TROLLS BAND TOGETHER - Mark Reviews Movies

Trolls Band Together, Universal Pictures

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Review by Mark Dujsik | November 16, 2023

The charm of the Trolls, characters based on those ugly-cute dolls with tall neon hair, remains in Trolls Band Together, but as always, charm only gets one so far. This series, which has been a surprising creative success because of its previous two entries' dedication to a cheery tone and assemblage of eclectic soundtracks, appears to be running out of ideas with this third installment.

Even so, this sequel is sort of amusing, although the better jokes come from well-tread material for this series, and still possesses a catchy soundtrack, although this collection of re-arranged medleys of songs is a major step down after the genre-spanning soundtrack of the previous film. This one rests exclusively in the realm of pop music, which isn't inherently a bad thing. It's just disappointing—and beyond the music itself.

The second film in this series built an expanded world for the Trolls out of the idea that various tribes had different tastes in music. Bringing the soundtrack back to the movies' origin in pop also reflects how returning screenwriter Elizabeth Tippet (the only one returning from the previous installment's team of five writers) doesn't seem as interested in giving us much new within this world and for these characters.

This new tale does show some clever and self-referential promise near the start. We learn of the back story of Branch (voice of Justin Timberlake), who was once part of the most famous boy band in the Trolls' world. The group of brothers, called BroZone, broke up after a disastrous concert, where the singers failed to achieve a mystical kind of perfect harmony. That led Branch to basically go solo—not as a singer, of course, but in hiding from those Troll-eating Bergens after his grandmother was eaten by, well, those Troll-eating Bergens.

The joke, of course, is Timberlake's voicing of the role. Does his professional history need to be stated, or is everyone reading this review aware enough of Timberlake's own past with a famous 1990s boy band, before starting a successful solo musical career and branching into acting, to get the joke? If you didn't know, now you do, so maybe asking hypothetical questions is a worthwhile tactic. That the movie treats the real-life connection as the only joke for the setup (apart from a string of boy band-related puns and a late vocal cameo by—and Troll makeover of—the other members of Timberlake's former/current music act) is too bad, because the idea is funny.

Since all of the brothers are now estranged, Branch has kept his boy band past a secret from everyone, including his pseudo-girlfriend Poppy (voice of Anna Kendrick) and the rest of the Troll tribe who have taken him in as one of their own since the events of the first film. All of that emerges, though, when Floyd (voice of Troye Sivan), the brother with whom Branch was closest, sends him a letter.

Floyd has been abducted by the pop duo Velvet (voice of Amy Schumer) and Veneer (voice of Andrew Rannells), who are extracting the Troll's essence as a way to steal talent they don't naturally have. Those two singers, by the way, make up the most obvious stylistic departure in this entry, since they look like three-dimensional renderings of cartoon characters from the 1930s, with round heads and exaggerated features and thin, spindly limbs. Their appearance is a bit distracting, since it comes out of nowhere and doesn't quite fit the aesthetic of the rest of this world, but more distracting, perhaps, is how broad the two are as villains, trying to abduct the rest of BroZone.

The plot is a bit too broad, as well, with a reduced Poppy, Branch, and his oldest brother John Dory (voice of Eric André)—as well as that comedic secret weapon Kenan Thompson voicing Tiny Diamond, a baby Troll who's determined to be a big boy now—searching for the other members of BroZone to save Floyd. Some of the running jokes, such as the brothers' apathy toward John Dory and the pop duo's casual abuse of their crimpled-paper assistant Crimp (voice of Zosia Mamet), repeatedly land well enough, but the movie's decided lack of imagination keeps emerging, too.

For example, it has nothing for Bergen pals and newlyweds Bridget (voice of Zooey Deschanel) and Gristle (voice of Christopher Mintz-Plasse) to do, even though the movie keeps them around to do nothing. Poppy's envious of Branch for having a secret family, but when a Troll named Viva (voice of Camila Cabello) turns up with a very familiar manner, the script has to cut that development short, because it has so much else going on around it.

Some flashes of cheeky innovation pop up here and there from director Walt Dohrn (with co-director Tim Heitz), such as a "Hustle" button that turns the world into a smorgasbord of '70s art styles, but they feel limited compared to what we've seen this series is capable of doing. That's especially noticeable during the story's climactic concert/chase, with each element of the sequence distracting from the other.

The feel-good attitude of the characters and the accompanying music help quite a bit, but that's the minimum expectation for the series at this point. Too busy in plotting and too shallow in creativity, Trolls Band Together is a step down from its predecessors.

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