Welcome back ladies & gentlemen! I know that I meant to review this film shortly after watching it a week and a half to couple weeks ago. However, I had a crazy, and very busy schedule, and I was unable to. Well, better even later than never, right? Well, with that said, tonight, we review the newest animated film from the Dreamworks Animation Studio. It is the one that has caused so much controversy among many movie theaters companies after it was successful financially from going straight to On Demand. This caused controversy in that major movie theater companies, like AMC, have banned any future Universal, and/or possibly even Dreamworks films to play at any of their theaters in the future even after movie theaters are reopened again. Wow, let’s hope that other major movie studios like Warner Bros. doesn’t also get the same treatment even if their newest film, Scoob, is successful when going straight to On Demand within the next week to week and a half. Anyway, you guessed it! It is the one and only sequel to the 2016 Dreamworks hit film, 2020’s Trolls: World Tour.
Plot: Sometime after the events of the original Trolls film, Poppy (Anna Kendrick) of the Pop Music Trolls Kingdom is still getting used to her role as Queen of her Kingdom. One day, she, and her Kingdom, receive an invitation from Queen Barb (Rachel Bloom) of the Rock Music Kingdom to go on tour with her, unaware that Barb is actually planning to destroy all types of music, and unite everyone under the music genre of Rock. Will Poppy discover the deception, and stop Barb before it’s too late, or will all the Troll Kingdoms get under Barb’s control in the end?
Now, as many of us probably know, this sequel to the 2016 hit has been very even going On Demand. Some have even gone so far as to say that this film is better than the original film. Which, that begs the question! Is this sequel better than the original 2016 film? Yes, but not by much. Still, let’s talk about the highlights first. Of course there is some very good animation in this film. It’s also cool to learn a little bit more about the origins of the Troll Kingdoms that we didn’t get to know about back in Trolls 1. As for at least the main characters from the original film, they do end up getting better developed as this sequel progresses. This includes some of the main key relationships that were to carry over from Trolls 1, and into Trolls: World Kingdom. Some of the world building, particularly when it comes to some of the objects, is also very creative too. Last, but not least, some of the messages are good too, despite most likely finding yourself thinking that you could be watching far more superior movies with messages like that.
Like I said, however, there are a LOT of negatives that keep this film from being a really great sequel. First off, Trolls: World Tour falls as a result of having a great plenty of cliches. Okay, okay, now please, hear me out! I’m sure we can all agree that every film is going to have certain cliches to one degree, or another. In fact, if a film has at least one or two of those, than that should be fine. The problem with this sequel, however, is that there are quite so many of them that it keeps this film from being one of those creative sequels that could reach the same heights as say the Toy Story sequels, the really great How To Train Your Dragon franchise, or even 2018’s Mary Poppins Returns, for instance. What’s even worse is that even if some of the character development grows, especially with the original cast, the same doesn’t seem to be said quite nearly as much with some of the newcomers in this second film. Because of that, the newer characters don’t seem to stand out that much, and/or even be likable, or memorable. Same sort of goes for some of the original characters too, but not quite as much. As for the world building, while we do get some creativity in that aspect, there doesn’t seem to be quite as much buildup as we might have liked. A good example of this is that we get a glimpse of what the other Troll Kingdoms are like, but we don’t get to spend as much time in some those areas as we might like. I could maybe go on with other examples, but won’t. There’s also the deal with some of the character arcs in this film. Okay, maybe that might go with the deal of character development. However, one other thing I will say in that regards is that some of those might have felt a little too forced at times. For crying out loud, there doesn’t seem to be that much foreshadowing to some of those arcs happening. As a result, this aspect of the film makes you probably enjoy movies with more elements of that type more so (Remember The Titans, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, or Treasure Planet, anyone?).
Well folks, that concludes my review for Trolls: World Tour. It’s not exactly a bad sequel by any means. In fact, it’s at least a decent one. However, Trolls: World Tour seems to show that there is still some creativity within the company, but it’s kind of hidden within a film like this. You can likely tell that DreamWorks seemed to invest their creativity more in films like the How To Train Your Dragon films, or Abominable, or films like that more so than either Trolls, or Trolls: World Tour. In all honesty, it just comes to show that just because certain original films are successful upon their original releases, that doesn’t automatically mean that they should have a sequel. That is unless you have a really, really good follow up. Sadly, this is one of those times where the sequel at least has a decent follow up. If you’re expecting a sequel in the same league as say most of the Toy Story sequels, definitely prepare for your expectations to be shattered. However, if you’re flipping through On Demand, and are at least looking for something that’s fairly entertaining, then I guess you can’t go wrong. Well, feel free to check this film out, and see what you think!
Final Grade: B-
Matthew’s Animated & Live-Action Movie Reviews 