Review: Trolls World Tour

This movie review is a long time in the making.

 

Ever since this was announced as the first major release to bypass theatrical releases and go straight to streaming services, Trolls: World Tour was immediately going to be the first of its kind to try and define the new normal once this pandemic first started.  And ever since that day, I was wondering if I should watch it.  And against my better judgement, I sat this one out.  I decided that I had better things to do with my life then just sit here and watch the sequel to a movie that I couldn’t stand the slightest bit when it first came out.  I mean I don’t have enough material to get my way through a review of freaking Trolls: World Tour….right?

Actually surprisingly I do.  This movie is a cash grab.  An absolute mail-in of a sequel to a movie that was fairly unoriginal in its own right.  The only reason this movie exists is to make money off of more merchandising sales because the Trolls brand is a guaranteed money maker for DreamWorks Animation and Universal Studios.  And yet…this movie is actually surprisingly mediocre.  Much better than the boring and dull original.  What can I say?  This movie is infectiously energetic.  I love the vibrant colors of this movie.  The animation flows surprisingly smoother in comparison to the original.  It at least tries to stick out.  And it is honestly much appreciated in comparison to some of the absolute mail-ins the animated studios have been shipping out this year (looking at you SpongeBob and SCOOB!).  It seems like they are at least trying a little more than normal.

Make no mistake though.  This movie is incredibly lazy.  To those of you who have seen the trailers and made the comparison already, you are correct.  This movie absolutely rips off the Infinity saga.  Pretty shamelessly might I add; but instead of having a mad titan trying to shape the universe with his vision, the antagonist troll just wants to be accepted amongst the rest of the trolls.  Each troll tribe only likes one genre of music and revolves their life around their respective music genres. 

Acceptance is actually the main theme of this movie that we should accept those who are of different backgrounds.  A very on the nose theme right now with the issues going on in the real world.  And a much appreciated theme for a kid’s film.  The children of the world need to learn more about acceptance and how important it is to shape for future generations.  So I admire any movie that is willing to teach this lesson, even if it is a freaking Trolls movie.

But despite this lesson, the story has no real flow towards it.  It’s super thin and I feel like a good third of the movie is only moved forward through soundtrack covers.  There are a good four decades of hits being covered by this voice cast and while some move the story forward, more often than not, it’s just there.  There for kids to sing along to and parents be like, “Oh yeah!  I know this song!”  It’s one thing for a song to be essential to the story, but it’s another thing entirely for it to just be covered for the sake of covering.  No matter how many pop singers and multi-talented actors/actresses can sing pleasantly well.  It feels like I’m watching the Alvin and the Chipmunks movies again with how many pop song covers there are that serve no purpose to the movie.

And look, I’m an adult.  I’m clearly not this movie’s target audience.  DreamWorks Animation has specifically stated in the past that they want to make this franchise specifically for kids.  I’m not in their age demo.  But even if I was a kid, I would be incredibly annoyed by one character in this movie in particular, the main character of this franchise Poppy.  She is an awful character.  And I’m not talking about how she is performed by Anna Kendrick.  It’s how she is written.  She is a very annoying character and constantly makes the wrong choice in this movie.  Every time.  Sometimes for the life lessons this movie is trying to teach.  Sometimes just to move the movie forward.  But even the other characters in this movie point out how each choice is the wrong choice every time.  And she still commits to making the bad choices.  One or two times, it’s fine.  But she makes at least five bad choices in this movie and it got more infuriating with each passing bad decision.  A movie’s protagonist should not be written to be this dumb and at times, egotistical. 

So yeah, that’s my analysis of the history making movie Trolls: World Tour.  It’s just another kids movie.  At least it tries a little more than the last few I reviewed and has good morals.  But it is only a movie to sell merchandise and continue to be profitable.  And one thing I’ll give this.  At least I didn’t sit in a theater with screaming kids to see it.  Imagine how much worse this would have been if that happened, right?

 

Final Grade: C-

 

….okay maybe not my best review, but I’ve been wanting to say at least something about this movie for a little while.  That even the slightest bit of effort can make your movie a little more salvageable whether it is aimed for kids or not.

Anyway, I know I’ve been doing more movie reviews than music reviews as of late.  Trying to decide what year-ends to do next retrospectively is playing a bit of a part in that.  I’m open to suggestions in the comments below.

I also have a couple more movie projects in the works.  Whether it be film reviews or another project I’m working on that’s a bit of a surprise.  Stay tuned there.  Otherwise, thank you all for reading as always.  More content coming soon.  Until then, stay safe out there and see you next time.