One of the most controversial, industry-shaking films is out on Blu-ray and DVD right now, and movies may never be the same! That’s right, Trolls: World Tour has finally hit home media, and we’ve got all the details!
When this movie was announced, no one could have predicted its strange journey to release, nor the the fact that it would have the potential to nearly upset an entire industry! Released direct to video on demand during the hight of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Trolls: World Tour skipped it’s theatrical run, and potentially set a precedent for how films are going to be released in the future. Time will tell if there is any lasting impact, but with outraged statements issued by AMC Theaters, as well as the National Association of Theatre Owners, you’d think that the movie had singlehandedly destroyed an entire industry.
Anyway, that’s just the outside stuff surrounding the film. Was this movie good enough to warrant all this fuss?
The Film
Trolls: World Tour was so much better than the first one! The overall story was still kind of generic, but there was a lot more imagination and world building here. I loved the way they designed all the different musical lands, as well as the different Troll species.
Plus they actually came up with a good reason that Cooper, that one four legged, giraffe-looking troll from the first movie, existed! Without the context from this movie, he makes absolutely no sense in the first film. Although, in a movie with talking clouds and singing plants, I guess that doesn’t really matter a whole lot.
The highlight of this movie is the music. I could be wrong, but I feel like this sequel had a lot more music than the first one, and (at least in my opinion) this one had a better track selection than the first as well. Part of that is probably because I have very eclectic tastes in music, and I love when different genres get mashed together, but even had they not done that, I still think the music choices were solid and fun, and really added to the experience, even more-so than in the first film.
Even though I am definitely not in the target audience for Trolls: World Tour, as someone who loves music in movies, (like, to the point that Fantasia is one of my all-time favorite films) I still feel like they made this movie with people like me in mind. It’s not a perfect film, but it was a lot of fun, and I feel like I will actually rewatch this one in the future. And for me that’s pretty high praise.
Bonus Features
I’m sure I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably say it again, but these days it seems like a lot of home releases have been kind of skimping on the bonus features. When DVDs first became a thing, or at least, at the point when I started buying them, just about every movie came loaded with extras. Deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes features, trailers, sometimes even music videos! Nowadays, I feel lucky if I even get a 10 minute making-of featurette because they either don’t want to include them, or they’re saving them for some big “Special Edition” release down the line.
However! Trolls: World Tour had a LOT to offer, and it’s kind of a surprise until you get to them! The box art mentions three things, a Dance Party Mode, a bonus short film, and deleted scenes. It also says “And More” but that’s usually code for, “Plus one or two other insignificant things we stuck on here to pad out or bonus feature list.”
When I watched the movie myself, I used the digital version and I didn’t look ahead to see the list of features, but after the movie I clicked the short film and just let it auto-play through the rest, expecting maybe 10-15 minutes of extras. And it just kept playing. It kept going and going, and finally I went back to the menu to see what all there actually was! I was shocked to see a pretty long list of bonus features! Not all of them are targeted at me, but for kids who love Trolls, they’re going to have a blast with some of these.
Dance Party Mode
This one is similar to a sing-a-long version of any other musical, except, you guessed it, It’s a Dance-a-long!
Tiny Diamond Goes Back to School
This is the bonus short, it is a scrapbook style animation telling the story of Tiny Diamond’s first day at school.
Trolls Dance Academy
This is a series of videos teaching you how to dance to various types of music: Pop, Waltz, Country, Funk, Kpop, and Reggaeton.
Trolls World Tourist Map
This is an interactive tour of the various troll kingdoms in the film.
Deleted Scenes
This was the longest of the bonus features, there are a whole bunch of deleted scenes from various stages of production, and they’re all mostly really fun, and in some cases, maybe better than what was in the movie! The scenes with the little flute from Symphonyville really made me laugh, and I kind of wish they’d used that version instead.
Trolls World Tour Backstage & Trolls Perfect Harmony
These are a bunch of featurettes about the making of the film, covering everything from the art to the voices to the music! These were my favorite of the extras, but I’m a huge geek for this kind of behind the scenes look at animation.
Audio Commentary
The commentary features Director Walt Dohrn, Co-Director David Smith, and Producer Gina Shay, talking about the making of the film.
Bonus Bonus Features?
I noticed there were some extra extras on the digital version that weren’t on the Blu-ray, so if you get this set, make sure to check those out as well! If you’re a fan of music videos, there are quite a few of them!
Final Thoughts
If you were a fan of the original Trolls, but haven’t seen this movie yet, I definitely recommend this to you. If you never saw the original Trolls, but like fun, musical animation, I think I can pretty safely recommend this one to you as well, even if you haven’t seen the original! Trolls: World Tour takes everything from the first film and cranks up the music even higher, and it’s just a whole lot of fun.
Purchase Trolls: World Tour
Amazon: Blu-ray | 4K | DVD | Digital
