Monday 7 September 2020

Trolls World Tour (2020) - Movie Review



Well, after being pleasantly surprised by the first Trolls movie back in 2016, I’m definitely going into this one with higher expectations. I mean, you promise me metal Trolls, you better deliver metal Trolls. There’s also where this production sits within the larger clusterfuck that is how the cinema industry has been adjusting (and, in some cases, failing to adjust) to lockdown conditions, given it became a bit of a line-in-the-sand situation between NBCUniversal and the American (and Chinese) owned chain of AMC Theatres. Basically, even before getting into the film proper, this is already something of a game changer for the industry. Not sure I can say the same about the content, but rest assured, this is still all kinds of worth checking out.

Maybe it’s because I’ve gotten more used to the pastel-on-blast aesthetic of the series (or maybe it’s because I’ve been watching quite a bit of Friendship Is Magic while in lockdown), but my eyes didn’t have nearly as much trouble with the visuals as I did last time. If anything, I’d say that this manages to outshine the original as far as visual spectacle.

The core premise about different styles of music clashing with each other gives some solid thematic ideas to the visuals, from the dusty cowboy town of Lonesome Flats that the Country Trolls call home, to the Afrofuturistic touches of the Funk Trolls and their spaceships, right down to the recurring lollipop palette of the initial Troll Village. It even gets psychedelic in places, whether it’s due to Smooth Jazz hypnosis or cotton-candy-cloud near-death experiences, and it’s all shown through some genuinely impressive felt-esque animation that gives everything a highly tactile feel; this thing looks amaze-balls.

While the music itself doesn’t reach the same level of ingenuity as the original as far as its needle drops, it makes up for that just through the sheer volume and breadth of styles shown here. Even though the main plot only isolates half a dozen different genres of music (Pop, Techno, Rock, Classical, Country and Funk), the music itself reaches even further into hip-hop, jazz, K-pop, even yodelling. And in the hands of our returning cast like Anna Kendrick, who’s made a career out of these kinds of genre mash-ups, and even Justin Timberlake managing to mix pop and country without completely embarrassing himself (*cough*Man Of The Woods*cough*), not to mention Rachel fucking Bloom as Queen Barb of the Rock Trolls, this thing also sounds amaze-balls.

But where the music really gains its resonance is in how it relates to the plot, which is essentially a kid-friendly look at the importance of diversity and acceptance of differences that, in contrast with the kid-gloves of the original, treats the topic with a commendable amount of maturity. For one, in the song It’s All Love, the statements made regarding pop music and how it homogenises other genres are pretty damn cutting, all without cutting into the film's larger intent. For another, Queen Barb’s main goal of uniting all the Trolls under one music is the most defener shit I’ve seen in a film, and the film itself knows it. And for a third, while it emphasises the need for unity and harmony, it flat-out refuses for that to come as a result of everyone becoming exactly the same as each other. Be proud of our differences, not insistent that we don’t have any; it’s hell of a lot smarter than some of the more well-meaning but unfortunately missing-the-point appeals to cultural unity out there. “I don’t see race”, anyone?

While there’s definitely an argument to be made that this film’s version of pop music (and, in turn, music as a whole) might be more optimistic than the actual face of pop music these days, that is an argument that ultimately buys into the same elitist ‘our music is so much better than whatever that is’ nonsense. As this stands, it’s a lot smoother than its predecessor in terms of pacing, and while the characters and story are a little thin, it’s all in service to the music being front and centre and the drive for the film’s main message. As far as music movies go, this is honestly one of the most engaging I’ve seen in a while, and the fact that its musical pedigree is a vehicle for its statements on why different styles of music and people are worth celebrating makes it ring that much truer to my ears.

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