TCU: The Trolls Cinematic Universe

I Came in Blind and Was Pleasantly Surprised

Who doesn’t dream of their various disbanded boy groups getting back together?

I did not realize there is a whole cinematic universe about Trolls.

Trolls, not like that hairy thumb under the bridge in Dora the Explorer episodes, but like. The brand. The dolls. With their thick cotton candy hair turned up like an off-brand Super Saiyan. They have movies, plural, and they are, surprisingly, good.

I love animation. That should be very clear from the many newsletters I’ve written fangirling over the artform. And granted, the Trolls movies are actually aimed at children. It’s their main demographic, the audience they are writing for.

AND YET.

And yet it is so fantastically well-written that it’s not just for children, not really. These movies are funny. They’re punny. They make inside jokes and inappropriate jokes and just jokes in general that fly right over their smarmy baby’s wispy little heads.

They have a host of fantastic voice actors, actual, skilled voice actors who can contort and shape their voices into feeling and ambition.

We have Anna Kendrick as Poppy, Justin Timberlake as Branch, Kenan Thompson as Tiny Diamond, Anderson .Paak as Prince D, Kunal Nayyar as Guy Diamond, Eric André as John Dory, Daveed Diggs as Spruce, Kid Cudi as Clay, Troye Sivan as Floyd, Camila Cabello as Viva, and man literally every single person is amazing and famous but unrecognizable in their animated attire.

I love when voice actors are unique and talented to disassociate who they are with the roles they play. It’s fantastic, a sort of filmmaking magic that makes you believe in the mise en scene just a little bit more.

Of course to children, it really doesn’t matter. But when you’re an adult, a parent watching these shows or movies with your kid and you can get a laugh in or love the way the actors use their voices, then it’s worth it.

*NSYNC literally got back together to do this film. They walked the purple carpet for an early screening of this movie November 15, 2023 and they voice the disbanded group in the film “BroZone,” which is like if you mixed *NSYNC with the Jonas Brothers.

Voice acting is a whole talent and ability beyond acting for the stage or for the screen. To say you’re one or the other comes with a different skillset for each. Am I tired of hearing certain famous actors of the past decade pick up a mic and “voice act” for major franchises?

Kind of.

It’s a little annoying because they lack the skill and the ability to give a good performance. Of course, they can always learn and make it better, but oftentimes we get subpar theatrical experiences because the filmmakers spent all their money hiring a voice that can’t act because they want the celebrity name to sell more seats than the story.

It’s…infuriating. Especially when we see actual voice actors who have been honing their craft for decades be passed over to have someone who cannot or simply does not understand that they are turning in a weak performance (I also blame directors and executives for pushing actors into voice acting roles without proper preparation).

Don’t ask me who’s who. I rarely know one from the other and they just dumped a pot of new characters on me so I’m still a little jumbled on identities.

What do you expect from a story for children? Not to dismiss animation in any shape or form, but this is a children’s toy franchise personified, so to expect world changing or cinematic overhauls from a movie of this type is unreasonable and rather cruel.

It’s a classic hero’s journey, of returning prodigal sons, of accepting family for all their flaws and rising above.

The characters are well-developed in the minimal screen time we get with each (though it is hilarious when we meet Branch’s brothers because they’re all so quirky and we learn so much about them from their dialogue and where they live. It’s great. Really well-done characterization streamlined so children can identify who’s who).

The animation, done majority in the 3D space, also dabbled in 2D animation from Titmouse Animation to create trippy psychedelic sequences, an homage to “The Hustle.” Ben Willis, head of character animation, designed each stage of the Trolls’ journey to introduce different materials for the Trolls universe to play in. IndieWire’s Bill Desowitz quotes Willis, saying “it was an opportunity to introduce diamonds, plastic, and rubber.”

Just seeing the characters designs really highlights the strides in animation Dreamworks put in to create new textures. I love seeing how shiny or organic or malleable objects in animated movies look. There’s a weight and a feel to the designs that took thousands of human-hours to create and it gets better and better with every movie that comes out.