Matthew McConaughey Sings 'Call Me Maybe' to Scarlett Johansson In First Sing Clip

With its release only weeks away, Illumination Entertainment — the studio behind beloved Despicable Me,, Despicable Me 2 and Minions — has released the first clip from the animated feature film Sing.

The optimistic koala named Buster Moon (voiced by Matthew McConaughey) is holding a singing competition, and he wants Ashley (voiced by Scarlett Johansson), one of the contestants, to sing "Call Me Maybe," the 2012 song made famous by Canadian singer-songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen. However, the prickly porcupine has no interest in singing the teeny-bopper tune, but when Moon gives a lively-performance, she can't help but join in and sing some of the super-catchy lyrics.

Set in a world like ours but entirely inhabited by animals, Sing stars Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey), a dapper Koala who presides over a once-grand theater that has fallen on hard times. Buster is an eternal optimist—okay, maybe a bit of a scoundrel—who loves his theater above all and will do anything to preserve it. Now facing the crumbling of his life's ambition, he has one final chance to restore his fading jewel to its former glory by producing the world's greatest singing competition.

Five lead contestants emerge: A mouse (Seth MacFarlane) who croons as smoothly as he cons, a timid teenage elephant (Tori Kelly) with an enormous case of stage fright, an overtaxed mother (Academy Award® winner Reese Witherspoon) run ragged tending a litter of 25 piglets, a young gangster gorilla (Taron Egerton) looking to break free of his family's felonies, and a punk-rock porcupine (Scarlett Johansson) struggling to shed her arrogant boyfriend and go solo. Each animal arrives under Buster's marquee believing that this is their shot to change the course of their life.

Featuring more than 85 hit songs, Sing is written and directed by Garth Jennings (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) and produced by Chris Meledandri and Janet Healy.

Sing arrives in theaters for the holiday season on December 21, 2016.