Review of Trolls (2016) by Thequietgamer — 15 Jul 2017

Bright, colorful, energetic, and even sets a new high bar for animation quality. It's rambunctious and often zany sense of humor and plot brimming with optimism are enough to keep the movie going for both kids and adults alike even in the face of some fairly standard writing. I think they kind of messed up the message a bit. Their efforts to teach us that happiness is in all of us is a good choice for a time where depression runs rampant. The goof up occurs when the movie unintentionally(?) tells us that while happiness lives inside all of us, we need to be in a relationship in order to find it. Not exactly the best idea to tell kids true happiness comes from others so they better get to dating.

Things move at a mostly solid, but the fun dips off a bit when we are left to follow the "Bergen" characters around. I really didn't care for the Cinderella styled romance shoehorned in to extend the running time. Luckily that's only a small part of an otherwise enjoyable movie. The trolls are likable and even the musical numbers aren't bad. I would have preferred more original tunes and less covers, but whatever. I'm more than willing to look the other way thanks to the excellent use of The Sound of Silence. Much better than the Disturbed cover. Oh, and of course it's funny.

While it doesn't stand among the best of what DreamWorks has to offer, it still proves to be an enjoyable family movie. Much better than one would expect from a movie based on those ugly dolls that were so popular back in the 70's and 80's. The animation is better than that of even a Pixar feature and the laughs and charm carry viewers through it's less than desirable moments.

7.