Trolls Band Together | Review
Seven years have passed since DreamWorks introduced everyone to their revamped and musical take on the Good Luck Troll Dolls that roamed the toy shops off and on for over sixty years with 2016’s Trolls. Introducing a whole new generation of young cinemagoers to a colourful, scrapbook-aesthetic and pop-filled soundtrack, the feel-good hit spawned two television series, festive short films, and a pandemic-defying sequel, Trolls World Tour.
Just three years later, the third film saw a UK release this past Friday (with a November release to follow in the US) and Skwigly were invited to an early screening of Poppy and Branch’s latest adventure, with familiar faces tagging along and some new ones along the way. However, is Trolls Band Together able to deliver a beautiful melody or does it drop a heavy beat?
After crashing the wedding between Bergen’s King Gristle Jr and Bridget, Branch’s older brother John Dory convinces his younger sibling to team up with him in order to reunite their boyband, BroZone, and save one of their members and brother. Tagging along their rescue mission is Branch’s girlfriend – the always eccentric and happy-go-lucky Queen Poppy – and Tiny Diamond, who try to help the brothers overcome their past feud and become a family again.
With a 92-minute running time, there are far too many ideas, side stories, and characters that take the focus away from a main storyline that could have done with a lot more attention and given a chance to add more dimension to some of the characters involved. While it’s great to see some returning favourites, as well as some new additions to the vast cast of characters (such as Branch and Poppy’s siblings), they don’t get much time to grow or fit naturally into the story. Even the familiar cast members like Poppy and Tiny Diamond don’t impact the story, which is a shame as the previous titles made great use of them and the talented cast behind them. There are simply too many elements bouncing around that just don’t stick together.
While the over-crowded plot and large cast of colourful characters impact the overall film, the team of animators have continued to show off the broad styles, designs, and quality that have made the series so fondly cherished by its fans. From the moment it’s projected onto the screen, it’s hard not to be impressed by the attention to detail that certainly makes this a visual treat.
Despite the abundance of new characters negatively impacting the overall quality of the plot and what it’s trying to say, each one does stand out with their own unique mannerisms, style, and emotive expression that it’s a shame that they aren’t given as much screen time as they manage to stand out from an already diverse cast of characters. While not all of them feel like they would naturally fit into the world that the directors and writers have built, they do at least try to make them feel different.
The same can’t be said for the new landscapes produced for this film, but they at least try to do something different from them compared to those inspired by many musical genres in Trolls World Tour. From a sandy island surrounded by oceans made up of beads, to a neon city in cotton candy clouds, they’re at least lovely to look at, even if they may not be the most unique throughout the franchise.
Being a musical film series mixed with familiar and existing tracks, the music in Trolls Band Together won’t be everyone’s cup of tea as it’s very much made up of pop music that would have been heard in countless other films. While the other two films also featured iconic pop tracks, Trolls World Tour‘s inclusion and focus on other musical genres made it a more diverse and exciting soundtrack to listen to.
As for the new songs written exclusively for the film, they aren’t as catchy as the likes of Can’t Stop the Feeling and The Other Side. It does fit with the boyband theme of the film, but they aren’t as memorable compared to Justin Timberlake’s chart-topping hits from the previous entries.
Trolls Band Together may look as colourful and vibrant as the other films in the trilogy, but its bland and over-bloated narrative, unfortunately, makes this the weakest release in the series to date. Like a dropped box of arts and crafts on a canvas, it’s a beautiful mess that deserves better care and attention than it deserves.
Trolls Band Together is out in UK cinemas now.