Trolls World Tour


Trolls World Tour is a 2020 American computer-animated jukebox musical comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures. The film is a sequel to the 2016 film Trolls, directed by Walt Dohrn with co-direction by David P. Smith, produced by Gina Shay, and written by Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger, Elizabeth Tippet, Maya Forbes and Wallace Wolodarsky, from a story by Aibel and Berger. The film features an ensemble cast that features the voices of Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, Rachel Bloom, Ozzy Osbourne, James Corden, Ron Funches, Kelly Clarkson, Anderson Paak, Sam Rockwell, George Clinton, Mary J. Blige, Anthony Ramos, Gustavo Dudamel, Kunal Nayyar, Icona Pop, Ester Dean, Flula Borg, J Balvin, Jamie Dornan, Red Velvet, Karan Soni, Charlyne Yi, and Kenan Thompson.
Trolls World Tour was released in the United States in a limited amount of theaters on April 10, 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, it was also released for digital rental on the same day. The film set several streaming records including becoming Universal's most successful day-one rental. Its success led to Universal announcing that they would be looking into doing more simultaneous theatrical and streaming releases and in response, several theater chains, including AMC Theatres, announced they would no longer distribute the studio's films; it eventually resulted in the theatrical window of films being shortened.

Plot

A tribe of Techno Trolls is attacked by Barb, the queen of the Hard Rock Trolls, in the midst of an underwater DJ concert. In order to protect his tribe, King Trollex reluctantly agrees to give Barb the Techno string.
Meanwhile, Poppy, the queen of the Pop Trolls, receives an invitation from Barb that summons all six Troll tribes to a party for them to reunite their music. Poppy’s father, King Peppy, explains to her that each tribe is represented by a different type of music: those being Pop, Funk, Classical, Techno, Country, and Rock, and each tribe has a magical string kept by their leader that powers their specific kind of music. However, Barb intends to steal all six strings and use them to destroy all other music to unite the trolls under rock music.
Poppy takes their tribe's string and goes on a mission to unite the other trolls, bringing along Branch, who is seeking to express his feelings towards her, and Biggie, a stowaway who was tempted by cotton candy. En route to Volcano Rock City, the trio arrive in Symphonyville, the home of the Classical Trolls, which is in ruins. A small flute named Pennywhistle tells Poppy about Barb's attack and theft of the Classical String, causing Poppy to change her plan to unite the Trolls against Barb. The trio then winds up in Lonesome Flats, the home of the Country Trolls. After hearing how despondent and downbeat their music is, they try to cheer them up with a pop medley, but this offends the Country Trolls and they wind up in jail. Hickory, a smooth-talking Country troll, comes to their rescue while the Country pack gives chase and builds them a raft to take them to the Funk Trolls in Vibe City. On the way, they encounter Chaz, a smooth jazz bounty hunter sent by Barb to capture Poppy and her string in favor of saving his music, prompting Biggie to leave.
Meanwhile, Cooper, a troll resembling a giraffe, discovers that there are more trolls out there just like him. He embarks on a quest to find them, but after a series of crazy events, he passes out, alone in the desert, until a spaceship beams him up, where it is revealed that Cooper is one of the princes of the Funk Trolls who had been snatched as an egg and raised by the pop tribe.
The group then gets abducted by the same spaceship Cooper got sucked up into. Inside, they meet the Funk trolls, who tell Poppy that the it was the Pop Trolls who tried to unite the others under their music, forcing each tribe to take their string and divide themselves. King Quincy and Queen Essence tell Poppy that differences do matter, and that trying to make all trolls the same doesn't help the problem. The Rock Trolls hijack the ship and steal the Funk String, causing the Funk trolls to eject the group with magical soap bubbles. Branch gets captured by K-Pop and Reggaeton Trolls, and the Pop String gets taken by Hickory, who was secretly a Yodeler troll, with his brother Dickory stowing away in his hind legs. Meanwhile, after seeing Pop Village in shambles by the Rock Trolls, the snack pack go to save Poppy and Branch after a pep talk from Biggie.
Barb has Poppy imprisoned over a large concert stage where all the captured Trolls are the audience. She uses her guitar with all six strings to turn all the other troll leaders and Branch into Rock zombies. Poppy is seemingly transformed but is revealed to have been wearing makeshift earplugs out of gumdrops, a move she learned earlier from Hickory when they encountered Chaz. Poppy admonishes Barb for being a poor queen by forcing her views on everyone and not taking time to listen to her people, before she smashes the guitar. While it snaps the possessed trolls out of their rock zombie state, it destroys the strings, thus ending the flow of music and taking the trolls’ colors with it. Foiled, Barb blames Poppy for destroying music and ruining everything.
Cooper then hears his heartbeat as he uses a microphone and Prince D creates a rhythmic beat with it, inspiring other trolls to join in the rhythm with their different forms of sound-making which revives the power of their music, while Poppy encourages everyone to sing together as their colors are restored. Realizing how important other forms of music are and encouraged by her father Thrash, the repentant Barb joins in, regaining her colors, and eagerly accepts Poppy's offer of friendship. Branch finally confesses his love to Poppy, who gladly reciprocates his feelings.
While back at Pop Village, everyone performs together, and all Trolls are finally reunited while celebrating their differences. In a mid-credits scene, Bridget and King Gristle arrive wondering what they missed.

Voice cast

Production

On February 28, 2017, Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Animation announced a sequel to the 2016 film Trolls, with Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake reprising their roles as Poppy and Branch.
In March 2017, podcasters the McElroy brothers began campaigning for roles in the film via a podcast titled "The McElroy Brothers Will Be in Trolls 2". Following the campaign's success, DreamWorks confirmed in September 2018 that the McElroy brothers would make cameo appearances in World Tour.
Sam Rockwell, Chance the Rapper, Anthony Ramos, Jamie Dornan and Flula Borg were added to the cast in May 2018. Corden, Icona Pop, Funches, and Nayyar returned to reprise their roles. On June 12, 2018, the film was retitled as Trolls World Tour. In October 2018, it was confirmed that Kelly Clarkson had joined the cast, and will perform an original song. In June 2019, along with promotional posters, new cast members have been announced, which include: J Balvin, Mary J. Blige, Rachel Bloom, George Clinton, Ester Dean and Gustavo Dudamel.

Music

Along with Timberlake, Clarkson, Paak, Blige and Clinton, songs are provided by Chris Stapleton and SZA.
The first single from the movie's soundtrack, "The Other Side", by Timberlake and SZA, was released on February 26, 2020. The Trolls World Tour: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released on March 13, 2020.

Release

originally planned to release Trolls World Tour theatrically in the United States on April 10, 2020. It was later pushed up to February 14, 2020 before being pushed back to April 17, 2020. Following the delay of No Time to Die, it was once again pushed up to the original April 10 release date. It was also set to be released on March 20 in the United Kingdom, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, its release date was pushed back to April 6.
On March 17, Universal announced that the film would be released simultaneously in theaters and for digital rental on April 10 in the United States and Canada due to the COVID-19 pandemic. By then, Trolls World Tour had only been released in Russia, Singapore, and Malaysia. Other films distributed by the studio, such as The Invisible Man and The Hunt were also released digitally before the end of the usual 90-day theatrical run.
As the pandemic receded, the film was released in three Santikos Theatres locations in San Antonio, Texas on May 1, 2020. Theatres in Hong Kong also started to show the film a week later on May 8, 2020. In Russia the film was made available in IMAX cinemas. In Austria and the Netherlands, it was released in both 4DX and Dolby Cinema.

Marketing

On June 20, 2019, DreamWorks released 22 character posters for the film, along with promotional film stills. On June 21, the first trailer was released.
A second trailer was released on November 15, 2019. A third trailer was released on March 6, 2020 featuring the new release date.

Home media

Trolls World Tour was made available for an early digital purchase on June 23, 2020. The film was released on DVD, Blu-ray, and Ultra HD Blu-ray by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment on July 7, 2020. All releases include an original short film entitled "Tiny Diamond Goes Back to School". By July 12, the film had totaled $14.9 million worth of DVD and Blu-ray sales.

Controversy

In response to Universal releasing the film without consulting theater owners, as well as comments from NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell suggesting that future Universal releases would premiere simultaneously in theaters, AMC Theatres stated that they would not license films that also premiere at the same time on digital release; "Going forward, AMC will not license any Universal movies in any of our 1,000 theatres globally on these terms." Regal Cinemas followed suit in a statement not just directed at Universal, saying they will "we will not be showing movies that fail to respect the windows". In July 2020, AMC and Universal announced they had come to a deal to shorten the minimum theatrical window to 17 days, and that AMC would receive an undisclosed share of subsequent PVOD sales.
The Hollywood Reporter wrote that some of the cast, including Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake, were not aware of the film's VOD release, and that their representatives were trying to secure the actors' bonuses they would have received had the film performed well theatrically.

Reception

Box office

In the U.S., the film made about $60,000 in its opening weekend from 25 drive-in theaters, amid extensive movie theater closures due to restrictions targeted at the COVID-19 pandemic. By May 12, despite no official reports, it was estimated the film was approaching $1 million from theatrical grosses. By June 7, the film had amassed $3.6 million from the domestic box office, and likely had been the first place film every weekend since its release. It continued to play in drive-ins in the following weeks., the film had grossed $8.1 million from international territories.

VOD sales

Following its debut digital streaming weekend, it was reported by FandangoNow that the film had set the record for most streams on a release weekend by the company. The film also finished number one for Amazon Prime, Comcast, Apple TV, Vudu, YouTube, and DirecTV, with Universal reporting it was purchased 10-times more than its previous day-one rental , which had made $2–3 million on its first day. Altogether, the film made at least $40 million over the weekend. Through the first 19 days of release, it was estimated between three and five million people had streamed the film, resulting in about a $95 million gross. After three months of release the film remained in the top-five across most services, and occasionally returned to the top spot on Amazon Prime, FandangoNow, and iTunes.
Deadline Hollywood estimated that due to the film's approximate $95 million production cost, plus another $30 million spent on marketing, the film could break-even if 9–12 million people rent the film, resulting in about $200 million in revenue. The Hollywood Reporter wrote that "in the opinion of some industry veterans, may never make a dime" although "Universal believes it can make $40 million or more in profit from all revenue sources."

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 70% based on 146 reviews, with an average rating of 6.16/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "A fun follow-up for fans of the original, Trolls World Tour offers a second helping of colorful animation, infectious energy, and sing-along songs." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Owen Gleiberman of Variety magazine called it a "music-drenched fairy tale" and "for all its surface pleasures, it's a likable but underimagined one, with more enthusiasm than surprise and, at the same time, an overprogrammed sense of its own thematic destiny."