Just when I was starting to develop a soft spot for animated spin-offs, Trolls found a way to rip ALL of that away from me. I don't review animated movies as much as television series, and there's a reason for that. I'm more invested in animation than live-action and unfortunately, when it comes to theatrical features, I don't feel very excited as of lately. There have been some pretty good animated movies released in the past decade, but the more you watch them, the more washed-up they feel.
Regardless of which studio has been the most responsible, we can all agree that a lot of animated movies feel formulated, in every single aspect. From the structure, to the art direction. And this very idea was the reason why I didn't even bother to watch Trolls when it first came out; In fact, I had no plans to watch it until recently, when I decided to review the Netflix series. And after watching it, I got EXACTLY what I expected to see; Same types of jokes and gag characters, same sound design, same visual style of emotional implication and perspective shots, needless addition of popular songs, and just to add something a little extra, I disagree with the show's main ideology of "Be happy all the time".
If I had to rate the movie, I would give it a generous 5/10, for the single fact that I acknowledge the effort that was put into making the animation look expensive, and admirable profession, and some of the characters arcs were perfectly competent. My overall impression, was that it was pretty uninteresting. And I would have NEVER want to revisit it, and I DEFINETLY do not see potential in a full series, but I guess I was wrong. Oh wait.. I was right, because just like it's source material, the show is SUPER BORING.
So the series takes place after the events of the movie which, I'll give them props for not driving me crazy with continuity errors; In fact I was impressed at how Branch feels appropriately developed, in which he's more open to the idea of happiness, but he also hasn't abandoned his more cynical side. Which makes sense, since it's now embedded in his personality after years of it defining who he is. But at the same time, this is kind of a flaw with the series. Honestly, Branch was the only character in the movie that I had ANY emotional investment in. He had the most interesting background even if the movie didn't DO much to make him come to grips with it, and move on in a natural way. And his cynicism perfectly contrasted Poppy's naïve optimism throughout the journey they had in the movie. I didn't care for Poppy in the movie, besides how her ideology was clashing with Branch, and I care even LESS for Poppy in this series.
Her main ongoing struggle is to become a better Queen, except this never really feels like an emotional challenge for her. She has no real expectations, it's not like her father pushes her to be the best Queen she can be, and what I don't think was ever established is that she lives in the shadow of her predecessor, so she doesn't really have much to prove in the end. This just feels like a painfully simplistic character struggle. And as for Branch, his character seems perfectly mature and adjusted, so there isn't really much at stake for him, and I don't really find any of them either fun or charming enough, that I would want to see more of them.
So at the end of the day, the only thing you'll end up really caring for, is the tension between the trolls and the bergens, in which Poppy is trying to create harmony between them. Besides the two main characters, there's NOT much emotional connection built that felt significant to me. King Grizzle and Bridget are fine I guess, even if at times it feels like the show wants me to have a stronger bond with them despite the fact that in the movie, they were just tools. But the rest of the troll characters are EVEN worse; in the movie they were just one-dimensional characters, and they don't seem to be any different here. So taking account all of these factors, and add the fact that the stories have, (and this is me being nice) acceptably fine premises with basic structures, you can probably imagine what was my experience. It was a complete drag.
I'm not very fond of the colour choices, some trolls have noses with weird colours that are sometimes TOO bright, and in relation with the colour of the hair, skin and clothes, the combination just doesn't feel aesthetically pleasing to me. I also really don't like the soundtrack; I hate criticizing shows and movies for adding electronic dance music, and in all fairness, there are moments when the addition of EDM is justified, like whenever there's a party happening. But then you have an intense scene that has a musical score with a dance craving beat, and I just think, "Was that REALLY necessary?" You know, I'd much rather listen to generic stock background music than this tone misplaced musical score. There are several songs that sound over processed, including the opening theme song. To be fair, the voice acting is actually good, even if they're not the same voice actors. And to wrap things up, the show is not funny. That's all I really have to add; Humor is subjective I guess. So, yes this show is PAINFUL. The songs are tone-deaf, the colours are mismatched, and the characters are one-note.
Regardless of which studio has been the most responsible, we can all agree that a lot of animated movies feel formulated, in every single aspect. From the structure, to the art direction. And this very idea was the reason why I didn't even bother to watch Trolls when it first came out; In fact, I had no plans to watch it until recently, when I decided to review the Netflix series. And after watching it, I got EXACTLY what I expected to see; Same types of jokes and gag characters, same sound design, same visual style of emotional implication and perspective shots, needless addition of popular songs, and just to add something a little extra, I disagree with the show's main ideology of "Be happy all the time".
If I had to rate the movie, I would give it a generous 5/10, for the single fact that I acknowledge the effort that was put into making the animation look expensive, and admirable profession, and some of the characters arcs were perfectly competent. My overall impression, was that it was pretty uninteresting. And I would have NEVER want to revisit it, and I DEFINETLY do not see potential in a full series, but I guess I was wrong. Oh wait.. I was right, because just like it's source material, the show is SUPER BORING.
So the series takes place after the events of the movie which, I'll give them props for not driving me crazy with continuity errors; In fact I was impressed at how Branch feels appropriately developed, in which he's more open to the idea of happiness, but he also hasn't abandoned his more cynical side. Which makes sense, since it's now embedded in his personality after years of it defining who he is. But at the same time, this is kind of a flaw with the series. Honestly, Branch was the only character in the movie that I had ANY emotional investment in. He had the most interesting background even if the movie didn't DO much to make him come to grips with it, and move on in a natural way. And his cynicism perfectly contrasted Poppy's naïve optimism throughout the journey they had in the movie. I didn't care for Poppy in the movie, besides how her ideology was clashing with Branch, and I care even LESS for Poppy in this series.
Her main ongoing struggle is to become a better Queen, except this never really feels like an emotional challenge for her. She has no real expectations, it's not like her father pushes her to be the best Queen she can be, and what I don't think was ever established is that she lives in the shadow of her predecessor, so she doesn't really have much to prove in the end. This just feels like a painfully simplistic character struggle. And as for Branch, his character seems perfectly mature and adjusted, so there isn't really much at stake for him, and I don't really find any of them either fun or charming enough, that I would want to see more of them.
So at the end of the day, the only thing you'll end up really caring for, is the tension between the trolls and the bergens, in which Poppy is trying to create harmony between them. Besides the two main characters, there's NOT much emotional connection built that felt significant to me. King Grizzle and Bridget are fine I guess, even if at times it feels like the show wants me to have a stronger bond with them despite the fact that in the movie, they were just tools. But the rest of the troll characters are EVEN worse; in the movie they were just one-dimensional characters, and they don't seem to be any different here. So taking account all of these factors, and add the fact that the stories have, (and this is me being nice) acceptably fine premises with basic structures, you can probably imagine what was my experience. It was a complete drag.
I'm not very fond of the colour choices, some trolls have noses with weird colours that are sometimes TOO bright, and in relation with the colour of the hair, skin and clothes, the combination just doesn't feel aesthetically pleasing to me. I also really don't like the soundtrack; I hate criticizing shows and movies for adding electronic dance music, and in all fairness, there are moments when the addition of EDM is justified, like whenever there's a party happening. But then you have an intense scene that has a musical score with a dance craving beat, and I just think, "Was that REALLY necessary?" You know, I'd much rather listen to generic stock background music than this tone misplaced musical score. There are several songs that sound over processed, including the opening theme song. To be fair, the voice acting is actually good, even if they're not the same voice actors. And to wrap things up, the show is not funny. That's all I really have to add; Humor is subjective I guess. So, yes this show is PAINFUL. The songs are tone-deaf, the colours are mismatched, and the characters are one-note.