Trolls

Sticking with mythological figures, there's Trolls, which are really based on a toy from the 1960s and not the Scandinavian creatures that live under bridges and eat people. Yes, Trolls is actually based on those ugly little rubber dolls with a shock of Crayola hair. Maybe next they'll base movies on major appliances.

Trolls, directed by Mike Mitchell, is barely passable animated fare. Although I've never seen a Smurfs movie, I know enough about them that it seems almost the same. The soundtrack is like an oldies radio station, and the story about happiness is something inside of you is as old as the hills.

The trolls are incessantly happy creatures, always singing, dancing, and hugging. What their economy is based on, or what they eat, is not mentioned (one trolls does defecate glitter). Everything is great until Bergens (who are like the trolls of myth) find out that eating trolls makes them happy. The trolls are rounded up and put in a tree and eaten every year. But then they escape.

Twenty years later, they have a new spot in the forest, but their loud partying leads the Bergen chef (Christine Baranski) to find them again. Now a rescue is afoot, led by Poppy (Anna Kendrick), and the one dour, unhappy troll, Branch (Justin Timberlake). Can they manage to rescue the trolls, while also making the Bergens realize the true nature of happiness?

I think the best audience for Trolls is for kids young enough who are still mollified by bright colors, because Trolls as a lot of them. The trolls themselves are cute, but not to watch for an hour and a half. I suppose this is one of the prices of parenthood. Better to put the kids in a room with the thing on TV and leave them alone.

So why did I watch this? It did get an Oscar nomination, for a song written by Timberlake. Those who read this blog know I go out of my way to see any Oscar-nominated film. I went way out of my way this time.