Cert – U, Run-time – 1 hour 31 minutes, Directors – Walt Dohrn, Tim Heitz
When a member of his estranged boyband family is kidnapped Branch (Justin Timberlake) must reunite with his brothers to perform the perfect family harmony and save him.
It’s hard to be annoyed or frustrated by something that feels as if such little heart has been put into it. Your response is often equal to the amount of care which comes across, particularly in this case from the voice cast who largely sound as if they’re phoning in their performances. The Trolls films have largely been loud – in volume and colour – displays of familiar messages conveyed better in other animated films and the third entry in the franchise, Band Together, is no different.
This time a lesson in family runs through the 90-minute course of the film as Branch (Justin Timberlake) is reunited with his estranged brother John Dory (Eric André) who tells him that another member of their former boyband family has been kidnapped. Floyd (Troye Sivan) is being held in a diamond perfume bottle owned by rising stars Velvet (Amy Schumer) and Veneer (Andrew Rannells). The two villains, who look like they’re about to belt out a rendition of Witch Doctor with the rest of the Cartoons, are stealing Floyd’s talent to push their careers, and plan to kidnap the rest of BroZone before his fades entirely.
We’re reintroduced to Branch and Queen Poppy (Anna Kendrick – the most energetic thing about the film) in a musical montage as they glide through their town preparing for a wedding. The music from the off sounds like the stereotype of modern music, with lashings of autotune. The intro raises two questions: why does it look like the animated characters are gliding through their similarly animated world via green screen, and why do all of these people who we know can sing sound so autotuned? Singer Camila Cabello has a voice role and somehow this is the second film to feature her – after leading Amazon’s 2021 take on Cinderella – where she sounds the most autotuned person in the cast.
She plays Viva, one of the various faces we stumble across on the way as the central team grows, picking up more members of BroZone on the way to save Floyd. The group must put aside the differences that split them up to perform the perfect family harmony in order to break the diamond their brother is surrounded by. Their attempts in the past failed and they’ve been silent ever since – “if we can’t hit the perfect family harmony then we’re not perfect, and if we’re not perfect we’re nothing” proclaims John Dory in the opening scene of the film. And thus the film’s lacking message is set in motion.
It’s a familiar set of themes which show such feelings throughout the hour-and-a-half run-time. The film as a whole feels rushed and somewhat scrapped together in order to just get it out while Trolls still seems to be popular amongst young audiences. It’s not until halfway through that they seem to remember the adults who are taking such audiences and DreamWorks Animation who at the turn of the century made Shrek now crowbar in strange drug references with no effect. It’s simply another bland spot in an animated threequel which can’t even struggle due to the rushed nature with which it seems to have been churned out.
There’s little to really care about within Trolls Band Together simply because there doesn’t feel to be much heart and energy in it. The central family message is familiar and acts as most of the content aside from the loud and irksome musical renditions and crowbarred gags.
Just A Little Bit Random 