Summary: When the Queen of the Hard Rock Trolls tries to take over all the Troll kingdoms, Queen Poppy and her friends try different ways to save all the Trolls.
Check out my Trolls review here.
Pros:
Cast and Characters. There are a lot of characters in this movie buuuut I am not going to go into all of them. Just the three main characters: Poppy, Branch and Barb.
- Anna Kendrick as Queen Poppy. Poppy is sweet and optimistic Queen of the Pop Trolls after the events of the first film. She’s aggressively optimistic and will do whatever it takes to complete whatever she puts her mind to it. Which she does in this one particularly. She is also naive to the point of stupidity and this makes a legit opportunity of an arc for her (I will get into this later). She loves music and will use it whenever she can. I think Anna Kendrick is a great voice for this character because she has that voice that comes off a little annoying but sweet and fun to listen to. Plus, I enjoy her singing. I think she and JT have really great chemistry even though it’s just their voices lol.
- Justin Timberlake as Branch. I love Branch, he’s probably my favorite character in this and in the first one. He’s an over-cautious but good-hearted survivalist Pop Troll and Poppy’s best friend. He thinks things through, sometimes a little too much as was his problem in the first movie but we know he’s probably right in why he does this lol. He’s basically the wise angel on Poppy’s shoulder and she should listen to him more. Whenever others are talking about Poppy’s flaws, he basically takes up for her because she’s his best friend and other things. I like that he’s like loyal to no fault, but there is a fault as happens later. While Branch is more open and loves music compared to what he was like in the first film, he’s still cautious but also quick on his toes when he needs to. JT is great as Branch, his singing is great, but I also like his delivery.
- Rachel Bloom as Queen Barb. She is the energetic Queen of the Hard Rock Trolls. I quite liked her. She is very similar to Poppy but on the other side of the coin. She’s loud, aggressive and she wants to take all the music strings to unite them and make all the trolls Rock Trolls. She blames a certain genre for their separation and basically makes them the villain of the story even though what she’s doing is also villainy. Rachel Bloom’s voice for Barb is great, it’s the usual gruff voice we hear for rocker type of characters, but she makes Barb likable too. I can’t remember if she really sings in the movie but I know Rachel Bloom has a nice voice and if she didn’t sing (if she did, I don’t remember so that should tell you something) so I wish she did lol.
Supporting Characters. I am going to shout out the following people for their work on this movie. The singing was great and I loved how they encapsulate their characters through their voices. There are a ton more but I just wanted to pull out the ones I remembered lol. James Corden as Biggie. Ron Funches as Cooper. Anderson Paak as Prince D. George Clinton as King Quincy. Mary J. Blige as Queen Essence. Kelly Clarkson as Delta Dawn. Sam Rockwell as Hickory. Anthony Ramos as King Trollex.
The Background/The Story. So, I’ll mention this again later, but I liked the backstory of the different kinds of trolls. Obviously, in the first movie, it seemed like trolls were just trolls and not separated by music genre but in this one, there were different ones. Techno, Classical, Funk, Country, Rock and Pop. Then something happens and chaos ensues. It made them separate. You learn this right at the beginning, it’s pretty cool. I liked it. It’s not what they established before but it’s interesting. Now, the Rock Trolls are trying to get all the strings so they can unite the troll world under one sound… Rock. It’s an interesting ride to say the least.
The Music Worlds/Types. So, we meet the Techno world first and I love how they’re Trolls with fins lol and they’re under water. I would like to know how that happened since they lived in unity before but it’s fine. I liked it. We then of course go back to the Pop troll’s world and we’ve seen their world before. Then we meet the Classical world and it’s in disarray so we don’t really get to see it other than they can fly, so it looks like it’s in the clouds. We meet the Country trolls and it’s very much a western like town and they’re horses, and the music Delta Dawn sings is kind of sad lol. It was great. The Funk world was super cool, they’re like four legged trolls and in ways, it already had an evolution into Hip-Hop with the Prince. Lastly, we see the Rock trolls and it’s just like you think, a volcano, dark and loud lol. I thought it was cute and each world had a distinct look and each leader was easy to see and recognize. We also meet other trolls: Jazz, K-pop, Yodeling and Reggae. I loved those. Loved it lol.
The Design of the Trolls World. So, right along with the above point, I really paid more attention to the actual creation/design of the movie. I noticed when the Jazz troll fell into the water and the water looked like paper when it swallowed him. Or when they were on the beach, the water edge that met the sand looked like patchwork stitched to the land. It was so cool. I really appreciate how Trolls looks like a scrapbook world with glitter, felt and paper and all of that. Super creative!
Okay Y’all Deep. So, I remember when I started to realize what the message of the movie was, I went “oh, okay, y’all deep.” I think the message is quite relevant to our world today. So, one of the lessons Poppy must learn and what Barb must learn, is that everyone shouldn’t look and sound the same because that’s not true harmony. People should be able to love what they love, whether it’s music or whatever and be celebrated for it. I was like, oh okay, I see what y’all are doing here. I liked that. Everyone must learn this, I mean everyone, during the climax of the film.
Cons:
Poppy! When I tell you, I wanted to open palm slap her in this movie. I mean, right in the first 30 minutes of this movie I was already over her. She does not listen! It was often mentioned that she hears what she wants to hear and goes off that which is so true. She also does not learn her lesson by the end. She learns a lesson but not the lesson she probably should have learned. I don’t think she really learned that she needs to slow down and pay attention to what people are telling her. Especially since she kind of had to learn that in the first movie too. So, clearly Poppy keeps repeating the same lessons. If there is a third movie, she better start the movie with lessons she’s already learned.
Other Troll Leaders. So, I’m mad we got introduced to King Trollex the Techno troll leader, but we didn’t really get to spend any time with him. Or Trollzart the Classical troll leader. Particularly those two. We spent longer time with King Quincy and Queen Essence the Funk troll leaders and even Delta Dawn the Country Troll leader, but I wish we got to spend a little more time with them. It would have been cool for Poppy and Co to meet King Trollex and Trollzart. They never got to really hear that music. Missed opportunity, I think.
Predictable. I mean it’s a kid’s/family movie so you can say that kids may not notice but I think they do. We should give kids more credit. I figured it out once we heard the backstory of the musical trolls. Not to mention, we meet a character and I figured them out as soon we met them lol. Give us more credit! You don’t have to throw glitter, bright colors and music in our faces to hide the fact that your story is simple. It may work at first, but it won’t continue to work.
Poppy and Barb. A big missed opportunity is that Poppy and Barb are very similar characters. They are two sides of the same coin and the movie never allows either of them to realize this. They don’t understand each other at first even before they meet, then they meet, and Poppy is trying to stop Barb and Barb is ridiculing Poppy for what the Pop troll ancestor did. However, they had a few moments when they could have realized they are almost the same. Both are extremely aggressive to the point of being narrow-minded and almost controlling. Both believe they are right. But they are also naive. Their differences are that Poppy is generally well liked by her people and is friends with almost everyone. Whereas Barb seems to be feared by her people even though she wants friends. There are interesting correlations, but it wasn’t tapped into the way it should have been.
Consistency. Obviously, this kind of stuff happens sometimes in follow ups but one of my friends pointed this out to me. I remember thinking “I thought the backstory was different” but I didn’t think much about it because I was into the new story but the backstory to this movie vs the backstory to the first movie is different. I don’t know if they just forgot or if they were trying to retcon, but it’s been noticed!
Overall, I really liked this movie. I think the first one is better in how it handles the characters and the overall story, but I’ve reviewed that one. I’ll rewatch it again someday lol. Anyways, I like the characters still, there isn’t anyone I dislike. I think Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake really do their thing as Poppy and Branch and manage to keep them fun (even though Poppy super annoyed me). Rachel Bloom is also great as Barb. I really love the introduction of the new story, yeah it retconned what was set up in the first one, but I was into it. I liked the different musical worlds and different music types. I also paid more attention to how they created the overall world with the scrapbook feel. Super cool. Also, the message is a good one too. I was like “oh y’all deep”. It was very relevant and done pretty well. Now, on the other end, I did not like how there seemed to be a lot of missed opportunity, particularly how Poppy and Barb never seemed to realize how similar they are. There are some consistency issues when it comes to the world building from the first one. I didn’t like how we didn’t get the chance to really meet the other Troll leaders in a way where they leave an imprint outside of the Funk trolls (which I guess is all that matters lol). Lastly, POPPY WAS ANNOYING in this movie. I like her fine, but I wanted to slap her hard. Otherwise, great movie.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.
Have you seen Trolls World Tour? What are your thoughts? Tell me in the comments below!
P.S. and spoilers… I love how the Princes of Funk were the ones who brought back music lol I was like yasss it would be the black Trolls who bring music back to the world.
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