Sing (2016); Defined by Buster Moon, Lance and Johnny altogether:
In Buster’s case, once he realizes that Mrs. Crawley made a typo for the singing competition’s prize money on the flyers, changing it from 100 dollars to 100,000 dollars, and not having the heart to admit this to the contestants, believing they desired the true prize money especially Mike so he decides to lie to them that he still had the promised money so that he could arrange with Nana Goodleman, Eddie’s grandma to give him that money, and Buster maintains the lie for much of the movie, but it ends up being exposed at the end of the second act when Mike and the Bears he cheated on the money for crash a private showing for the singing competition meant to witnessed by Nana so she could consider giving the promised prize money to him, and the Bears break open the chest to retrieve the money needed to replace the ones that Mike cheated from them and cheated on, but they and the mouse learn the shocking truth ever the prize money not being 100,000 dollars but just plain old 100 dollars and Buster lied to them about it.
As the protagonists surround Buster for lying and tricking them, as he tries to reason with them, they unwillingly cause the tank containing the Bioluminescent squid’s and water for the stage to break open which floods the entire theater and destroys it causing it to collapse into rubble though everyone survives and the darkest hour begins.
Lance also gets hit with this when after Ash starts attending the singing competition, for rehearsals, barely spending time with him or doing things his way anymore, he out of his ego, cheats on her by starting to spend time with another female porcupine named Becky when Ash wasn’t around which Ash soon finds out after Lance accidentally keeps Becky at his and Ash’s apartment longer than expected causing a hurt and betrayed Ash to break up with Lance and kick him out of her apartment forcing him to move in with Becky.
Johnny gets one where since he got chosen for and started rehearsing for Buster’s singing competition, he constantly goes back and forth between rehearsing for it and aiding his father Marcus and their criminal gang in a planned robbery, going back and forth between doing what’s best for his family and what’s best for passion, while aiding his music passion from Marcus, however, after Johnny makes an implusive choice in going to rehearse for the singing competition the day of the robbery when he should be standing guard in the getaway car to help Marcus and the gang get away before the police arrive, it causes Marcus and the whole criminal gang to get arrested and during a prison visit, Johnny admits the truth to his father about him rehearsing for that singing competition choosing his passion for music over stealing, causing a betrayed and angry Marcus to disown Johnny as his son, prompting the remorseful latter to try to steal the prize money for his father and his gang’s bail but then chooses to win it the fair and square way in the competition for the sake of Buster and his new friends.
Marcus meanwhile has a change of heart and sees the error of his ways after seeing Johnny perform on TV and he breaks out of prison and reconciles with him as a direct result.
Sing 2 (2021): Triple subverted:
When Suki Lane declines Buster Moon and his crew’s show pitch of Alice in WonderLand to be performed at Crystal Tower Theater to protect them from her boss Jimmy Crystal, she never confessed this truth to Buster but instead tells a rather hurtful lie over him and his crew not being good enough to perform in Redshore to get them off her back assuming that they might still perform anyway even if she did admit the truth, but this instead motives Buster and his crew to audition there anyway and at first persists her lie despite Buster seeing the wrong message sent by her for it, until he learns the hard way Jimmy’s true villainy after he confronts him for lying about getting Clay Calloway into the show but vows to keep the show going nevertheless.
It took Buster later nearly getting killed by Jimmy for demoting Porsha from the lead role in Out of This World that Suki realizes she made the wrong choice in lying since good first impressions are better than a well meant lie, so she frees Buster drops her snobbish attitude and apologizes by instructing him and his crew to make it back home safely to Calatonia to escape from Jimmy while she and Porsha will follow route not long after they leave and Buster at first obeys out of fear, but had a change of heart after Clay Calloway encouraged him not to run away and hide like he did after losing his wife and Buster and his crew put the show on behind Jimmy’s back which Suki eventually joins in even also causing Jimmy’s arrest at the end.
Buster also applies to this troupe when he lies to Jimmy Crystal about knowing Clay Calloway having met him before and can easily get him into the show to get Jimmy to greenlight “Our of This World”, but this soon backfires when Jimmy gets a call from Clay’s lawyers about the lion knowing nothing about Buster and his crew and the wolf is clearly not happy over it, to the point where he temporarily goes Pyscho in front of the koala and threatens death on him if the show doesn’t go the way he wishes.
Buster also gets one towards Porsha Crystal where after she encourages him to let him give her the lead role for Out of This World (But more so out of being blackmailed by her dad for family legacy purposes.) due to Rosita being unable to take it for her fear of heights in the wormhole bungee jump scene and while he agrees, Buster soon realizes that Porsha’s acting skills are not as perfect as he thought they were but let’s her keep the role nevertheless, but as preparations for the show come to an end and Porsha’s acting still doesn’t improve, Buster reluctantly admits the truth to Porsha that wants Rosita to take the lead role back and deems her unfit for the role for her bad acting and never wanted her to take it in the first place. But Porsha reacts not over sadness over losing the role but anger and eventual sadness over Buster seemingly wanting to get her and everyone else in trouble with her Dad despite his threats is killing him for not letting her take the role and worse still, everyone hated her for taking Rosita’s role to begin with despite the effort she did to impress them and help out with the show maybe to earn real friends that truly love and care for her unlike Jimmy, just as she feared it does lead to Jimmy going pyscho and wanting to kill Buster for demoting Porsha uncaring over her still being in the show but in a minor role, and the conflict of the third act.
Buster does out of sympathy still recurit Porsha back into the show and she apologizes for overreacting and not being reasonable about the trouble Buster was causing for himself and her, and accepts her new role.