In a midst of a quarantine, history happened for all of us folks. Universal had the opportunity to release many of their theatrical releases from their home. “Trolls: World Tour” was the main film that marked history as it was released on digital and on demand the same day it was originally going to hit theaters. I am very surprised to say that it did “stop the feeling” of what I thought of the underwhelming first installment. I gotta say. It is an improvement.
We continue to follow the happy and sometimes demented adventures of Poppy (Anna Kendrick) and Branch (Justin Timberlake). Poppy is starting to prove herself to be a successful queen while her friendship with Branch is starting to develop.
However, problems come to ensue in the Troll Kingdom when the Rock Trolls invade the Techno Trolls celebration. The reason being is because the Rock Trolls’ leader Barb (Rachel Bloom) is planning to destroy all kinds of music (Techno, Classical, Pop, Funk, and Country) except for her own genre, rock, by playing a power chord.
King Peppy (now voiced by Walt Dohrn instead of Jeffrey Tambor) teaches all of the Pop trolls what the tribes represent, and how each genre of music is powered by a magical string kept by the leader of each of their tribes.
Meanwhile, Poppy soon gets an invitation from Barb for all of the Trolls to unite their rock music, which probably might not appeal to her. To be the queen she wants to be, Poppy along with Branch prepare a hot air balloon to recruit all of the genre trolls, while the others like Biggie (James Corden) and Cooper (Ron Funches) find their own tribe of trolls. When arriving Poppy soon starts to question Barb about her tribe of music and they start to disagree if either hers or Barb’s is the best style of music.
Will music be saved?
Coming out of the first “Trolls” installment, I wasn’t the biggest fan of how it turned out. Sure. It had potential in the first 30-35 minutes of how jittery and demented it was, but it really kind of lost me with it’s execution of the Bergens and Russell Brand’s character Creek.
How could you not think Anna Kendrick’s voice was adorable, though?
“Trolls: World Tour” however is the “Trolls” movie I was expecting back when it came out in 2016, where it feels more fresh, demented, and (kind of) has a sense of maturity to it.
Of course this film can sometimes have little bumps in the road here and there.
The score by Theodore Shapiro can sometimes lack ambition, compared to Christophe Beck’s in the first where it felt like a musical symphony. It is somewhat forgettable, honestly.
Not to be surprised, Barb, to certain extent, does rip-off Thanos from both “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Endgame” with the “infinity gauntlet” scenario because she has to collect all of the strings (similar to Thanos’ infinity stones) to rule the world to stop all good. To be honest, I actually wasn’t thinking about both of those movies since it somewhat stays on it’s own merit.
Poppy can sometimes be an idiot with the “I have to be good since I am queen” attitude throughout the first 20 minutes, but you do care for her throughout.
I overall thought there were a lot of really good things that DreamWorks offered in “Trolls: World Tour”.
The soundtrack itself is a jam to listen to with stand-outs being the disco-heavy “The Other Side” by Justin Timberlake and SZA, “Don’t Slack” by Anderson Paak (who also voices a certain character in the film), and many covers pf songs that don’t include Rachel Bloom’s forgettable covers of “Crazy Train” and “Barracuda”. All of the above is better than “Can’t Stop the Feeling”.
The animation is next-generation BEAUTIFUL and completely destroys the animation style in the first. Each of the Troll music tribes look like a painting especially when it comes to the Techno tribe.
Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake once again have really good chemistry as both Poppy and Branch respectively. All of the new characters including Rachel Bloom as the antagonist Barb are also really good. Sam Rockwell and Jamie Dornan play new characters in the film that I will not give away.
Don’t forget about Mr. Dinkles of course.
What I really appreciate about “Trolls: World Tour” is that director Walt Dohrn delivers a strong message about inclusiveness and how it connects to each genre of music. I really appreciated his idea of how strings can affect their world of music like it is their human body. It developed such an effective emotional punch that it somewhat resonated with me.
“Trolls: World Tour” is an entertaining, joyful, and a much better installment than the first when during the ongoing quarantine, can be a film not only fans of the first can enjoy, but also both kids and adults can enjoy.
Grade: 7.5/10
