Teh One Who Knocks
12-28-2016, 12:59 PM
By Heat Street Staff
http://i.imgur.com/bjUdlYMh.jpg
Music-centric animal animated movie Sing is killing it with kids at the box office, grossing $76 million in five days.
But sensitive social justice warriors who have gone to see the movie aren’t exactly ‘singing’ its praises on social media. Instead they’re calling the kids film racist, principally for the fact that one plotline in the movie features a gorilla named Johnny who wants to sing but whose father runs a criminal gang.
In the movie, which stars the voices of Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon and Scarlett Johansson, Johnny, voiced by Taron Egerton, (SPOILER ALERT) is desperate to embrace his musical side instead of being part of the gorilla gang of robbers run by his father Big Daddy (voiced by Peter Serafinowicz).
When Johnny shirks his duties as a getaway driver for Big Daddy’s gang during a gold robbery, his father ends up in jail. Even though Big Daddy ultimately ends up appreciating his son’s musical career, that’s not good enough for people out there who seem intent on equating gorillas being on the wrong side of the law in Sing with racism:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Racist themes in the movie Sing were disgusting.</p>— Holly Cooper (@abogadatejana) <a href="https://twitter.com/abogadatejana/status/813621956717121536">December 27, 2016</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sing is lowkey a racist ass movie lol</p>— GG (@GiselAlfaro_) <a href="https://twitter.com/GiselAlfaro_/status/813458970685935618">December 26, 2016</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">also super annoyed at the racial stereotype in the trailer for the movie sing. 🙄</p>— yella yazz (@yazzhabibti) <a href="https://twitter.com/yazzhabibti/status/800827892997373952">November 21, 2016</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Kinda annoyed that the gang members in Sing are gorillas 😕</p>— kat🖤 (@Kathrina_Mia) <a href="https://twitter.com/Kathrina_Mia/status/813169106274791424">December 25, 2016</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/emilynussbaum">@emilynussbaum</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/1WookieMilson">@1WookieMilson</a> watching "Sing" I mean. Gorillas had a British accent but darker big animals (gorillas & bears) were criminals</p>— charlere uuanj (@phuchkafdmasses) <a href="https://twitter.com/phuchkafdmasses/status/813395291135033344">December 26, 2016</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The gorillas on Sing being gangsters kinda racist or I'm overthinking it?</p>— Halal B Sure (@yosoy_roland) <a href="https://twitter.com/yosoy_roland/status/812869388407894016">December 25, 2016</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">why in this new <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Sing?src=hash">#Sing</a> movie they got the black gorillas as inmates....smdh</p>— thewildling. (@desssb) <a href="https://twitter.com/desssb/status/811354424052502532">December 20, 2016</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/AnaMardoll">@AnaMardoll</a> but the gorillas are gang members. Dad is incarcerated. Son wants to sing hip hop. Cringeworthy.</p>— Sarah Sammis (@pussreboots) <a href="https://twitter.com/pussreboots/status/808397626924093440">December 12, 2016</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sing looks like a cute movie but I cant get past the fact that the gorillas are gang members in jail 😖 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SingMovie?src=hash">#SingMovie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Sing?src=hash">#Sing</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ReallyNow?src=hash">#ReallyNow</a></p>— Lady Kate (@KatRMitch) <a href="https://twitter.com/KatRMitch/status/810654161167585281">December 19, 2016</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Women’s website The Revelist hit out at the movie in a piece by Andrea Moore headlined: “This racist stereotype doesn’t belong in animated movies — and even my 6-year-old daughter knows it.” Moore wrote: “A’family entertainment;: with a criminal gang of gorillas in rapper bling and orange inmate jumpsuits, and a big burly gorilla youth with a velvety voice: it’s f*cking grotesque.”
Then there is further unrest over Sing featuring Gunter, a pig voiced by Nick Kroll, who is German:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">the new movie Sing is really racist tbh. they made the pig German, why tho? <a href="https://twitter.com/singmovie">@singmovie</a></p>— Baka (@GoldCole123) <a href="https://twitter.com/GoldCole123/status/812446875483832320">December 23, 2016</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Some even contend there is a global racist conspiracy at work in Sing:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Just saw Sing, Im guessing the Sheep (maybe Jewish), Gators, Elephants and Gorillas are the "Black" animals? Rosita the Pig was Puerto Rican</p>— Black Hanna (@MichaelOrganic) <a href="https://twitter.com/MichaelOrganic/status/813440660837691392">December 26, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
http://i.imgur.com/bjUdlYMh.jpg
Music-centric animal animated movie Sing is killing it with kids at the box office, grossing $76 million in five days.
But sensitive social justice warriors who have gone to see the movie aren’t exactly ‘singing’ its praises on social media. Instead they’re calling the kids film racist, principally for the fact that one plotline in the movie features a gorilla named Johnny who wants to sing but whose father runs a criminal gang.
In the movie, which stars the voices of Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon and Scarlett Johansson, Johnny, voiced by Taron Egerton, (SPOILER ALERT) is desperate to embrace his musical side instead of being part of the gorilla gang of robbers run by his father Big Daddy (voiced by Peter Serafinowicz).
When Johnny shirks his duties as a getaway driver for Big Daddy’s gang during a gold robbery, his father ends up in jail. Even though Big Daddy ultimately ends up appreciating his son’s musical career, that’s not good enough for people out there who seem intent on equating gorillas being on the wrong side of the law in Sing with racism:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Racist themes in the movie Sing were disgusting.</p>— Holly Cooper (@abogadatejana) <a href="https://twitter.com/abogadatejana/status/813621956717121536">December 27, 2016</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sing is lowkey a racist ass movie lol</p>— GG (@GiselAlfaro_) <a href="https://twitter.com/GiselAlfaro_/status/813458970685935618">December 26, 2016</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">also super annoyed at the racial stereotype in the trailer for the movie sing. 🙄</p>— yella yazz (@yazzhabibti) <a href="https://twitter.com/yazzhabibti/status/800827892997373952">November 21, 2016</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Kinda annoyed that the gang members in Sing are gorillas 😕</p>— kat🖤 (@Kathrina_Mia) <a href="https://twitter.com/Kathrina_Mia/status/813169106274791424">December 25, 2016</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/emilynussbaum">@emilynussbaum</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/1WookieMilson">@1WookieMilson</a> watching "Sing" I mean. Gorillas had a British accent but darker big animals (gorillas & bears) were criminals</p>— charlere uuanj (@phuchkafdmasses) <a href="https://twitter.com/phuchkafdmasses/status/813395291135033344">December 26, 2016</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The gorillas on Sing being gangsters kinda racist or I'm overthinking it?</p>— Halal B Sure (@yosoy_roland) <a href="https://twitter.com/yosoy_roland/status/812869388407894016">December 25, 2016</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">why in this new <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Sing?src=hash">#Sing</a> movie they got the black gorillas as inmates....smdh</p>— thewildling. (@desssb) <a href="https://twitter.com/desssb/status/811354424052502532">December 20, 2016</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/AnaMardoll">@AnaMardoll</a> but the gorillas are gang members. Dad is incarcerated. Son wants to sing hip hop. Cringeworthy.</p>— Sarah Sammis (@pussreboots) <a href="https://twitter.com/pussreboots/status/808397626924093440">December 12, 2016</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sing looks like a cute movie but I cant get past the fact that the gorillas are gang members in jail 😖 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SingMovie?src=hash">#SingMovie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Sing?src=hash">#Sing</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ReallyNow?src=hash">#ReallyNow</a></p>— Lady Kate (@KatRMitch) <a href="https://twitter.com/KatRMitch/status/810654161167585281">December 19, 2016</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Women’s website The Revelist hit out at the movie in a piece by Andrea Moore headlined: “This racist stereotype doesn’t belong in animated movies — and even my 6-year-old daughter knows it.” Moore wrote: “A’family entertainment;: with a criminal gang of gorillas in rapper bling and orange inmate jumpsuits, and a big burly gorilla youth with a velvety voice: it’s f*cking grotesque.”
Then there is further unrest over Sing featuring Gunter, a pig voiced by Nick Kroll, who is German:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">the new movie Sing is really racist tbh. they made the pig German, why tho? <a href="https://twitter.com/singmovie">@singmovie</a></p>— Baka (@GoldCole123) <a href="https://twitter.com/GoldCole123/status/812446875483832320">December 23, 2016</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Some even contend there is a global racist conspiracy at work in Sing:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Just saw Sing, Im guessing the Sheep (maybe Jewish), Gators, Elephants and Gorillas are the "Black" animals? Rosita the Pig was Puerto Rican</p>— Black Hanna (@MichaelOrganic) <a href="https://twitter.com/MichaelOrganic/status/813440660837691392">December 26, 2016</a></blockquote>
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