SING
“The Making of SING” Featurette
From the Despicable Me franchise to the world of Dr. Seuss, Illumination has become one of the most prolific and successful studios operating today. They truly have an undeniable knack for telling great stories and creating places beyond your wildest imaginations. So, it was only a matter of time before they brought those talents to the musical genre with SING. If you’re looking to learn how this animated film came to be, be sure to check out “The Making of SING,” which can be found in the “Featurettes” section of our SING behind-the-scenes content.
As you’ll hear while watching this SING extra, Chris Meledandri (Illumination founder and CEO) was looking to produce a musically driven movie for quite some time. However, the thing with these kinds of movies is that the featured songs have to drive the narrative forward. Luckily, that was exactly what Meledandri wanted to accomplish with SING.
Garth Jennings (writer and director of SING) instantly loved the pitch Meledandri gave him because, according to Jennings himself, “As a storyteller, you can instantly see the potential in every direction.” Since music is such a powerful tool, Jennings wanted to take the opportunity to show how different characters can achieve their lifelong dreams through song. As you can see while watching the movie, characters like Ash (voiced by Scarlett Johansson) and Rosita (voiced by Reese Witherspoon) all use their respective voice to make their fantasies a reality while on stage.
In actuality, there was no better person to helm this kind of project than Garth Jennings. Even though his prior filmography was mostly in live-action, the crew really enjoyed seeing how he was able to adapt to this new form of filmmaking. Janet Healey (producer of SING) praises Jennings for his contagious enthusiasm throughout the entire production. Despite this being his freshman attempt at animation, Jennings’ directorial style for SING evokes the confidence of someone who has been in this very business for years.
Alongside the songs, the crew behind SING also wanted to create a fantastical and inviting world for the audience to find themselves in. Since all of the characters are different in the movie, environments that we as humans are accustomed to had to be altered to fit the needs of the characters.
Eric Guillon (concept artist for SING) brought SING’s world to life with his beautiful and richly detailed concept art. Jennings took a lot of inspiration from these pieces and created a very fantastical, yet human, world based off them. Those concepts were soon translated onto the silver screen, where moviegoers were transported to a city full of life and vibrancy.
While you’re watching this featurette, you’ll see that Jennings and his crew wanted to imbue SING’s characters with human characteristics. This was done as an attempt to make them more relatable to the audience since many of us don’t have the quills of a porcupine or the massive trunk of an elephant. By giving these characters relatable personalities and looks, the crew was able to project the perfect actor/ actress onto them.
Garth Jennings says “The actors don’t just give us voices to work with; but, their personalities completely influenced the way each individual has been animated.” For example, even though he is voicing a small mouse, Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy) is able to give Mike a somewhat larger-than-life persona with just his voice. The same goes for the likes of Nick Kroll (voice of Gunter) and Matthew McConaughey (voice of Buster Moon). The entire voice cast, for that matter, truly brought Eric Guillon’s work to life and gave the characters what they so desperately needed: a voice to sing with.
The animation process is truly unlike any other in the industry. There’s so much more that goes into making what you ultimately see on the screen. Therefore, it’ll be music to your ears to hear that you can continue to watch all the exciting behind-the-scenes features of SING when you buy the movie on 4k Ultra HD, DVD, Digital, or Blu-rayTM*.
*Bonus features are only available at select digital retailers. Check the retailer for details.
Like this article? Read more about the making of SING here: