongPrisoner: Johnny's father is strong enough to tear the wall of his prison cell down with his bare hands, but because he knows he'll just be captured again, he has no reason to [[spoiler: until he decides to make amends with his son, that is.]]

** "Set It All Free" is a pretty straightforward example: it's an original song written by Ash about her relationship with Lance. The song tells the story of a girl who discovered her inner strength and reclaimed her sense of self-worth after she had a bad break-up and she realized her ex-boyfriend had been holding her back from reaching her true potential for years. The ultimate message of the song is about stepping out of someone else's shadow and being your true authentic self, which obviously reflects Ash's new leash on life going forward.

* EasilyForgiven:
** After Buster finds out about the typo that increased the prize money by 100, he doesn't blame Ms. Crawly for the mistake despite it kickstarting a new problem for the show.
--> '''Buster''': ''(exasperated at Ms. Crawly crying in remorse)'' For the last time, Ms. Crawly, I am '''''not''''' going to fire you!
** Buster--not by the creditors, the bank, or the city and people at large (it takes the comeback show at the end to earn that, with some critical outside assistance), but by the contestants (sans Mike). After TheReveal that the $100,000 was fake [[spoiler:and the destruction of the theatre that could have killed them all]], they're only concerned about him a day later, they want to make sure he's all right, they point out that at least they all survived unscathed, and they still want to put on the show. One can guess that Ms. Crawly's presence among them means she explained about her error offscreen, but it's also likely simply seeing Buster's reaction [[spoiler:in the ruins]] took a lot of the anger and resentment out of them. They also easily forgive him for how he acts during his HeroicBSOD, although since it's when he's once more enthused about doing the show which they had yearned to be a part of regardless of the money, they're likely too happy to perform to give it much thought. And Meena is such a kind person it makes sense she'd quickly forgive Buster for lashing out.
** [[spoiler: When Marcus breaks out of jail to tell his son [[SoProudOfYou how proud]] he is of him, Johnny is so happy that his father has accepted his aspirations that he willingly lets [[IHaveNoSon what happened]] during their previous meeting be water under the bridge.]]

* ForWantOfANail: Because her glass eye bounces onto the "0" key twice at a crucial moment, Ms. Crawly accidentally changes the advertised amount of prize money to $100,000 instead of the original $1,000, which kickstarts many of the film's conflicts. Ironically, Miss Crawly's mistake actually turns out to be very beneficial in the long run. All of the members of the Moon Theater troupe grow a lot as people, and their lives improve vastly, in ways that they probably never would have if Miss Crawly hadn't made that typing error.
** It's never outright stated, but it's heavily implied that what Buster really needed was someone to help manage his finances. For as good a showman as Buster is, and as good a job he does managing and inspiring his performers, he just can't keep the books balanced. Had he delegated those responsibilities to someone competent, he likely never would have found himself in the situation at the movie's start.

* PandaingToTheAudience: [[SubvertedTrope A subversion]] of the red panda variety with the hopeful Japanese girl group, but none of the standard black-and-white giant pandas, save one briefly glimpsed inside one of the cars at Buster's car wash.

** Ash getting a bit too wrapped up in her performance of "Set It All Free" and ending the number with a knee slide, only to discover she's stunned her audience into silence, is a nod to the "Johnny B. Goode" scene from "[[Film/BackToTheFuture Back To The Future]]". Unlike Marty [=McFly=] however, Ash does get a roaring applause from the crowd, after it becomes clear that her song is over.

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Mikey is threatened at one point in the final performance by a helicopter that nearly draws him into its rotor. A hovering helicopter would create a downdraft, not an updraft.

---> '''Johnny, [[HeadDesk thumping his head on the steering wheel]]:''' ''[[ThisIsGonnaSuck I'm dead.]]''

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Porcupine quills detach easily, but they can't actually 'shoot' their quills.
* ArtisticLicensePhysics: A hovering helicopter would create a downdraft, not an updraft.

* AllThereInTheScript:
** The lady mouse Mike tries to woo is named Nancy in the screenplay.
** The location this movie takes place in is a city called Calatonia.

** [[spoiler: When Marcus breaks out of jail to tell [[SoProudOfYou his son how proud he is of him]], Johnny is so happy that his father has accepted his aspirations that he willingly lets [[IHaveNoSon what happened during their previous meeting]] be water under the bridge.]]

* IHaveNoSon: Johnny the gorilla's father's basic reaction after he and his mates are arrested in the middle of their greatest ever heist, they're sent to prison, their secret identities are exposed to the police, and Johnny admits that he wants to be a singer instead of joining the gang.

Not to be confused with the Sesame Street song of the same name.

Not to be confused with ''Film/{{Sing|2016}}'', a live-action short film also released in 2016.

* ForWantOfANail: It's never outright stated, but it's heavily implied that what Buster really needed was someone to help manage his finances. For as good a showman as Buster is, and as good a job he does managing and inspiring his performers, he just can't keep the books balanced. Had he delegated those responsibilities to someone competent, he likely never would have found himself in the situation at the movie's start.

** When creating the publicity flyers for the competition, Ms. Crawly's glass eye falls out and hits the keyboard, advertising a $100,000 grand prize instead of the intended $1,000. Ms. Crawly doesn't check to see if there's no typos before printing them out and retrieving her glass eye. Buster also doesn't get a chance to look at the flyers before the fan blows them out the window and throughout the city. This means that they don't find out about the mistake until after the auditions are over. Then Buster decides to keep the contestants in the dark about it instead of confessing the typo because he thinks that he can somehow get a hundred grand together in time. [[FromBadToWorse This leads to several more problems down the line]].

* LuckyTranslation: During the scene in which the pamphlets for the singing competition are being designed, Buster tells Mrs. Crawly to "spread the word", which ends up being done via the fan accidentally blowing away the pamphlets all over the town. It's even funnier in the Brazilian Portuguese dub, in which the term "espalhar aos quatro ventos" (literally "to spread through the four winds") is used.

** According to everyone, including Buster himself, the shows put on at his theatre are never any good. Yet, when he's working on the singing competition he proves to have an eye for talent, works with the contestants the exact way a good manager should, and his ExecutiveMeddling proves to benefit their acts. Then, his [[spoiler:comeback show manages to impress Nana Noodleman, and this was when he was working in a mostly destroyed theatre with amateur (but undeniably talented) singers.]]

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: While Buster is a NiceGuy, he's still a businessman on a tight schedule with limited resources; he changes his mind about having the Japanese red panda idols at the concert because he realizes it would be too much of a hassle to communicate with them since they don't know English.

** After Ash catches Lance with another singer and kicks them out, the other girl tries to go back in to get her sunglasses, but is stopped by Ash slamming the door. Later on, when she performs her song "Set It All Free", she puts on those very sunglasses before tossing them into the crowd halfway through her number. She also makes some [[PimpedOutDress killer alterations]] to the pop princess dress Buster keeps trying to push on her.

** When Buster decides Johnny should play the piano for his performance, Johnny tells him, "I haven't played piano since I was a kid." When Johnny is performing, one of the lines he sings is: ''"feelin' like a little kid"''
* CardboardPrison: It takes Marcus less than a minute to escape prison. He doesn't even need to plan, he just uses his SuperStrength on a window's bars.

* DarkReprise: Moon Theater and Buster's love for it is introduced during the musical number, "Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight", that's performed by Nana Noodleman during the film's opening scene. When Moon Theater falls to pieces in front of the entire cast later in the movie, a somber, muted and melancholy reprise of the song underscores Buster's heartbreak over the loss of his home, his business and his father's legacy.

* FantasyForbiddingFather: Johnny tries to hide his love of music from his father Marcus, who pushes Johnny to participate as a lookout and a getaway driver in the heists Marcus' gang of gorillas commits. After Johnny misses a heist (due to having to practice for the show) and inadvertently causes Marcus and the entire gang to be arrested, Marcus dismisses Johnny as a failure and a disappointment. He has a change of heart though, when he sees Johnny performing on the broadcast of the talent show, and realizes that Johnny has a natural talent and a passion for music. Regretting the hurtful things he said to him earlier, Marcus [[spoiler: breaks out of prison and shows up at the theater to reconcile with his son, apologizing and telling Johnny how proud he is of him]].

** When Moon Theater collapses, leaving behind nothing but a pile of rubble and dust, Buster is absolutely shattered by the sight. His late father worked hard for thirty years to buy the place so his son could live out his dreams, and when it seems like all that effort was for nothing because of Buster's poor decisions, the poor, guilt-ridden koala is devastated.

** After being moved by Johnny's performance on TV, Marcus breaks out of prison to give Johnny his approval by telling him how proud he is of him, while also apologizing for shunning him earlier.
--> '''Marcus:''' (''to Johnny'') I'm so proud of you.

** While searching for Johnny's dad, one of the cops flying on a helicopter is a pig.

** Johnny sings Elton John's "I'm Still Standing", a song about someone who moved forward and discovered their own inner strength after breaking up with someone who was a negative influence on them. Johnny was filled with guilt for having unintentionally let his dad's gang be arrested, his father rejected him for it, and he saw his dreams collapsing with the theater. After going through so much, it would make sense if he stopped singing, but Johnny promptly rejoined the theater gang to help rebuild the stage and sing with all his heart. Best of all, his singing makes his dad realize how much of a jerk he had been and motivates him to do everything in his power to make amends, instead of "fading away" like the protagonist's lost lover in the song.
** Mike sings Frank Sinatra's [[Music/MyWay "My Way"]]. It's about a man who at the end of his life admits that he made a lot of mistakes, but still, he's proud of the life he had and he's ready to go out with dignity. Mike is a selfish {{Jerkass}} who bet a lot of money he didn't have, causing the bears to destroy the theater and almost kill Buster and his team. He's full of gambling debts, he may be caught and killed by the bears at any moment since the show is being broadcast on TV, but he decides to go through with his act anyway and pulls it off in great style.

* TriumphantReprise: Moon Theater is introduced early on with Nana Noodleman's beautiful musical number, "Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight", and a DarkReprise of it later underscores the destruction of the theater during the film's DarkestHour. Nana's song is heard one last time, reaching brand new majestic heights of euphoria, when Nana herself arranges for Moon Theater to be rebuilt, and Buster's place of business is fully restored to its former glory.

* WorstNewsJudgmentEver: While it makes sense for the news station to cover the debut of Buster's talent show (which is particularly newsworthy after [[spoiler: the destruction of the theater]]), there's no justification for them to broadcast it in its '''entirety.''' Even assuming there were absolutely ''no other newsworthy events anywhere'' that evening, the lack of commercial interruptions makes no sense whatsoever. Especially given there should have been breaking news over Marcus' escape from jail mid-show, as he rushed to make amends with Johnny. There was a manhunt on but the show was still airing.

* SneezeOfDoom: Miss Crawly sneezes and blows tea in Nana's face.

** Zig-zagged in the Japanese dub: [[Creator/MaayaSakamoto Rosita]] sings exclusively in English, since her voice actress is fluent in that language, but everyone else sings Japanese covers of the Western songs, rather than leaving their original songs in English with their original singers, probably for the sake of consistency. Oddly enough, the Japanese J-Pop-singing red pandas ''remain in Japanese without being dubbed over'', despite most of the humor of that scene coming from Buster being unable to speak Japanese at all. Another odd scene in this dubbed version is when Ash sings along with Buster "Set It All Free" while rehearsing ''in English'', despite the song itself being sung in Japanese when Ash plays it live.[[note]]Likely because Buster's Japanese voice actor didn't know "Set It All Free"'s Japanese lyrics and he only knew the English ones.[[/note]]
** Played mostly straight in the Mexican Spanish dub, when all the songs remain in English (with the sole exception of Ash's "Set It All Free") despite most of the cast consisting of professional singers as well, and totally straight in the Spaniard dub, where ''all'' the songs remain.

* TriumphantReprise: Moon Theater is introduced early on with Nana Noodleman's beautiful musical number, "Golden Slumber / Carry That Weight", and a DarkReprise of it later underscores the destruction of the theater during the film's DarkestHour. Nana's song is heard one last time, reaching brand new majestic heights of euphoria, when Nana herself arranges for Moon Theater to be rebuilt, and Buster's place of business is fully restored to its former glory.

* BioluminescenceIsCool: The squid characters glow in the dark, and when there's a large enough group of them they can create the kind of pulsating light show that one would expect to see in a night club. Buster tries to take advantage of this to create a stunning rehearsal show for Nana Noodleman, and fails when his hastily crafted squid tank falls apart. However, he doesn't give up on the idea entirely, because [[spoilr:when Moon Theater is rebuilt at the end of the film, a brand new (professionally built) squid tank is added to the exterior of the building.]]

* AcquiredErrorAtThePrinter: The prize money was supposed to be $1000 ([[spoiler:or at least, that's what Buster claimed it was]]), but Ms. Crawly's GlassEye slips out of her socket and hits a couple zeroes, and [[RuleOfDrama well...]]

* AloneAmongTheCouples: Miss Crawly in the short ''Love at First Sight''. After her attempts at online dating fail, she ends up wandering the streets dejected among various couples.

** Johnny the gorilla's father is a [[KillerGorilla thuggish gangster]], alongside his fellow thieves. Johnny himself averts this, being a GentleGiant.

* BearsAreBadNews: Mike pisses off a trio of [[TheMafiya Russian gangster]] bears in a club after they catch him cheating in a game of cards. They end up serving as an ArcVillain for his subplot and cause a lot of trouble for Moon.

%%* BioluminescenceIsCool: The squid.

** The first one is focused on [[spoiler: Rosita, Ash, and Johnny. Rosita can't manage to dance well in spite of Gunter's help and is close to giving up. Ash breaks up with her boyfriend after discovering he has cheated on her[[note]]professionally, by working with another musician, though possibly more as they were clearly about to kiss before Ash interrupted[[/note]] and left her brokenhearted. Johnny indirectly causes his father (and his entire gang) to get arrested, is harshly rejected for it afterwards, and tries to steal the "$100,000" prize to pay his bail. Thankfully, they all rebound from it.]]

* DiscoDan: Some of the characters are fond of notably dated music. Mike is a prominent example.

** Eddie Noodleman shares his EstablishingCharacterMoment with Buster's second one. Their scene in the fancy restaurant shows that Buster knows the rough state the theatre is in but adheres to the phrase "for every cloud a silver lining" a little too much, and Eddie's family has a long history of funding failed shows. Meanwhile, Eddie himself has been playing TheLancer to Buster for a while, and immediately shoots down the idea of a singing competition being a success.

* FantasyForbiddingFather: Johnny tries to hide his love of music from his father Marcus, who pushes Johnny to participate as a lookout and a getaway driver in the heists Marcus' gang of gorillas commits. After Johnny misses a heist (due to having to practice for the show) and inadvertently causes Marcus and the entire gang to be arrested, Marcus dismisses Johnny as a failure and a disappointment. He has a change of heart though, when he sees Johnny performing on the broadcast of the talent show, and realizes that Johnny has a natural talent and a passion for music. Regretting the cruel words he said to him earlier, Marcus [[spoiler: breaks out of prison and shows up at the theater to reconcile with his son, apologizing and telling Johnny how proud he is of him]].

** Averted with Rosita, played straight with Meena who has tiny pigtails on top of her head.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* HeroicBSOD: Buster has one after [[spoiler:the Moon Theatre collapses, where he lives with Eddie and never steps out of the house or ever wants to get out of bed]].
%%* HeyLetsPutOnAShow: The film's central conflict.

* IHaveNoSon: Johnny the gorilla's father's basic reaction after he and his mates are arrested in the middle of their greatest ever heist, their secret identities are exposed to the police, and Johnny admits that he wants to be a singer instead of joining the gang.

* JukeboxMusical: The film boasts no less than '''80''' songs from TheForties to TheNewTens, ranging from [[Music/{{Bananarama}} "Venus"]] to [[Music/{{Seal}} "Kiss from a Rose"]] to [[Music/NickiMinaj "Anaconda"]] though most are only one or two line snatches.

* LargeHam: Gunter, no pun intended (by us; we can't speak for the author).

* AMinorKidroduction: The opening starts with a young Buster being introduced to the theater.

* RubeGoldbergDevice: Rosita builds one to take care of home in her stead.

* ShakingTheRump: The bunny trio do this twice, once as part of their song and again during the final performance.

* TheShowMustGoWrong: All of the bad decisions throughout the movie converge at the special dress rehearsal for Nana, [[spoiler: which ends with the entire theater in ruins]].

* TitleDrop: When Meena comes up to perform at the climax of the movie.

* VagueAge: Some of the contestants are ambiguous when it comes to their age, particularly the younger ones - Ash, Johnny, and Meena. They are either called or implied to be teenagers but none of them are seen attending school, the existence of which is demonstrated by Rosita's piglets getting on a school bus. Ash is called a "teenager" multiple times throughout the film but seems to live without parents, whom are never even mentioned, and is looking for work with her boyfriend [[spoiler: until they broke up]], so she is probably around eighteen or nineteen. Johnny lives with his father and is referred to as a teenager [[https://thescriptsavant.com/pdf/Sing.pdf in the script]], but is designed to look and sound like a young adult. Furthermore, when his father goes to prison, there is no mention of child services or social workers. Meena is also labeled as a teenager in the script, lives with her maternal relatives, and acts like a younger teenager (thirteen to sixteen), but a picture held up by someone at a party suggests she has graduated from high school. Furthermore, Meena's singing ability surpasses what is normally expected from an adolescent.