Beast keep the beat

F (like me) you have a parental obsession with brainwashing your children to adore every pop classic from Sinatra to “Shake It Off,” “Sing” may be your most effective weapon since “Happy Feet.”

This animated feature carries a thin story that can’t touch the one in “Happy Feet,” though: A koala who is also a theater impresario (Matthew McConaughey) schemes to save his dying city theater by holding a singing contest. He can’t deliver the promised prize money, but he still draws every beast in town to audition.

Hey, kids (and cubs, colts and calves), let’s put on a show! There’s a punk porcupine (Scarlett Johansson) who doesn’t realize she’s really a pop princess, a harried mama pig (Reese Witherspoon) with 25 kids, a young gorilla (Taron Egerton) trying to make good after growing up in a family of burglars, a wised-up mouse (Seth MacFarlane) who thinks he’s in the Rat Pack and a shy teen elephant (Tori Kelly) attempting to overcome stage fright. It’s a menagerie of the melodious, with lovable and zany characters stampeding (and galloping and hopping and slithering) in from every direction. Who doesn’t love a flamboyant, spandex-wearing swine with a German accent who adores Lady Gaga? And there’s a black sheep who is literally a black sheep. So, picture a variant of “Glee,” only with youngsters who are actually as adorable as they think they are. The plot meanders along without much in the way of originality: It’s all just an excuse to cram in dozens of delightful covers of great tunes — more than 65 in total. OK by me. I’m the interrupting dad saying, “Hey, kids, that awesome saxophone solo you just heard — it’s from the Gerry Rafferty classic ‘Baker Street.’ The guy was paid 45 bucks. Don’t go into the music business.”