“Trolls World Tour” is a sequel built on the premise that the world of Trolls is bigger than anyone expected. Queen Poppy and Branch discover that their village is not the whole story — there are other troll tribes, each representing a different genre of music. That idea is simple, and it should be the engine of the movie. Instead, the film spends its 91 minutes chasing a villain named Barb, a queen of Hard Rock who wants to convert every troll into her own kind. The result is a movie that keeps moving but never settles into anything worth remembering.
Trailer, via Universal Kids.
Barb’s Plan and the Six Strings
The central conflict is easy to explain: Barb wants to unite all the trolls under rock music, and she will force the others to change to do it. Poppy, Branch, and their friends set out to stop her. The problem is that the setup is thin. The tribes exist as labels — Techno, Funk, Classical, Country, Hard Rock, and Pop — but the movie rarely digs into what makes each one distinct beyond the name. A movie about musical tribes should feel like a carnival of sound. “Trolls World Tour” feels like a list of names.
The plot also moves through several side stories that don’t get enough room to matter. Guy Diamond gives birth to a son named Tiny Diamond, who looks exactly like his father. Cooper finds old illustrations of trolls like himself and goes off to find them. These threads keep getting pushed aside in favor of the main chase, and they leave the viewer wondering why they were included at all.
Poppy’s Journey and the Voice Cast
Anna Kendrick returns as Poppy, and Justin Timberlake returns as Branch. Their chemistry is still the strongest part of the film. Kendrick plays Poppy as warm and earnest, and Timberlake plays Branch as cynical and guarded, and the two bounce off each other with a rapport that the script can’t quite support. The rest of the voice cast is full of names — Ron Funches, Rachel Bloom, James Corden, Anderson .Paak, Sam Rockwell, George Clinton, Mary J. Blige — and the film leans on them heavily. Some of those voices get a moment or two. Most of them don’t.
The movie introduces new villains and side characters without giving them much to do. Delta Dawn, a character voiced by Kelly Clarkson, appears briefly as a representative of the Hard Rock tribe. She is a queen who is supposed to be a rival to Poppy, but the film doesn’t give her a reason to be memorable. The same is true of Prince D, voiced by Anderson .Paak, and of King Quincy, voiced by George Clinton. None of them are developed beyond their function in the plot.
Pennywhistle and the Missing Songs
One of the few moments that lands comes when Poppy’s group meets Pennywhistle, a sentient flute who explains that Barb’s plan is to force everyone into conformity. It is a small beat, but it is one of the clearest statements of what the movie is actually about. The rest of the film struggles to hold onto that clarity.
Poppy’s attempt to cheer up the Country Trolls in Lonesome Flats is a low point. The film wants to show that Poppy cares about the other tribes, but it does so by forcing the Country Trolls to perform a pop song. It is a strange choice for a movie about respecting difference. The Pop Trolls are imprisoned, rescued by a smooth-talking Co, and the scene ends without much weight.
Where It Falls Short
The film’s biggest failure is that it never commits to its own premise. The six strings represent the tribes, and the movie could have used that as a way to explore what makes each genre special. Instead, it treats the genres as obstacles in the way of the chase. The result is a movie that is busy without being focused.
Here is a quick rundown of where the film loses ground:
- The premise — musical tribes — is never fully explored.
- The villain, Barb, is thin and cartoonish.
- Side characters like Tiny Diamond and Cooper are introduced but abandoned.
- The music numbers are competent but forgettable.
- The climax relies on spectacle rather than stakes.
The film is at its best when it is simply letting the cast play together. Kendrick and Timberlake have a natural ease with each other, and the movie captures that well. But the rest of the runtime is spent chasing Barb across a map of genres that never gets explained. The movie is trying to be a musical adventure, but it never figures out what that means.
A Familiar Tune With Nothing New
“Trolls World Tour” is a sequel that repeats the formula of the first film without adding much to it. The songs are pleasant, the jokes are fine, and the voice cast is large and talented. But none of that adds up to a movie that earns its runtime. The film is pleasant, occasionally funny, and almost entirely forgettable.
The tagline promises “Happiest. Movie. Ever.” The film does not deliver on that promise. It is a happy movie, sure, but it is not the happiest one ever made. It is a sequel that fans of the first film will enjoy for a few hours and then forget.
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