Home Entertainment: ‘Trolls Band Together’ Blu-ray review

The third film in the beloved animated franchise focuses on Branch’s (Justin Timberlake) long-lost brothers and their long-forgotten boyband BroZone and in doing so, in an absolutely genius move, recruit Timberlake’s NSYNC bandmates to lend their vocal talents for fellow group Kismet.

Branch and Poppy (a returning Anna Kendrick) are now a couple, perfectly happy in poptastic bliss. However, Branch still has a secret – a big one – he has many estranged siblings and, once upon a time, was part of a boy band named BroZone, who have long gone their separate ways, Branch left to be brought up by his grandmother, Rosiepuff. Years on, Branch’s eldest brother John Dory (Eric André) re-enters Branch’s life and has news; his other brother Floyd has been kidnapped by the sinister pop duo Velvet (Amy Schumer) and Veneer (Andrew Rannell). Now, John Dory, Branch and Poppy have to reunite the other brothers and rescue Floyd.

The animation is top notch and there are tons of ’90s boyband references than you can shake a glowstick at.

If you’ve seen the other Trolls films, you’ll know what to expect here. It has more fun chart-topping tunes, remixed and belted out by its talented cast, psychedelic colours and more glitter and spiky hair than ever. As with the other two, it is tons of fun and the kids will lap up every multi-coloured frame. The animation is top notch and there are tons of ’90s boyband references than you can shake a glowstick at.

The Blu-ray shows off the visual treats perfectly and the top-tapping tunes are excellent pumped through the home system we sampled it on. You have the option of watching the film in its original theatrical cut or a sing-a-long version too, which allows you to do just that; sing along to all fourteen songs that grace the soundtrack. The new track from NYSYNC is an banger, too.

The disc also includes a new short titled ‘It Takes Three’, which features Tiny, Poppy and Viva (it runs around four minutes) which is entertaining enough, and there are a bunch of deleted scenes, too. There’s also a featurette that’ll teach the kids how to make some crafty bangles and there’s also the prize bonus bit, a feature commentray with Gina Shay, Co-Director Tim Heitz, Head of Story Colin Jack, Production Designer Ruben Perez Reynoso and Visual Effects Supervisor Marc J. Scott.

There are a couple of small featurettes on the return of NSYNC, and also another behind-the-scenes featurette focusing on the characters of the film. A twenty minute feature teaches the viewer how to draw the key characters by Wendy Sullivan (Story Artist/Director, Custom Animation), and there’s also a brief BTS featurette with some outtakes from the voice recordings. In all, a solid bonus features selection for a film of its type.

Outstanding in terms of tech (visuals and sound) on the Blu-Ray and a decent enough animated feature to keep the kids happy and the adults watching it alongside them amused, too.

Trolls Band Together is out now on all of the home formats.