Trolls World Tour is directed by Walt Dohrn and it is the sequel to Trolls. Set after the events of that movie, we follow Poppy who is now Queen and Branch as they set off an adventure to learn about the other musical trolls and unite them. Unfortunately, Queen Barb of the Rock Trolls is hosting a world tour where she plans to steal everyone’s music. The movie stars the voices of Anna Kendrick,  Justin Timberlake, Rachel Bloom and Sam Rockwell.

We are currently living in the timeline where Trolls World Tour is considered a groundbreaking step in cinema because of its shockingly successful digital release. I wasn’t going to cover this movie because not only have I never watched the first movie but also because there was no buzz around this movie. No one was talking about it until it was experimentally released to digital by Universal, after that everyone was talking about it. Naturally, I felt like I had to watch it so good to Universal for making this seem like an event even in a pandemic. I sat down to watch the first Trolls which was a pleasant surprise, I found it very entertaining and so it made me even more excited to see World Tour. Having seen it just this morning I can say that this is honestly a perfect quarantine movie.

Trolls World Tour is a loud, bright, colourful and entertaining nonsensical mess. It is the perfect movie to watch right now. I won’t lie and say that social distancing is easy because it’s not, it takes a toll on the body, physically and mentally. With the situation we are in right now, it’s very easy to mope in your bed for hours and just deteriorate. This movie takes your mind off of things and entertains for an hour and a half and not every movie can do that. Trolls World Tour is a blast because of a ton of factors. It is a consistently energetic, fast-paced acid trip of singing and sparkles with a plot so devoid of logic that it only adds to the entertainment value. The kids will love it because of how insane the animation is and how much energy the movie gives out and the adults can use it a fun, distraction.

While watching this movie I was reminded of old Scooby-Doo and Tom and Jerry movies they would air on Boomerang. They were slightly longer than an hour and they had this sense of innocence and fun. The stories were whacky and whimsical and they took you on a fun trip. Trolls World Tour is basically a slightly longer, insanely better-animated version of that but with singing and sparkles. However, I do have to give credit where credit is due because, amid its craziness, Trolls World Tour does teach a great lesson about how being different is what makes you special. It has a great message about to be more open-minded to change and different people or in this case, trolls. I love how different each genre of trolls was. I appreciated the fact that they also added K-POP and Latin music considering their recent spark in popularity.

I’ve said that this movie is nonsensical and what I mean by that is that in the movie, things happen either for no reason at all or literally have no logic behind them. For example in the first ten minutes, a troll says they’re pregnant and then a mini troll jumps out of them and starts rapping and singing in a low voice with shades. Characters appear just to get the other characters to a certain place and the excuse would be because they liked cotton candy. Characters that would be in the troll village in one scene would be where the plot needs them to be in the next scene despite establishing how far this place is when Poppy and Branch went. If you are someone who is bothered by stuff like this then maybe don’t watch Trolls World Tour but if you are like me and start laughing uncontrollably when a movie ditches logic then it will only add to the entertainment value.

The voice-cast does a great job of bringing these lively characters to life. The singing is great as you’d expect from Kendrick and Timberlake. While writing this, I am actually listening to “The Other Side” which is the song from the credits. I was actually shocked to find out that it was for this movie. It’s no “Can’t Stop the Feeling” but it’s really catchy. Despite the movie being centred around music, I feel like the actual musical numbers were a bit shoe-horned in. They have a medley scene which honestly felt like it was a task on a checklist. They also force another song on you in the credits but you can just close the movie because it’s done.

Overall I really liked Trolls World Tour, it was self-aware and in that, it gets the chance to be as absurd as it wishes. It’s not a bad movie and it’s not really a great movie, at least not traditionally. It’s the movie we need. It’s a fun, bright, colourful celebration of the beauty in being different. Kids will love and adore it and adults will appreciate the upbeat distraction. That being said, watch Onward after you finish this one, you’ll thank me later.

RATING: C