Poppy the troll discovers Branch, her teen idol dream was once part of BroZone, and his brother Floyd has been trollnapped by atrocious singing wannabes Velvet and Veneer, who are using Floyd’s angelic voice to prevent themselves falling into pop-culture obscurity.
Based on the ‘Good Luck Trolls’ by Thomas Dam, DreamWorks once again delivers a very colourful slice of animation with the third film of a possible seven – which according to Justin Timberlake has limitless source material. With studios confirming development in 2021 and announcing the new cast and characters in March 2023 in this high grossing Trolls’ franchise. It once again includes a multitude of ‘A-list’ talent that for the main has carried through all three films. Now with further great additional casting, supervising animator Kevan Shorey, who has worked at DreamWorks since 2003 on films such as ‘Madagascar’ and ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ teased in May 2022 an upcoming female Troll to be played by Camila Cabello of Fifth Harmony as Viva, but I will not spoil the story connection here. Walt Dohrn has returned to direct this third instalment including new psychedelic 2D mini-intersections thrown in over and above an already colourful ride. Think flavours of Yellow Submarine & Fantasia and you will be close.
Band members of phenomenon BroZone have long since dispersed and the then Baby Branch, played by a young Alan Kim (Theatre Camp) has been left to fend for himself after the band could no longer agree with John Dory’s – voiced by Eric Andre of ‘Sing 2’ – controlling ways. Fast forward 18 years and Branch has grown into an untrusting young adult who may or may not be attracted to Poppy, who collectively are known as Broppy, as queen of the Trolls, played by a spritely Anna Kendrick of ‘Pitch Perfect’ fame who as ever has the perfect hyper voice for this colourful and lively role.
Of course, with heroes comes villains and that is where we meet our new cast Velvet played by Amy Schumer and Veneer played by Andrew Rannells (The Intern) with new to the franchise and put upon witty assistant Crimp, played by Zosia Mamet (Girls), in their entertainment world known as ‘Mount Rageous’ where cars use both sides of the street – yes the top side and underneath – think Super Mario crazy world. Zooey Deschanel rounds off the main stacked cast once again as Bridget, whose voice is almost unrecognisable and again jumps very well into the part as the now happier non-Troll eating Bergen bride.
The casting as ever, is spot on and the feeling behind the individual voices is superb. With Troy Sivan of X-Men Origins fame as the captured Floyd and Kid Cudi as Clay, The script and characters are of course designed for the younger audience, although it carries itself off well without being either too deep or too shallow. What Trolls 3 does however do is entertain which is the whole point to this and this it does very well. After the recent pandemic the idea was to bring the whole family of characters back together which is what they have done extremely well this time using the 90’s as their soundtrack, including spot on classic tracks from Eurhythmics and Sister Sledge. There are some lovely parts with various types of reunions and Kenan Thompson once again as Tiny Diamond is hilarious with his witty quick quips who alongside Anna Kendrick steals the show.
With the almost always required nod to one of our main stars, Justin Timberlake, the line, “Branch, we’re out of sync. We’ve gone from boys to men, and now there’s only one direction for us to go: the back streets.” brings the whole film together. The NSYNC track ‘Better Day’ is quite forgettable however in amongst the classics though works better within the film rather than independently. Trolls 3 isn’t world changing but the fun and colour is off the scale and the want to see it more than once is the appreciation of an animation very well done.
Author: Piers, Maidstone Store
