The Trolls are the happiest creatures in the land. They sing, dance, hug and make scrapbooks. Their happiness is so infectious that they are hunted by creatures named the Bergens, who are very unhappy, who take the Trolls and… eat them, so they can feel their happiness for themselves. Yeah… weird, I know. This is a pretty morbid story sugar coated with bright colors, glitter, and music.
The main character of the movie is Poppy (voiced by Anna Kendrick), who is the happiest troll ever born and the princess of the troll village. Her father, the king, saved the Trolls from the Bergens 20 years ago and she grows up never knowing what being sad feels like and just lives life as a great, big, loud party. Living this way backfires as the Bergens find the village and take Poppy’s friends away to be eaten. Poppy has to recruit Branch (voiced by Justin Timberlake), to join her in rescuing her friends, even though he warned her this lifestyle would get them in trouble.
This movie has a lot of funny characters and great moments that happen throughout the adventure of Poppy and Branch. It is filled with a lot of things kids would love to watch over and over again and some adult jokes sprinkled in here and there to keep the parents interested, at least the first time they watch the film. Also, with a soundtrack exclusively produced by Justin Timberlake, the music in the movie is outstanding along with the characters performing their version of popular hits from today. The music in this film would probably be the highlight of the movie for me.
Other positives of the movie would be the animation, which is top notch. The team at Dreamworks Animation are really coming close to the quality we would expect to see in a Pixar movie with every title they have released lately. In addition to the visuals, the voice acting was very good as well. Besides Kendrick and Timberlake, there is a great supporting cast including Zooey Deschanel, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Russell Brand, Jeffrey Tambor and Gwen Stafani. Each brings their own sense of humor to their characters.
As far as the negatives, once you look past the visuals, actors, and music, you really are just left with a generic story that could have been used for any group of characters in any children’s animated motion picture. Even though this is a weirdly gruesome story at its core, it really is just a regular rescue mission story that we have seen so many times before. The bad guy comes to ruin the good time the protagonist is having, takes their friends and now they have to go save them. I was waiting to see something new like we have seen in Frozen, How To Train Your Dragon or even Rio, but this was just your average family movie.
Kids are going to love this movie of course and parents will enjoy certain scenes but there is just not enough originality to keep adults invested. The music and acting are excellent but the story holds this movie back.
Reel Talk gives Trolls 2.5 Reels
