Mike is an antagonist and one of the main characters in Universal•Illumination 2016 animated feature film Sing.
Background[]
Personality[]
Mike is a greedy, self-centered mouse with a Napoleon style complex— and who so happens to be a classically trained jazz musician with a voice like Frank Sinatra, who allegedly studied at the Lincoln School of Music. Driven by money, power, and the allure of beautiful female mice, Mike is constantly trying to be part of a crowd that doesn’t want him... unless, that is, he can somehow win Buster’s competition.
Physical appearances[]
Mike is an anthropomorphic white mouse. He wears a red suit and a white shirt under it with red pants and a red fedora, along with a black tie and shoes. He has large white ears that are pink on the inside, and long whiskers. His pink tail is long and thin.
While rehearsing to sing "Let's Face the Music and Dance" and during his final performance of "My Way", he wore a purple version of his suit.
Role in the film[]
Mike may be small, but he has a big and imposing character. Arrogant almost to a fault, Mike is not afraid to stand up to anyone bigger than himself. However, he tends to bite off more than he can chew, and he is not an honest person, as he is caught cheating in a card game, swindling a trio of bears out of their money. This repeatedly came back to haunt him and affected those around him, even leading to the Moon Theater's destruction.
Despite his arrogance, Mike lives up to his skills as a singer and a musician, able to soulfully croon people to tears.
While not exactly a kind soul, Mike can appreciate others' kindness and merits, sincerely appreciating his girlfriend for saving him from the bears he'd cheated and cheering for Meena after repeatedly putting her down only to be awed by her amazing singing.
He has an ego, so confident in his talents that he assumed the prize money for Buster Moon's singing contest was guaranteed to be his that he bought a Lamborghini and spent all the money he'd swindled the bears out of, and refused to be upstaged that he came back to sing in the theater, even when there was no money to be won.
The bears discovered Mike on TV and began heading to Moon Theater, which alerted Nancy to go save him. During Meena's performance of "Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing", Mike was grabbed by the three bears and taken outside. She pulled up in Mike's red convertible, moments after Mike was swallowed by the bear leader. She slammed the door into the bear's stomach, causing him to spit Mike out. He quickly got into the vehicle and Nancy drove him away from the chase, while speaking her only lines in the movie. It is unknown what happened to her or Mike after these events, as they were not present during the Moon Theater's grand re-opening, which was the final scene of the movie.
Trivia[]
- Mike is known as "The Crooner" according to the Sing Website.
- His introduction scene is the last of five.
- In his introduction scene, he claimed to have studied at the Lincoln School of Music.
- Also in his introduction scene, he can be heard playing the late Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond tune "Take Five".
- In the closure of his introduction scene, he plays Gerry Rafferty’s "Baker Street" for a brief moment.
- He plays "Girl from Ipanema" by Tom Jobim, when he sees Nancy for the first time.
- Mike was the first to question Buster Moon's prize money, as well as the first to discover the lack of money.
- His rehearsal performance of "Let's Face the Music and Dance" was the first of four.
- He is the only contestant who didn't show up at Eddie's pool house to cheer up Buster Moon.
- His final performance of "My Way" was the fourth of five.
- Mike is the only character among the main cast to not show up for the grand re-opening of the Moon Theater. He is also the only main singing contestant in the first movie who does not return for the sequel, having likely skipped town.
- In a 2019 episode of Family Guy titled "You Can’t Handle the Booth", Mike and Sing were mentioned by Peter Griffin as a meta joke about Seth MacFarlane’s other roles in film and television. This is one of the first occurrences of Sing being referenced in a television show.
- The episode itself featured the characters overdubbing a previous episode in the style of DVD commentary, and when Seth MacFarlane himself comes into the audio, his character Peter Griffin says “It's the mouse from Sing! I’d recognize your voice anywhere!”