13. Trolls World Tour
I’m actually, at this point in my watch through of all these films in order, convinced that anyone who hates these Trolls movies only does so because the internet told them to and not because they’ve actually seen them.
I’ll admit, even I’m really shocked by how high I put this film. This is the second Trolls movie and the only real negative note I have about it is that I’m still not in love with the fact that it’s mostly a jukebox musical. I was getting really worried about my enjoyment of this one when it started. That did eventually change when Queen Barb (Rachel Bloom), the queen of Rock, stepped up to the plate and strummed her guitar.
Where as the first film had a plot that was more so about a real life-threatening danger to trolls in the form of incredibly sad, monstrous beings that ate them because they thought doing so would make them happy, this film’s plot is more abstract and it’s message far more poignant and unique then just “you can be happy if you try hard enough.”
No, this film talks about how everyone is different and how that’s actually a good thing. It talks about how uniting everyone under the same umbrella by trying to enforce the idea that we’re all the same is a bad thing actually because it closes our ears to the truth of what makes us unique. The idea that we would need to shut ourselves away from our differences or deny them in order to live in harmony is tantamount to saying that harmony can’t exist unless we abandon who we are and conform to being one thing and one thing only. True harmony is existing within the world as who you are and embracing the differences in styles and cultures all around you.
This lesson is taught to us through the adventure of our two main leads again, Poppy (Anna Kendrick) and Branch (Justin Timberlake). Poppy is on a journey to try and stop Queen Barb from stealing all the magical music strings from all the different Troll groups and uniting the world under just one music genre; rock. The strings used to belong to the Troll elders and are the source of their power over music.
On top of the six nations of music, those nations being Pop, Classical, Techno, Country, Funk, and Rock, what’s really appreciated is that there are other nations that don’t have a string that still have a part to play in the film. The bounty hunters that Barb hires to try and get Poppy’s string all represent Jazz, K-Pop, Reggaeton, and yodeling respectively. And they’re all great in their own way.
The familiar songs in this film are all sung and instrumented differently so that the vibe of how they originally were is changed to fit the movie and the characters singing them better. So that’s neat.
However, what’s even more appreciated is that there actually is a slew of original music in this film too… and it’s fucking phenomenal.
Not just the songs, both old and original, but in the way they’re used to get the message across. Because this film’s message is about more than just music but also it’s very much ABOUT the music and it’s using it to actually say something about the way the world works.
Born to Die is an original song that gets introduced to us through the Country Music Trolls. Branch, Poppy’s partner (and currently friend-zoned soon to be love interest) hears the incredibly sad music about how we’re all born to die and makes the comment about how life is sad sometimes so he kind of likes it. Poppy, being the queen of Pop now, comes from a village where the Trolls only sing happy, peppy, upbeat pop songs all about being happy and cheerful. When she comes across the Country Music people singing about sad stuff she assumes they don’t know that music is supposed to make you feel good, ignoring the fact that music is just supposed to make you FEEL. Period.
There’s an array of emotions that she’s just not embracing and it’s reflected in the way she acts throughout the film. She means well, sure, but the fact that she’s not listening is taken as a key reason as to why she’s wrong about the way she’s approaching the situation she’s in. It’s actually a REALLY good way of doing the whole “boy wants to confess to a girl that he likes her but can’t” plot point in the film.
Because Poppy’s problem is tied to the overall message of the film it makes her relationship with Branch also something that’s intrinsically tied to the message of the film too. It’s not just something that’s happening in the background, not connected to anything, like Kristoph’s inability to propose to Anna in Frozen 2. He just fucks off and sings a song with reindeer that goes nowhere for some reason and it’s funny thinking about it, honestly.
Probably the best example of this film using music to get across a shockingly mature theme and message is in the song It’s All Love. It’s another original song that’s hip-hop focused and it’s used to tell the story of what actually happened in the past that got the strings separated and given to their own nations. This is only the second thing in media I’ve seen where someone outright says “History is written by the winners”. The first time I heard that was in One Piece. I didn’t expect Trolls 2 to be the other one that used that real world concept to its advantage like this. It shocked the hell out of me.
Speaking of songs, while Born to Die and It’s All Love are great, my favorite track might actually be the Yodel Beat. It just sounds really, really fucking good. Go look that up and listen to it. It stood out like hell when it came up in the film and didn’t last anywhere near as long as it should have.
Trolls is a franchise that’s still very clearly geared more towards little, little kids but my word if this isn’t an extremely mature and well done film to have them watch.
No talking at the camera, no talking down to them, or anything like that. It’s a strong, mature, well-done message that gets across what it wants to with really strong motivation, heart, and love. It’s something that almost feels like a given when it comes to films with big budgets but this movie also looks really good too.
However, what’s even more worthy of note is how creative the visuals are. It’s not just CGI characters in CGI backgrounds. It utilizes 2D and different types of art styles ALL the time when appropriate. The world of the Trolls is also incredibly unique. Sand looks like glitter and in the Country Music area, the canyon looks like it’s made up of rolled up throw rugs, something I caught sight of while a chase was happening and couldn’t tear my eyes away from.
It may not be the most complicated thing ever when it comes to its structure but due to how poignant the message and its manner of getting it across is, it honestly just feels more like a work of art than anything. I sincerely mean that too. It kind of makes that one gripe I have about a lot of the songs being from the radio or oldie hits stand out as an extreme nitpick.
Maybe I’m a tad bias though since this was mostly only a problem for me when it came to the Pop Trolls. I was enjoying all the popular rock songs Barb was singing so… hey. Whatever, I guess.
I did not expect to feel this way about Trolls World Tour but I do.
It’s a good film and I want to see it again.
