When it comes to film studios going head to head like kids in a playground, everyone thinks of Marvel Vs DC. But before those two, there was Disney Vs Dreamworks. Dreamworks was created by some Hollywood heavyweights including Steven Spielberg to be provide some actual competition to the monopoly Disney has with animated family friendly movies. They have achieved this with varying levels of success (Shrek, Madagascar, Kungfu panda and how to train your dragon)
A lot of the time, film companies follow a certain formula. Release a film, find success and get a sequel out there as soon as possible but luckily Dreamworks decided to take a step back until they had a new story to tell.
Now to get this out of the way early in, I really like this film. I feel Dreamworks knocked it out of the park. It was everything id expect an animated film to be if I was in the cinema. It had a large scale but still managed to feel like a personal story. It was bright, energetic and fuil of exciting moments. The plot was simple, laid out from the start and easy to follow. They even managed to throw in a small twist half way through the movie.
But people shouldn’t only make films for award seasons. The film is big, loud and fun. The characters break out in to song so often it might as well be a musical. The combination of old school and new school music and styles serves almost as an education for the kids. You are reminded of what its lie to just enjoy being entertained rather than being a critic when you see kids jump up and join in with the dance numbers.
The film picks up from the from the end of the first moving where Poppy played by anna Kendrick is still super optimistic and cheerful but is now also the Queen. Justin Timberlake’s Branch is still a bit of a party pooper but isn’t as miserable and now settles for being hyper organized and a planner. They discover their Troll world is a much bigger than they ever imagined. There are 6 different Troll regions separated by styles of music. This Troll tribes are Rock, Funk, Country, Pop and Techno and Classical. These tribes guard their individual strings representing their style of music. The villain of the movie Is the Rock Queen Barb played by Rachel Bloom, determined to ‘unite the 6 strings’, destroy horrible infectious pop and make Rock the one dominant musical style aided by her father King thrash, played by Ozzy Osbourne. The Queen of Rock goes on a world tour to achieve world domination and at the same time Queen Poppy sets off to meet her, thinking it’s simply a misunderstanding she can fix with her positivity.
The film has very clear message about the value of diversity, acceptance of our differences and why one group of people aren’t better than another. The message doesn’t always land and may seem a bit too heavy handed for certain people and even an oversimplification of very complex life problems but hey, it’s a kid’s movie! It’s a trying to explain Christianity to a child. You start with a kid’s bible, that doesn’t have all the killing, sacrifice and blood. This is a simple story told with loud popular songs, fun characters and dances and a happy ending. It’s fun, it’s great for the whole family watch it and enjoy
For this round, I’d say it’s Dreamworks 1, Disney 0
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