Pros: Unusual and cute characters; a funny medley of music from different styles; bright musical numbers; technologically interesting graphics; correct subtext Cons: The unusual visual style and some sweetness of the story will not appeal to everyone Trolls World Tour / “Trolls 2: World Tour”
Genre: cartoon, musical
Directed by Walt Dohrn
The roles were voiced by Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, James Corden, Rachel Bloom, Mary J. Blige, Kelly Clarkson, Ron Funches, Kunal Nayyar, Jamie Dornan, Anthony Ramos and others.
Studio DreamWorks Animation, Universal Pictures
Year of release 2020
IMDb website
And on April 13, Universal announced that Trolls World Tour had one of the best starts among digital releases on its first day and over the weekend as a whole. Exact figures, unfortunately, are not given, but it is reported that the cartoon collected 10 times more in figures than Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom / Jurassic World 2, so we can talk about amounts of $20-30 million. This, Of course, not the $300-400 million that Trolls World Tour was aiming for in the event of a theatrical release, but at least something in the current difficult situation. In addition, the cartoon was shown in some drive-in theaters in the United States, where the box office grossed another $1.9 million. The film, which cost about $100 million, is still very far from breaking even.
Right now you can rent a cartoon on YouTube for only 26 UAH. or purchase in HD quality for 60 UAH, however, only with English voice acting. On some services you can also find a version with a Russian track. Unfortunately, the film has not yet appeared on Ukrainian streaming services; the plans of the local distributor include the release of the cartoon in June 2020, which, frankly, is unlikely. But let’s talk about the picture itself.
Trolls World Tour is a musical medley, what in the English version is called Jukebox musical – a musical built on cover versions and rehashes of popular songs. In this case, in accordance with the plot, diverse compositions of completely opposite genres. Hard rock, pop, funk, jazz, K-pop, country, classical music, techno, rap, Tyrolean tunes, etc. So your viewing pleasure directly depends on how ready you are to perceive musical compositions of different styles.
According to the plot of Trolls World Tour, the trolls and Queen Rosette learn that there are actually six troll kingdoms and the trolls living in them are completely different from each other, and, worst of all, they prefer other styles of music. But that’s not all, it turns out that Roxy, the queen of hard rock trolls, plans to destroy other styles of music and establish rock dominance throughout the world. Poppy and her friends go on a dangerous journey to help other kingdoms and defeat Roxy. But the trouble is, trolls, adherents of different styles of music, do not want to hear each other and lose to the assertive rockers and their leader.
Actually, the main idea that the authors of Trolls World Tour want to convey to young and adult viewers is that all styles of music are important. That the fact that we are all so different is very important and allows us to be original and interesting to others. That it is vitally important to listen and hear each other. Correct thoughts and very good presentation.
Since Trolls World Tour is primarily a musical, there are a lot of song numbers here, almost more than in traditional Disney cartoons, and they are actually quite good. Both original songs and re-covers of classic pop and rock hits. Bright, beautiful, with dancing and special effects, in the original performed by real singers, including Justin Timberlake, who voices one of the characters.
As for the visual style, some of the psychedelia characteristic of modern children’s cartoons, and sometimes very colorful pictures, will not appeal to everyone. But from a technical point of view, the cartoon is very good. The imitation of various materials and media is impressive: fabric, suede, felt, wool, cotton, ribbons, glitter, dust, papier-mâché, because all the troll kingdoms are created from scrap materials. Experiments with depth of field and different rendering styles also look interesting.
In general, Trolls World Tour is a little strange, but very cute and bright cartoon with references to song hits of 1970-2010. The best thing to watch with your children during quarantine.
From a business perspective, the Trolls World Tour experience is the answer to the question of why it makes no sense for big-screen films to be released digitally. $20-30 million in fees is ten times less than the cartoon could have collected in theaters, and several times below the breakeven line.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5IC_BLMukU
Conclusion:
An interesting and fun musical medley that is worth watching with your children
