Summary
Is it possible for an animated film to unite the world in a time of crisis? Maybe not, but it certainly adds a little bit of joy while making some surprisingly salient commentary.
If nothing else, TROLLS WORLD TOUR has made history for the being one of the highest selling direct-to-digital titles as a response to Coronavirus social distancing practices.
It’s kind of a shame that the official history of this film will be forever associated with a deadly pandemic, although it’s plot of embracing diversity and coming together to face a virulent foe certainly has parallels with the real world events surrounding its release. (Mind you, it’s not got the worst association of a Troll sequel).
Taking place sometime after 2016s Trolls, Poppy (Anna Kendrick) is now adjusting to life as Queen while her pal Branch (Justin Timberlake) has an unrequited love thing happening. Yet Queen Barb (Rachel Bloom) of the Rock Trolls (well, 80s hair metal) wants to homogenise the music of all the realms, and Poppy’s misguided trust may undo their pop life forever.
I’ve never done hallucinogens, but watching this Trolls sequel I’m not entirely sure I ever need to. As the psychedelically coloured props ping from cut-out exposition stickers to the birth of a glitter baby and a dance sequence set to ‘Groove is in the Heart,’ it’s evident that the one desire of director Walt Dohrn was to create a psycho mashup remix trip.
Yet it somehow also deals deftly with tolerance, cultural appropriation and the tension between Gen X and millennials in one candy-coloured package. My initial apprehension was that rock was going to be portrayed as the easy-target enemy: it smacked of the reactionary anti-rock movements of a bygone era. That was quickly abated by some sharp observations about cross pollination of genres.
It’s evident that the film takes none of it too seriously, offering ‘Who Let the Dogs Out’ and ‘Gangnam Style’ as exemplars of the best pop has to offer. However, like many chart hits it’s clearly written by a team – in this case Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger (the Kung Fu Panda team), Elizabeth Tippet, Maya Forbes (Infinitely Polar Bear) and Wallace Wolodarsky (The Simpsons).
This leads to a massive tonal disparity between scenes, and the train-of-thought drug trip approach only gets it so far. Trying to have its cake and eat it too, dialogue and plot points are over-simplified and explained for younger audiences, indicative that TROLLS WORLD TOUR is a film that never had a specific audience in mind.
Still, it’s hard to be too critical of a film that is ultimately about tolerance. If any film was being beamed directly into our homes during a global crisis, it’s kind of fitting that it’s one that teaches us to recognise each other’s strengths and embrace community.
2020 | US | DIRECTOR: Walt Dohrn | WRITERS: Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger, Elizabeth Tippet, Maya Forbes, Wallace Wolodarsky | CAST: Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, Rachel Bloom, James Corden, Ron Funches, Kelly Clarkson, Anderson Paak, Sam Rockwell, George Clinton, Mary J. Blige | DISTRIBUTOR: Netflix | RUNNING TIME: 91 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 10 April 2020 (US Digital)
