While “hate listening” — it’s a thing — to an old BroZone album, Branch (voiced by Justin Timberlake) finds himself reminiscing about his long lost brothers. Poppy (Anna Kendrick) bursts in and tells him she used to love BroZone, having no idea that her boyfriend is a former member. Fast forward to Bridget and King Gristle’s wedding, John Dory (Eric Andre) crashes the party and tells Branch that he’s trying to locate all the estranged members of BroZone in order to save their brother Floyd (Troye Sivan). Floyd is being held by wanna be pop stars Velvet and Veneer (Amy Schumer and Andrew Rannells, respectively) in a diamond cage where they can transfer his talent into their voices. All five brothers need to be present to create the perfect family harmony that will, in turn, break Floyd free.
Alright, so here’s the deal… like two cousins that only get to see each other at Christmas. the chemistry and fun Timberlake and Kendrick have together will never get old. Their joy of doing these movies and singing these songs bleeds through the screen. It’s infectious and you can’t help but sing along with the medleys or tap your feet to the beats.
But all that can only take the movie so far. Using the story as symbolism for what boy bands like NSync, Backstreet Boys and others went through is clever but, at the end of the day, Trolls Band Together simply lacks the energy and charm of the original film, it’s sequel World Tour and even the 26-minute holiday short they released in 2017.
The Trolls movies are so fun that I’ll go to every one on its opening weekend for as long as they keep the same cast. But Band Together is a very mediocre addition to the franchise. It’ll be fun for the kids, amusing to the adults but very average in the grand scheme of things. Remember, just because you like something doesn’t mean it’s great.
JKG SCORE: 6.0
Untitled Film Project 