Capsule Review: Trolls Band Together (2023)
The word “colourful” is synonymous with the Trolls franchise. And that’s what you get in Trolls Band Together. It’s the third movie after Trolls (2016) and Trolls World Tour (2020) and this time, the story focuses on Branch (voiced by Justin Timberlake) as we get to learn about his backstory. It turns out that Branch used to be part of the long-defunct boyband called BroZone (an obvious play-on-words of Boyzone) nicknamed “Baby B” because, well, he was an infant wearing a diaper. He sang alongside his older brother and band leader John Dory (Eric André), Spruce (Daveed Diggs), Clay (Kid Cudi) and Floyd (Troye Sivan).
Well, something happens which leads them to go their separate ways. Branch barely talks about it. Not even to his girlfriend, Poppy (Anna Kendrick). However, his past catches up with him when Branch’s long-lost brother gatecrashing Poppy’s best friend Bridget (Zooey Deschanel) and Prince Gristle’s (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) wedding ceremony.
Apparently, John Dory needs his brother’s help to save Floyd after being held captive in a diamond prison by Velvet (Amy Schumer) and Veneer (Andrew Rannells). The latter are singing siblings from Mount Rageous who gained instant fame from pulling off Milli Vanilli-style. So, after a few hesitations, Branch reluctantly agrees to join his older brother on a rescue mission with Poppy and Tiny Diamond (Kenan Thompson) tagging along. Cue to obligatory moral lessons about family, teamwork, friendship and more.
Trolls Band Together contains a few worthwhile moments. I enjoyed how they mix and match different samples into the songs, namely Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family” and Salt-N-Pepa’s “Push It” in “Let’s Married” in the earlier scene. Or Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony’s “The Hustle” in “Hustle Dimension” during the psychedelic hustle scene in a brief, old-school 2D animation. Sure, the medleys of its soundtrack remain no match to Justin Timberlake’s still-infectious “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” from the first movie. But the nostalgia-heavy songs are catchy enough on their own.
The voice cast is spot-on with Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick reprising their roles as Branch and Poppy respectively while Kenan Thompson delivers a sardonic supporting turn as Tiny Diamond. Newcomers to the franchise are equally worth mentioning here such as Amy Schumer’s gleefully scenery-chewing Velvet and Camila Cabello’s peppy Viva. Visually, Trolls Band Together looks vibrant as usual including Ruben Perez’s eye-catching production design.
And while the movie’s 92-minute length may have been pacey, I can’t help noticing the superficiality of its story stitched together with multiple narratives. More than just a journey to save Floyd, we also get side stories about Bridget and Prince Gristle going on a honeymoon ride and the introduction of Viva (Camila Cabello).
The story is as flimsy as it goes, lacking the necessary heart and soul needed to make us care about these characters’ plight or whatever journey they have been through. I get that the Troll franchise is meant to be family-friendly but does it have to be this dull and glossed over in storytelling? Besides, we’re already three movies in and what’s wrong with adding emotional depth to the candy-coloured fun of Trolls Band Together? Improvement doesn’t seem to be in this franchise’s vocabulary and instead opting to stay generic as a forgettable fun-while-it-lasts entertainment.
