Well here we are.., another Trolls movie folks... as if DreamWorks' winning streak wasn't going to last, yeah.. so I went to watch Trolls: Band Together yesterday since I saw the first two trolls movies, also apparently the Trolls franchise is much bigger in the UK than anywhere else?, so this is why you're seeing a review of the film early if you live outside of Europe, bit strange really but anyways erm... the movie was... perfectly fine..
It's exactly what you're expecting from a Trolls movie, bright colours, funky characters and jukebox music to keep the little ones awake?.., yeah Trolls is not exactly Puss in Boots: The Last Wish now is it?, it's really just a colourful distraction for kids and I think it's fine it's not made for me but it is the best of the three films which isn't saying too much, I'll start with what I liked.
The animation is the best in all three movies, it's visually eye catching, it's creative and there are a few sequences that do use 2D animation and it's used well, there are some good laughs and some funny lines, the villains looked quite cool design wise, there's this hairy thingy that works for the villains called Crimp who is the best character in the movie and gets the best laughs with a unique design, good voice acting the soundtrack is pretty good and I enjoyed "Better Place" easily much better than "Can't Stop the Feeling" and that's it for positives, there's more good than bad so to speak.
While it plays out just as expected and I did enjoy most of it, the opening song and even the climax felt like just a generic kids film using the familiar formula, it's not bad but since it flowed rather nicely and felt like a fun movie, just had a rather meh opening and meh climax, the two Bergens from the first movie Gristle and Bridget are in this a fair bit and a kind of unnecessary except they're getting married but even so, they're just a plot device, at least they scale back the other main characters which I am thankful for but still, could've done with them since we had enough new characters that worked fine.
So yeah.. I think it's passable, definitely a improvement over the first two films but not by much really, it has the energy, creativity, fun and exciting catchy songs that work with some funny moments here and there, but at the end of the day, it's just playing it safe, not like Paw Patrol safe but mostly as to be expected, so... yeah, take the kids to see it they'll enjoy it more than anyone else, it's not made for me and I wouldn't say it's Puss in Boots 2 or Bad Guys, but this and Ruby Gillman proves that DreamWorks are going back to making basic kids films which is a shame, but hopefully they'll get back to making great stuff.
I'm going to give Trolls: Band Together a 6.9/10.
