MEXICO CITY (AP).—Song by song, the music lovers Trolls have reached their third film “Trolls Band Together (Trolls 3: Se armó la banda)” which premiered in theaters with the music of a special band, BroZone, to which Branch (Ramón) belonged when he was a baby.
In English, Branch’s voice is performed by Justin Timberlake and in Spanish it is performed by Benny Ibarra. Timberlake, who serves as executive music producer, was crucial in introducing the film to so-called boy bands like N’SYNC, to which he belonged and which he recruited to record “Better Place,” the group’s first new song in more than 20 years. and one of the film’s five original songs.
The film also includes covers and medleys of hits from the 1970s to the 2000s, as well as original music by Theodore Shapiro.
“I think we made this part of the story because of our work with Justin,” said Walt Dohrn, who directs this film along with co-director Tim Heitz, in an interview. “He was very playful in presenting this to us and he has a beautiful voice.”
The film is a celebration of familiar bands like the Bee Gees and The Jackson 5 and boy bands.
In the case of Branch, his band is family and made up of boys, they specialize in pop and they were a sensation in the land of the Trolls to the extent that Poppy (played in English by Anna Kendrick and in Spanish by Belinda) is still a fan , even though they separated years ago. Branch’s brothers: Floyd (Troye Sivan), John Dory (Eric André), Bruce aka Spruce (Daveed Diggs) and Clay (Kid Cudi) have not seen him since, but when Floyd is kidnapped by villains who want Stealing his musical talents, named Velvet (Amy Schumer) and Veneer (Andrew Rannells), Branch and Poppy set out on an adventure with the other members of BroZone to rescue him.
Along the way Poppy also discovers that she has a lost relative, a sister named Viva, whose voice is performed by Camila Cabello in English and Karla Díaz in Spanish.
“When we were trying to create this character and how she was going to behave, being Poppy’s sister, there was one person that we knew we wanted for this and it was Camila Cabello, because she has that spirit and it was a lot of fun to film her, I felt like she was born to be a Troll,” Dohrn said.
Between the fights that separated Branch’s family and Poppy’s revelation, it becomes clear that Troll families, like human families, have many types of configurations beyond a traditional and static structure. Dohrn said they sought to explore the diverse dynamics that families have to function.
“Our producer, Gina Shay, had a long-lost brother that she met as an adult, so it’s pretty common,” the director said. “What makes us really relate is this relationship we have with our family, how important it is to be together with them, although sometimes it can be difficult, it really helps.”
Poppy, Branch, the BroZone and Tiny Diamond (Diamantito), the latter played in English by Kenan Thompson and in Spanish by Claudio Yarto, travel in a four-legged truck named Rhonda that has the superpower to move at speed and overcome obstacles by pressing a button that plays the song from “The Hustle” by Van McCoy.
When Rhonda does this, the texture-rich 3D animation that characterizes the Trolls changes to a psychedelic 2D with a look similar to the Beatles’ classic “Yellow Submarine.”
“That was one of the first animated movies I saw, ‘Yellow Submarine,’ I love it, I’ve played it for my kids,” Dohrn said. “I always share that movie, it’s so fun and with the Beatles’ music, the colors and the swirls of color, how crazy, wild and weird it is, I always loved it, so it’s my little tribute to it.”
And why “The Hustle”?
“I grew up in the ’70s and I remember ‘The Hustle’ was everywhere, but I didn’t know it was all going to come together, ‘The Hustle,’ ‘Yellow Submarine’ and the modern-day Trolls,” he said.
“There are a lot of places this movie can go and if the world wants another ‘Trolls’ movie, I would be very pleased and grateful to make one more. The limit is only our imagination,” he concluded.
