The highly-anticipated Sing sequel, aptly-titled, Sing 2 is here just in time for the holiday and is sure to be a delight for families seeking out films as we head toward the end of the year.

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Taron Egerton, Tori Kelly, Nick Kroll, Bobby Cannavale, Halsey, Pharrell Williams, Letitia Wright, Eric André, Chelsea Peretti and Bono, the film features songs from a bevy of artists, including Billie Eilish, Drake, U2, The Weeknd, Prince, Taylor Swift, BTS, Cardi B, Bad Bunny, J Balvin, Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello.

In the sequel, “the ever-optimistic Buster Moon and his all-star cast of performers prepare to launch their most dazzling stage extravaganza yet …all in the glittering entertainment capital of the world. There’s just one hitch: They first have to persuade the world’s most reclusive rock star to join them.”

Shadow and Act spoke to director Garth Jennings and film stars Tori Kelly, Scarlett Johansson and Matthew McConaughey about the sequel.

“I think it’s like perfect timing,” said Johansson of the film releasing now during the holidays and being one of the mega films afforded a full theatrical release this year. “Obviously making an animated film is a very much longer process than doing live action most of the time. And so I think even back last year around this kind of holiday time, Garth was still like piecing it all together and doing like, we were all working remotely. And so I think it was kind of like serendipitous that it ended up coming out just at the right time when like families can finally be together and like enjoy things in a communal space together. I can’t imagine that experience that we’ve all been through didn’t somehow inspire like some of this story for Garth. And I think it just kind of happens to be like this perfect timing.”

McConaughey added, “[It’s like] if you see a movie that lets you believe in fairy tales again, see a movie that says, ‘Hey, it’s okay to dream. And here’s how you can pull that off.’ The last two years, a lot of people’s dreams have been squashed. A lot of people forget dreaming, forget thriving. Most of us have been just trying to survive, trying to keep our head above water. So to come out again, to congregate, to go to a theater, to have a shared experience of watching a fairy tale come true. To see, ‘Oh, I can still have big dreams and believe in things that are outside of my grasp and obtain them with the right kind of work and good fortune and team around me.’ That’s good news in a time of a lot of bad news that we’ve had over the last few years. And it is for everybody. It’s for the youngest to the oldest. And there’s a song to sing along with for everybody.”

On the film itself, Jennings said he already had goals that he wanted to accomplish for the second film after the success of the first one.

“One of the reasons to make the sequel was…’Could you imagine if you took that cast from the first film and got them to put on the biggest show you’ve ever seen?’ And I’d seen these shows in Vegas with Cirque du Soleil where they’re incredible. I’m from a little town in England and you see these shows…they’re spectacular! It’s like, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if our cast, our pig, our gorilla, they did that…[if] they were on wires, they were in spaceships and sets.’ So it was all about trying to like take the characters and go as far as we could. Not just in terms visually, but dramatically and emotionally too.”

Speaking about the growth in her character, Meena, Kelly said, “I think if anyone saw the first movie, we saw how shy she was. And she had like terrible stage fright and we got to see her kind of overcome that towards the end. So now going into the second film, she has a little more confidence on stage. So you can kind of see her just feeling more herself, but then she is now for the first time falling in love in the second movie. So we get to still see kind of the shy, awkward Meena, but just in a different way. And it’s actually really sweet. I think a lot of people will be able to relate to that, having like your first crush and at least for me, I’m super awkward in general [laughs]. So I’ve related to that.”

Sing 2 is in theaters now. Watch the interviews below:

Matthew McConaughey

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