Sing

First there was Fame and then there was Glee, followed by American Idol, The X Factor, The Voice and every other talent contest you can dream up in the shower.

Now - drum roll - there is Sing.

What's the difference (you ask)? Animation for 1. Star studded voice cast for 2. Charm on toast for 3. Animals behaving like people (is that a plus?) for 4. Humour in triplicate for 5. Calamitous storyline for 6. Everything you wish for finale for 7. Old fashioned heart warmer for 8.

Buster Moon is a koala bear, not that it matters. He's a little guy with big dreams and no luck. After his dad died he took over the famous Moon Theatre in downtown Cartoonsville where, with the assistance of his 100-year-old iguana secretary, he continues the tradition of light comedy and faded musicals.

No one comes. Or at least not enough to keep the bank out of his fur. Buster has to come up with something new. Quick! He thinks of a talent contest, a singing competition, top prize $1000, except the iguana's false eye pops out and bounces on her computer's zero button when she's about to print the flyers, adding a couple more noughts.

From then on it's character driven, following the usual funny/weird audition sequences, and edge-of-disaster catastrophes. There is the Sinatra soundalike, the blues piano player from a criminal family, the shy elephant, the mummy pig with a dozen piglets, the camp extrovert, the aging prima donna and, let's not forget, the music.

If this sounds like a corn fed carbon copy of a Debbie Reynolds standard, it's not. Buster and the wannabees are fun fun fun!

Don't settle into that seat too comfy now. Things have a tendency to go wrong. In the right way.