Trolls: World Tour

Posted on April 10, 2020 at 11:02 am

B +

Lowest Recommended Age:	Kindergarten - 3rd Grade
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG for some mild rude humor
Profanity:	None
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Some peril, no one hurt
Diversity Issues:	A theme of the movie
Date Released to Theaters:	April 10, 2020
Date Released to DVD:	July 7, 2020

Remember on “Sesame Street” when they ask, which one of these four things is not like the other? “One of these doesn’t belong.” But there are a lot of ways to look at what is same and what is different, as “Trolls: World Tour” explores in a surprisingly subtle and nuanced theme in the midst of so much…well, just so much.

This sequel to the popular original film based on the little fuzzy-haired so-ugly-they’re-cute 1960’s fad dolls begins where the last one left off. Formerly cynical Branch (Justin Timberlake) has now learned to be happy, or happy-ish, and the eternally cheery Poppy (Anna Kendrick) is now Queen. Everything is glitters and rainbows and especially music music music, with a dizzying array of song snippets millennial parents will recognize. The snippets contribute to a a hyper, ADD quality that at times makes viewers feel shaken by the shoulders to make sure we notice we are being ENTERTAINED.

But happily-ever-after endings must be undone if there is to be a sequel and so Poppy learns that the pop-music trolls are not the only trolls and, even more surprising, pop music is not the only music. There’s even a map showing all of the different troll music communities, covering country, reggae, classical, hip-hop, funk, EDM, rock and more. (But it’s an old map — there’s no disco anymore. Even a movie about how harmony means accepting and enjoying every kind of music, disco is still over.)

Once all trolls were together, guided by a lyre with magical strings. But then they broke up into separate divisions, each with one string to produce the music. Queen Barb of Rock (a delicious Rachel Bloom of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”), daughter of King Thrash (a very funny Ozzie Osborne), declares a world tour which ever-optimistic Poppy thinks is about bringing everyone together in a peaceful manner, but Barb wants to grab all of the strings and make rock the one music for all of Troll-dom. Will this be the day the music dies? Or will Poppy find a way to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony? Will there be guest appearances from music giants along the way? What do you think? Kelly Clarkson, George Clinton, and Mary J. Blige all show up, along with many more song snippets and a lot of candy-colored action.

Also in the mix is Sam Rockwell, Kendrick’s “Mr. Right” co-star (not for kids, but a great movie if you like dark humor about world-class assassins). Here he plays a suspiciously helpful troll centaur from country music land.

And somewhere in there are some genuinely thoughtful themes. Like “Frozen II,” this movie touches gently but candidly on the idea that history is written by the victors. What we’ve been told about the past should be questioned, especially if we are portrayed as the heroes. And the idea of same and different, what kinds of differences we should appreciate and support in each other and what kinds we should not, is raised with sophistication and yet still in an accessible manner.

As everyone knows, this movie was scheduled to be a big holiday weekend family movie theatrical release. Instead, in the age of COVID-19, it is the first major studio film being sent straight to streaming, both a gift to homebound families and something of an experiment in unprecedented times. It may seem a bit frantic after weeks of sequester, but it is a bright, tuneful, sweet story with a message of hope that seems especially welcome in the spring of 2020.

Parents should know that this film has some mild peril and brief potty humor. A male troll “gives birth” to a baby (pops out of his head, like Zeus and Minerva)

Family discussion: Which is your favorite kind of music and why? How are Poppy and Barb alike? Can you find three things that are the same about you and your family members and three things that are different?

If you like this, try: “Trolls,” “Happy Feet,” and the “All Hail King Julien” series

Pitch Perfect 3

Posted on December 21, 2017 at 5:32 pm

B-

Lowest Recommended Age:	High School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, language and some action
Profanity:	Some strong and crude language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Alcohol
Violence/ Scariness:	Comic/action violence, peril, explosions, fire
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	December 22, 2017
Date Released to DVD:	March 19, 2018

When a franchise runs out of ideas, it’s time to stop, even if the characters and music are still delightful. When a franchise descends to having its own characters wink at the audience with jokes about how it’s run out of ideas, and resorts to just (literally) setting things on fire, not once but twice in it’s 90ish minute runtime, it’s one movie past time to stop. Not that the previous two films had much of a storyline, but compared to this one, they were the Iliad and the Odyssey. It wasn’t fun to hear Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) tell Emily (Hailee Steinfeld) that she’s stupid one time. It borders on agonizing by the third time.

The music is still delightful, exquisitely harmonized and choreographed covers of songs that it is surprising and fun to hear performed that way, especially in the obligatory riff-off, where this edition’s twist is that the other groups don’t care and use — gasp! — instruments!

The original Bellas are all out in the working world and not very happy about it. When Emily, who is still in college and performing with a new group of Bellas, invites them to a “reunion,” they think they are being invited to sing but learn they are just there to cheer on the new group. They decide that finding a way to sing together again is the most important thing in the world, and Aubrey (Anna Camp) suggests they contact her dad in the military to perform for the USO. Chloe (Brittany Snow) points out that there doesn’t seem to be much point if there isn’t a competition. Wink!

And so the Bellas go to Europe to perform for the troops, along with a country group called Saddle Up and a very sophisticated female rock group led by Calamity (Ruby Rose). And DJ Khaled (playing himself) is going to pick one of them to be his opening act because, oh, who cares that it makes no sense; at least Chloe gets to feel that she’s in a competition. Continuing to scrape the bottom of the storyline barrel, the movie then gives us not one but two distant daddy issues, neither of which matters at all, though it’s always good to see John Lithgow. And there is barely a flicker of love interest with a couple of guys who are so generic they seem to have wandered in from a Hallmark Christmas movie.

By the time we get to the end more than one character has made a choice that is completely inconsistent and/or nonsensical because no one seems to be paying attention to anything but the musical numbers, which continue to be delightful. Skylar Astin, Ben Platt, and Adam Devine escaped this mess, and anyone who is not a major fan of the franchise would do well to do the same.

Parents should know that this film includes some very crude sexual references and language, some comic peril and action including martial arts and explosions.

Family discussion: Why did the Bellas want to compete so badly? Were you surprised by Beca’s decision?

If you like this, try: the first two movies in the series and listen to a capella groups like Pentatonix and Home Free

Table 19

Posted on March 2, 2017 at 5:59 pm

B +

Lowest Recommended Age:	High School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, sexual content, drug use, language and some brief nudity
Profanity:	Some strong and crude language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking and marijuana
Violence/ Scariness:	Comic peril, no one hurt, medical issues
Diversity Issues:	Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters:	March 3, 2017
Date Released to DVD:	June 13, 2017
Amazon.com ASIN:	B06XYSX6KQ

I know. They hate the term. But it is impossible to talk about Mark and Jay Duplass (as writers, anyway, aside from their work as actors, directors, and producers) without the dreaded term “mumblecore,” which was applied to their early microbudget work because of the improvisational, shaggy-dog, millennial-ness of their work. Traces of that remain in “Table 19,” cross-bred with a more conventional romantic comedy, and it turns out to be a welcome blend of sweet and sour. This is not the usual Jennifer/Jessica with a quippy best friend, a meet cute, and a makeover.

We’ve all seen that placecard and most of us have been seated by it: the table for leftover wedding guests who aren’t the family or close friends of either bride or groom but somehow had to be included. Eloise (Anna Kendrick) provides the fellow denizens of the dreaded Table 19 with the inside scoop. Back just a few months earlier, when she and the bride, her oldest friend, were planning everything together, Table 19 was for the people who did not fit in anywhere else, the people who had to be invited but who the hosts were hoping would not make it, still sending a gift from the registry.

The characters may be third-tier in the minds of their hosts, but they are played by top tier comic talent. Lisa Kudrow and Craig Robinson play a married couple who have fallen into a marital death spiral of bickering that makes them miserable and humiliated, but they cannot seem to find their way out of it. Stephen Merchant is a cousin of the groom who seems unfamiliar with social interactions of any kind. “The Grand Budapest Hotel’s” Tony Revolori is a teenager with raging hormones but no idea of how to talk to girls. June Squibb plays the bride’s first nanny.

And then there is Eloise, once a maid of honor and dating the bride’s brother/best man (Wyatt Russell), but, since they broke up two months earlier, stuck at Table 19, on the other side of the ballroom, near the restrooms. We know she almost didn’t come; she even started to burn the invitation. But for some reason, she was determined to be there, and there she is, on the wedding table island of misfit toys. A mysterious and handsome man appears and he has an English accent and a way with an aphorism. Could he be her Prince Charming?

Very able performers make up for some story shortcomings, including a too-neat resolution that I’m guessing was recut after test screenings. Kendrick is as always a marvel of precision, heart, and comic timing, so every time things start to go off kilter, we know she will get us safely home.

Parents should know that this film includes some strong language and comic mayhem, brief comic nudity, drinking and tipsiness, marijuana, and sexual references including adultery and pregnancy.

Family discussion: Why did Eloise go to the wedding? How did sitting at Table 19 make it possible for her to acknowledge her feelings? What’s your funniest family gathering experience?

If you like this, try: “Rocket Science” with the same director and star

Related Tags:

Comedy DVD/Blu-Ray Romance

Anna Kendrick Memoir: Scrappy Little Nobody

Posted on November 13, 2016 at 9:38 am

No matter what character Anna Kendrick plays, you can’t help wishing you could just hang out with her, having some tea and laughing at the world. Now she has written a memoir called Scrappy Little Nobody, and her wry, self-deprecating, razor-sharp take on the world is the next best thing. My friend, movie critic Susan Wloszczyna wrote about it for The Buffalo News.

For the precocious Kendrick, who defines that p-word as meaning “this kid is annoying,” it arrived rather early. This diminutive dynamo with rafter-rattling vocal abilities made her Broadway debut at age 12 and got a Tony nomination for efforts in the musical “High Society” as well as earned an Oscar nod at age 24 for ”Up in the Air.” Turns out she not only possesses a well-honed humorous perspective on her all-too-human foibles – just one reason why her witty Twitter account has amassed more than 5 million followers. But this down-to-earth young lady has also collected a reasonable supply of insider showbiz anecdotes and observations about growing up in limelight as well.

Related Tags:

Actors Books

Trolls

Posted on November 3, 2016 at 5:26 pm

“Trolls” is pure delight, lots of jokes, great music, and a surprisingly wise take on the elusive quest for happiness. Plus, it has that Justin Timberlake song that’s like pure sunshine.

It is tricky to make self-consciously adorable characters happy without being sugary, but it works because they understand the difference between happiness based on generosity, honesty, and courage and pleasure, based on sensation.

The characters are inspired by the so-ugly-they’re-cute troll dolls with the colorful poufs of hair invented by Danish sculptor Thomas Dam (DreamWorks has now bought the company, making the film something of an infomercial for the toys). The trolls all about sunshine, parties, singing, dancing, cupcakes, glitter, scrapbooks, and scrapbooks frosted with glitter. They have fitbit-style wrist bands reminding them every half hour that it is hugging time. The trolls are led by benevolent King Peppy (Jeffrey Tambor), who saved the trolls from the monstrous Bergens twenty years before, and his irrepressibly cheery daughter Princess Poppy (Anna Kendrick).

The Bergens are as naturally unhappy as the trolls are happy. The only way the Bergens have ever found to feel happy is to eat the trolls. Once a year, they would raid the troll tree and gobble down as many as they could. King Peppy led them to a secret place where the Bergens could not find them, courageously risking his own life to make sure there was “no troll left behind.”

Poppy decides to have a party to celebrate 20 happy and peaceful years since the trolls escaped from the Bergens. Branch (Justin Timberlake), the one pessimistic troll, warns her that a loud celebration might attract the attention of the Bergens, but Poppy insists. Branch is right — the Bergen chef (Christine Baranski) has been searching for the trolls for 20 years, and the party fireworks lead her to their new home. She captures some of the trolls and Poppy, mindful of her father’s example, goes off to rescue them. Branch, who had predicted the Bergen threat and spent all his time creating a shelter while the other trolls were hugging and singing, had planned to wait out the invasion alone. But Poppy invites the other trolls to hide out there, and Branch agrees to go with her.

And so there is a journey and (literally) colorful characters along the way and once in Bergen-land, where the rescue effort is complicated but ultimately aided by the trolls friendship with a Bergen scullery-maid with a crush on the young king. Her name is Bridget (Zooey Deschanel) and she agrees to help the trolls if they will help her get the attention of the king. There’s a makeover that is half mice in “Cinderella” and half Cyrano de Bergerac. I worried that the film was buying into old-school notions that a girl has to be made over to attract and please a man, but the film is clear that Bridget that she may get a confidence boost from the makeover but she needs to be honest with her crush about who and what she is. And it was very good to see the movie’s honest engagement with the idea of happiness. Even with daunting and scary challenges, a positive attitude can inspire you and those around you. Even the saddest loss does not mean that you lose happiness forever. And the greatest happiness comes from being close to those we love. Hugs and music and dancing always help, too.

Parents should know that this film includes fantasy/action peril. Some trolls are eaten by the Bergens, with one especially sad loss of a character’s grandmother.

Family discussion: What do the trolls know about happiness that the Bergens don’t? What is the difference between pleasure and happiness? What is the hardest part of trying to be happy?

If you like this, try: “Megamind” and “Despicable Me”