Trolls Band Together Parent Guide

Many years ago, Branch (Justin Timberlake) was in a boy band with his brothers, but the pressures of success caused the brothers, and the band, to break up for good. Or at least until the oldest brother, John Dory (Eric André) appears back in Branch’s life unexpectedly with the news that one of their other siblings, Floyd (Troye Sivan), is being held captive while his talent is harvested by some wannabe pop stars. The only way to save Floyd is to get the whole family back together, so Branch, John Dory, and Poppy (Anna Kendrick) set out to find everyone and repair some old wounds.

I was an adult when the Trolls franchise started, and I’ve managed to avoid it until now. But alas, the siren call of money was too strong to ignore, so I found myself in a theater watching the fourth installment of a series of which I have zero knowledge. In other words, I had very low expectations going in. However, I was pleasantly surprised at how okay this film was. It wasn’t good by any means, but I wasn’t outright angry or annoyed, which is way more than I can say for most media aimed at junior moviegoers. I was neither entertained nor bored, but existing in some sort of neutral state. Perhaps this is what meditation practitioners mean when they talk about “just being”?

Adult perspective aside, my seven-year-old had a great time. He also had low expectations, telling me that “Trolls is for babies” beforehand, but when the credits rolled, he looked at me and said he liked it. And then requested we listen to the soundtrack on the way home. He said the music was good and that it was funny.

Credit where credit is due, I may not understand the world of Trolls, but I appreciate its aesthetic. This imaginary world is colorful and creative and has some really fun visual sequences. The animation is shockingly good: DreamWorks has been stepping it up in that department lately, which is nice to see. The script is simple, and you can tell the writers didn’t have a full 90 minutes of story, so they added in some time-killing sequences for padding, but again, it’s not offensively bad.

There are some “adult” jokes that will go over kids’ heads, like a vague drug reference and some sexual innuendo, but that’s par for the course for this studio. Otherwise, Trolls Band Together is appropriate for most audiences, though aimed squarely at young ones. Parents will be pleased to know that they won’t want to rip their eyes out in the theater, and they’ll get a new NSYNC song out of it, which could be a plus or minus depending on your musical proclivities. Though not destined to be an enduring classic, this flick does the job it set out to do - entertain young kids for 90 minutes without causing too much adult distress. And sometimes that’s enough.