Trolls World Tour review: Rock on with this psychedelic pop world pastiche

Once upon a time, a prince of pop (aka Justin Timberlake) said something dumb. Accused by a black journalist of appropriating black music, he tweeted: “Oh, you sweet soul. The more you realise that we are the same, the more we can have a conversation.”

Timberlake is one of the vocal stars (and executive producers) of this animated sequel, in which an extremely privileged purveyor of pop waffles on about everyone being the same, only to be given a much-needed lesson in cultural history. Trolls World Tour is Timberlake’s mea culpa and it rocks.

Like the first Trolls movie, it’s designed to transport little kids and fans of psychedelic fungi to the land of happy. Male trolls give birth. A “smooth jazz” maestro induces hallucinations dominated by sushi. Terry Gilliam’s work is obviously a touchstone for director Walt Dohrn. Whimsical Finnish genius Tove Jansson is surely another. The film’s baddie, a mardy-bum called Queen Barb, looks separated at birth from The Moomins’ epic scowler Little My.

The plot, admittedly, is uneven. Our heroes Poppy (Anna Kendrick) and Branch (Timberlake) discover that the troll universe is full of diverse musical tribes (techno, classical, country, funk, rock and pop) and that — shock horror! — Barb (Rachel Bloom) wants to obliterate everything except hard rock. As we meet the various tribes there are longueurs, as well as missed opportunities. Ozzy Osbourne is Barb’s ageing dad King Thrash (too arthritic to make the sign of the beast). Poor Ozzy gets two lines. This isn’t his finest minute, let alone hour.

Trolls: World Tour - In pictures

1/9

But when World Tour is good, it’s so good. Over the course of the movie, perky pop is described as “bland”, “repetitive” and “empty” and it’s somehow fitting that the most stirring musical number is a hilariously morose country dirge (“this misery makes it hard to deny... we know that we’re just born to die”) but I’ll wager even tots who listen to nothing but JoJo Siwa will find themselves beguiled. Born to Die (beautifully sung by Kelly Clarkson as Delta Dawn, a horse-troll with big hair) is perfect pastiche, because it venerates what it mocks.

A dance-off between bounty hunters who follow K-pop and reggaeton is also exhilarating (the dance moves are exactly right). And what’s not to love about World Tour’s message? Which, in case you’re wondering, is: all music has worth, except smooth jazz.

It’s impossible to discuss World Tour without acknowledging that it’s the only new blockbuster available this month. Universal’s decision to give their fancy project an online release, instead of waiting for a “theatrical window”,
has led to it being called a game-changer. One recent headline asked, “Is World Tour the most important movie of 2020?”

“Are you s***ting me?” are words that appear to come out of a character’s mouth, halfway through Poppy’s trip to the land of funk. Without coronavirus, this hyperactive extravaganza would have made a modest amount of money, then disappeared. It seems unlikely that World Tour will change the way we watch movies. But, I s*** you not, it is worth watching.

Trolls: World Tour will be available to download or stream for £15.99 from Monday on Sky Store, Amazon Prime Video, iTunes/Apple TV and Google Play

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