We all have guilty pleasures. Some people enjoy pineapple on pizza, some enjoy country music. Personally, I love watching children’s musicals. The worse they are, the better.
“Trolls: Band Together” is the third “Trolls” movie, starring Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake. I don’t know who came up with the idea of “Trolls,” but it is a wild concept. The trolls are tiny colorful creatures, with the Bergens looking more like what we would call trolls.
In the third movie, we learn that Branch, voiced by Justin Timberlake, was in a boy band with his brothers, called Brozone, and they needed to hit the perfect family harmony to break one of their brothers out of a diamond prison. See, wild.
The film progresses with Branch and Poppy, voiced by Anna Kendrick, looking for Branch’s brothers to save Floyd, the trapped brother, voiced by Troye Sivan. It is a fun adventure filled with family and surprises. I’m not kidding when I say that every single one of the characters seems to have a secret sibling.
The two villains of the movie, Velvet and Veneer, were one of my favorite parts of the movie. They are voiced by Amy Schumer (although Brianna Mazzola sings for her) and Andrew Ranelles respectively. They were awful, obviously, almost killing a troll for talent. They also have the idea that they deserve to be famous just because they want to. However, they also slay. Their voices and songs and dances and vibes were so cool, that it made it hard to hate them. Well, not really, but they do have a certain swagger to them that makes me like them so much more.
My favorite song in the movie would have to be “Mount Rageous,” sung by Velvet and Veneer. It is a mashup song of “Watch Me Work” and “Fame” and it feels very cool when watching the visuals we see with it. Although, I also like “Better Place (Family Harmony)” because it has a boyband feel that I surprisingly like. I don’t usually like boybands, but I enjoyed this one. The fact that the vocals were incredible didn’t hurt.
Another fun thing about this movie is the boy band references. They not-so-subtly add in boy band names like Boyz II Men, NSync, and One Direction. It’s fun and silly and brings a smile to my face because I understood that reference!
Kids’ movies have a charm to them that I can’t explain. They don’t have incredibly high stakes and always have a happy ending. It doesn’t hurt that a lot of them are musicals. “Trolls: Band Together” is one of the kids’ movies that I’ll watch over and over, if only to see Velvet and Veneer again. It might not be a blockbuster film, but it did get NSYNC back together, so that’s got to be something.
Overall, this is a silly kids’ movie that I enjoyed immensely. Call me immature, call me childish, but something about a no-stress movie where the only problem is hitting the perfect harmony just makes me happy, especially with all of the chaos happening in the real world. 5/5 Spartan heads, of course.