2020 Reviews – Trolls: World Tour

There are mermaid trolls! 😊 There are technicolour mermaid trolls!!

Yes, there are mermaid trolls, and as you’ll soon see, that’s about where my excitement for this movie peters out. Trolls: World Tour is directed by Walt Dohrn, and follows Queen Poppy (voiced by Anna Kendrick) and Branch (voiced by Justin Timberlake), after the discovery that there are many more trolls outside their village, who lean towards all types of music. Queen Barb (voiced by Rachel Bloom) is on the hunt to overrun the six main divisions of Troll Kingdom, unite the ancient magic music chords, and make rock and roll the only acceptable music for trolls. Poppy thinks she can befriend Barb, despite being warned by others that she is dangerous. Poppy and Branch, along with Biggie (voiced by James Corden), visit the other musical lands in a hope to get there before Queen Barb. The first Trolls movie came out in 2016, and although I didn’t love it, I did champion it’s felty animation design and integration of classic songs.

I understand the displacement people felt for Frozen II’s sudden expansion of worldly mythology, and Trolls: World Tour does it too, but it’s so much worse. I don’t mind that there are other factions of trolls, and that they all look different, and have their own style; in fact, that’s great. But why are they all scared of one another? And why has King Peppy kept this mystical history a secret? Why would you write this? How about, instead, our trolls are invited to a massive music festival, that celebrates diversity… because, you know, fun trolls are the good guys? But there’s one dirty troll – the rock troll, if you’d like – who can’t stand everyone being different, and wants to make them all sing the same tune. How about starting from a place of tolerance, instead of writing our heroes to be dumb, ignorant and bigoted? “Maybe they don’t know music is supposed to make you happy”, says Poppy, referring to country songs… There are happy country songs. There are sad pop songs too; ever heard ‘Lucky’ by Britney Spears, or ‘Stole’ by Kelly Rowland? Music makes you feel a whole range of emotions. And Poppy knows this, because she sang ‘The Sound of Silence’ and ‘True Colours’ in the first movie. And if Poppy and her friends are the pop trolls, then how is Tiny Diamond (voiced by Kenan Thompson) singing rap? Wasn’t there a techno party in the first movie as well? When the narrative flips it, to suggest that pop trolls were once the cause of disunity between trolls, it made more sense. Because that’s what pop does, yeah; it expands over every music genre and makes it more mainstream? But this premise is so silly to me, because there’s more than six genres of music anyway. Shouldn’t the K-Pop bounty hunter trolls be a division of the pop trolls as well?

Also, King Peppy was a hero in Trolls – he saved his trolls from the Bergens, kept them safe, and educated them about their history in captivity over twenty years. When the Bergens find them again, sadly, it is because he is much older that he can no longer leave ‘no troll left behind’, and Poppy takes over. This movie thinks it’s appropriate to have the old King be like ‘oh yeah, I didn’t tell you about your cousins, and be scared of them. Also, there’s a string you’re supposed to protect, you probably should know about.’ What a crock of laziness. I’m glad Jeffery Tambor didn’t return to voice King Peppy, sacrificed for a terrible plot.

I made the point, when watching the first Trolls movie, that the only main troll voiced by a black actor was the one that looked different than the other trolls. Even in 2016, I thought that was super shameful. But having that giraffe-looking troll, Cooper (voiced by Ron Funches), meant a sequel could expand its universe, and look for other trolls that look similar; like what the Smurfs did with Smurfette and Smurfs: The Lost Village. Trolls: World Tour addresses this, but makes it the C-plot at best; after the Rock Queen wanting to monotonise the world, and Poppy’s doubt about being a strong leader. Taking a detour to try to explain the plot again, it’s like the Trolls franchise overcorrected a politically-correct agenda, trying to make a real-world point about diversity, by putting music in boxes, when music is probably the most diverse thing on the planet. But this movie is so much better at providing a diverse cast. In fact, Kunal Nayyar of Indian heritage, is the voice of Guy Diamond in both movies anyway, so it’s not like different trolls have to be noticeably different anyway. I like that Kenan Thompson gets to voice the Tiny Diamond troll; I feel Thompson gets a lot of blue-collar roles, but this little fella has pizazz! If anything, these Trolls movies, should be showcasing Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake’s singing talent, like Frozen does for Idina Menzel, but Trolls: World Tour really doesn’t. I know that Trolls ended on an original number, ‘Can’t Stop the Feeling!’, but I’m not going to remember the finale of this movie the next day – I would have gone with a familiar medley like Pitch Perfect.

I like that Ozzy Osbourne agreed to voice the senior Rock troll. And the animation is super creative and crafty again, but it’s best if you don’t think about it. It’s like Noel Fielding of The Mighty Boosh had a hand in it, and for absurdity’s sake, I’m not surprised to learn that our director is credited with working on SpongeBob SquarePants. Anything goes in the troll’s world; there are cardboard tigers, inanimate objects can talk, some plants have mouths, and trolls can have long legs or fart glitter or lay eggs. This movie is a brightly coloured acid trip (I have never done acid, so what would I know?). Maybe watch Trolls: World Tour with the sound off.

And since the music was in the troll’s hearts the entire time, they didn’t really need the strings. So, the entire movie was a waste of time… I thought so too. Look, this could be one of those movies I would appreciate more if I came at it from a child’s perspective, since it is made for children after all, but I don’t condone feeding children garbage. The premise that our hero Trolls are bigoted from the outset, stereotyping music for all things, is garbage. I’m ashamed that diversity is a lesson we think still needs to be taught in 2020. I grew up with Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers and Captain Planet, where diversity was unspoken and already built in. The fact that we are different and should all be heard is a great message, but it’s realised in so many better places than Trolls: World Tour.

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