It’s been, if not a banner year for animation creatively (though the likes of “Kubo & The Two Strings” and “April & The Extraordinary World” have showcased the form at its best), then at the very least a very lucrative one. Four of the year’s top six grossers are CGI animations (if you include the 95% animated “The Jungle Book“), with other hits as different as “Kung Fu Panda 3” and “Sausage Party” on top of that, and surefire smashes like “Sing” and “Moana” still to come.
Joining them in the fall is Dreamworks Animation‘s “Trolls,” a big screen story focusing on the ever-popular dolls with the pointy colorful hair. The company have seen their position as the only true competitor to Disney/Pixar falter in recent years, thanks to the success of upstarts Illumination, and high-profile failures like “Turbo” and “Rise Of The Guardians,” but have been on the upswing commercially at least. The good news is that “Trolls,” which world-premieres at the BFI London Film Festival today, seems like it’ll make a gajillion dollars. The bad news, for anyone over the age of eight, is that it’s at its best disposable, and at its worst really, really annoying.
Historically, the brightly coloured Trolls have served as farmed foodstuff for the enormous, grotesque Bergens, who experience their lone annual moment of happiness when they get to eat the creatures at Trollstice (the first of innumerable puns to come). But just as young Prince Gristle (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) is about to get his first taste of sweet troll, there’s a mass break-out, and the trolls escape to safe haven, led by King Peppy (Jeffrey Tambor).
Twenty years later, they live an idyllic life of singing, dancing, glitter and hugs, with Peppy’s daughter Poppy (Anna Kendrick) the happiest of the bunch. The only party pooper is Branch (Justin Timberlake), a grey troll who doesn’t dance, and certainly doesn’t sing, preferring to focus on the inevitable day when the Bergens track them down. Poppy mocks him, but his survivalist instincts are soon proven right when Bergen Chef (Christine Baranski) attacks the village and kidnaps their friends to prepare them for a feast. Poppy and the reluctant Branch must team up for a rescue attempt…
The film was trailed months in advance by Timberlake’s omnipresent summer earworm “Sunshine In My Pocket,” and it turns out that was a pretty good indication of what to expect. It’s bright, poppy, colorful, likeable enough, wildly shallow, and after a few minutes, more than a little irritating.
Director Mike Mitchell (“Shrek Forever After,” and uh, “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo“) keeps things breezy at ninety minutes, and it’s appealing enough to look at, so long as your favorite aesthetic is ‘Nintendo 64 platform game,’ but the film never really comes close to the kind of beauty that some of its studio competitors can come up with. The script occasionally finds a good gag, but if it can default to a troll farting glitter everywhere, it usually does that instead.
In fact, it’s a chronic lack of ambition that characterizes the film. Does it, halfway through, pilfer from Cinderella for a subplot involving the trolls trying to fix up scullery made Bridget (Zooey Deschanel, giving a pretty charming vocal turn)? Of course. Does Justin Timberlake sing “True Colors” when Poppy loses her trademark neon pink shade to shake her out of her funk? Yep. Does the vocal cast include both James Corden and Russell Brand? You betcha.
You might say that it’s a film based on troll dolls, so why should we expect any more? But in an era when Lord & Miller turned Lego into one of the cleverest and funniest films of its year, we probably should expect a little more. And at a time when “Inside Out” can make a whole spectrum of emotions accessible and entertaining, the happiness-comes-from-within theme of “Trolls” feels very, very old-fashioned.
The truth is, this is not a film for you or me or anyone over the age of 7 — it skews very young, even by animated film standards. And if you have an under 7, it’s likely to be their favorite movie of all time, and you’ll watch it again and again and again with them until the very thought of a troll’s hair gives you nightmares. For anyone else, it’s going to be hard to see the film as anything more than a day-glo headache, something that exists principally to sell toys and soundtracks. And both we and the under-7s have come to expect better than that. [C-]
Click here for our complete coverage of the 2016 BFI London Film Festival.