Trolls World Tour review

TROLLS WORLD TOUR: 

ANIMATED MUSICAL FOLLOW-UP IS CUTE BUT HAS MORE SUBSTANCE THIS TIME AROUND! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

UNIVERSAL PICTURES AND DREAMWORKS ANIMATION

Tiny Diamond, Queen Barb, Poppy, and Branch prepare for an encore in Trolls World Tour

            The adorable, music-loving Trolls are back in Trolls World Tour, the latest movie from DreamWorks Animation and follow-up to the 2016 film Trolls. If you remembered my review of the first Trolls movie from back in 2016 then you know that I wasn’t very enthusiastic about it when the film came out. 

            I didn’t think it was a terrible or even a bad movie, Trolls was well-animated with a lot of vibrant colors, unique character designs, and at times I found myself enjoying some of the songs and musical numbers. However, I pretty much dismissed it as a harmless and inoffensive movie for kids, but I also deemed it inferior to other films in the DreamWorks catalog like the first two Shrek movies and the Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon trilogies. 

            Well, since it was a hit with kids and earned mostly positive reviews, now we have the sequel Trolls World Tour which plot wise can be best summed up as Avengers: Infinity War mixed with The Smurfs. That is literally the plot of this movie and don’t worry the villain doesn’t wipe out half the universe this time. 

            So, how does the sequel hold up coming from someone who didn’t get into the first movie that much? Well, you’ll be full of joy and maybe even a little surprised to learn that I found myself thoroughly enjoying this movie, and keep in mind I thought the first film was only okay. 

            The film still has some of that sugary, upbeat, fluff from its predecessor that kids love like the bouncy and colorful animation, happy and non-threatening characters, and an overabundance of pop songs. However, this feels like a more confident movie than the first Trolls as the filmmakers already had plenty of time to experiment with what worked and what didn’t in its predecessor, focusing more on its strengths in the sequel with a more engaging and entertaining story to boot. 

            After the events of the first movie, the film follows Poppy (voiced by Anna Kendrick-Pitch Perfect trilogy, Into the Woods, A Simple Favor) and Branch (voiced by Justin Timberlake-Shrek the Third, The Social Network, In Time) who discover that there are other kinds of Trolls scattered across six different lands and each devoted to a specific type of music including Pop, Funk, Classical, Techno, Country, and Rock with a magical string as the source of their music’s power. However, when they learn about the ruthless gang of Rock Trolls led by Queen Barb (voiced by Rachel Bloom-The Angry Birds Movie 2, Batman VS Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Extinct) who plots to unite all six of the magic strings and destroy all other kinds of music so rock can literally rule the world (I now understand Batman’s hatred for it), Poppy, Branch, and their friends Smidge (voiced by the film’s director Walt Dohrn-SpongeBob Squarepants (Season 2), Dexter’s Laboratory, Shrek Forever After), Legsly (voiced by Ester Dean-Rio, Ice Age: Continental Drift, Pitch Perfect trilogy), Biggie (voiced by James Corden-Into the Woods, Peter Rabbit 1 and 2, Smallfoot), Satin and Chenille (voiced by Icona Pop), Cooper (voiced by Ron Funches-Undateable, @midnight, Harley Quinn), Guy Diamond (voiced by Kunal Nayyar-The Big Bang Theory, Ice Age: Continental Drift, Sanjay and Craig), and Tiny Diamond (voiced by Kenan Thompson-All That, Saturday Night Live, The Grinch (2018)) must travel to the other lands and unify the Trolls in harmony before Barb’s World Tour upstages them all. 

            The film also features the voices of Sam Rockwell (Moon, Iron Man 2, Jojo Rabbit) as Hickory, Ozzy Osbourne as King Thrash, Kelly Clarkson (American Dreams, The Star, UglyDolls) as Delta Dawn, George Clinton as King Quincy, Mary J. Blige (Mudbound) as Queen Essence, Jamie Dornan (Marie Antoinette, Fifty Shades trilogy, A Private War) as Chaz, J Balvin as Tresillo, Anderson Paak as Prince D, Kevin Michael Richardson (Family Guy, The Cleveland Show, Teen Titans/Teen Titans Go!) as Mr. Dinkles, Gustavo Dudamel as Trollzart, Anthony Ramos (A Star is Born (2018), Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), In the Heights) as King Trollex, Flula Borg (Pitch Perfect 2, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Good Place) as Dickory, Charlyne Yi (Paper Heart, The Lego Ninjago Movie, Steven Universe: The Movie) as Pennywhistle, The McElroy Brothers as Skyscraper, and Red Velvet as the K-Pop Gang. 

            Overall, Trolls World Tour is an entertaining animated musical adventure for all ages and a significant improvement over its predecessor. The first film’s sweet, wholesome fluff is fine, but I’d rather have a little more story and world building in my animated entertainment and that’s exactly what World Tour does, it expands on the Troll universe and depicts the Trolls and their styles of music like cultures and races, which is actually pretty clever. 

It teaches a very important and relevant lesson about not judging others on how they look, what their beliefs are, or on the music they listen to. Not once does it feel like the movie hammers its moral into your head, it always feels natural, warranted, and for a lack of better words worthy of your full attention. 

The characters are more fleshed-out in this movie, Poppy is still just as bubbly and adorable as ever but throughout the film she learns that not every problem can be solved with a simple hug and that the most important thing for a Queen or anyone with royal authority to do is listen and not speak everything on his/her mind (I’ll just say it, Queen Poppy is doing a much better job running a village of Trolls than our current president running our country!). Branch is mostly the same as he was in the first film but has become a lot more supportive of Poppy as a queen and shows a romantic interest in her, Queen Barb is a great villain character, she’s crazy, genuinely threatening, funny, and can turn those who stand in her way into Rock Zombies, BTW the Rock Zombies can be creepy at times, so that gets a plus, but unlike a character like Thanos she shows a vulnerable and softer side also and that maybe she’s a lost soul in desperate need of help rather than a diabolical tyrant. 

            Trolls World Tour doesn’t quite live up to some of DreamWorks’ best work, but it’s a fun, colorful, and sweet animated adventure for the entire family. For those who were offended by my original Trolls review, take some comfort after knowing that I think the sequel is a very enjoyable animated movie and gives me a sign of hope that maybe The Boss Baby 2 can end up like this movie also, since we’re getting another one of those soon.