There are certainly worse kids' films than this. It's bright and colourful and well made, and if your kids liked the first one and you want to spend two hours harmlessly with (or without) them, well, it's here.

Channelling my inner Grinch, though, Sing 2 has a lot of shortcomings as a movie, which we'll get to shortly.

To recap: The original Sing (2016) told the story of koala Buster Moon (voiced by Matthew McConaughey), who staged a singing contest to save his struggling small-town theatre. It wasn't terribly original but was pleasant enough, boasting an impressive voice cast, some nicely animated talking and singing animals and a decent tune stack.

That film's writer-director, Garth Jennings, and many of the original voices are back for Sing 2.

Buster's small-town theatre is now thriving but he has bigger dreams. When Suki (Chelsea Peretti), a (literally) foxy talent scout, tells him his troupe isn't good enough for the big time, Buster takes it as a challenge.

He brings the gang back together and takes them to Red Shore City (sort of an anthropomorphic-animal cross between Las Vegas and New York) to audition for thuggish entertainment mogul Jimmy Crystal (Bobby Cannavale), a wolf.

Jimmy isn't impressed by their pitch but when they bring up the idea of a sci-fi show featuring reclusive rock star lion Clay Calloway (Bono), his interest is piqued. He gives them three weeks to have the show ready - with Clay. Or. Else.

But, of course, nobody knows Clay, who disappeared 15 years ago. Not that a little thing like that will stop Buster. Clay's gotta be out there somewhere, right? And how could he possibly resist being in their show?

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What ensues is a sometimes amusing series of showbiz cliches - some tweaked a little - about the trials and tribulations of Putting On A Show. There's the audition montage where hopefuls are brutally dismissed. There's the untalented performer thrust upon the company - Jimmy's vapid, spoiled teenage daughter Porsha (Halsey) is cast in the lead, relegating pig Rosita (Reese Witherspoon) - who's scared of heights - to a minor role. There's Johnny (Taron Egerton), a talented young gorilla singer who finds it difficult to dance at the level demanded by martinet monkey instructor Klaus Kickenklober (Adam Buxton). There's the narcissistic yak Darius (Eric Andre), who's not much help when Meena (Tori Kelly) has to performance a romantic duet with him And so on and so forth.

Jennings himself voices the plum role of glass-eyed iguana Miss Crawly, Buster's assistant, who reveals an unexpected gift for command while Buster and porcupine Ash (Scarlett Johansson) undertake the task of finding Clay.

It seems churlish to criticise a movie that seemingly just wants to provide some lively, untaxing entertainment, but Sing 2 feels like an uninspired, and, at nearly two hours, an overlong cash grab. The song performances aren't very memorable, a pivotal moment takes place offscreen, and there's not much in the way of jokes and references adults can enjoy. Underneath all the surface flash, there isn't much.

Kids deserve better, and there are plenty of higher-quality animated films out there.