>>88824598Sing puts its anthropomorphism to good use with its character designs. The species chosen often compliment the characters.
You have Buster, this determined and optimistic but rascally and mischievous little son of a bitch. He'd be much much harder to sympathize with if he didn't happen to be an adorable fluffy little animal that looks like a stuffed toy.
Mrs Crowly the senile old woman is a literal reptile. She even looks like a dinosaur.
Rosita and Norman are domestic people and they are domestic animals.
Ash and Lance have a punk rock style. They are edgy, so they are literally pointy and sharp.
Johnny, racism aside, is from a family made up of big muscly brutish thugs, but he secretly has a gentle and soulful personality. Being a gorilla works good for him.
Meena is from a family of big, loud, boisterous people. She herself is timid, so she slouches, and hides her face behind her big ears, using them like a lady's fan. When she has her big coming out moment, she reveals this large and overwhelming power that you saw was always present just beneath her surface, and she literally brings the house down. These visual elements are hammered home much better with her as an elephant than as a fat chick.
Mike the mouse has a great character design. He's a shifty little underdog. He talks a big game, but is actually just a tiny man that is overcompensating for something. His character would not work as well as it does if he were just a short man.
These kinds designs aren't exactly genius. They've been used tons of times by other cartoons in the past. And they keep getting reused because they're good and they work. They tell you things about the characters visually so you can get yourself some ideas about them very quickly, which is especially advantageous in Sing because it has so many different plots it needs to communicate this info to the audience as quickly as possible.
And if all that weren't enough, it's also an easy source of jokes and puns.
