Netflix’s Halloween short Sing: Thriller has one cute idea

Illumination’s animated movies Sing and Sing 2 are about as harmless, inoffensive, and servicey as they come: They’re “Let’s put on a show!” movies where animals voiced by celebrities (Matthew McConaughey, Scarlett Johansson, Reese Witherspoon, Nick Kroll, Tori Kelly, Bono, and a whole bunch more) have small problems and anxieties, which they lay to rest by singing pop-music covers for enthusiastic audiences. There’s a lot of running around, things fall down and go boom, then there’s a big finale as they all sing together. Netflix’s new short Sing: Thriller does all that in 10 minutes, with fewer emotional arcs, fewer celebrities, and just one pop cover: Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”

The short is mostly just a check-in on the sprawling cast of the two movies after the events of Sing 2: They now have a successful theater that puts on sold-out musical revues, the latest of which is a horror jukebox musical called GMO. (The short’s one fun, surprising idea is that this is a musical about genetically modified plants, in this case meaning menacing, anthropomorphic — or animalpomorphic? — singing-and-dancing plants made by a Dr. Frankenstein-like mad scientist. Or maybe the title stands for Grotesquely Monstrous Organisms. But it’s a blink-and-you’ll miss it gag that the short doesn’t really exploit.)

In the show, once-shy elephant Meena (Kelly) is menaced by pumpkin-children singing “Thriller,” which eventually turns into a cast revue featuring operatic pig Gunter (Kroll), rock-star porcupine Ash (Johansson), and pianist gorilla Johnny (Taron Egerton). After the performance, the group heads to a party at the house of superstar Clay Calloway (played by Bono in Sing 2, but not appearing here), but director-producer koala Buster Moon (McConaughey) gets himself into trouble, complete with the other half of “Thriller” and an animated-animal version of the Michael Jackson video’s famous zombie dance.

And… that’s pretty much it. Much as Illumination’s most famous films — the Despicable Me series and its Minion-movie offshoots — periodically feature the Minions covering familiar tunes, with the gag basically being “Hey, you know this song, but now it’s being sung in a silly accent by silly creatures,” the Sing series is largely just an amiable excuse to watch animated animals dance and perform numbers that come with hefty cultural cred.

Sing was a huge hit — it made more than $630 million worldwide on a $75 million budget back in 2016, while Sing 2 was a lesser but still respectable success at $400 million. But they also aren’t hugely memorable movies. They’re easy to put on in the background for kids and leave running. (Which may be Netflix’s intent; as of this writing, Sing autoplays on Netflix immediately after Sing: Thriller — and Sing is currently charting at #5 on Netflix’s top 10 most streamed movies.)

But Sing: Thriller still feels like a bit of a coup for Netflix — written and directed by Sing and Sing 2 writer and co-director Garth Jennings, made in a way that looks identical to the theatrical movies, and featuring many of the cast. Reese Witherspoon, Nick Offerman, Seth MacFarlane, and other regulars are notably absent, but this is still a far cry from Netflix’s visually and narratively simplified specials spinning off The Bad Guys. Anyone with mild goodwill for the Sing movies should find more of it here.

Sing: Thriller is streaming on Netflix now.