Welcome to The Morning After, where I share with you what movies I’ve seen over the past week. Below, you will find short reviews of those movies along with a star rating. Full length reviews may come at a later date.

So, here is what I watched this past week:

Ron’s Gone Wrong

Kids movies have long tried to give children confidence that they need as they grow into adults and many of them feature social outcasts. What lets Ron’s Gone Wrong stand out amongst them is how it weaves the narrative around one particular child who once had many friends, but who eventually lost the cohesion that once made them unified. It’s an interesting way to explore a narrative. This one is set in the near future where a prominent technology company has perfected advice that can be your child’s best friend, ending loneliness among children.

The ovoid-shaped B-bots act like social interaction devices, picking friends, sharing information and generally helping the child come out of their shells even if they weren’t in one. The problem is that not all parents make enough to buy the device for their kids, which leads to a different type of social ostracization. Ron (voiced by Jack Dylan Glazer) is one such child. While his father (Ed Helms) works hard as a gimmick salesman to provide for his family, he doesn’t make enough money to afford one of the hyper-expensive devices. Not only has he lost all of his friends, he’s further set aside as different because he doesn’t have one. Throw in an added plot about corporate greed and data mining and you have a film that travels familiar ground while also sharing a unique perspective befitting modern younger audiences.

20th Century Animation, former Blue Sky, which now falls under the Disney banner, has had a checkered history of animated features. This, however, was one of their best efforts to date. Whether this is marks a new direction for the studio or is a blip remains to be seen. When Disney acquired Pixar, it was already a formidable house. Bringing Pixar in actually helped elevate their own flagging output. Perhaps Pixar and now Disney can help turn 20th Century around and make it a far more consistently high quality operation. If they had any influence over this film, then the signs are good.

Sing 2

Speaking of animation houses with an inconsistent quality to their productions, Illumination has become the studio that the Minions built and those films certainly make a lot of money, but the stand-alone minion films haven’t had the same level of quality as their other output, namely the Minions-spawning Despicable Me films, The Secret Life of Pets, and Sing.

Now, add to that list Sing 2, a terrific sophomore effort about a group of anthropomorphic animals who gained fame in the prior film by become musical legends in Buster Moon’s (Matthew McConaughey) theater. Back for another go are Rosita (Reese Witherspoon), Ash (Scarlett Johansson), Johnny (Taron Egerton), Meena (Tori Kelly), and Gunter (Nick Kroll). The plot involves Buster’s desire to move from one thriving metropolis to the show capital of the world: Las Vegas. After failing to convince a talent scout to give his show a chance, he and the crew concoct a plan to get before Jimmy Crystal (Bobby Cannavale), a Vegas hotel owner who initially rejects their performance until he learns that they can get reclusive singer/songwriter Clay Calloway (Bono) to take part in their show. The problem is that Crystal insists that his daughter Porsha (Halsey) be in the show, taking on the lead role. Except, as expected, she cannot act even if she can sing beautifully.

The biggest issues with the film come down to familiarity, predictability, and a notable drop in song quality. The story is very familiar. We’ve seen it done in countless ways many times before. Sometimes familiar can work, but only if it throws in some genuine surprises. Yet, there are few of them. Most of what happens takes a trajectory we know and expect. There are some cute twists in there, but nothing spectacular. Then there’s the songs. While it seemed like they were trying to target a younger audience with some of the selections, it was the older tracks that really drove the film’s success. “Let’s Go Crazy,” “Where the Streets Have No Name,” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” were each given prominent positions, which emphasizes that, but the interim songs, especially in the final act, just didn’t feel as impactful as they should have been.