Movie Review: Trolls

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Grew on me in second half

Cons: Will really only appeal to kids

The Bottom Line:

Weird little movie

Will mostly appeal to kids

Adults will suffer

Weird Movie that Grew on Me

When I first saw the previews for Trolls, I wasn’t remotely interested.  It didn’t help that I never had a troll doll growing up.  Yet, when I found out the film did well enough to earn a sequel, I became a little curious.  I probably wouldn’t have watched it if I hadn’t stumbled across it on TV over Easter weekend.  It was…interesting.

We are quickly introduced to two different societies, the Trolls, who are always happy and loving, and the Bergens, who are anything but.  Their societies live side by side until one day when a Bergen eats a Troll and discovers that it makes him happy.  Suddenly, the Bergens have declared a national holiday around eating Trolls.  All that changes one day when the Trolls make a daring escape, setting up a new settlement far away.

All that is prologue.  Our story really starts 20 years later when Poppy (voiced by Anna Kendrick) is hosting a party to celebrate 20 years of freedom from the Bergens.  She ignoring the warnings about the party from Branch (Justin Timberlake), and the results are disastrous.  Suddenly, Poppy and Branch find themselves on a quest to rescue their friends.  Can they do it?

The opening backstory is disturbing, especially for an animated kid’s movie.  I almost turned it off in the first fifteen minutes.  It didn’t help that I had the plot pretty much figured out by that point.  You know I’m not necessarily against predictable movies if I’m having fun, but in this case I wasn’t.

Many animated movies are films that can be enjoyed by all ages.  This isn’t one of those films.  Despite the setup, this seems mostly aimed at little girls.  The singing and cuteness are over the top.  I’m not saying this is a criticism, but to explain that I am clearly in the wrong demographic for the film.  Once they get past the opening, I can see little girls enjoying this one.  I think boys will be turned off by the cuteness, although the Bergen and the ideas of the plot would most appeal to them.  But parents will want to leave the room when this one is on.  There won’t be anything to appeal to them.

However, as the movie went along, I found myself getting drawn in.  Yes, it was still ridiculous, but I wanted to see how it would all play out.  It helped that the action picked up as we got closer to the climax, and a sub-plot was introduced that I got interested in.

The voice cast is fine.  There are quite a few big names that leant their voices to the movie, including their singing voices.

The animation is very stylized, which makes sense because the movie is based on a plastic doll.  It works for the story and the characters.

Since I was curious about the movie, I’m not sorry I watched it.  I’m glad I watched it via TV and didn’t pay money for it.  As I said, I can see kids enjoying parts of Trolls, but adults are going to want to find something else to do.