Trolls

Plot

Trolls are small, colorful, perpetually happy creatures who like to sing, dance and hug all day. They are discovered by the large, hideous and miserable Bergens, who believe they can only feel happy by consuming a Troll. The Bergens imprison the Trolls in a caged tree, and eat them once a year on a special occasion called "Trollstice".

On the year that Bergen Prince Gristle Jr., son of King Gristle Sr., is due to eat his first Troll, the chef in charge of the ceremony discovers that the Trolls, under the leadership of King Peppy, have managed to escape. The King banishes Chef from Bergen Town, and she vows to find the Trolls, secretly plotting to overthrow the monarchy as revenge. As Prince Gristle tells his father that what could they do to celebrate Trollstice without Trolls anymore, his father tells that there is nothing ever gonna make him happy. This drives his son's into a long term depression.

Twenty years later, Peppy's daughter Princess Poppy organizes a gigantic party to celebrate the anniversary of their escape. A serious, gray Troll named Branch warns that this could expose their home, but everyone ignores him. However, his forebodings are justified when Chef, who as only Bergen, has spent the last twenty years searching for the Trolls, notices the party fireworks from her hideout, follows them to Troll Village and kidnaps Poppy's friends, including her crush, a "zen" Troll named Creek. While the rest of the Trolls take refuge in Branch's survival bunker uninvited, Poppy sets off alone to rescue her friends. She gets herself into several potentially deadly situations, and is finally rescued by Branch, who thinks her quest is hopeless and only followed her to escape his crowded bunker.

After encountering further challenges, Poppy and Branch meet a mischievous Cloud Guy, who leads them into Bergen Town. Then Poppy and Branch sneak into the castle of Gristle Jr, who is now the King. They witness Chef apparently feeding Creek to Gristle, but Poppy still holds out hope that Creek survived. They find the other captives being guarded by a young scullery maid named Bridget, who is secretly in love with Gristle. Upon learning this, the Trolls agree to help her get a date in exchange for her help in ascertaining whether or not Creek is still alive. However, Branch refuses to sing along with the others in the ensuing musical number, revealing that when he was a child, his loud singing inadvertently led Chef to his home, and his grandmother Rosiepuff was captured. Branch's guilt caused his colors to fade into gray, and he swore never to sing again.

Voice cast

Anna Kendrick as Poppy, the extremely happy and optimistic princess of the Trolls, later their queen

Justin Timberlake as Branch, a grumpy, paranoid, and serious survivalist Troll who turned gray and swore to sing again due to the trauma of the past of his grandmother's death.

Zooey Deschanel as Bridget, a scullery maid to Chef and a kind friend to Poppy and the Trolls.

Christopher Mintz-Plasse as King Gristle, son of King Gristle Sr., and the second King of the Bergens.

Christine Baranski as Chef, the mean, power-hungry and evil bergen chef of the Bergens who captures all the Trolls.

Russell Brand as Creek, a "zen" troll who is Poppy's secret crush and later to be revealed as a cowardly traitor

Gwen Stefani as DJ Suki, a DJ Troll who uses DJ equipment made of insects

John Cleese as King Gristle Sr., Prince Gristle's father and the first King of the Bergens

James Corden as Biggie, a large British Troll and the owner of Mr. Dinkles

Jeffrey Tambor as King Peppy, the king and leader of the Trolls and Poppy's father

Ron Funches as Cooper, a giraffe-like Troll who can walk on all fours and likes to play to the harmonica

Icona Pop as Satin and Chenille, twin Trolls with a flair for fashion design who are conjoined by their hair

Production

DreamWorks announced plans for a film based on the Troll toyline as early as 2010. This version was to be written by Adam Wilson and Melanie Wilson LaBracio. By 2012, Chloë Grace Moretz had already been cast in the female lead role and Jason Schwartzman was reported to have been offered the male lead. In September 2012, 20th Century Fox and DreamWorks Animation announced that the film with the working title Trolls would be released on June 5, 2015, with Anand Tucker set to direct the film, written by Wallace Wolodarsky and Maya Forbes.

By April 2013, DreamWorks Animation had acquired the intellectual property for the Trolls franchise from the Dam Family and Dam Things. Having "big plans for the franchise," DreamWorks Animation became the exclusive worldwide licensor of the merchandise rights, except for Scandinavia, where Dam Things remains the licensor. In May 2013, the film was pushed back for a year to November 4, 2016. The same month, DreamWorks Animation announced that Mike Mitchell and Erica Rivinoja had been hired as a director and screenplay writer to "reimagine" the film as a musical comedy, which would present the origin of the Trolls' colorful hair. On June 16, 2014, Anna Kendrick joined the cast to voice Poppy, a princess. On September 15, 2015, Deadline Hollywood reported that Justin Timberlake would voice a character named Branch. Timberlake previously worked with DreamWorks Animation as the voice of Arthur "Artie" Pendragon in Shrek the Third in 2007. The full cast announced their respective roles via announcements on Twitter on January 6, 2016.

Music

Justin Timberlake served as an executive producer for the film's music and released the original song "Can't Stop the Feeling!" in conjunction with "Hello Darkness" on May 6, 2016. The song reached No. 1 in the official charts of 17 countries, including the United States and Canada. In addition to Timberlake, the rest of the cast contributed to the film's soundtrack, which also features guest appearances from Earth, Wind & Fire and Ariana Grande. The soundtrack album was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America and the Australian Recording Industry Association.

Release

Premiere

The film's opening premiere opened at the BFI London Film Festival Opening Celebration on October 8, 2016, as a special BFI presentation, and was theatrically released on November 4, 2016, in the United States by 20th Century Fox, and in the United Kingdom at an earlier date of October 21, 2016.

Marketing

The first teaser trailer for Trolls was officially unveiled online on January 28, 2016. The following day, it would make its theatrical debut with the opening of Kung Fu Panda 3. On June 29, 2016, a second trailer was then released online.

DreamWorks spent an estimated $105 million promoting the film.

Home media

Trolls was released on Digital HD on January 24, 2017, and on DVD and Blu-ray by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on February 7, 2017. The film topped the home video sales chart for two consecutive weeks. The film was also released in a three-movie pack alongside its sequels Trolls World Tour and Trolls Band Together on DVD and Blu-ray by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment and Studio Distribution Services on January 16, 2024.

Reception

Box office

Trolls grossed $153.9 million in the US and Canada and $193.2 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $347 million, against a budget of $125 million. Deadline Hollywood calculated the film made a net profit of $19 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.

In the United States and Canada, Trolls was released alongside the releases of Doctor Strange and Hacksaw Ridge, and was projected to gross $35–40 million from 4,060 theaters in its opening weekend. On its first day, the film grossed $12.3 million (including $900,000 made from Thursday night previews). It went on to open to $46.5 million, finishing second at the box office behind Doctor Strange.

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 76% based on 165 reviews, with an average rating of 6.30/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Trolls brings its instantly recognizable characters to the big screen in a colorful adventure that, while geared toward the younger set, isn't without rewards for parents." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score of 55 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it an 80% overall positive score.

Lindsey Bahr of Associated Press gave the film a positive review and said, "Ultimately, the 'get happy' moral of the story, while trite compared to something like Inside Out, is sufficiently sweet enough for its audience. Did you expect more from a piece of candy?" Bill Zwecker of Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and said, "You simply will walk out – or perhaps dance out – of the theater feeling very happy yourself." Andy Webster of The New York Times said, "Exuberant, busy and sometimes funny, DreamWorks Animation's Trolls is determined to amuse."

Michael Rechtshaffen, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, called the film "an admittedly vibrant-looking but awfully recognizable animated musical comedy concoction." Alonso Duralde of TheWrap said the film "combines the barely-there characterization and irritating cutesiness of The Smurfs with the hideous character design and awful pop covers of Strange Magic." Betsy Bozdech of Common Sense Media gave the movie 4 stars. She said, "Make no mistake: Kids are going to love this movie. Trolls is cute, it's colorful, it has tons of catchy songs, and the messages are positive and easy to understand (happiness is inside everyone, if you know where/how to find it, and you shouldn't have to change who you are to get someone to like you)."

Accolades

Trolls was nominated at the 89th Academy Awards for Best Original Song for "Can't Stop the Feeling!" and at the 74th Golden Globe Awards for Best Original Song for the same song. However, "Can't Stop the Feeling" did win at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards for Best Song Written for Visual Media.

Regarding music award shows, only film-related categories are included on this list.

Franchise

DreamWorks Trolls: The Experience was the first of multiple mobile pop-up attractions Feld Entertainment and Universal Brand Development had agreed to develop in April 2018. The pop-up attraction opened in New York City on October 22, 2018.

Sequels

On February 28, 2017, Universal Pictures, the studio's new distributor and parent company since its acquisition by Comcast and NBCUniversal in 2016, and DreamWorks Animation announced that a sequel titled Trolls 2 would be released on April 10, 2020, with Kendrick and Timberlake reprising their respective roles of Poppy and Branch as well as Aibel and Berger returning to write the script. On October 4, 2017, the release date for the sequel was moved up to February 14, 2020, as Fast & Furious 9 took its original April 10, 2020 slot. Along with the new release date, it was announced that Dohrn will be returning to direct and Shay will return to produce the sequel. On December 6, 2017, the film was pushed back to an April 17, 2020 release. On March 4, 2020, No Time to Die got delayed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, so the film was pushed to an April 10, 2020 release again through premium video on demand.

In May 2018, it was confirmed that Sam Rockwell, Chance the Rapper, Anthony Ramos, Karan Soni, Flula Borg, and Jamie Dornan joined the cast. Corden, Icona Pop, Funches, Stefani and Nayyar will also reprise their roles. In October 2018, it was confirmed that Kelly Clarkson had joined the cast, and will perform an original song.

The title for the sequel, Trolls World Tour, was announced in June 2018. In May 2017, podcasters Justin, Travis and Griffin McElroy began campaigning for roles in the film via a podcast titled "The McElroy Brothers Will Be in Trolls 2" (later renamed "The McElroy Brothers Will Be in Trolls: World Tour" after the sequel's subtitle was revealed). Following the podcast's popularity, DreamWorks confirmed in September 2018 that the McElroy brothers would make cameo appearances in World Tour.

In June 2019, along with promotional posters, new cast members were announced, which included: J Balvin, Mary J. Blige, Rachel Bloom, George Clinton, Ester Dean and Gustavo Dudamel.

On April 9, 2020, Timberlake expressed interest in future Trolls films during his Apple Music takeover, saying, "I hope we make, like, seven Trolls movies, because it literally is the gift that keeps on giving". On November 22, 2021, it was announced that a third film, titled Trolls Band Together, would be released in theaters on November 17, 2023. The film followed Branch and his newly reunited brothers saving another brother.

Television specials

Trolls Holiday is a half-hour television special that aired on November 24, 2017, on NBC. Poppy realizes that the Bergens have no holidays to celebrate. She enlists Branch and their friends (the Snack Pack) to show their best friend Bridget and other Bergens the importance of holidays. Most of the original cast (including Kendrick, Timberlake, Deschanel, Mintz-Plasse, Corden, Funches, Nayyar and Dohrn) all reprise their roles from the film. The likely-Christmas Special is also directed by Crawford and written by Josh Bycel & Jonathan Fener with music by Jeff Morrow. Its soundtrack album that features seven songs was released on October 27, 2017. It is now available on Netflix and on DVD by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. The bonus features of the DVD also include one episode of Spirit Riding Free and two of Home: Adventures with Tip & Oh.

A second special, Trolls: Holiday in Harmony, aired on November 26, 2021.

Animated series

A 52-episode animated series based on the film, entitled Trolls: The Beat Goes On! that airs on Netflix premiered on January 19, 2018, and ran for 8 seasons. The show stars Amanda Leighton as Poppy, Skylar Astin as Branch, and Funches who is reprising his role as Cooper, and Dohrn reprising his role as Cloud Guy.

Following the release of Trolls World Tour, another animated series, titled Trolls: TrollsTopia, was released on Peacock and Hulu in 2020.