‘Trolls Band Together’ Review: Justin Timberlake Channels His Boy Band In Sweet Psychedelic Pop Satire

Want to feel old? The Trolls The franchise celebrates its seventh anniversary this year, bringing with it an entire culture of nostalgia for the late ’90s and early ’00s that will seem like a million years ago to anyone under 40. The rest of us may remember it like it was yesterday; A moment when a boy band emerged each week offering variations on The Wild One, The Sensitive One, The Sultry One, The Cute One and, inevitably, The Most Famous One That Left and Threw the Whole Project in crisis.

Trolls unite takes all this as its central thesis and is a breath of fresh air after its two rushed predecessors, the first of which is an origin story in which the Trolls – the psychedelic love children of Gonks and Smurfs – must save themselves from being eaten by. buck-toothed creatures called Bergens. The Bergens were not common Troll World Tourwhich instead expanded the music world to include hard rock trolls, techno trolls, funk trolls, classical, country and even smooth jazz trolls.

The third film is all about the Poptrolls and the five members of BroZone, a singing group of five, who are about to perform their last performance without knowing it. The pressure to achieve “perfect family harmony” is great. a musical phenomenon that can destroy diamonds. BroZone is at the height of its fame, with songs like “Girl, Baby, Baby” and “Baby, Girl, Girl” aptly summing up the era.

Failure is not an option: “If we’re not perfect, we’re nothing,” says the group’s unofficial leader, John Dory (Eric André). Instead, the show is a disaster because Branch (Justin Timberlake), the couple’s baby, makes a mistake and causes a domino effect that humiliates the entire group in front of their loyal fans. John Dory decides to end the film with the best joke in the film: “We’re out of sync, we’ve evolved from boys to men, and now there’s only one way to go.” It’s time to go to the backyards. “

Time passes and while Branch attends the wedding of the Bergen monarch King Gristle Jr. Together with his friend Poppy (Anna Kendrick), John Dory arrives with shocking news: her BroZone brother Floyd (Troye Sivan) is being held captive by late-night pop sensations Velvet and Veneer (Amy Schumer and Andrew Rannells), a brother and sister -duo marking Milli Vanilli’s path to fame. What John Dory doesn’t realize, however, is that it’s a trap, and as he tries to reunite BroZone, Velvet and Veneer happily rub hands: with the help of a smoothie maker run by their assistant Crimp (Zosia Mamet ) was created. , they plan to strip the trolls of all their talent.

Like the new thing chicken coop Movie, Trolls unite is a reverse heist movie, but ironically that’s not really the focus; unusual for a Trolls The film is less rushed as Elizabeth Tippet’s surprisingly thoughtful script explores where the members of BroZone are now. When John Dory, Branch and Poppy reunite the group and leave in a custom-made armadillo tour bus, they discover that Spruce is now Bruce, a devoted family man who runs a resort on Vacay Island with his wife and children. “Fun Boy” Clay is now “Serious Boy” Clay, who makes a living as an accountant and sleeps in the administrative wing of a disused miniature golf course.

Once it’s revealed that Floyd is being held in a diamond perfume bottle, it’s pretty clear where this is all going. But for director Walt Dohrn, the wait was worth it, and the images are indeed beautiful muchEspecially when someone on the tour bus presses the mysterious button that says “Hustle” – remember that Simpsons Episode where Bart and Milhaus go on an LSD-like trip after drinking a syrupy Super Squishee – the sensory overload is tempered by a very interesting approach to the music. *NSYNC’s comeback song “Better Place” is pleasant enough, but Timberlake’s “Perfect” has a more appropriately retro-modern sound, and Velvet and Veneer’s signature song “Watch Me Work” reaches some nice levels of irony , with lyrics like: “If you want to be as famous as me, you have to work.” There is also some logic behind the Needle Drops, the New Edition (“Candy Girl”) and even The Bee-Gees (“Staying Alive”) as early pioneers of the boy band sound.

Whether there will be a fourth has been a mystery ever since Trolls unite should certainly exorcise any ghosts from Timberlake’s past, and it will be hard to top his former bandmates’ cameo appearances. But the Trolls The franchise has an anarchic playfulness and a strong cast — a DayGlo winning formula that suggests there’s plenty of room left should the most famous ever decide to leave the series.

Title: Trolls unite
Distributor: Universal
Release date: November 17, 2023
Director: Walt Dohrn
Associate Director: Tim Heitz
Screenwriter: Elizabeth Tippett
Form: Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, Camila Cabello, Eric André, Amy Schumer, Andrew Rannells, Troye Sivan, Daveed Diggs, Kid Cudi, Zosia Mamet, Zooey Deschanel, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, RuPaul Charles, Aino Jawo, Caroline Hjelt, Kenan Thompson, Anderson .Paak, Kunal Nayyar, Ron Funches
Assessment: PG
Time: 1 hour 32 minutes