Man does it feel good to watch a new movie. I’m tempted to say, “Who cares, watch this ’cause it’s new!” But that wouldn’t be right. Luckily Trolls World Tour is kinda cute. Which is great, because I’m pretty sure you’ll be watching it on constant repeat for the 48 hours your rental is available. At least you will be if you have little kids in your house.
In Trolls World Tour, Poppy (Anna Kendrick) discovers that there are six different troll tribes based on six different genres of music: Funk, Country, Techno, Classical, Pop, and Rock. Each tribe is the keeper of a magical string. Barb (Rachel Bloom), from the Rock tribe, wants to collect the six strings and add them to her guitar, playing a power cord to unite everyone into “One Nation Under Rock”.
When Poppy discovers that Barb wants to destroy all other genres of music rather than bringing the tribes together, she sets off with Branch (Justin Timberlake) and Biggie (James Corden) to save the other lands and bring harmony to trolls everywhere.
Barb claims that “pop has ruined everything” and curses its infectious earworm qualities. But in Trolls World Tour, pop music really has ruined everything. Poppy is forced to reckon with the fact that the pop trolls haven’t always been on the right side of history.
There are some heavy themes in Trolls World Tour. They’re taking on racism, cultural appropriation, assimilation, and colonialism. All with just the thinnest veneer of a musical genre overlay. That’s interesting in and of itself considering the music industry has its own troublesome history with racism and appropriation. You shouldn’t let those heavy themes scare you off from thinking this is kid’s fare. Everything is watered down with enough technicolor sweetness to make it totally palatable. Kinda like Zootipia, but not nearly as clever.
I don’t think anyone is too worried there won’t be a happy ending here. You know, being a kids movie and all that. Nothing is particularly scary or inappropriate for young viewers. If you need to throw the kids in front of this movie to get something done, you can. These are different times. Take advantage of this temporary distraction!
Both the film itself and the music within it end up being a little less satisfying than the original Trolls movie. That’s not to say this isn’t bright, colorful, and fun enough to keep you entertained for 90 minutes. And really, a little fresh entertainment is what we really need right now.
Trolls World Tour is available for digital rental now.
About Trolls World Tour
Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake return in an all-star sequel to DreamWorks Animation’s 2016 musical hit: Trolls World Tour. In an adventure that will take them well beyond what they’ve known before, Poppy (Kendrick) and Branch (Timberlake) discover that they are but one of six different Troll tribes scattered over six different lands and devoted to six different kinds of music: Funk, Country, Techno, Classical, Pop and Rock. Their world is about to get a lot bigger and a whole lot louder.
A member of hard-rock royalty, Queen Barb (Rachel Bloom), aided by her father King Thrash (Ozzy Osbourne), wants to destroy all other kinds of music to let rock reign supreme. With the fate of the world at stake, Poppy and Branch, along with their friends — Biggie (James Corden), Chenille (Caroline Hjelt), Satin (Aino Jawo), Cooper (Ron Funches) and Guy Diamond (Kunal Nayyar) — set out to visit all the other lands to unify the Trolls in harmony against Barb, who’s looking to upstage them all.