Despite loving or really liking a good deal of DreamWorks' previous work, especially 'The Prince of Egypt' (for me their best to date and one of my favourite films, animated and ever) and 'How to Train Your Dragon' (also a favourite),expectations were low for 'Trolls'.

That is partly because although there are some very good to outstanding DreamWorks films, there have been underwhelming efforts too like 'Shark Tale', 'Bee Movie' and 'Home', even thought the last two 'Shrek' films and 'Penguins of Madagascar' could have been better than they turned out. A larger part however was that the teaser looked dreadful and the first trailer only marginally better, so was expecting a bad film and very much a lesser effort.

What a surprise. 'Trolls' is yet another classic victim of bad and misleading advertising/marketing, and it is a shame as for me it is one of DreamWorks' past decade or so efforts along with 'How to Train Your Dragon 2' and 'Kung Fu Panda 2'. That said, it is understandable as to why some will still not like it or find it entirely appealing to them. It is somewhat younger-crowd oriented, so older children and adults may find, and have found, it too cute, too hyper-active and too cloying for their tastebuds.

As a young adult myself with there was a lot to like, with the colours, the music, the characters, energy and overall atmosphere more than compensating and almost masking a story that narratively and structurally is not really all that special. There isn't really anything new as such conceptually and not a lot done in bringing freshness to it, while the magical hair subplot did feel shoe-horned in and as a result of not being elaborated upon quite enough it doesn't make as much sense as it ought to have done.

On the other hand, the animation is brilliant. There is so much imaginative detail, the characters are well modelled, the backgrounds meticulous and best of all the colours are gorgeously vibrant and leap out at you from the screen. The soundtrack is like a musical extravaganza, and an upbeat and infectious one that has a huge presence in the film without being overkill. The script is enough fun and wit to counter-balance the cuteness and sugar, and neither of these elements felt over-balanced personally but that is not going to be an opinion shared by everybody.

Story-wise, that is where 'Trolls' is least successful. However the energy is exuberant, and personally just couldn't fail to be captivated by the energy, feel-good nature and charm that the film had, even if narratively it's not that strong the atmosphere certainly was. The characters were pretty adorable, none of them were annoying and none on the wrong side of sickly sweet. The voice acting all round is adept, and the singing showing the vocalists attacking the music with gusto and love of music.

On the whole, colourful and upbeat confection that may be too cute and sugary for older audiences, though there will definitely be exceptions (being one),but will especially delight the younger crowd. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Trolls are happy little singing creatures and Bergens are a large miserable species. The Bergens discovered that eating Trolls gives them happiness. Each year, the Bergens hold a Trollstice festival where they eat Trolls to be happy. It's prince Gristle's first Trollstice but the Trolls escape. Chef (Christine Baranski) is blamed and banished. Twenty years later, Trolls are carefree. Poppy (Anna Kendrick) holds a noisy party while Branch (Justin Timberlake) warns of discovery by the Bergens. They are discovered by Chef and some are taken. Poppy tries to rescue them with reluctant help from Branch. Gristle (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) has since become king. His maid Bridget (Zooey Deschanel) secretly has a crush on him.

Surprisingly, I like the Trolls. I like their bright colors and penchant for singing pop songs. The Bergens are fine and the lesson to be happy actually works. I do have a problem with eating the Trolls. It's very creepy and ill-fitting for a kids movie. There has to be another way to make the concept less horrific. Maybe they could simply absorb the happy energy leaving the Trolls asleep. It's a hard thing to get over and get comfortable with.

"Trolls" is exactly what the title says: a film about trolls, namely the little toy figures that have been really popular for quite a while now. So if there is anything surprising about this film, then it is how long it took to finally be made. But now is the time, in 2016. The makers (quite a few) have a great deal of experience when it comes to animation filmmaking as they worked on stuff like Shrek, Spongebob, Kung Fu Panda or Madagascar in the past already. And their collaboration here results in another mentionable achievement that adds quality to their bodies of work. The comedy works for the most part and the drama and emotion sometimes do as well, drama for example is really great the moment the troll colors change and we hear the male "hero" sing again for the first time. In my opinion, the latter is really the crucial factor to determine nowadays how good and worth watching an animated film can be considered. Comedy and animation are at such a high level these days for animated films that these areas can almost be taken for granted, even if they maybe shouldn't and we could be more grateful for the quality we get there.

Anyway, the heroes here are Poppy and Branch, voices by Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake. There are more known names in the voice cast here, but I will not mention these as you can check them out in the cast list yourself. Anyway, mentioning these two already tells you that there is a big musical component in here and yes, there are several music numbers included from start to finish, certainly more than you usually get in an animated film and singing being a crucial component of troll life is depicted this way. But it is not just about the trolls, it is also about their enemies and (unsurprisingly!) we find out they are not as evil as they may appear initially. The chef turns into the main antagonist and we don't feel sorry for her banishment early on because of what she does. And the old king has also died already and it is time for the new one to prove himself and define himself in terms of who he is. Yes this is a fairly predictable film, but thanks to the colorful characters and smart witty fun scenes (like the Cinderella reference),it's not really a problem that you will not really be surprised at all watching this one. One example would be the male main character showing up the very first time when the female is captured by a bunch of spiders and it was so so clear that he would show up exactly then. So clear that the writers almost made a joke about it themselves by letting the troll girl say afterward that she also knew he would come.

It is one of the better animated films of the year I would say, but maybe not one of the best. I watched the German dubbed version and I must say I was not really impressed by the music and songs performed in there. It felt somewhat estranged from the rest of it. And also in terms of comedy and drama, there are weaknesses. Drama one example would be the story about the male troll's grandmother that felt so rushed in and ineffective although it really could have made an emotional impact. Comedy one example would be a cloud character that only delivered comedic purpose, but was never as funny as he could have been and disappeared as fast as he appeared too. Twice, actually. I would have liked to find out more about him or instead just would have preferred the movie entirely without him. Butg these are just minor criticisms. I think overall the good easily outweighs the bad and this film is worth seeing. And with that I do not only refer to very young audiences as the main characters imply. I also refer to grown-ups as the movie clearly has a great deal of depth on some occasions. And it was also done better with the other troll characters. They also may have very little screen time and we don't know too much about them, but it makes sense they are there and it makes sense that they are shown when they are shown.

Overall, I enjoyed the watch here and I have no problem saying that this is among the better animated films I have seen this year, even if it's certainly not a contender for best ("Zootopia" at this point still). This work is another example of how strong animated films are at this point, in terms of quality and despite the strong quantity as well, it is (almost) always worth checking these out. Looking at the cast list, it also shows that it's easy to get big stars for projects like these because of how successful they turn out to be, also (or especially) from a commercial perspective. I enjoyed "Trolls" and it's not difficult for me to call it a success that definitely deserves all the awards attention coming its way as I believe it was quite a challenge to make the characters and story appealing for audiences of all ages, more than usual for the animated genre, and boy did they succeed. Go see it! I would also watch a sequel and looking at the films I mentioned earlier that the men in charge worked on previously, it would not be a surprise at all if we get one in the next five years.