Melissa Knorr

First, I really appreciated the music throughout the movie. All of the different types featured were really good and the songs were fun to listen to. HOWEVER I did not like the plot. The movie is about how there are different music troll tribes and that they are isolated because the different types of music didn’t vibe together. Then Barb the queen of rock decided she wanted to take over the world by turning every single troll into a rock one. Now I have some problems with this. First off, having the rock troll as the villain seems very stereotypical. Of course rock would be the genre that’s picked to hate all other music. They are depicted as very mean and I feel that is politically incorrect. Another aspect of the plot is Poppy who is low key part of the problem and she doesn’t realize it. She wants to unite the trolls but doesn’t know how to celebrate people’s differences. Finally in the end all the trolls were able to get along and sing in harmony together. At the very end all types of music trolls sing together. HOWEVER I have a bone to pick with this. The whole point of the movie was to celebrate people’s music differences, but the final song was majority a pop song. The final song did include some mashups but only a little bit. There were a couple plot twists a long the way but not good enough to give this movie a better score. I did like the side plot of the bounty hunters but they didn’t get that much screen time. There was also another side plot of Cooper trying to find the troll tribe he really belonged to and his journey was separate from Poppy’s and Branch’s. This side plot I liked but it was short lived. The best part of the movie was how the country trolls were all depressed. My guess is probably because they were country trolls and hated their own style of music. What I learned from this movie is that everyone needs to be able to listen to different types of music, whether you like it or not. Lastly, I do think there is a hidden theme in this movie. Barb the queen of rock hates rainbows. At the end the rock volcano turns into a rainbow one. What do I think this means? That the rock trolls were homophobic! And that accepting music differences is actually accepting all differences. So I think the rainbow volcano at the end signifies supporting the LGBTQ+ community. I liked the first trolls better because I think the plot made more sense and was more suspenseful. Also the Bergens weren’t in the movie at all until the very end.