Dir:Walt Dohrn
Starring (Voices): Justin Timberlake, Anna Kendrick, Eric Andre, Camila Cabello, Troye Sivan, Amy Schumer, Andrew Rannells, Zooey Deschanel, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Daveed Diggs, Ki Cudi, Zosia Mamet, Kenan Thompson
Beginning with a Coda some twenty years previous Troll boy band BroZone are pushed to the brink by the ambitious elder brother John Dory (Andre) to try and hit the as yet unattained perfect harmony. They fail spectactularly and split up acrimoniously. Only the youngest, Baby Branch (Timberlake) is left. Back in the present a now adult Baby Branch tries to hide his feelings for girlfriend Poppy (Kendrick) on the wedding day of Bergen couple Bridget and Gristle (Deschanel & Mintz-plasse). The events are interrupted by the arrival of John Dory who demands Branch join him in a quest to free sibling Floyd (Sivan) who has been imprisoned by a pair of untalented singers, Velvet and Veneer (Schumer and Rannells) who are sucking his talent to boost their own. The whole band must be reunited and some truths confronted on the way before they can reach their true potential.
There are a whole bunch of themes running around here with lost siblings, ‘Am I the only one here without a secret family?’ moans the annoying little Tiny Diamond who along with a bland set of diaper and dummy jokes pads out the odyssey. Poppy’s presumed dead sister Viva runs a resort which shuts itself off from the world (The Village) and there is a somewhat scary clown resort (It) and to be honest I lost count of the ideas taken from other films such as a ‘Yellow Submarine’ psychedelic sequence, but Velvet and Veneer and the decadence of their city is reminscent of the Hunger Games Panem. For the adults there are jokes about real life boy bands.
You don’t need to have seen the other Trolls films which will come as a relief to some. There are plenty of songs (all pretty good) and it is incredibly fast paced and colourful. The important question (no – not why does Poppy wear knitted pyjamas throughout) is will the target audience like it? To that is a resounding yes having watched a cinema load of little ones cheer their way through it. Accompanying adults should just stock up on false grins and go with the flow.
See the voiceovers taking place here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrFRofZJlOI