I did promise a palette cleanser after my Triangle Review of Shadow Warrior, but I can't guarantee that you won't need a palette cleanser from this palette cleanser. Because this has a lot of glitter in it.
It's Trolls! The revival of the media universe centred around the toy dolls with the big hair.
I did promise a palette cleanser after my Triangle Review of Shadow Warrior, but I can't guarantee that you won't need a palette cleanser from this palette cleanser. Because this has a lot of glitter in it.
It's Trolls! The revival of the media universe centred around the toy dolls with the big hair.
My History / of big hair
I am moderately sure that I played a shareware version of the 1993 Trolls game, and that we had a Troll among the miscellaneous toys growing up, but it was never a thing for me even though I grew up right in the middle of its 90s revival (the troll dolls originally stemming from the 60s, because everything is cyclical).
So, when the film revival got announced I was equal parts disinterested and jaded. Not necessarily because I disliked Trolls, but rather because there appeared to be a new revival of an 80s or 90s thing every week and the then-recent-ish Smurfs reboot had looked dreadful.
My first encounter with the rebooted Trolls universe was actually the small victory lap they produced right afterwards, the 30 minute Trolls Holiday tv special. Which is set after the film, completely spoils the finale and is a sweet standalone story about introducing people to different holidays. More importantly, it was on Netflix, it was short, and it looked cheerful.
Sufficiently cheerful to give the full film a try, even.
Plot summary / Poppy Goes West
The Trolls live an idyllic life except for the scary monsters called Bergen that live nearby and ritually eat them once a year. Scary monsters is a bit of an overstatement, they're just less colourful and have crooked teeth, but it's easy for the trolls to see them as monsters since they're ~20x their size.
In the run-up to this year's Trollstice (the Troll-eating holiday) the Troll village is raided and almost the entire village is troll-napped. So now it's up to pink protagonist Princess Poppy and grouchy opposite and non-standardly-gloomy Branch to mount a rescue.
Does it go anywhere unexpected? Not really except for the Cinderella homages.
Are we getting songs along the way? You bet we are!
Corner 1: Adventure 7.5/10 / "Will you go to Bergen Town with me and save everyone?"
- 🚀 A high-stakes rescue mission in unknown terrain!
- 🚀 Which is basically a giant's castle to them!
- 🚀 The rescue party is a colourful bunch, also literally.
- 📋 - but most of the characters that aren't the core two are pretty one note, except literally.
- 🚀 A high-stakes rescue mission in unknown terrain!
- 🚀 Which is basically a giant's castle to them!
- 🚀 The rescue party is a colourful bunch, also literally.
- 📋 - but most of the characters that aren't the core two are pretty one note, except literally.
Corner 2: Smart 6/10 / "Okay. That's not a plan. That's a wish list."
- 💤 So... the plan is to appeal to the Bergen's humanity? What would their backup have been? Run away again?
- 💤 There is a plot twist involving a sudden betrayal that is both barely telegraphed and lazy.
- 💡 The art direction and choreography departments had an absolute blast, and it shows in the meticulousness and attention to detail.
- 💤 So... the plan is to appeal to the Bergen's humanity? What would their backup have been? Run away again?
- 💤 There is a plot twist involving a sudden betrayal that is both barely telegraphed and lazy.
- 💡 The art direction and choreography departments had an absolute blast, and it shows in the meticulousness and attention to detail.
Corner 3: Heart 7/10 / "I think I had a sarcasm once."
- 💖 Poppy is eternally and always cheerful and happy (without it literally being what defines her. *glares at Inside Out again*).
- 💖 - until she isn't, which lends all the more weight to her predicament.
- 💖 - which she is then saved from with a song!
- 💔 - from Justin Timberlake's character.
- 💔 On some level this is probably still about selling toys and merchandise .
- 💖 - but it's not really getting in the way.
- 💖 Feelgood feels good.
Those are actually slightly higher scores than I was expecting. Sure, I was a bit lenient on the Smart corner but it wasn't really going for something clever. And sometimes just having something bright and cheerful for 92 minutes is enough.
As for the score...
- 💖 Poppy is eternally and always cheerful and happy (without it literally being what defines her. *glares at Inside Out again*).
- 💖 - until she isn't, which lends all the more weight to her predicament.
- 💖 - which she is then saved from with a song!
- 💔 - from Justin Timberlake's character.
- 💔 On some level this is probably still about selling toys and merchandise .
- 💖 - but it's not really getting in the way.
- 💖 Feelgood feels good.
Those are actually slightly higher scores than I was expecting. Sure, I was a bit lenient on the Smart corner but it wasn't really going for something clever. And sometimes just having something bright and cheerful for 92 minutes is enough.
As for the score...
60.41
Yep, that's a solid score. Really quite solid compared to quite a few other films I really liked. I guess they needed more glitter.
Enough childish nonsense though, it's time to review a cinematic classic, a semi-biographical war-epic that... I didn't like that much.
Enough childish nonsense though, it's time to review a cinematic classic, a semi-biographical war-epic that... I didn't like that much.
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