Trolls

“Trolls” is a sugar-shocked “Shrek,” an aggressively auto-tuned animated fun ride for easily distracted times. Imagine being trapped in a 3-D bouncy castle while being pelted by glitter, sparkles, rainbows, unicorns, marshmallows and cupcakes as Day-Glo woodland creatures, modeled on those smiley naked dolls with feral cotton-candy tresses that were a thing back in the ‘60s, attempt to bliss you into submission.

Yes, it’s likely that most kids won’t notice that this bedazzled confection echoes a certain fairy-tale-skewering franchise built around a sullen green ogre that turned DreamWorks, the company also behind “Trolls,” into a ‘toon superpower. The switcheroo here is that there are not one but two miserable males who are rescued by their love interests while the ladies save the day.

The original “Shrek,” for all of its merciless mockery of a certain competitor’s legacy, at least possessed a beating heart and an expansive soul as exhibited by its then-novel use of the melancholy ballad “Hallelujah” in its tale of redemption. “Trolls,” meanwhile, is a derivative madcap money machine that is all about ensuring that DreamWorks, which has had few hits other than sequels in recent years, has a fresh pipeline of steady revenue. All you have to do is sit through the end credits to see how many bodies were devoted to securing licensing deals (Target.com alone lists 165 tie-in products).

That said, youngsters and more than a few adults probably won’t care that this visual simulation of mindlessly munching an entire bowl full of Skittles and Starbursts in one sitting is basically hollow inside, even with its rather rote message that the power to be happy resides within us all. We are but mere humans, and it will be hard to resist the pre-fabricated pseudo charms of an escapist musical fantasia that invests most of its ingenuity into its insanely infectious soundtrack. The oldies lean heavily on re-imagined staples from every wedding reception held since the ‘80s: “September,” “I’m Coming Out,” “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” “Hello,” “True Colors” and even the Brady Bunch ditty “It’s a Sunshine Day.” 

Most of these beat-heavy jams are made all the more catchy by being primarily sung to worm-hole perfection by the film’s two melodically-endowed lead voice actors: Anna Kendrick in prime “Pitch Perfect” form and Justin Timberlake, whose self-penned “Can’t Stop the Feeling” just might be the new “Everything is Awesome” in terms of being impossible not to suddenly hum for no reason days after leaving the theater.

But what about the plot, you say? Well, once upon a time—as shown scrapbook-style with tactile felt cutouts—there was a race of teeny-tiny super-cute trolls whose entire existence revolved around singing, dancing and group hugs performed on the hour. Unfortunately, their joyful existence is interrupted once every year by their sourpuss nemesis neighbors known as the Bergens, a warty tribe of giants with lousy posture, wonky teeth and bad attitudes whose town seems bedecked in what only could be called sewage chic.