Presents don’t make the holidays but gift-giving brings an unparalleled feeling of delight and intimacy to many, and it’s no surprise to anyone that Queen Poppy, the fun-loving and thoughtful queen of the trolls, is one of the best gift-givers in the world. And this year, she’s decided to make sure everyone feels the love with the Trolls first-ever annual gift exchange! This short holiday special opens up with Poppy and Branch handing out invitations and gift assignments to everyone in the kingdom.
But when the kingdom’s favorite couple gets paired with each other, will Poppy be able to dig deep enough to find the perfect gift for her boyfriend?
Or will Branch choke under the pressure of gifting to one Troll who knows exactly the right way to make everyone happy?
I’m a huge fan of Trolls. I find the franchise to be such a delightful, bright, and cheery world of friendship, love, and doing your best to leave the world a bit more musical than you found it. With that said, I walked into this screening with high expectations and they were shattered into a thousand pieces.
The voice cast stays true to both the past releases and the idea of harmony; Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, Kenan Thompson, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and more come together for a pop-inspired soundtrack of holiday cheer and warm wishes. We get to venture outside of the kingdom a bit with Tiny Diamond’s adventure to end his writer’s block, very Madame Zeroni Up The Mountain of him, and see our old friends from TROLLS: World Tour! It’s such a fun reunion of the original characters and all the friends we’ve made along the way.
And aren’t they the truest gifts of all?
As expected of Dreamworks, the animation is gorgeous. I don’t even want to know how long it takes to animate some of the scenes where Poppy uses her hair as an extra appendage or the little glitter that creates Tiny Diamond’s luminous skin, but it is flawless. Smooth action, expressive characters, and such engaging scenery that it’s hard to call anything a background; the music almost pales in comparison to the colorful palette of the musical special.
Overall, I give Trolls Holiday in Harmony a solid five stars of five. Its plot is touching, well-paced, and guaranteed to melt your heart by the end of it. Our Troll friends will have to learn to look past their own preferences and look towards the love languages of others, a vital life lesson as children grow into emotionally mature adults and an important step in selecting the perfect gift for others. It isn’t always about how big something is, but rather, how big the heart behind the idea was.
I love Dreamworks for their continued use of established much-loved characters to teach children about the joys of platonic love, thoughtful actions and moral decisions. I walked away feeling lighter than when I had started the half-hour show and already have it added to the queue of holiday shows to watch with my own children on our movie night-in this month.
New Release Wednesday 