Meena is a main character in Universal•Illumination's 2016 animated feature film Sing and its 2021 sequel.
Background[]
Personality[]
In Sing, Meena is depicted as a sweet, timid, and soft-spoken teenage elephant with an amazingly beautiful singing voice, and she does in fact love to sing. She suffers from immense stage-fright, often covering the sides of her face with her ears (much like hiding behind one's hair) whenever this fright or her shyness gets to her. Due to this, she isn't able to openly sing. However, she does so when alone (or at least when she doesn't make any eye contact with anybody). At the end of the film, she overcomes her stage fright, after some encouraging words from Buster, enough for her to sing in front of a huge crowd.
Physical appearances[]
Meena is an anthropomorphic elephant. She wears a light-blue hoodie, some blue jeans, and some pink and white shoes. Sings the first parts of the song for "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing" when clapped near or pressed on a hard surface.
Appearances[]
Sing[]
Meena is introduced giving a cake to her grandfather while the rest of her family sing "Happy Birthday to You". When she joins in at the end, her grandfather claims that he'd be a superstar if he had a voice like hers. The timid Meena just tells him to blow out his candles.
When her family suggests she audition for a singing competition hosted by Buster Moon, she halfheartedly gives it a try, intending to audition with "Chandelier". But when finally onstage, she freezes before finally being shooed offstage by Mike. Her grandfather puts his foot down and tells her to give a real effort and demand another chance from Buster. Meena's shyness and miscommunication with Buster leads to him giving her a job as a stagehand; which she picks up her instructions fast and helps Buster run the stage well. After coming home, she shyly tells everyone that she technically made it in the show.
When Nana Noodleman is to come for a private rehearsal, Buster, needing more performers due to some of them either quitting or being injured, convinces Meena to participate in the show and encourages her by telling her his father's advice - Don't let fear stop you from doing the thing you love most. However, everything goes wrong during the rehearsal, as Buster's lies about the prize money are exposed, and the Moon Theater is destroyed. Meena is distraught, but she and the other participants attempt to cheer up Buster and even go on with the show anyway. But Buster, despondent and finally given up, turns them all down. Meena, the last to leave, reminds him of the advice he gave her, but Buster lashes out at her, hurting her feelings.
While Buster relegates himself to a life of car-washing, Meena returns to the remains of the theater, fantasizes of what it would have been like to perform, and starts singing "Hallelujah", attracting Buster's attention. When he asks her if she thinks she can sing in front of a real audience, Meena still doubts herself but states she wants to try, and she smiles when Buster says he wants to see her perform.
The performers, including Meena, set up a makeshift, but workable open-air theater, and the show turns out spectacular. When it's finally Meena's turn, she freezes, but her friends and Buster all give her their support and encouragement. Initially, Meena starts off soft and afraid but is able to finally sing with the passion she's kept buried inside and performs her loud and spectacular number, "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing". She is also seen cheering on the other performers, and at the end of the movie, she attends the grand reopening of the Moon Theater.
Sing 2[]
Meena is participating with her costars in the Alice in Wonderland musical while trying to impress a talents scout named Suki Lane who's looking for performers for the Crystal Theater at Redshore City. Buster convinces his friends they can still live their dream in Redshore City after a road trip where they entertain the tourist on the bus, they made it to Redshore. After managing to sneak in while disguising as janitors for an appointment slot with Jimmy Crystal, CEO of Crystal Entertainment, Gunter unexpectedly blurts out a theater play that features retired rock star Clay Calloway, which allowed Jimmy to accept.
For the show "Out of this World," Meena is partnered with Darius for a romantic duet. Meena's nervous about it since she's never been in love before. During production, she struggles to sing with her partner and is unable to get the feelings across during their scene. Outside, Meena meets an ice cream vendor, named Alfonso. She becomes attracted to him, but she keeps getting nervous to speak to him. Every attempt she tries to, she ends up getting ice cream.
Later, Buster gather Meena and his crew back to the room after a near death from Jimmy following a big misunderstanding. When Meena and the crew arrived, they are amazed to see Clay Calloway when he opened the door. Right after, the gang flees, literally jumping out the window after Jimmy sends his minions on their trail. Landing first in the swimming pool river, they escape the security guards and infiltrate the studio during the evening, still determined to make the musical spectacle even under Jimmy's nose.
Buster puts on "Out of This World", with Johnny getting his father and his gang to perform security while Rosita has Norman release their kids to distract Jimmy's security so they can sneak into the theatre and put on the show. Meena sees that Alfonso has gotten a front row seat in the theater. For "The Planet of Love" act, she imagines that Darius is Alfonso, which helps her through her performance. Right after their performance, Meena introduces herself to Alfonso, who compliments her performance, and she asks him out on a date after the show. During Rosita's sky fright moment, Meena and her friends tried to rescue Buster who was grabbed by Jimmy but he took off with him in the elevator, but Rosita managed to overcome her fear to save Buster from Jimmy's breaking point. Meena and the others cheered as Buster was saved and Jimmy grunts furiously, and watches "Break Free" song by Rosita and Gunter and the final "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," song by Ash and Calloway. The gang then appear on stage and get praised by the audience, but leave when Jimmy tries to take the credit only for him to be humiliated by the crowd and get arrested by the police for lying and his attempted murder of Buster during the show.
With the show finally over and successful, the gang begins the journey back to Calatonia. While on the road, Meena talks with Alfonso through Facetime on her phone, with Gunter waving at him. Suddenly, Suki stops their bus to tell them that the Majestic Palace wants to produce their show. Once Calloway agrees to continue, everyone else also accepts without hesitation.
Sing: Thriller[]
Trivia[]
- Meena is known as "The Teenager" according to the Sing Website.
- She and the alpaca are the only known contestants to flub their audition.
- Her introduction scene is the fourth of five.
- Her performance of "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing" was the fifth and final.
- Meena and Johnny are the only two major characters that stayed at the Moon Theater overnight, to do something that was important. For Meena it was to help Buster Moon clean up the theater before Nana Noodleman arrived. Whereas in Johnny's case it was to steal the prize money, then receive extra piano lessons after his change of heart.
- When Meena returns home to her neighbors cheering for her, one of them is holding a large graduation picture of her, indicating that she has indeed graduated from High school.
