Review of Trolls (2016) by James K — 18 Nov 2016

What happens when you take a toy meant for kids, and just splash a huge rainbow all over it? That, my friends, is "Trolls", the latest animated film from DreamWorks. And the result is a visual masterpiece, but with a story that seems to get caught in confusion. This movie isn't terrible, by all means; there are a wide variety of issues that are present. "Trolls" is a decent movie for kids, and that's pretty much all I can say about that.

The story involves trolls, little creatures that are hunted by beings known as Bergen, evil creatures who want to eat trolls in order to become happy. Some trolls get captured, and it's up to two trolls to go and rescue them. Now, the trolls, named Poppy (Anna Kendrick) and Branch (Justin Timberlake), must learn to get along with each other, if they want to save their friends.

"Tolls" is a relatively harmless movie that is targeted for kids to enjoy. The animation plays a huge role in this. Mostly because everything is bright and colorful, and everything has a nice charm to it. The designs of the characters do look interesting, and even though they do not fully resemble their toy counterparts, the trolls do display some sort of personality with their bright colors. Plus, the environment looks like it was taken from a children's book, and transformed onto the big screen. On top of this, both Kendrick and Timberlake do give out admirable performances, along with the rest of the cast. And the message of the film: being happy whether or not you feel like it, is a good moral to teach children. Plus, there's a nice tonal balance between comedy and drama, especially near the end of the movie.

But, that's not to say there are problems with the film. First, and foremost, the pacing of this movie is ridiculous. More specifically, it is fast; almost, too fast. Everything happens rather quickly, giving the audience not enough time to fully understand what's going on. This can be attributed to the story, which, is nice for kids, can be lost in a bit of both confusion and predictability. In fact, the third act basically rips off the story of Cinderella, and loses interest in the trolls. Another issue is that the main villain really doesn't have a motivation other than being the bad guy, with a sinister scheme thrown in to the mix.

The biggest issue, however, is the soundtrack to the film. While the musical score by Christophe Beck isn't bad, per se, it's the songs that are used in the movie that kind of raise an eyebrow. The songs featured are mostly covers, which are okay, and give the move a 1970s vibe to it, but some of the song selections fell out of place. For instance, "Sound of Silence" and "Clint Eastwood" are used when compared to songs like "I'm Coming Out" and "September" are also included. If the movie included more original compositions, then it would have been fine. But as it stands, this is another jukebox musical.

In conclusion, "Trolls" is nice and appealing to kids, but to adults, they might get some enjoyment out of this, but don't expect much.