Review: TROLLS

TROLLS  
(ANIMATED-MUSICAL/KIDS)
1.5 out of 4 stars 
Directed by Mike Mitchell
Featuring the Voices of: Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, Zooey Deschanel, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Christine Baranski, Walt Dohrn, Ron Funches, Jeffery Tambor, John Cleese, James Corden, Gwen Stefani
Rated PG for some mild rude humor.
93 minutes
Verdict: While admitting that DreamWorks Animation's TROLLS is technically geared toward those age 6 or younger, it's like a mega-mix of the studio's worst habits from desperate attempts at "hipness" to the laziest bodily function jokes that will make parents want to tear their eyes out.
YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN TROLLS IF YOU LIKED: 
ANGRY BIRDS  (2016)
SHARK TALE  (2004)
THE SMURFS  (2011)
THE SMURFS 2  (2013)
ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: CHIPWRECKED  (2011)

With the intense bombardment of colorful marketing DreamWorks has delivered ahead of TROLLS, beginning all the way back in May with the release of Justin Timberlake's "Can't Stop the Feeling!", which has since dominated the airwaves, you might think they had something special with this movie.  Nope.  It turns out, DreamWorks is embracing their earlier demons and applying a 'marketing first' strategy similar to the one that's been so successful for Illumination Entertainment.  The marketing campaign is the main event, the movie is simply an obligation, and TROLLS sucks. 
More or less based on those Troll dolls with the big up-combed hair that peaked in popularity 30 years ago, the story is set between two communities; the Trolls, incessantly chipper little beings whose lives revolve around singing, dancing and hugging without apology, and the Bergens, goblin-like characters who only experience happiness when they eat a happy little Troll.  On the day that the Bergen Prince Gristle (voiced by Christopher Mintz-Plasse) is to eat his first Troll, they stage a mass escape, leaving Gristle with the belief that he will never be happy and the Bergen Chef (voiced by Christine Baranski) is banished for allowing the Trolls to escape.  20 years later, when the Trolls' Princess Poppy (voiced by Anna Kendrick) throws a big celebration on the anniversary of the escape, Chef discovers their new home and snatches up a handful to take back to Bergen Town.  Enlisting the reluctant help of a glum outsider, Branch (voiced by Justin Timberlake), Poppy goes to Bergen Town to rescue the captives, but once there, they discover that helping the Bergen's realize their own happiness, and helping Prince Gristle find love with an admirer, Bridget (voiced by Zooey Deschanel), will put a stop to the Troll-eating forever.

The animation has a scrapbooking-style aesthetic full of felt, card paper and the like, that looks really good in a general sense, but the character designs are much less appealing, in a sort of "so cute it's ugly" area.  To be fair, I remember having similar reactions to Troll dolls even back in early childhood.  There's a creepiness to the Trolls, with their big gawking eyes and rounded teeth that work better as storybook illustrations than when rendered in exuberant action, but Gristle and Bridget are designed to be "cute" versions of the grotesque Bergens, and the result is merely grotesque.  But the animation is the movie's strong suit.
TROLLS doesn't feel like the kind of shameless rip-offs from DreamWorks' earlier days like ANTZ or SHARK TALE (to be fair, those only ripped off Pixar in concept), but there's an often overwhelming sense of imitation of FROZEN, PITCH PERFECT and DreamWorks Animation's own crown jewel, SHREK, but paling in comparison to any of them.  It is on a level similar to Don Bluth's lesser films from the mid and late '90s, in particular A TROLL IN CENTRAL PARK, a movie which seemed too dumb even when I was part of its target audience of young children.  These are all the worst things of DreamWorks' worst films crammed into one hyper-energetic assault; stunt-voice-casting of celebrities, pop culture references, low-rent potty humor, and the crappy "hip" lingo your awkward aunt throws around to embarrass you, all culminating in a simple-minded message of pro-conformity and a weirdly brutal comeuppance to the story's antagonists.  Very young children and maybe people who quote ELF way too much might enjoy it, but otherwise, it's a chore without much reward at all and the studio's most irritating film in years.

                                                                                                                                                               Images via DreamWorks