Trolls World Tour – Trolls World Tour (2020)

Directed by: Walt Dohrn, David P. Smith | 90 minutes | animation, adventure | Dutch voice cast: Sharon Doorson, Buddy Vedder, Birgit Schuurman, Carlo Boszhard, Vajèn van den Bosch, Défano Holwijn, DJ Hardwell, Emma Heesters, Murth Mossel, Berget Lewis, Sarah Nauta, Julia Nauta | Original voice cast: Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, Rachel Bloom, James Corden, Ron Funches, Kelly Clarkson, Anderson .Paak, Sam Rockwell, George Clinton, Mary J. Blige, Kenan Thompson, Kunal Nayyar, Caroline Hjelt, Aino Jawo, J Balvin

‘Can’t Stop the Feeling’! Even if you haven’t seen the musical animated film ‘Trolls’ (2016), you will recognize and be able to roar along with the monster hit from that film that Justin Timberlake scored at the time. The trolls from the film are based on the toy dolls that the Dane Thomas Dam made for his own children in the late 1950s and which subsequently started a huge run. The youth of today also know the characters, even before DreamWorks came up with the animation film. ‘Trolls’ brought in about 350 million dollars and also proved to be an inexhaustible source of inspiration for all kinds of merchandise, so that there would be a second film was already certain. However, the release of ‘Trolls: World Tour’ (2020) was not exactly a favorable moment; Due to the corona pandemic, only a handful of cinemas in the US and Europe were open, so distributor Universal decided to release the film as a VOD at the same time as the modest theatrical release. Did this still cause controversy in April 2020, at the start of the corona pandemic; the rules and agreements in the film industry in this area have since been revised.

Just like in ‘Trolls’, music also plays a prominent role in the sequel. The peaceful forest dwellers inhabiting this film love music, dancing and cuddling. ‘Trolls: World Tour’ starts where the previous film left off. Ever since she rescued her family and friends from the evil Bergens who threatened to devour all Trolls, cheerful young Poppy (voice of Anna Kendrick) has been the queen of her people. When making important decisions, she always consults her best friends Branch (Justin Timberlake) and Biggie (James Corden). But her father and predecessor Peppy (Walt Dohrn, also director) did not tell her everything. For example, he has kept quiet that there are not one but six major Troll tribes in the world, and each tribe represents a different genre of music. Then Poppy receives an invitation from one Queen Barb (Rachel Bloom), who asks her to join her ‘One Nation Under Rock’ world concert tour. That sounds more fun than it is, because Barb’s nefarious plan is to force all Trolls to recognize hard rock as the only legitimate music genre. Poppy doesn’t believe it, but decides to investigate anyway and gets in a colorful hot air balloon with Branch and Biggie to visit the other Troll worlds and warn the inhabitants there about Queen Barb and her evil plan.

What is so charming about ‘Trolls: World Tour’ is that the young target group is introduced to diversity and different types of music in a playful way. In addition to the bubblegum pop of Poppy and co and the rock music of Barb, there are Trolls who love classical music, funk, techno and country. Reggaeton, hip-hop, jazz, K-Pop and yodeling are also featured. So many people, so many flavours; You can’t point this out to kids early enough. In addition, it also becomes clear that you can stand up for what you find beautiful, there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. The ‘threat’ in this film is therefore a lot less urgent or compelling than that in the first film. The musical intermezzos really brighten things up – and it was such a crazy situation with all those bright colours, glitter, hearts and flowers. The makers have gathered an interesting and surprising company to provide voices for all these new characters. For example, the country folk is represented by Kelly Clarkson and in the funk world we can enjoy the unmistakable talents of Anderson.Paak, Mary J. Blige and none other than ‘The King of Funk’, George Clinton. Other voices featured include Sam Rockwell, Jamie Dornan, Kunal Nayyar, Kenan Thompson and Ozzy Osbourne.

With no fewer than five screenwriters on board, it’s not surprising that the events are more of a patchwork of musical delights against an iridescent backdrop than a gripping and intriguing story, but thanks to the talented voice cast, the film gets away with it. If you liked the first ‘Trolls’ movie, you will undoubtedly like ‘Trolls: World Tour’ too. You have to be able to cope with the profusion of candy pink, canary yellow and fluorescent green, as well as the incessant trio of musical intermezzos. However, it is precisely the music that keeps this animation film going; the Trolls know better than anyone how to experience and celebrate music. The fact that we cannot experience live concerts and musicals due to the corona pandemic is extra hard. Fortunately, there are musical films. Not that ‘Trolls: World Tour’ will make the year-end lists, but the cheerful message of diversity, tolerance and unity is certainly of positive value for children.