Rating: 4/5 Falcons

The beloved 2016 movie Sing was recently revived with its much improved sequel Sing 2. The first movie follows Buster Moon, owner of the actively crumbling Moon Theatre. Moon creates a competition in hopes of saving his failing business, but Buster bites off more than he can chew, and is unable to pay up most of the prize money he promises. By the end, Moon is able to connect with amazing performers and lifelong friends. In the next movie, the group decides to go for their dreams in Redshore City. They end up trying to impress an entertainment mogul, while also attempting to enlist a reclusive rockstar. Moreover, Sing 2 stars many celebrities who hadn’t been previously known for singing, like Reese Witherspoon and Scarlett Johansson. Rosita (Witherspoon), a mother pig, and Gunter (Nick Kroll), the carefree pig, add to the impressive ensemble. Still, while I enjoyed some aspects of Sing 2 more than the original, nothing can top Johnny’s (Taron Egerton) rendition of “I’m Still Standing” in Sing 1. Despite the passionate and somewhat emotional performances at the end of both movies, the “incompetent husband” trope is far too normalized, and can be harmful to the audience’s perception of family. 

In Sing 2, Rosita fits the stereotypical housewife trope, caring for a large household of twenty-five piglets and her own husband Norman (Nick Offerman). Norman is highly dependent on Rosita, and is incapable of small tasks without her, like finding his car keys. In fact, he didn’t even realize when Rosita replaced herself with recordings so she could leave for singing practice—and wouldn’t care anyway. Later in the movie, after Rosita’s performance of “Shake it Off”, the audience is led to believe Norman has changed when he runs up onto the stage and kisses her, as if all of his love is reignited. However, the motivation for that was not love, but lust, since the act showed Rosita’s silhouette strip out of her housewife attire and emerge in a skintight bodysuit with a matching ruffled train and cat ears. Even if viewers don’t pick up on this, the notion that Norman has changed is further disproved in Sing 2, where he refuses to babysit the kids for more than a day. This leads me to believe he is still not doing his part as a parent. 

As shown in the examples, Norman is clearly not a good husband, but since it is so casually included, it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. We see this theme throughout both movies, and this normalization is only feeding the idea that men should go out to work and women should stay in the kitchen. However, this portrays the image that it is okay to only acknowledge your wife when it benefits you, which is a toxic behavior and is not the message Disney should be sending to their audience, young children.