Trolls World Tour (2020)

The 'Trolls' franchise could have been another cheap brand name recognition film, like 'The Grinch' or the upcoming 'Scoob!', but when you have a team that cares about the project at every level, you end up with not only a fun kid's film, but one with a powerful message.
- Chris dos Santos

Read Chris' full article...
https://www.maketheswitch.com.au/article/review-trolls-world-tour-poppy-and-the-gang-are-back-and-rocking-harder-than-ever

"Thrash" and "Barb" have discovered thanks to "Poppy" and "Branch" that it's not just rock that makes the music world tick in Troll land. They are not impressed, and so set about on a unification drive that will eliminate just about everything from techno to pop so that it's just their favourite music that prevails. "Poppy" gets wind of their not so cunning plan and they decide that they need to galvanise all Trollkind to thwart this regal plan. This sequel is a bit bland but still offers some perfectly watchable fayre to plonk the kids in front of on the television. Otherwise it's all just a bit lazily disappointing with a few ballads and mediocre AOR tracks peppered throughout a soundtrack that turns a battle of the genres into more of a limp skirmish. The animation looks pretty fake from start to finish and though there is actually the semblance of a story here, the characterisations are undercooked leaving us with something remarkably sterile - despite it's vibrancy. I'm not really the demographic, but Dreamworks seem to be determined here to capitalise on the brand and an awkwardly delivered mixed message about equality and individualism rather than create something remotely memorable or that might resonate with the younger audience above whose heads most of this will probably wash.

<em>'Trolls World Tour'</em> is mostly what I expected the original film to be: an uninteresting story meshed with meh music. I, in fact, enjoyed the first flick, though this one I didn't. The all-troll story is a drop-off, who knew the Bergens were the glue that held this together?

It is practically a standalone sequel, the writers plucked this story right out of their, er, minds. That's not to say the plot is bad, it isn't, but it just didn't really hold my attention, the downgraded humour and less catchy music contributes. Character-wise, they give too much time to some.

James Corden and Ron Funches are given more prominent roles compared to last time out, but I'm too sure why; neither stood out to me and they are just as dull in this one, to be honest. Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake do, at least, still lead it and those two are solid.

None of the new cast members stood out in terms of who they portray, though of course their voices are well known. Sam Rockwell, Mary J. Blige, J Balvin and Ozzy Osbourne are some examples, though there are a fair number of familiar peeps scattered throughout.

I found 1 to be good, 2 to be not good. All eyes on 3, <em>'Trolls Band Together'</em>...