Trolls Band Together (U)

The wedding day of Bergen lovebirds Gristle and Bridget is interrupted by John Dory, long-lost brother of Branch, who needs to reunite their childhood band BroZone to rescue kidnapped sibling Floyd from the clutches of nefarious duo Velvet and Veneer. John Dory's return "20 years too late" is a painful reminder of a calamitous first public performance of the five-piece's ironically titled song Perfect.

LondonNet Film Review

Trolls Band Together (U) Film Review from LondonNet

Art NSYNChronises poorly with life in DreamWorks Animation’s sugar-coated musical comedy directed by Walt Dohrn and co-directed by Tim Heitz. Trolls Band Together affectionately harks back to actor Justin Timberlake’s halcyon days in one of the biggest selling boybands of all time and reunites him with JC Chasez, Joey Fatone, Chris Kirkpatrick and Lance Bass (depicted as cute crooning creatures) armed with an anodyne pop ditty, Better Place, recorded for the film after a 21-year hiatus. There are better places than this computer-animated road trip for families in search of life-affirming entertainment of substance…

The chief antagonists are two social media-driven siblings, who become chart-topping sensations with their track Watch Me Work by secretly inhaling the vaporous musical talent they have extracted from a troll hostage. Auto-tune evidently doesn’t exist in a rainbow-coloured fantasy imagined by the screenwriting trio of Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger and Elizabeth Tippet, who follow the lead of their villainous creations and milk a cash troll dry with a lacklustre anthem to collaboration.

Even the opening mash-up of Keep It Comin’ Love by KC And The Sunshine Band, We Are Family by Sister Sledge, Push It by Salt-N-Pepa, Good As Hell by Lizzo, and Hello by Lionel Richie underwhelms, heralding the wedding day of Bergen lovebirds Gristle (voiced by Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and Bridget (Zooey Deschanel). Their dream nuptials are interrupted by John Dory (Eric Andre), long-lost brother of Branch (Timberlake), who needs to reunite their band BroZone to rescue kidnapped sibling Floyd (Troye Sivan) from the clutches of nefarious duo Velvet (Amy Schumer) and Veneer (Andrew Rannells).

John Dory’s return “20 years too late” is a painful reminder of a calamitous first public performance of the five-piece’s ironically titled song Perfect. “We’re not in sync. There’s only one direction for us to go – to the backstreets!” quips one of the siblings. Bruised egos are hastily put to one side for the sake of a flimsy plot and Branch accompanies John Dory on a haphazard odyssey to locate other brothers Clay (Kid Cudi) and Spruce (Daveed Diggs), while Poppy (Anna Kendrick) unearths her own family secret in the form of spunky free spirit Viva (Camila Cabello).

Trolls Band Together is an inoffensive remix of the previous two films and feels as though it has been composed by committee. A choral chant of teamwork is evident in the title of Dohrn and Heitz’s sequel and a centrepiece chase along circuitous streets bears an unfortunate resemblance to karting sequences in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Cuteness oozes from every glitter-bombed frame but the toe-tapping franchise will need to furiously rub one of Thomas Dam’s fluffy-haired Good Luck Troll dolls to warrant future adventures with these fun-loving characters. Otherwise, this should be Bye Bye Bye to Poppy, Branch and the gang.

– Sarah Lee