'Trolls' Review

Nominated For: Best Original Song "Can't Stop The Feeling" (written by Justin Timberlake, Max Martin, and Shellback).

In the world of Trolls, the trolls are the happiest beings alive and the Bergens are vile ogre-like creatures that have no positive outlook on life, except the joy from consuming a troll. When the Bergens invade Troll Village and kidnap many of its inhabitants for Trollstice, the Bergen holiday in which trolls are eaten, the troll princess Poppy must set out with the pessimistic troll Branch to rescue their friends.

Trolls is the latest animated film from Dreamworks Animation that's based on the troll dolls that have surged in popularity a few times since the 1960's, their attempt at a toy-turned successful animated film like The LEGO Movie. Walt Dohrn and Mike Mitchell co-direct Trolls and with the collaboration of their animators are able to create a vibrant fantasy world for the trolls to sing, dance, and hug in.

The soundtrack adds lots of fun to the flick, with a nice combination of covers on well known hits and some catchy original pop music, standing in to express the various messages about what it means to find happiness. The most interesting sequences in the film were in fact the song and dance numbers, that effectively use the eye-popping animation to convey some truly great visual storytelling. Trolls also features a celebrity ensemble voice cast with the likes of Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, Zooey Deschanel, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Christine Baranski, Russell Brand, Gwen Stefani, James Corden, Jeffrey Tambor, and even The Big Bang Theory's Kunal Nayyar. 

Kendrick brings spunk to Princess Poppy and Timberlake plays up Branch's cynical nature, making for an interesting and humorous pairing onscreen. The voice cast as a whole do well in their respective roles but unfortunately many of the characters are anything beyond one-dimensional sketches of caricaturization as opposed to fully fleshed out characters. 

Trolls' major issue is it's lack of depth, character growth, and basic storytelling. The screenplay from Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger serves as a means of jumping from one set piece to the next, often using the songs as quick distraction. Aibel and Berger manage to write some funny jokes and positive messages for the feature but the film simply has a sporadic short attention span.

Trolls is suitable family entertainment that provides enough flashy colors and catchy pop music to enthrall children but has such little substance that adults won't be able to tolerate repeat viewing.

Film Assessment: C