Moments pages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned.
For a film from Illumination, this is hands down one of the studio's darkest movies due to quite a few reasons below, including ridiculously high stakes, on-screen attempted murder, and a startlingly dark villain.
- We get another audition scene, and one of the contestants is a tarsier who sings Billie Eilish's "Bury A Friend" while spinning her head with an unending gaze. Though it's Played for Laughs, it still makes for a very creepy sight, to the point where even Jimmy Crystal is disturbed by it.
- Klaus Kickenklober's harsh teaching methods towards Johnny are a more mundane example. Believing that only suffering can create greatness, Klaus expects Johnny to master incredibly complicated choreography, despite Johnny being a complete newcomer, and scolds and belittles him whenever he messes up, including physically striking him with his cane. Klaus may not be as big a threat as Crystal, but he can be quite triggering for viewers that have had similarly abusive mentors.
- After a particularly intense day of rehearsals, Johnny immediately bolts out of the studio, not wanting to spend another moment in Klaus' intimidating presence. He's short of breath, his hand is trembling, and it's heavily implied that he's suffering a minor panic attack. Even after being brought up in a life of crime, and the other life-threatening experiences he endured in the previous film, Klaus genuinely terrifies Johnny.
- The slow build-up to Jimmy Crystal revealing his true colors is quite unsettling.
- First, he threatens to throw Buster off a roof if he hurts his image (with a completely straight face), which could easily be written off as a really, really dark joke. Then, he sends him a threatening note to reiterate the warning (albeit via a gift card on a fruit basket, again seemingly setting it up as mere Black Comedy).
- When he visits the set, Jimmy immediately intimidates Buster by angrily approaching the koala and harshly criticizing his (still in construction) stage designs. While it's revealed that he's only joking at this point, the fact that his idea of "messing with" his employees for fun isn't too far off how Crystal gets when he's actually angry makes this casual terrorizing of Buster even more disturbing.Jimmy: MOON! Your set designs are a disgrace!
Buster: (utterly terrified) What?!
Crystal: (Beat, then laughs) Eh, I'm just messing with ya! Where's your sense of humor, huh?! - When Porsha expresses an interest in Rosita's lead role, Buster tries to object before Crystal asks to speak with him. During the conversation, he grows considerably more creepy when he takes advantage of the size difference between himself and Buster, subtly intimidating and then physically manhandling the koala as an unspoken threat of what will happen to him if he doesn’t cave to his demands.Jimmy: What you've got here is an opportunity to make me happy, and when an opportunity like that comes along, you better (suddenly picks Buster up) GRAB IT!
- Finally, Buster is asked to speak to Crystal in his office about the show. The conversation seems casual and friendly at first, before Crystal suddenly asks why Buster disrespected him. The mood of the scene gradually darkens as Crystal reveals that he's caught on to Buster's lie about knowing Calloway, until he finally explodes and all his rage comes flooding out. During his rant, Crystal trashes his own desk and gouges deep claws marks into it, while his Icy Blue Eyes stare right into Buster's terrified face, almost making him seem like a feral wolf instead of an anthropomorphic one. While it's still only a verbal threat and Jimmy shortly reverts back to being calm and affable, it is heavily implied that he is only restraining himself because Porsha conveniently forced herself into the production, and he makes it ominously clear that Buster does not want to disappoint him a second time. All of which establish that Mr. Crystal is very unstable, and the danger he poses to our main cast is very real.Jimmy: (livid) I swear, if you didn't have my kid in your show, you'd be outta that window by now!
Buster: (terrified) I'll get it, I'll get it! I won't let down!
Jimmy: (calms and adjusts suit) Oh, I know you won't let me down...
- Buster and Ash are electrocuted and knocked unconscious by Calloway’s electric fence. It is so quick and jarring, you can forgive younger viewers for thinking the two cuddly cartoon animals were likely killed.
- During the cheery TV coverage of Porsha getting "fired" by Buster, we get a Jump Scare as the TV it's on is smashed apart by Crystal, who is having a feral tantrum over the scandal, even roaring at a sobbing Porsha for making him look like he has a "talentless loser for a daughter". To add to the discomfort of the whole scene, Jerry and Suki, who have been depicted as loyal professional Co-Dragons up to this point, can also be seen behind him with incredibly meek and uncomfortable looks, visibly flinching as Crystal snarls at his own daughter. Even the people closest to Crystal are utterly cowed by him at his worst.
- While Linda LeBon is reporting the latest gossip on her talk show, she pulls up two photos of Porsha and Jimmy beside her as a point of reference. When Jimmy throws the TV remote at the screen in a fit of rage, you'll notice that he doesn't throw it at Linda, or his own image. He deliberately aims it right at Porsha's picture, as a quick hint that he's just as furious at her for this debacle as he is at Buster.
- When Buster gets called to Jimmy's office to discuss Porsha's "firing", he has a look of pure fear on his face as soon as he leaves the elevator (that practically opens and closes loudly too), and he still has that facial expression the entire time he walks there. What definitely doesn't make it better is that as soon as Jerry sees him while he's working in his office, the first thing he does is shake his head in disapproval and give him a Death Glare. Sinister music even plays the entire scene too, making it feel like something out of a thriller movie and the audience knows that Buster is about to be in big trouble.
- To worsen it, Buster gets a brief Hope Spot just before he enters, when Ash calls him to say that she managed to get Clay on board with the show. Knowing that Crystal was already angry at him over this beforehand, all of Buster's bravado returns when he enters the office, thinking that he's got the perfect leverage out of his current predicament. But when Suki lets him in, she frantically tries to warn Buster as he barges past her and runs right up to Crystal with his good news, only realizing too late that this won't save him from Crystal's wrath now.
- "The right thing to do... IS WHAT I TELL YOU TO DO!!!!!!!"
- Note that even with the intentional ridiculousness of the film and the Black Comedy surrounding Jimmy Crystal's character, the threat he puts on Buster and co. is 100% NOT played as just an everyday cartoon exaggeration like many other things in the film. Buster is traumatized by Jimmy's first attempt on his life and is still panicking and hyperventilating for several scenes afterwards, straight up screaming at Ms. Crawly via phone to get everyone out of the theatre immediately. While they do pull The Show Must Go On eventually, it's only after a long contemplation and Clay talking seriously with the group, up until that point the group are terrified from the revelation Jimmy and his goons are gunning for them and just want to leave town with their lives. By the second time Jimmy goes after Buster, this time in public, even his own personnel are screaming at him to stop, horrified by his psychotic behavior.Buster: (hyperventilating) You... you nearly killed me!!
Jimmy: And I'll FINISH the job later! - While Jimmy Crystal's murderous personality is utterly terrifying, it's arguably even scarier to see how easily he hides it from the public. After he locks Buster in his office, we are treated to a brief scene of Jimmy preparing backstage for his talk show interview. He pulls a furious scowl when he learns that Buster has escaped and demands his thugs hunt the koala down, right before he instantly switches to a big, friendly smile and walks on stage to greet his adoring audience.
- It even injects a bit of Realism-Induced Horror, given Jimmy's behavior is only a mild exaggeration of some real life celebrities who used a friendly onscreen persona to hide their depraved or malicious behavior behind the curtains, with the people who work around them too intimidated by their power to speak up.
- After two false jump scares (involving Clay and the other members of the Moon Theater troupe), Jimmy's thugs finally arrive at Buster and his friends' hotel room and start banging on the door, demanding they show themselves. Gunter at first thinks it's just room service until one of the thugs yells for Buster to open the door in a threatening tone, and the rest of the gang clearly look as terrified as anybody would be in a situation like this. One prime example would even be that Ash immediately reaches for Rosita's hand out of pure fear, who in turn holds it to comfort her.
- Jimmy Crystal attempts to murder Buster Moon, twice. In the first instance (which could possibly be considered the scariest moment of the franchise), he tries to throw Buster off the roof when Buster tries to give Porsha's role back to Rosita, causing Porsha to think she's been fired. But because Crystal needs to appear on-stage, he postpones the murder attempt and just locks Buster in a room instead. But in the second instance, during the Out Of This World performance, Crystal actually does throw Buster off a catwalk, and Buster only survives because Rosita overcomes her fear of heights and catches him.
- What makes the first example particularly nasty is their next interaction shows Crystal doesn't care that Porsha was supposedly fired. He's furious because Buster Moon humiliated him. He was about to kill someone due to him feeling slighted.
- A lowkey element of horror enters the picture when you consider what Porsha's childhood might've been like being raised by someone like Jimmy. He spoils her with material things to make up for not really being interested in her, callously dismisses her heartbreak over being "fired" and calls her a talentless embarrassment, tried to physically grab her during the Out of This World performance, and had no qualms about murdering Moon right in front of her. Is it any wonder the girl was such a neurotic Spoiled Brat going into the movie?
- When Buster stands up to Jimmy while in his grasp during his second murder attempt, saying he and his friends did what they set out to do and he can't change that, Jimmy just gives an evil chuckle and claims "Oh, I can do whatever I want!" from the catwalk while sporting
◊ a Slasher Smile. Furthermore, the first 10 seconds of Buster falling is complete silence and it makes the scene all the more eerie. And to cap it all off, if you watch closely, you'll notice that Jimmy's face is glowing red from the lights, giving the feeling that he is the devil! - The slow motion shot of Rosita and Gunter seeing Buster falling to his doom, and their faces slowly contorting into pure horror. If he hadn't just caught the side of Rosita's view just then, it would have been grim.
Shorts
- In "For Gunter's Eyes Only", Gunter gets hypnotized into thinking he's a secret agent on a mission and proceeds to run wild through a casino. While most of his rampage is played for laughs, he proves to be very destructive in a short amount of time. He quickly puts two animals in the hospital, and tries to torture Harry the hypnotist with a defibrillator while he's bedridden (which would have killed him) before Johnny stops him.
