Trolls Band Together
The Trolls are back for a third outing with even more puns, songs and potential top-selling gonk dolls.
Nothing succeeds like success, but the Trolls phenomenon is an odd one. Surely brand recognition can only take you so far. The shock-haired dolls were a craze back in the early 1960s, and were briefly resurrected in the 1990s, so the success of the 2016 cartoon took a lot of pundits by surprise. What an absurd idea to base a film on a toy… However, DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls proved a surprisingly effective mix of popular songs, generous dynamism and a certain grown-up wit. But the third time of asking proves more formula than fun, with even more outlandish characters (think: more toys!) and a jukebox of rockalong pop classics. The theme this time is boy bands and the puns come thick and fast (“We're out of sync. We've gone from boys to men, and now there's only one direction for us to go: the back streets!”). Ow.
For what it’s worth, the story digs up the secret past of Branch (Justin Timberlake), who apparently used to be a member of a boy band comprising four brothers he has never seen since. Not only that, but BroZone were the idols of Branch’s bestie, Poppy (Anna Kendrick). Who would have thunk it? Branch was the baby of the group – think Jimmy Osmond – and after they wrecked a concert for failing to find their magic “perfect family harmony”, they broke up and went their separate ways. In the interim, a sister-brother act called Velvet and Veneer (Amy Schumer and Andrew Rannells) have usurped the popularity of BroZone, but only by harnessing the talent of Branch’s brother Floyd (Troye Sivan) who they have kidnapped and keep trapped in a diamond cell. And you know diamond. The only way to break those prison walls is by attaining that “perfect family harmony” – like an aria shattering a wine glass.
Besides the band boy thing, there are other themes – the importance of family, togetherness and the shallowness of celebrity – but for the most part it’s a scattershot affair, with any excuse for a song or a quip thrown into the blender. The high level of animation remains (that is, if you’re into computer-generated fabric texture) and the vocalisations are ace (Kenan Thompson is terrific as a month-old baby Troll determined to put his past behind him). It helps, too, that Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake are such accomplished singers in their own right, while none other than NSYNC provide the lead single ‘Better Place’, the band’s first release in twenty years (that’s quite the coup). Even so, the saccharine overload of candy placement, garish colours and pop gets pretty sickly. After a while, it feels like one has got trapped on MTV, but with Trolls.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Voices of Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, Eric André, Kid Cudi, Daveed Diggs, Andrew Rannells, Amy Schumer, Troye Sivan, Kenan Thompson, Camila Cabello, Zooey Deschanel, Zosia Mamet, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, RuPaul, Walt Dohrn.
Dir Walt Dohrn, Pro Gina Shay, Screenplay Elizabeth Tippet, Pro Des Ruben Perez, Ed Nick Fletcher, Music Theodore Shapiro, Sound Paul Hackner and Peter D. Lago.
DreamWorks Animation-Universal Pictures.
91 mins. 2023. UK Rel: 20 October 2023. US Rel: 17 November 2023. Cert. U.
