Review of Trolls World Tour (2020) by Chrismizerak — 15 Jul 2020

Universal's decision to release “Trolls World Tour” through streaming platforms as opposed to hitting theatres was probably for the best. It works for families because it still brings them together without having to worry about meeting a certain timely deadline and they don’t have to worry about accommodating other people’s needs.

And it works for me because if I went all the way to the theatre to see this, I’d consider it a waste of precious resources. Some viewers will be quick in calling me out for this blunt sentiment seeing that I didn’t bother catching up with the original.

But in a day and age where half of the new films that come out are follow-ups to prior works, I expect the industry to be less harsh on those who don’t have the time to catch up with the original flicks and find an ideal middle ground.

This is what I like to call the good sequel test, where a person who didn’t see the prior works can go into a new work cold and be invested in everything that is happening just fine with what the current film in question supplies.

“Captain America: The Winter Soldier” is an excellent example of this, even though I saw “The First Avenger” well in advance. And I hate to break it to you guys, but “Trolls World Tour” didn’t pass my aforementioned sequel test.

Even though the plot centers on an optimistic queen Troll, voiced by Anna Kendrick, and her cynical boyfriend troll, voiced by Justin Timberlake, trying to unite the various troll kingdoms within their world, all that’s really going down is just a bunch of reckless and meaningless noise to keep your kids distracted for a specific period of time.

In fact, much of this experience reminded me of watching those obnoxious “Pitch Perfect” movies, also starring Anna Kendrick, and “Trolls World Tour” is more or less another kid-friendly variation on that concept.

In other words, the film revolves around a generous number of renditions of popular songs, both old and new, without really tying into its paper-thin plot in the slightest. I don’t know if this is supposed to a musical in the veins of what we usually see Disney put out, but if it was, I couldn’t get into it to save my hide.

The film’s renditions of the songs they use wore out their welcome rather quickly. The animation is average at best, with some of the character designs (namely the country queen troll, as voiced by Kelly Clarkson) looking rather atrocious.

There wasn’t a single character that caught my eye in the least, save for the antagonist, voiced by Rachel Bloom, who tries to turn everything into rock and roll. And the reason for that frankly is because the actress has a fun time nailing down the aesthetic of a rock star.

Also, some of the commentary on the other genres of music she verbally disintegrates can be reasonably shared by yours truly. Similarly to how I felt about “Downhill”, all that I got out of “Trolls World Tour” was just around an hour and a half worth of nothing.

Putting aside the obvious message of celebrating diversity as opposed to making everything the same, which is always an important moral to get across in any medium, “Trolls World Tour” is one of those films that will immediately disappear from your consciousness within two days after you’ve first watched it.

There’s plenty of various things happening to make sure you’re paying attention to the TV screen. But at the end of the day, who cares? I originally was contemplating a 5/10 for the final verdict.

But considering how noisy yet empty the experience felt for me and how much I was cringing at the lame humor and obnoxious side characters, I decided to cave and settle on a merciless 4/10. For a film with the historical distinction it has, the value of renting “Trolls World Tour” for $20 at release is just not there.

In a day and age when animated features have become recognized as a legitimate art form, I feel that we still deserve better than this.