Trolls: Band Together Review
A sugary, saccharine hit of pop music, wonderful colour, and a story that screams “hey don’t worry too much about me. Just focus on the music and the colour”.
When John Dory (Eric Andre) crashes the wedding of Bridget (Zooey Deschanel) and King Gristle (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), Poppy (Anna Kendrick) discovers that Branch (Justin Timberlake) has a brother. Not just that, but a brood of brothers and a boy band history he has been hiding from her for years. John Dory brings news that one of their brothers, Floyd (Troye Sivan), has been captured by nefarious popstars Velvet (Amy Schumer) and Veneer (Andrew Rannells) and is being juiced for his talent. The only way to break him out of his diamond prison is to hit the perfect family harmony, and to do so, Branch (and Poppy) must journey with John Dory to find their brothers Spruce (Daveed Diggs) and Clay (Kid Cudi), track down Floyd, and sing the perfect song in the perfect harmony.
Trolls: Band Together is a blissfully short adventure at just 91 minutes. It’s a mile a minute journey through colourful landscapes, flashing light cities and fever dream wormholes, as our core team try and rescue one of their own from two dastardly popstars.
There is a lot of fun to be had here for the adults. The pop songs are spliced together nicely, bringing a welcome hit of nostalgia. The NSYNC reunion is a bit of fun, and Timberlake seemingly has no worries with lambasting his boy band roots. Story-wise, there isn’t a huge amount to grasp on to, but there’s enough music and fun that you don’t really mind. And there are a handful of quite adult jokes - sure to go over the young ones heads - that give you a laugh.
For the kids, this is the perfectly timed slice of energy and bombastic fun. They won’t get too tired, and the music will have them up in their seats bopping away. There’s plenty of colour, a little bit of story, and lots of energy. It won’t change the worldview of anyone, or inspire anyone to take up filmmaking, but it's enough to distract a couple of kids for an hour and a half.
