Hey there guys welcome to the latest throwback review! If you remember back in August last year I reviewed the original Angry Birds Movie in preparation for the sequel. So I figured why not do the same thing for Trolls as well since its a pretty similar situation. Both are 2016 animated comedies that contained a cast of well known celebrities and crossed $300 million worldwide at the box office and both ended up in my 30 movies I enjoy more than most list. Also gives me the chance to do another non Pixar throwback review which is nice in terms of changing things up. So even though Trolls World Tour has been out on VOD for quite some time now (still need to check it out) I’ve decided to go on and take a look back at one of Dreamworks more underrated features out there, one which turned out to be a nice pleasant surprise that exceeded my expectations. So turn up the music, and lets get ready to journey with Poppy, and Branch on their adventure!
We are explained by Poppy in the prologue what the Trolls are, a bunch happy, colorful, creatures who love to sing, hug, and party every day. Then there are the Bergens who are a bunch of big, miserable, creatures who believe that eating a troll will them happy. This is shown in the prologue where the Trolls escape a grisly fate hiding out far away for the next few years and continuing to do what they love and Poppy herself set to become Queen of the land soon. Everyone is just really happy… save for a cynical troll named Branch who is prepared for a Bergen to strike and doesn’t concern himself with any of the other Trolls’s shenanigans. He does prove to be right as an outcast Bergen named Chef, over hears the Trolls having their biggest, loudest, most craziest party ever and captures Poppy’s friends in the process. She then has no choice but to team up with a reluctant Branch to go to Bergen Town and save them before it’s too late. But will they be able to put aside their differences in order to accomplish that goal?
Not gonna lie I was kind of dreading this movie for a couple of months before its release. Mostly due to the fact that the initial teaser was one of the worst teaser trailers for an animated movie (or really any movie) I had seen in quite some time. It just contained everything I really do not like about certain mainstream family movies like the use of modern pop music, the dancing, and the fart jokes and it was just really groan worthy and left a bad taste in my mouth. Now granted the official trailer was much better and actually piqued my interest in the film as well as the surprisingly positive reviews that greeted the film. I didn’t get the chance to see this one in theaters but I did eventually catch up to it later on and I really enjoyed it then, and I still feel that way now. One of the big reasons why this movie works as well as it does has a lot to do with its message. Yes it is one of those movies that is all about being happy, and uplifting but I also felt like while yes it has a very optimistic attitude it also acknowledges that it is okay to use your other emotions, and express your feelings not holding them back or disguising them all the time. That’s a very strong message to show kids and it helps give the movie and nice beating heart that provides some really well done emotional beats involving the characters. This does bring me to my biggest issue with the movie, one that does keep it from being a great movie and that’s the ending. Now it still is relatively satisfying in some ways and the dance number finale actually makes sense given the tone of the feature it in some ways doesn’t quite feel like its sticking to its guns as it feels like its saying that happiness is the key to everything as opposed to staying true to what was present throughout the rest of the feature thematically. Heck while this is arguably a superior movie, the Angry Birds Movie actually did stick with its guns and that’s one of the best parts of it. Still though I enjoyed the rest of the movie enough that it doesn’t completely derail it. I do appreciate the infectious energy, the pacing is nice, and brisk, and most of humor did land for me (the funniest scene is when Poppy is trying to maintain her positivity by singing even with a bunch of obstacles getting in her way) even if there were some typical fart, and poop jokes that didn’t land. While simple, given the source material the team had to work with I said it was done pretty well for what it was going for.
When watching the movie I really do regret not seeing it in theaters and that is largely because this is one of my favorite looking mainstream animated movies, and one of the most unique out there too. The animation doesn’t try to go for photo realism and instead feels like this big budget arts and crafts project which is absolutely a compliment! There are just so many colors in every single frame and some sequences are downright psychedelic (how appropriate that this came out the same day as Dr. Strange). In particular I really love how the animators took the designs of the classic Troll dolls and made them their own and giving each of the major Trolls, and Bergens a distinct look to them that captures their personality with some well done movements as well which can be fast paced without feeling too frantic and are smooth throughout. Also really dug the way this world looked and all the contrast between the happy go lucky nature of the Troll land, the constant dangers, and obstacles that arise in the journey to Bergen Town, and the depressing, and drab nature of Bergen Town itself. Each have a nice unique look to them and have this scrapbook type feel to it (which makes sense given that the movie is told through narration with Poppy using a scrap book at the beginning, and end). As for all of the musical sequences well each of them is a lot of fun, and has a ton of acid trippy imagery thrown into the mix and the song choices for most of them actually do fit in with what is going on, with my favorites being that aforementioned Poppy goes through a bunch of crazy stuff sequence set to the tune of “Get Back up Again”, when Bridget is singing “Hello” when she’s thinking about about her love for King Gristle, when Popppy, and Branch regain their colors set to “True Colors”, and the big dance party number at the end which of course uses the hit “Can’t Stop the Feeling” as it was a big factor in promoting the movie. Heck I’d argue that even though the tunes are all popular modern pops songs they actually do fit in with the tone, and feel of the movie, and are most of the time used at the right times which is something that some other animated movies (even some from Dreamworks) couldn’t quite nail. In general the movie does contain tropes that are normally seen in these types of movies but most of if not all of it works here well enough strangely.
Speaking of which there’s also a lot of celebrities that fill up the cast of this movie, and that doesn’t always turn out to yield the best results sometimes and Dreamworks is a bit of mixed bag when it comes to this area as sometimes it works out well (Over the Hedge, Shrek, Madagascar etc.) or very distracting (Shark Tale, Bee Movie, Home, etc.). Thankfully I’d say Trolls falls into the former category as the two biggest stars here, Anna Kendrick, and Justin Timberlake both do a really good job voicing Poppy, and Branch respectively. Kendrick always brings a nice infectious energy to her roles and so shes perfect here and Poppy herself is a lot of fun always trying to maintain her positivity throughout but she does come to acknowledge that not everything is going to be perfect and she does have a nice relationship with Branch who I also really like as he marks a nice contrast with the bubbly princess with a stone cold personality with and expert survival skills who is a bit of a softy at hard. Timberlake also does really well in the role and he does have reasonable motivations for why he acts the way he does. They make for a fun pair and the two singers make good use of their vocal skills. Also doing a good job as a nice would be couple are Christopher Mintz-Plasse as the young Prince Gristle, and especially Zooey Deschanel as the maid, Bridget who are actually my favorite characters as their both sympathetic (they both yearn to feel happiness), have a lot of funny moments, and have a sweet relationship with one another that adds to the emotion of the picture. Also found Chef to be a pretty good villain who does prove to be quite intimidating at times and Christine Baranski gives in a really fun performance. There’s plenty of other familiar voices in the picture like James Corden, Ron Funches, Gwen Stefani, etc. but they either don’t get much screen time or just have a one note trait (like there’s the glitter troll voiced by Kunal Nayyar who only talks in an auto tuned voice) and really the rest of the trolls only exist to sell toys with only Russel Brand’s Creek, and Jeffery Tambor’s King Peppy being ones who play a pretty sizable part in the story (though like I said I really did like all of the memorable designs featured). Still the main players were well handled and there’s definitely room to improve on the roster in the sequel.
Dreamworks’s Trolls is absolutely one of the more successful attempts in taking a well known property and making a feature film out of it. It works well as a solid family movie that has a very important message, is mostly funny, is a blast to look at, a well used soundtrack, and has some likable characters thrown into the mix. It may not always hit the right beats with an ending that feels like it negates some of the themes that came before, some jokes that don’t quite land, and a supporting cast that just feels, well there but its more entertaining than not, and is able to sing a pretty song. I still find this to be a really underappreciated Dreamworks tune that I think deserves a little more respect as it is was much better than that first teaser led me to believe and I feel it is one of their better comedies this decade. Glad to see that’s a really popular one among younger demographics as it is a good movie to show to them and is one I can see them loving. This, and Captain Underpants also show that the studio is willing to do some neat things visually and makes me excited to see what their animation will look like in future films as it always good to have unique looking ones in the marketplace.
Rating: B
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