Sing

Generally amiable but flawed musical cartoon, populated mostly by animals, in which the koala bear owner (voice of Matthew McConaughey) of a failing theater aims to revive his business by staging a singing contest. The quintet of finalists in the competition comprises a conceited mouse (voice of Seth MacFarlane) who croons in a Sinatra-like style, a gifted teenage elephant (voice of Tori Kelly) afflicted with stage fright, a harried pig housewife (voice of Reese Witherspoon) run ragged by her 25 children, a gorilla gangster’s son (voice of Taron Egerton) who would rather belt out Elton John tunes than help his dad steal and a porcupine punk rocker (voice of Scarlett Johansson) coping with the selfishness of her live-in boyfriend. Friendship and loyalty are triumphant amid plot complications that include a typo escalating the winner’s prize a hundredfold. But writer-director Garth Jennings, who also provides the voice of the good-hearted but dimwitted lizard secretary responsible for that error, incorporates into his film not only a living arrangement that has no place in a movie aimed at children but a German-accented male stage partner (voice of Nick Kroll) for Witherspoon’s character who exudes swishy enthusiasm and favors glitzy leotards. Probably acceptable for mature teens.