For many, the work of DreamWorks Animation has defined entire childhoods. Movies like Shrek and How To Train Your Dragon preached wonderful morals while avoiding the common pitfall of pandering to a younger audience. This balance of maturity and thematic richness has become a staple of the DreamWorks brand, and it looks like that's set to continue with the upcoming animated movie, Trolls. New footage from the highly anticipated (and highly adorable) animated buddy film premiered at San Diego Comic-Con, and we were there to see it.
The initial scenes shown to the audience in Hall H at Comic Con International seemed taken towards the end Trolls' first act, as the chipper Queen Poppy (Anna Kendrick) pleads with the pessimistic Branch (Justin Timberlake) to leave the safety of his solitary bunker to help her rescue Trolls kidnapped by the grotesque and monstrous "Bergens." They engage in rapid-fire dialogue, but distilled to the basic elements: Branch cynically believes the Trolls are gone, while Poppy believes they can be saved, and as such, she embarks on a solo rescue mission.
Poppy's adventure kicks off with a major musical number set to the original track "Get Back Up Again," which capitalizes on Anna Kendrick's knack for being pitch perfect (pun intended) and comedic. Against the backdrop of upbeat pop music, she presses through a montage of dangerous situations, never losing her optimistic outlook towards life -- even when that outlook leads her to an entanglement in a spider web. However, as you can likely deduce, fate eventually leads these two polar opposite characters to team up with one another.
This team-up defines the core "buddy comedy" aspect of the film that makes so many of the presented scenes so entertaining. They consistently argue over the importance of happiness in life, with Poppy eventually mocking Branch's dour persona by singing a beautiful rendition of Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence." It's a beautiful moment that encapsulates the film's strong sense of humor with its equally apt understanding of 1970s aesthetic and culture -- something Justin Timberlake specifically praised about the film during the Hall H panel. We have to say that we agree.
The second sequence shown by the DreamWorks team seemed to come much closer to the end of the Trolls story, but that made it no less engaging. It appears that the Trolls all collectively lose their happiness and hope at a certain point during the film, draining of their color and energy. This tragedy leads them to all resemble Branch, an ironic revelation not lost on him. He eventually finds Poppy in a crowd and makes a desperate attempt to appeal to her inherently happy nature. It's not all laughs; there's going to be plenty of drama in this one.
Check out the official trailer for Trolls below:
It's not much, but what we've seen from Trolls has managed to get us seriously excited. Make sure to stay tuned for mode great details from San Diego Comic-Con International 2016! Cinema Blend will bring you all of the latest and greatest information concerning DreamWorks' Trolls as more details become available to us. Trolls will hit theaters this fall on November 4.
