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Crammed to bursting with toe-tapping pop ditties courtesy of Simon and Garfunkel, Lionel Richie, Donna Summer and Justin Timberlake, Trolls is 92 minutes of glitterdusted, computer-animated joy.
Based on the fluffy-haired good luck trolls designed by Thomas Dam, which have inspired numerous fads since the early 1960s, Walt Dohrn and Mike Mitchell’s musical misadventure unleashes a colour-saturated assault on the senses from the opening frames.
Once a year on the Trollstice, a race of disgruntled ogres called Bergens unlock their inner joy by feasting on shiny trolls.
King Gristle Sr (voiced by John Cleese) and his drooling head Chef (Christine Baranski) lead the festivities but the Bergens’ reverie is cut short when the trolls, led by benevolent King Peppy (Jeffrey Tambor), escape to a new home.
Twenty years after the great escape, Princess Poppy (Kendrick) has succeeded as ruler of the trolls, who sing, dance, enjoy group hugs and feverishly glue felt and paper into their scrapbooks.
Everyone except for eternal pessimist Branch (Justin Timberlake), who lives in a Bergen-proof subterranean bunker crammed with 10 years of rations.
When the Bergen Chef discovers the new troll village and captures several of Poppy’s friends, including zen master Creek (Russell Brand) and Biggie (James Corden), the princess pleads with Branch for assistance.