The animated movie Trolls is based on the dolls of the same
name. It’s kind of an obscure product now,
but I’m old enough to remember how popular it was back in the day. In fact, when I first saw the initial teasers
for this film, I’m actually disappointed that the titular Trolls of this movie
don’t have the iconic look of the toys.
I thought the character design for the movie’s depiction of the Trolls
made them look like cheap Smurfs knockoffs.
Trolls is about a community of Trolls – tiny, colorful, extremely
jolly creatures who are constantly singing, dancing, and hugging – who is led
by their King Peppy (Jeffrey Tambor) to escape a life of being devoured by the
Bergen – ugly, ogre-like creatures who eat Trolls to feel happiness. Years later, King Peppy’s daughter, Princess
Poppy (Anna Kendrick), leads the Trolls in perpetual celebration of their
sappy, cheery, musical nature. However,
when a loud, bright Troll party leads the vengeful, banished Bergen Chef
(Christine Baranski) to find their location and capture her people, Poppy has
to seek the help of a gloomy, gray, survivalist Troll named Branch (Justin
Timberlake) to accompany her to Bergen Town to rescue the rest of the Trolls.
The movie annoyed me at first. It starts off in a predictable path; and I
found Poppy and her friends very irksome that I even kind of rooted for the
Bergen to eat them; and the utilization of past and present pop music gave the
movie more of a sense of artificiality about it rather than a sense of charm.
Thankfully, it eventually got
better. And I even see a kind of
“genius” in the whole thing.
Because everything about the
movie annoyed me, I gravitated towards the cynical Branch. Thus, the character began to reflect my mood
for the movie. I related to the
character. At the same time, as I related
to him, I also began to reflect his emotional journey in the narrative. As he developed gradually to becoming more
relaxed and optimistic, I also became so.
So when the time came that Branch finally embraced the bright, merry
nature of being a Troll, I had also somewhat embraced the movie for what it
is. By the time Justin Timberlake began
singing the opening lines of Phil Collin’s “True Colors”, I found organic satisfaction
– even a tinge of heartwarming goosebumps – from the sequence.
The story never strays from a
predictable path though. It doesn’t dare
to wander off from its simple, conventional “children’s story” blueprint. Every story beat and every resolution exactly
turn out as what’s anticipated. This hinders
it from being something more.
And, oh, the original toy look of
the Trolls which I preferred to see? It
had a cameo briefly and early in the movie.
Trolls didn’t quite win me over.
But it did convince me that it’s a colorful, musical adventure that, though is more effectively enjoyable to kids, is also reasonably fun for
adults.
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