Trolls World Tour – Film Review
Poppy (voice of Anna Kendrick) and Branch (voice of Justin Timberlake) discover that there are six different troll tribes scattered over six different lands. Each tribe is also devoted to six different kinds of music — funk, country, techno, classical, pop and rock. When rockers Queen Barb (voice of Rachel Bloom) and King Thrash (voice of Ozzy Osbourne) set out to destroy the other music, Poppy and Branch embark on a daring mission to unite the trolls and save the diverse melodies from becoming extinct.
The fact that Walt Dohrn’s Trolls World Tour released straight to video on demand is kind of a blessing in disguise. Had this movie been released in theatres like it was originally going to, I would have had to sit in a crowded theatre filled to the brim with dozens of loud, cheery children as they sing along to the cover songs sung by the ensemble cast of singers.
If you liked the cover songs from the previous installment, you’ll probably like them here too. I won’t lie – they’re not bad. I wasn’t miserable while watching them play out in front of me, but they’re not necessarily good though. But what’s even worse is that its basically the entire movie. There are so many songs throughout the film to the point where you could honestly classify this as a musical of sorts.
Is there a story here? Yes, there is. But the problem is that it gets so lost along the way thanks largely in part to the overabundance of music throughout. The only reasons why there are so many songs in the film, in my opinion, is because the studio wanted to make some money and also, they knew that they didn’t have an interesting enough story so they wanted to create as many Troll-centered covers as possible in hopes to entertain its target audience.
Trolls World Tour (2020).
And that’s the thing. This is going to entertain children. Adults on the other hand? Not so much. There is next to nothing for older audiences to enjoy here besides a couple of jokes that are actually not too bad, and the animation is obviously incredible as per usual for DreamWorks.
The story is extremely predictable and boring to follow. There isn’t much to care about here, and the majority of the characters make ridiculously dumb decisions that make it hard for you to root for them. What’s funny though, is the fact that this movie’s plot is basically just the plot of Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War. Yes, you heard me right.
How so? Well, let me explain. In Infinity War, we follow the evil Thanos as he goes on a journey to obtain all six infinity stones – space, reality, power, soul, mind, and time. With these stones, Thanos can then put them in his Infinity Gauntlet, and, once they are all in the gauntlet, he can snap his fingers which will allow him to wipe out half of all life in the universe.
In Trolls World Tour, we follow the evil Queen Barb as she goes on a journey to obtain all six music strings – pop, country, funk, techno, classical, and rock. With these strings, Barb can then play the ultimate power chord which will give her the ability to turn every troll into a rock troll. It’s blatantly obvious how much this movie borrows off of Infinity War and it’s kind of hilarious to think about.
So at the end of the day, this movie doesn’t really have a whole lot to offer. If you want to put on a movie that will entertain your kids, this is more than likely going to do the trick. They’ll probably be singing the songs for weeks on end. But if you’re not in the target audience, the problems with the film are way too prevalent to ignore. It’s a film that has a boring, recycled, and dumbed down story and is filled with way too many songs for there to be any sort of character development along the way. In other words, it’s essentially an hour and a half long music video with some admittedly great animation and fun colors.
It may have some fun music and great animation, but Trolls World Tour‘s bland and recycled story accompanied with the weak characters make this adventure a bore.
Overall Grade: D+
MPAA Rating: PG for some mild rude humor
Cast: Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, Rachel Bloom, James Corden, Ron Funches, Kelly Clarkson, Anderson Paak, Sam Rockwell, George Clinton, Mary J. Blige, Kenan Thompson
Directed by: Walt Dohrn
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: April 10, 2020
Running Time: 91 minutes