#MayaForbes | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

adamwatchesmovies · 4 years ago

Text

Trolls World Tour (2020)

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed 2016’s Trolls and was disappointed I wouldn’t get to see Trolls World Tour on a big screen surrounded by huge speakers. Having finally gotten around to watching it at home for the price of a rental, I’m glad I didn't pay full price.

Queen Poppy (Anna Kendrick) receives an invitation from Queen Barb (Rachel Bloom) of the Hard Rock Trolls. Unknown to the sweet and optimistic ruler of the Pop Trolls, the rockers are on a mission to destroy all genres of music - except for their own - by gathering the magical strings from each of the six Troll tribes: Pop, Funk, Classical, Techno, Country, and Rock. It’s only when Poppy and Branch (Justin Timberlake) are on their way that they realize something is amiss.

On the surface, Trolls World Tour is not all that dissimilar from its predecessor. It has the same eye-popping visuals for instance. Vibrant colors and the cotton-candy-meets-felt textures are everywhere. The hair, glitter, string, and stuffing make it unmistakable from any other Dreamworks picture. The way these elements are blended with the seemingly incompatible Rock, Country, Techno or Classical is inspired. Like before, more than one character is voiced by a real-life musician. Everyone from Kelly Clarkson to Ozzy Osbourne, with K-Pop group Red Velvet, J Balvin, and others featured via cameo roles.

What’s missing - for this fan - are several things. Firstly, the songs. This is more of a jukebox musical than the predecessor. The soundtrack is content bringing forth tried-and-true hits - the kind you’ve heard on the radio a thousand times - instead of taking chances with original creations. It’s not an inherently bad choice but so many of these tunes are there just to take up space. They rarely advance the plot or reflect the characters' emotions. Most of the time, these are just to establish that Poppy and Branch have landed in a new kingdom - as if the cowboy hats, leather jackets, and weird landscape weren’t enough of a hint.

Despite the vibrant colors and boundless energy of its characters, there was an underlayer of dark humor in the first movie. That’s all gone and replaced with humor of the random kind. There’s a lot of cheese mustaches and funny-sounding weirdos who show up. It’s great for kids with a short attention span. For anyone else, it’s like a mouthful of gumdrops: colorful and tasty but unfulfilling. After a few bites, you need something of real substance to prevent yourself from throwing up. Tiny blips hint at more in-depth material; a conversation between Poppy and the leaders of the Funk Trolls brings up a valid point about acknowledging our differences instead of paving over them and pretending they don’t exist but it’s so brief you’ll probably miss it.

Trolls World Tour begins with a clever and funny premise. It’s got plenty of well-produced (though not original) musical numbers and looks great. I considered the first a pleasant surprise. This is what I expected to see back then. It’s fine for the target audience and no one else. (November 22, 2020)

1 note · View note