<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Thursday, March 28, 2024
March 28, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

New on DVD: ‘Trolls World Tour’ fun, clunky

By Katie Foran-McHale, Tribune News Service
Published: July 3, 2020, 5:46am

“Trolls World Tour”: Its theatrical release an early victim of the coronavirus pandemic, Universal offered “Trolls World Tour” as a digital rental in April, which the studio said broke records as its biggest debut for an original digital release. The colorful animated family flick reunites the main characters from the 2016’s “Trolls,” as Queen Poppy (voiced by Anna Kendrick) and Branch (Justin Timberlake) once again set off to save the kingdom.

This time the threat comes from the Queen of the Hard Rock Trolls (Rachel Bloom), who aims to take over all the Troll kingdoms, each of which represent a different musical genre: Pop, Funk, Classical, Techno, Country and Rock. As Poppy and the gang witness the ravaged Symphonyville and later become imprisoned in Lonesome Flats (turns out a bunch of sad country-singing trolls aren’t wooed by the “rad medley” Poppy et al sing to cheer them up), Cooper (Ron Funches) embarks on a quest to find trolls that look like him, and is found to be royalty in the Funk kingdom (unsurprisingly the most fun, out-of-this-world Troll kingdom).

Eventually the threat becomes an existential one. What happens when one tribe wants total domination, destroying all other types of music? Is it better to have separate tribes in separate kingdoms, or does the Troll universe achieve harmony in coexistence?

It’s a nice, especially timely message for kids and parents, though a clunky one at times via the script, written by Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger, Maya Forbes, Wallace Wolodarsky and Elizabeth Tippet. We encounter subgenres like K-pop, reggaeton, smooth jazz and yodeling via rogue characters, not quite knowing where they fit in (one character points out that Poppy’s kingdom map, which contains disco, is “outdated”). The Queen of the Hard Rock Trolls eventually reckons with the fact that forcing the homogeneity of hard rock on all the kingdoms makes it impossible to be unique. Branch’s seemingly unrequited love plotline takes a backseat to the tunes. But in the end, the music of the six strings makes the music of the spheres, and that’s something worth singing about.

Also new on DVD

“Belzebuth”: After losing a child to a hospital killing spree, a detective (Joaquin Cosio) teams up with an excommunicated priest (Tobin Bell) to investigate mysterious deaths of children on the U.S.-Mexico border. In Spanish and English.

“Blood and Money”: A retired veteran (Tom Berenger) makes a startling discovery while hunting in rural Maine.

“Hope Gap”: A woman (Annette Bening) struggles to find her independence after her longtime husband (Bill Nighy) leaves her.

“The Lost Husband”: A widow (Leslie Bibb) moves her family to an estranged relative’s Texas farm.

“Murdoch Mysteries, Season 13”: The turn-of-the-20th-century-set Canadian detective series based on novels by Maureen Jennings continues.

“Proximity”: A NASA scientist (Ryan Masson) becomes obsessed with proving that he was indeed abducted by aliens.

“Slay the Dragon”: Documentary examines gerrymandering in the U.S.

“Sorry We Missed You”: A delivery driver (Kris Hitchen) and his family struggle to financially survive in the gig economy.

“Sweetness in the Belly”: After escaping from Ethiopia, an orphan (Dakota Fanning) works to reunite displaced immigrants with families in England. In English, Amharic and Arabic.

“The Wild Goose Lake”: Neo-noir thriller follows a criminal on the run. Ge Hu, Lun-Mei Kwei and Fan Liao star. In Mandarin.

Digital HD

“Battlefield 2025”: An Arizona town faces horrors when a sinister otherworldly presence lands. Jose Rosete, Anna Harr and Dustin Leighton star.

“Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo”: Documentary follows the life of the infamous actor.

“The Medicine”: This documentary examines the scientific properties and spiritual potential of the hallucinogenic ayahuasca.

“Mighty Oak”: A music manager (Janel Parrish) encounters a guitar prodigy (Tommy Ragen) and believes he’s the reincarnation of her deceased brother.

“Where Sleeping Dogs Lie”: A robbery goes wrong for two brothers and a friend in this dark dramedy.

Loading...