I have not been a fan of the Trolls franchise since the first film, actually probably before even before the first one came out, I was not looking forward to seeing it. These were not the trolls I grew up with and collected, except for the little fake out at the tree in the beginning of the first movie which pays homage to the original Good Luck Trolls. To me this installment just creates even more confusion of the world and how its designed. Both these films to me are as if a camera was jammed into a large container of cotton candy with a speaker blasting through it. I am not the main demographic for this movie, this is clearly aimed at children under ten, I mean they made a real life character in the Universal theme parks that actually farts glitter at meet and greets. To be fair the first movie did try to have a story line with the Bergens and the message of you can find happiness within yourself, this one of course has a message of its okay to be different and the world is better with diversity, its just the way its executed. You have basically a fish out of water story with the pop gang going into other kingdoms, but, you don’t have that humor and there are missed opportunities to develop stronger characters or world build that get pushed aside as it seems we just blah blah until we can get to the next song moment. If you liked the first one or have kids that liked the first one, you will probably enjoy this. If you missed the first one or don’t have kids, skip this tour. C.
As you know as of writing this, we are still in the middle of the COVID-19, Corona Crisis, Pandemic or whatever the hell you want to call it. This is the first big tent pole film that a studio has released straight to a streaming service, yeah we had some others before this that his streaming too, but they all were either smaller independent type films or had at least a small stint in theaters Honestly, I caught myself even saying $20.00 is not bad compared to what we as a family of three would have spend if we all went out to the theater. Though thinking it is just a 48 hour rental, where normally we would see it in theaters and then a few months later if we liked it pay and get the DVD combo pack with a digital copy for not that much more. But, I did miss the group experience with a movie like this and for a children focused movie, my son enjoys being in a theater and seeing other kids watching it and laughing or singing along with this type of movie. Did this work well as a straight to release right now, I think so because many families have been cooped up for a couple weeks now, this giving those families something new to experience together. For individual adults or couples without children, I don’t think that crowd is rushing to the couch to fork over to see this, maybe if they had like A-List they would have seen it in theaters as one of their selections. Like many others I am waiting to see what kind of numbers this does straight to streaming, it sounds bad, I hope it doesn’t do well, I want movie theaters to be around for a while. There is just something about the escapism of going out, I’m not as distracted by things like my phone or chores while watching and there’s just an energy that flows through an audience that some movies just play better with.
