Well, in-between our obsession with comic book heroes and
bitching about mostly female casts in movies, we seem to have to tumbled all
the way back into the 80’s. How else do you explain the number of doll/action
figure movies we’ve gotten this year? What’s more, we seem to have latched onto
the 80’s anything-counts-as-inspiration mindset without really taking the time
and effort to properly incorporate them into something them young people today
would like. Case in point, Jem And The Holograms, which was about as jarringly
anachronistic as it gets without any bloody reason for it. Then we have today’s
subject… and if the sight of twerking trolls from the advertising didn’t turn
your stomach, then quite frankly, I need whatever industrial-strength medication
you’re on because I could certainly use it. So, yeah, I’m not expecting
anything good from this. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Please
prove me wrong.
The plot: The Trolls, a happy-go-lucky society of dancing
and singing creatures, are suddenly under attack by the giant Bergens, who plan
to eat them in order to feel happiness. When several of the Trolls are snatched
up by the Bergen Chef (Christine Baranski), Princess Poppy (Anna Kendrick) and
the disgruntled and isolated Branch (Justin Timberlake) have to work together
in order to rescue them and, possibly, find a way to stop the Bergen tradition
of Trollstice.
The cast here is really well chosen, save for one seriously
bass-akwards decision. Why have the most decorated singer in your movie jukebox
musical be the one whose main character trait is that he doesn’t sing?! Well, at least for the bulk of the film, but my
word, this is not starting out well. Outside of JT, we have Kendrick who fits
in perfectly within both her character and the songs she’s given along with
James Corden, Jeffrey Tambor, Gwen Stefani… who, from what I recall, doesn’t
have any lines, Quvenzhané Wallis, Russell Brand among many others to fill out
the Trolls, all of whom do fairly well in their roles. The Bergens are equally
star-studded, featuring John Cleese, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Zooey
Deschanel. Not entirely sure how likely it is you’ll individually recognise
most of them, but since nothing here is immediately painful to the ears, it
gets the general clearance.
One of the Trolls, played by one of the numbnuts from The
Big Bang Theory, has a running gag about literally shitting out sparkles. That
about sums up the visual aesthetic of the film as it is overflowing with
colour. It’s constantly bright and pastel, making the scenery of the Bergen
village look that much better by comparison, and I don’t really have any other
descriptor for it besides sickeningly sugary. But I’m willing to chalk that up
to just my own sensibilities because, despite its post-Rainbow Challenge colour
palette, it’s actually well-detailed along those lines. Everything that isn’t
the Bergen village has this felt-like texture to it, kind of like the emotions
in Inside Out only applied to everything around them. It actually makes the
iconic hairstyles of the Trolls themselves feel a lot more normalised when you
take into account just how much fluffiness is going on around them. That is,
when they aren’t warding the creatures that dwell between their village and the
Bergens, in easily the funniest example of the food chain that I’ve seen since the
early days of The Simpsons. So, yeah, it may turn my stomach a little but,
objectively, the visuals and animation are actually really well-done.
Since this is a musical, and it’s been way too long since I
last commented on a movie’s soundtrack, let’s get into the song choices here…
and wow, these are actually really good. They may not be quite up to par with
Point Grey’s consistent levels of genius, but not only are they well-performed
by the cast but also written rather deftly into the overall story. Starting out
with a Pitch Perfect-tier mashup, which Kendrick pulls off as well as her
experience would have us expect, it follows that same path of not going for the
obvious contemporary song picks. When Deschanel’s scullery maid Bridget sings
Hello, it’s the Lionel Richie one not Adele and the fact that she not only
absolutely nails that song but manages to make it into a returning gag that is
actually pretty damn funny is nothing short of amazing. I don’t care how
nostalgia has rendered it, that song is terrible but made into something
genuinely good here.
Add to that a properly smart-arse iteration of The Sound Of Silence, an incredibly cheesy but still resonant rendition of True Colors, and of course the too-funky-for-its-own-good Can’t Stop The Feeling and the soundtrack here is solid. And yet, it’s not even the fun-loving Trolls that end up contributing the best music moments; instead, it’s the continuously depressed Bergens. Aside from the aforementioned salvaging of Hello, and easily the most perfect use of Gorillaz’ Clint Eastwood, that insanely catchy chant that introduces them is somehow even more of an earworm than Can’t Stop The Feeling. It’s like Strange Magic all over again, except it doesn’t feel like this film is forcing anything when it comes to its sound.
Add to that a properly smart-arse iteration of The Sound Of Silence, an incredibly cheesy but still resonant rendition of True Colors, and of course the too-funky-for-its-own-good Can’t Stop The Feeling and the soundtrack here is solid. And yet, it’s not even the fun-loving Trolls that end up contributing the best music moments; instead, it’s the continuously depressed Bergens. Aside from the aforementioned salvaging of Hello, and easily the most perfect use of Gorillaz’ Clint Eastwood, that insanely catchy chant that introduces them is somehow even more of an earworm than Can’t Stop The Feeling. It’s like Strange Magic all over again, except it doesn’t feel like this film is forcing anything when it comes to its sound.
Time to talk about the actual meat and potatoes of the
story, which means addressing the elephant in the room. We have a film called
Trolls, about literal trolls, who are fighting against creatures that only feel good when they are abusing others.
Anyone who has spent any amount of time on the Internet will realize that this
is another bass-ackwards touch that honestly doesn’t make sense on the surface.
And speaking of surface, for a film all about feeling happy, it is actually
rather deceptive on how it handles that core emotion. It may be somewhat
simplified, especially when it flat-out recreates Cinderella as part of Bridget’s
character arc, but what it lacks in nuance, it more than makes up for in poignancy.
I mean, we have a character here who is more than willing to sacrifice its life for its friends, all because those same friends showed it what true happiness feels like and, now that the character has experienced it, it can die fulfilled. Holy. Shitballs. I don’t even feel right saying this but, seriously, this film has no right being this emotional. Hell, beyond the individual moments, this whole film can basically be boiled down to “don’t worry, just dance and be happy” and considering the music here is genuinely good, I can’t really argue with that. Hell, there’s even a slight bit of subtext involving the idea of people literally eating themselves happy which, considering how badly eating disorders have been misrepresented in the media since… well, ever, I’m counting that as another point in the film’s favour.
I mean, we have a character here who is more than willing to sacrifice its life for its friends, all because those same friends showed it what true happiness feels like and, now that the character has experienced it, it can die fulfilled. Holy. Shitballs. I don’t even feel right saying this but, seriously, this film has no right being this emotional. Hell, beyond the individual moments, this whole film can basically be boiled down to “don’t worry, just dance and be happy” and considering the music here is genuinely good, I can’t really argue with that. Hell, there’s even a slight bit of subtext involving the idea of people literally eating themselves happy which, considering how badly eating disorders have been misrepresented in the media since… well, ever, I’m counting that as another point in the film’s favour.
All in all, for a film that offered literally nothing of
merit in its lead-up to release, this is an astoundingly decent watch. The
acting is solid, the singing is just as good which delivers the optimal use of
both original and licensed songs, the design aesthetic may be diabetic-inducing
but at least it’s well constructed and the writing, while simple in terms of
its breadth of themes, certainly knows how to deliver on those themes in ways I
never could have expected.
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