Trolls World Tour

"Trolls 2" redirects here. For the 1990 comedy horror film, see Troll 2.

Trolls World Tour
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Walt Dohrn
Screenplay by	Jonathan Aibel Glenn Berger Elizabeth Tippet Maya Forbes Wallace Wolodarsky
Story by	Jonathan Aibel Glenn Berger
Produced by	Gina Shay
Starring	Anna Kendrick Justin Timberlake Rachel Bloom James Corden Ron Funches Kelly Clarkson Anderson Paak Sam Rockwell George Clinton Mary J. Blige
Edited by	Nick Fletcher
Music by	Theodore Shapiro
Production company	DreamWorks Animation
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	April 10, 2020 (2020-04-10) (United States)
Running time	91 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$90–100 million
Box office	$1.9 million

Trolls World Tour is a 2020 American computer-animated jukebox musical film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures. The film is a sequel to the 2016 film Trolls, directed by Walt Dohrn with co-direction by David P. Smith, produced by Gina Shay, and written by Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger, Elizabeth Tippet, Maya Forbes and Wallace Wolodarsky, from a story by Aibel and Berger. The film stars Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, Ron Funches, James Corden, Kunal Nayyar, Kelly Clarkson, Ozzy Osbourne, Sam Rockwell, Kenan Thompson and Rachel Bloom.

Trolls World Tour was theatrically released in the United States on April 10, 2020. Due to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic in the United States, the film was also released for digital rental on the same day.

Plot

A celebration of the Techno Trolls is crashed by the Rock Trolls, led by Queen Barb. After Barb destroys his DJ station with her guitar's power, King Trollex is forced to surrender the blue string that powers Techno music.

Poppy, still adjusting to her new role as queen, receives a message from Barb that invites all Trolls to a party to unite their music. Her father, King Peppy tells the story of how the Troll tribes became scattered throughout their world Troll Kingdom. He explains how the six primary tribes, each represented by a different style of music: Pop, Funk. Classical, Techno, Country, and Rock are powered by a magical string kept by the leader of each tribe. Having separated their tribes following discord and disagreement over which style of music was the best, Poppy wants to help Barb unite the different forms of music, but both her father and Branch warn her not to trust Queen Barb's intentions and to accept that the other Trolls are different. Poppy refuses to listen, sending a cheerful reply to Barb via Debbie, Barb's pet bat.

Meanwhile, Barb gloats over her victory of snatching the Techno string, revealing her plan to string an enchanted guitar with all six strings, and play a power chord strong enough to destroy all other music, replacing it with rock.

Wanting to prove herself as a good queen, Poppy travels via air balloon to recruit the other groups of Trolls, Branch joining her in an attempt to express his feelings towards her. Biggie accidentally stows aboard the balloon, and joins them. Meanwhile, Cooper, who feels like the black sheep among the Pop trolls, goes on a journey himself to find Trolls who look like him.

The balloon ends up in the land of Classical Trolls, which, to Poppy's horror, is in ruins. A single small flute named Pennywhistle tells Poppy their town had been decimated by Barb's armada, who captured all the citizens and stole the yellow Classical string. Poppy decides to now unite the other Trolls to stop Barb. Branch and Biggie both urge her to return home to protect the pink Pop string, but Poppy reveals it hidden in her hair. They then travel to the Country Trolls' land, but after introducing themselves with a loud medley of pop songs, are jailed by an offended Delta Dawn, leader of the Country Trolls.

While in jail, a Country Troll named Hickory, claiming to be moved by Poppy's motives, breaks them out, leading to a chase to a ravine, where the group falls into a river. Branch does not trust Hickory, even when the Hickory builds a raft to take the group downstream. The conversation is interrupted by Chaz, a Smooth Jazz Troll hired as a bounty hunter to catch Poppy for Queen Barb. Chaz plays smooth jazz which causes Poppy and Branch to fall into a dream-like state, imagining narwhals and Branch feeding sushi sized replicas of himself to Poppy with chopsticks. Hickory incapacitates Chaz, but Biggie, disillusioned by Poppy's poor leadership, decides to return home. Shortly after, the group is abducted by a space ship wielding magical soap bubbles.

Inside the spaceship, the group meets the Funk Trolls, and meets up with Cooper, who is revealed to have been a long lost identical twin prince of Funk all along. Cooper tells Poppy he finds comfort in identifying with both Pop and Funk, and his parents, King Quincy and Queen Essence, reveal to Poppy that long ago the original Pop Trolls had attempted to steal the strings and remix the other five music styles into Pop, forcing the other Trolls to each take one string and divide their tribes to save their music. Quincy explains to Poppy that differences are not bad, and trying to make all Trolls the same does not help the problem.

After the Rock Trolls hijack the Funk Trolls' ship to steal the purple Funk String, Cooper ejects the group in bubbles, accidentally separating Hickory from the two. Branch and Poppy fight when Poppy refuses to return home to their friends, and Branch admonishes her insisting she cannot be a good queen if she is a poor listener, and the two go their separate ways, heartbroken. Branch is soon captured by both K-Pop and Reggaeton bounty hunters. However, he eventually convinces them to stop capturing and fighting and save Poppy and all music.

Poppy reunites with Hickory, showing him the Pop string. Hickory urges her to return home, but suddenly is revealed to have been a Yodel Troll all along. He and another Yodel Troll, Dickory, had been hired to capture her for Barb, but Hickory had a change of heart. Before she can escape, Poppy is then captured personally by Barb, who takes possession of the sixth and final string. Biggie returns home and after seeing it in shambles, feels remorse over abandoning Poppy. He gathers together their remaining friends to go rescue her and Branch, entering the land of the Rock Trolls.

Barb has Poppy imprisoned over a large concert stage where all the captured Trolls are the audience, and admits she empathizes with Poppy's attempts to be a good queen, as she is trying to make rock supreme to prove her own leadership. Barb uses her enchanted guitar during the concert to turn Branch, and the leaders of the other lands into rock zombies. Poppy seemingly is transformed into a rock zombie when she falls onto the stage, but upon grabbing Barb's guitar, is revealed to have been wearing gumdrop earplugs. She admonishes Barb for being a poor queen by not taking time to listen to her people, and smashes the guitar. While it snaps the possessed trolls out of their rock zombie state, it destroys the strings, ending music, and causing all the trolls to lose their colors, much to Barb’s anguish.

Cooper hears his heartbeat over a microphone, and creates a rhythmic beat with it, other trolls joining in with clapping, stomping, and other forms of soundmaking, reviving the power of their music, and Poppy encourages everyone to sing together as their colors are restored. Realizing how important other forms of music are, and encouraged by her father Thrash, the repented Barb joins in, regaining her colors, and eagerly accepts Poppy's offer of friendship.

Branch is finally able to profess his love to Poppy who reciprocates his feelings, and everyone performs together, all Trolls finally reunited while celebrating their differences.

In a mid-credits scene, Bridget and King Gristle arrive to the Pop Troll village, unaware of the events that have taken place, and worried they have missed the party.

Cast

• Anna Kendrick as Queen Poppy, the optimistic Queen of the Pop Trolls and Branch's love interest.
• Justin Timberlake as Branch, an over-cautious, good-hearted survivalist Pop Troll and Poppy's love interest.
• James Corden as Biggie, a chubby, friendly pop Troll.
• Rachel Bloom as Queen Barb, the wild-hearted Queen of the Hard Rock Trolls and Thrash's daughter.
• Ozzy Osbourne as King Thrash, former King of the Hard Rock Trolls, and Barb's semi-senile father.
• Anderson Paak as Prince D, a Funk Troll who is Quincy and Essence's son and Cooper’s twin brother.
• George Clinton as King Quincy, the King of the Funk Trolls.
• Mary J. Blige as Queen Essence, the Queen of the Funk Trolls.
• Kelly Clarkson as Delta Dawn, the half-troll half-horse leader of the Country Trolls.
• Sam Rockwell as Hickory, a Yodel Troll who is disguised as a Country Troll.
• Icona Pop as Satin and Chenille, two Pop Troll twins who are conjoined by the hair.
• Ron Funches as Cooper, a Pop troll who walks on all fours and who is later revealed to be a Funk Troll.
• Kunal Nayyar as Guy Diamond, a glittery silver Pop Troll with a highly auto-tuned voice.
• Jamie Dornan as Chaz, a Smooth Jazz Troll whose music has hypnotic effects.
• J Balvin as Tresillo, the leader of the Reggaeton Trolls.
• Kenan Thompson as Tiny Diamond, a Hip-Hop Troll and Guy Diamond's newborn son.
• Kevin Michael Richardson as Mr. Dinkles, Biggie's pet worm.
• Walt Dohrn as
  • Smidge, a small female pop Troll with a masculine voice.
  • Cloud Guy, an anthropomorphic cloud.
  • King Peppy, Poppy's father and the former King of the pop Trolls. He was previously voiced by Jeffrey Tambor.
  • Fuzzbert, a hair pop troll with legs.
  • Additional voices
• Ester Dean as Legsly, a Pop Troll who can make her legs really long at will.
• Gustavo Dudamel as Trollzart, a troll with wings and the leader of the Classical Trolls.
• Anthony Ramos as King Trollex, the King of the Techno Trolls.
• Flula Borg as Dickory, a Yodel Troll who is inside of the back of Hickory
• Charlyne Yi as Pennywhistle, a whistle from the Classical Troll village.
• Zooey Deschanel as Bridget
• Christopher Mintz-Plasse as King Gristle
• Betsy Sodaro as Clampers Buttonwillow
• The McElroy Brothers as Skyscraper
  • Justin also voices Techno Beat Drop Button and Tumbleweed.
  • Travis also voices Rock Tear
  • Griffin also voices Country Tear
• Red Velvet as the K-Pop Gang:
  • Wendy voices Wani, the leader of the K-Pop Trolls and Tresillo’s rival. She also voices Poppy in the Korean dub.
  • Irene voices Baby Bun, Gomdori’s best friend.
  • Seulgi voices Gomdori, Wani’s lieutenant.
  • Joy voices Ari, Wani’s third in command.
  • Yeri voices Kim-Petit, the most silent of the K-Pop Trolls.

Production

Development

On February 28, 2017, Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Animation announced a sequel to the 2016 film Trolls, with Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake reprising their roles as Poppy and Branch.

Casting

In March 2017, podcasters the McElroy brothers began campaigning for roles in the film via a podcast titled "The McElroy Brothers Will Be in Trolls 2". Following the campaign's success, DreamWorks confirmed in September 2018 that the McElroy brothers would make cameo appearances in World Tour.

Sam Rockwell, Chance the Rapper, Anthony Ramos, Jamie Dornan and Flula Borg were added to the cast in May 2018. Corden, Icona Pop, Funches, and Nayyar returned to reprise their roles. On June 12, 2018, the film was retitled as Trolls World Tour. In October 2018, it was confirmed that Kelly Clarkson had joined the cast, and will perform an original song. In June 2019, along with promotional posters, new cast members have been announced, which include: J Balvin, Mary J. Blige, Rachel Bloom, George Clinton, Ester Dean and Gustavo Dudamel.

Music

Along with Timberlake, Clarkson, Paak, Blige and Clinton, songs are provided by Chris Stapleton and SZA.

The first single from the movie's soundtrack, "The Other Side", by Timberlake and SZA, was released on February 26, 2020. The Trolls World Tour: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released on March 13, 2020.

Soundtrack

{{Main article:Trolls World Tour (soundtrack)

1. The Other Side by SZA & Justin Timberlake
2. One More Time
3. Rock You Like a Hurricane
4. Trolls Wanna Have a Good Time
5. Crazy Train
6. Symphony No. 5 in C Minor
7. Born to Die by Kelly Clarkson
8. Trolls 2 Many Hits Mashup by Anna Kendrick, Timberlake, James Corden, Icona Pop & the Pop Trolls
9. Leaving Lonesome Flats by Dierks Bentley
10. I Fall to Pieces by Sam Rockwell
11. Atomic Dog World Tour Remix
12. It's All Love (History of Funk)
13. Perfect for Me by Timberlake
14. Russian Roulette by Red Velvet
15. Mi Gente by J. Balvin & Willy William
16. Barracuda
17. Just Sing (Trolls World Tour) by Kendrick, James Corden, Kelly Clarkson, George Clinton, Mary J. Blige, Anderson. Paak, Rachel Bloom, Kenan Thompson
18. Don't Slack

Release

Universal Pictures originally planned to release Trolls World Tour theatrically in the United States on April 10, 2020. It was later pushed up to February 14, 2020 before being moved to April 17, 2020. Following the delay of No Time to Die, it was once again pushed up to the original April 10 release date. It was also set to be released on March 20 in the United Kingdom, but due to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic in the United Kingdom, its release date was pushed back to April 6.

On March 16, Universal announced that the film would be released simultaneously in theaters and for rental on digital platforms on April 10 in the United States due to the 2019-20 coronavirus pandemic.

Marketing

On June 20, 2019, DreamWorks released 22 character posters for the film, along with promotional film stills. On June 21, the first trailer was released.

A second trailer was released on November 15, 2019. A third trailer was released on March 6, 2020, featuring the new release date.

Reception

Box office

As of April 13, 2020, Trolls World Tour has grossed $60,000 in the United States and Canada, and $1.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $1.9 million.

In the U.S., the film made about $60,000 in its opening weekend from 25 drive-in theaters. Following its debut digital streaming weekend, it was reported by FandangoNow that the film had set the record for most streams on a release weekend by the company. The film also finished number one for Amazon Prime, Comcast, Apple TV, Vudu, YouTube, and DirecTV Now, with Universal reporting it was purchased 10-times more than Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which had made $2-3 million on its first day. The film made at least an estimated $40 million over the weekend, with Universal still to report official figures. Deadline Hollywood estimated that due to the film's approximate $90 million production cost, plus another $30 million spent on marketing (although rival studios claim Universal spent more than that), the film could break-even if 9–12 million people rent the film, resulting in about $200 million in revenue.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 72% based on 96 reviews with an average rating of 6.14/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "A fun follow-up for fans of the original, Trolls World Tour offers a second helping of colorful animation, infectious energy, and sing-along songs." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on 27 critic reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews" receiving 10 positive, 16 mixed, and 1 negative review.

External links

• Official website
• Trolls World Tour at IMDb