Plot
In Calatonia, a city of anthropomorphic animals, a koala named Buster Moon owns a struggling theater, and is threatened with foreclosure by bank representative llama, Judith. He decides to hold a singing competition with a prize of $1,000, but a typo made by his elderly iguana assistant, Miss Crawly, adds two extra zeros to the prize money, making it $100,000. The misprinted flyers are blown out of the window by a fan before they can be proofread, and float across the city.
Crowds of animals gather to audition, and Buster selects his contestants. Among them are Rosita, a pig who is a housewife and mother to 25 piglets; Ash, a punk-rock porcupine; Johnny, a teenage gorilla and son of criminal gang leader, Big Daddy; Mike, a street musician mouse; and Gunter, an exuberant dancing pig. Teenage elephant Meena fails her audition due to stage fright, Ash's self-absorbed boyfriend Lance is upset to be dismissed from the contest, and Rosita is paired with Gunter for a dance routine. After Buster discovers the flyers advertise a prize of $100,000, he joins his friend Eddie, a laid-back sheep, on a visit to Eddie's wealthy grandmother, former theater superstar Nana Noodleman. Nana is reluctant to sponsor the prize money but agrees to attend a private preview of the show before making a decision.
Pressured by her grandfather, Meena attempts to request a second audition but settles for being Buster's stagehand instead. After some acts withdraw from the competition, Meena is offered a spot in the show but again struggles to overcome her fear. Rosita flounders in her dance routine with Gunter, believing her motherly duties have caused her to lose her passion. Mike, assuming he will win the competition, takes out a massive loan from the bank to buy a flashy car and swindles a group of Russian bears in a card game. Lance cheats on Ash, causing her to break up with him and later to break down crying during a rehearsal. Johnny, forced by his father to partake in a heist as a getaway driver, sneaks away to the rehearsal. Traffic from a car accident that Johnny unknowingly caused prevents him from returning to the heist in time, resulting in his father and his gang getting arrested and imprisoned, straining their relationship. After an accident causes stage lights to fall and break, Buster, Miss Crawly, and Meena rebuild the stage as a tank with luminescent squids as lights.
Desperate, Johnny attempts to steal the prize money for his father's bail, but when he sees a note on Buster's desk praising his talents, Johnny resolves to focus on his musical career instead. Meanwhile, Rosita regains her passion for dancing while grocery shopping, and Ash composes a song that Buster likes. On the day of the preview for Nana, the bears Mike had cheated locate him and demand their money back. Mike directs them to Buster; the bears use a baseball bat to break open the prize chest, but it is nowhere near $100,000. Shocked by the lack of money, the rest of the contestants question Buster, and the squid tank shatters from the impact of the bat and everyone's weight. The flooded theater explodes, and Judith repossesses the lot, while a disheartened Buster takes up residence with Eddie and supports himself by washing cars.
Meena goes to the rubble of the theater and sings out loud to music on her headphones, inspiring Buster to stage an outdoor show. Despite attempts from Judith to halt the show, it takes place on the lot of the former theater with Meena's and Rosita's families in attendance. More animals are drawn into the audience when the show is broadcast live on the local news. Rosita's husband Norman is roused by his wife's talent, Big Daddy breaks out of prison and travels to the lot to reconcile with Johnny, Lance is impressed by Ash's original rock song "Set It All Free", the bears find Mike and pursue him away; and Meena overcomes her stage fright and gives an enthusiastic performance. The show is a success and impresses Nana, who was in the audience. She purchases the lot, and the theater is rebuilt and reopened.
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