How Sing Brings Back All the American Idol Feels

We all remember tuning in every Wednesday night with our phones at the ready anxiously awaiting the time to call and vote for our favorite contestants.

We remember watching Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell as they judged (and sometimes relentlessly criticized) some of our favorites after they sang their hearts out for America to see.

We remember watching Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Jordin Sparks, and Phillip Phillips become overwhelmed with emotion when they were declared their season’s winners.

And we all remember the sadness we felt when the show came to an end for good earlier this year.

But fear not, American Idol fans, because the new movie Sing is bringing back all of those feelings in two hours packed with nostalgia.

Hitting theaters on December 21, Sing follows the story of one koala named Buster Moon (voiced by Matthew McConaughey) as he struggles to save his decaying theater.

After realizing that nobody cares for his attempts at success, Buster must come up with a new and creative way to bring in an audience and save his business. Then, in a moment of brilliance, Buster realizes that the best way to get his theater back into the spotlight and to potentially save it from being shut down would be to hold a singing competition. 

Almost instantly his local town goes wild, as everyone rushes prepares for their moment in the spotlight – all hoping for their chance at stardom and a shot at the $10,000 prize. (Sound familiar?)

Among those auditioning are Rosita (voiced by Reese Witherspoon), a stay at home pig who hopes to win the competition to help out her family; Meena (voiced by Tori Kelly), an elephant who struggles with stage freight but has the voice of an angel; Johnny (voiced by Taran Egerton), a gorilla who hopes to escape his family’s criminal past and make a new path for himself; Ash (voiced by Scarlett Johansson), a porcupine who must fight to keep her voice heard as she wants it to be; and Nick (voiced by Seth MacFarlane), a crooning mouse who has difficulty fitting in.

Also featured are the flamboyant Gunter (voiced by Nick Kroll), Rosita’s husband Norman (voiced by Nick Offerman), Ash’s boyfriend Lance (voiced by Beck Bennett) and Buster’s assistant Karen (voiced by the film’s writer and director Garth Jennings). 

And if you think the singing competition in itself isn’t enough of a similarity to American Idol, the animals also face similar fates of those who auditioned for the real show– including public embarrassment, lack of family support and the heartbreaking reality of auditioning as a duo and only one member making it through (a moment of silence for all of those sibling/couple auditions we witnessed over the show’s 15 years).

While the film hasn’t been released to national audiences yet, people are already buzzing about it and rooting for their (soon-to-be) favorite characters, as they shared on Twitter wish the hashtag #SingSaturday.

If you’re now wondering “who will win?” you’re not alone.

And if you’re still crying over the loss of American Idol, you’re not alone either- and don’t worry! We’ve made sure to help you keep the memory alive. Be sure to take a walk down memory lane and look back at all of the winners of American Idol, in our ranked list below.

Sing is in theaters on Dec. 21. (E! News and Universal Pictures are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)