TROLLS WORLD TOUR Review

The Trolls franchise has had a somewhat varied journey in my collective memory as things began with hesitation at the concept alone though interest was piqued after Justin Timberlake released the ultimate feel-good summertime jam in that final, peaceful summer of 2016 with "Can't Stop the Feeling". Maybe this would be some kind of cool, animated riff on a musical with remixes of modern and classic songs as overseen by JT; something that was for the children, but made by one of the biggest pop stars of their parents childhood. Then came that November when all I remember about trying to cobble together a review was the fact I was writing about Trolls as I watched the Presidential election descend into madness. I gave the original film a straight-up-the-middle two and a half stars and thought of it essentially as colorful, but slight. It was fate that would have my wife and (three year-old at the time) daughter discover the movie some months later and as young children do my daughter latched onto Trolls just as I had Robin Hood some twenty-plus years prior and naturally decided to watch it on repeat until there was no other choice but for the characters to become endearing, the versions of the songs they sang to become the new normal and the weirdness of the world in which it existed to no longer feel strange or far-fetched, but more like home. We bought the soundtrack, we watched the Netflix animated series, and we anxiously awaited the sequel.

TROLLS Review

It's difficult to not feel indifferent about a movie like Trolls. In the end, it's fine. Is it somewhat offensive in terms of originality and cheap covers of gloriously good pop songs? It could certainly be taken that way, but when taking into consideration the target audience for this latest DreamWorks animated adventure it's hard to get too frustrated with the rote story Trolls tolls out or the advantage it takes in remixing recognizable songs into auto-tuned Kidz Bop versions you could have certainly lived without. Of course, Trolls doesn't mean to offend, but rather it simply means to entertain a fairly wide age range of kiddos while at the same time giving over tried and true lessons that deal in being true to one's self to find true happiness. No, Trolls isn't either a good film or a particularly bad one, but more it is simply one that exists to colorfully distract for an hour and a half only to mostly be forgotten the next day. No harm, no foul. Trolls is ultimately something of a mix between DreamWorks own Shrek series as far as character types go while more or less the same story The Smurfs told us as far as being small creatures who live in peace and harmony while having to battle a much larger being who threatens to eat them among other evil things. There wouldn't be anything necessarily wrong with restructuring these archetypes and plotlines were Trolls interested in doing anything fresh or interesting (and when I say interesting I, obviously, mean weirder) with as much as they've given themselves to work with, but by simply slapping a variety of pop covers throughout rather than going full-on musical and ultimately being more harmless than memorable this movie isn't exactly the kind of product a studio wants to put out if they want to retain any type of credibility. Though it really is difficult to say anything downright terrible about Trolls the bottom line is this was a product made to move merchandise and that it actually turned out as competent and sometimes even as fun as it is shouldn't be forgotten. Sure, one could point out the desperate lengths movie studios are now going to in order to cash in on brands given the troll dolls were first popular in the sixties (with a resurgence in the nineties) or one could point to The LEGO Movie as a film based on toys/superfluous junk that actually turned out rather inspired and great, but somewhere in the middle of those truths and thoughts we find Trolls; just happy to have been given enough room to dance and sing and hug.

First Trailer for DreamWorks Animation's TROLLS

With Shrek long past his prime, the Madagascar gang more or less in retirement with the Penguins not so successfully backing them up, and neither Po the Ninja Warrior or Hiccup and Toothless producing sequels that exactly lit the world on fire it is time for Dreamworks to officially try something new and it seems they have put all their eggs in the Trolls basket. Is this the right move? Does it have the potential to rank among the films starring the aforementioned characters? To be honest, there is a lot of pessimism here as nothing about this project screams "neat," or "interesting," or even "cool". The best thing this movie seemingly has going for it is the massive summer smash that Justin Timberlake recorded for its soundtrack. Timberlake leading the voice cast also seems like an odd albeit broadly appealing choice. Though this thing has seemed to be hyped for months now we've only now just received our first look at actual footage and it seems to be perfectly in line with what little expectations I held for it. While the voice cast is star-studded and media friendly, the actual story and animation more or less look to be recycled bits and pieces from movies we've seen countless times before. Attempting to capitalize on the brand recognition of those strange Troll dolls that have been around forever, but really picked up steam in the 90's it's confusing who exactly this movie is for. It's as if everything about the film has been manufactured to cater to the nostalgia factor of young parents who grew up collecting these dolls with the hopes that the children of today will discover these cute creatures and find them as appealing as their parents did. Needless to say, this trailer doesn't inspire much confidence in the film especially when stacked against the animation studios stronger works like the How to Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda films. Trolls also features the voice talents of Anna Kendrick, Russell Brand, James Corden, Kunal Nayyar, Ron Funches, Icona Pop, Gwen Stefani and opens on November 4th, 2016.