Trolls World Tour

image for Trolls World Tour

Short takes

Not suitable under 5; parental guidance to 7 (mild scary scenes and violence)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Trolls World Tour
  • a review of Trolls World Tour completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 14 September 2020.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 5 Not suitable due to some mild scary scenes and violence.
Children aged 5–7 Parental guidance recommended due to some mild scary scenes and violence.
Children aged 8 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Trolls World Tour
Classification: G
Consumer advice lines: Very mild themes, crude humour and coarse language.
Length: 91 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Trolls World Tour is a sequel to the 2016 film Trolls and takes us right back into that psychedelic, happy land where Queen Poppy (voice of Anna Kendrick) rules over a groovy bunch of Pop-Music Trolls who like to do nothing more than sing and dance all day. One day a message arrives for Poppy, it’s from a faraway ruler from another tribe of Trolls: Barb, Queen of the Hard-Rock Trolls (voice of Rachel Bloom). Poppy is so excited to hear that there is another tribe of Trolls living beyond the boundaries of their forest, even more so when her father tells her that there are many, many different tribes of Trolls, all with their own style of music. Meanwhile, Queen Barb is on a mission to take over all of Troll kingdom, turning every Troll into a Hard-Rock Troll, destroying their diversity and making them all the same. Although Poppy thinks she can change Barb’s mind with hugs, pop music and friendship – when she sets off to find her, things become more and more difficult as she sees the trail of destruction that Barb has left behind. Poppy and her friends travel through all the different lands of Troll Kingdom, determined to warn everyone and save them from being turned into Hard-Rock Troll Zombies!

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Diversity; Tolerance; Music; World dominance; Friendship.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie including:

  • Hard-Rock Queen ‘Barb’ destroys the towns where other tribes of Troll live. She leaves them decimated and with broken buildings.
  • Barb uses threats to intimidate and scare the other Trolls.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • This film is extremely fast paced and at times it can be very loud, very ‘zoomy’ and very bright and flashy. Children with sensory processing sensitivities may find it overwhelming in some parts.
  • An underwater techno rave party is interrupted by a giant scary fish. As it approaches the party its mouth opens like a zip with sharp teeth and the inside glows red. It turns out that these are the flying ships of the ‘Hard-Rock Trolls’ and Queen Barb emerges from the ship’s mouth with an aggressive shout and playing her guitar loudly. Suddenly a dozen or more of the Hard-Rock ships appear in the distance, looking ominous and threatening.
  • A small, fuzzy, bat-like creature with sharp snapping teeth flies into one of the Pop Troll’s heads and snaps at him.
  • The Hard-Rock Trolls are all dressed in dark colours, with scowls or aggressive expressions on their face. Their queen is very shouty, threatening and aggressive.
  • The Pop Trolls visit the land of Classical Music Trolls and it has been destroyed by the Hard-Rock Trolls, only a sad little penny whistle is left behind.
  • The Pop Trolls are put in jail by the Country Music Trolls. They are then chased by some of the Trolls to the edge of a canyon, where they fall into the river below.
  • A spaceship comes down and captures some of the Pop Trolls in large bubbles that draw them up inside the ship.
  • Queen Poppy is thrown into a cage and kept captive by Queen Barb.
  • One of the Trolls is turned into a ‘Hard-Rock Zombie’ and he turns mean-looking with blank, glowing red eyes.
  • All the colour drains out of the world – it needs to be restored through singing. The Trolls feel sad and worried at their lack of colour.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • Some children in this age group may still find the above scenes a little scary.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

  • None noted.

Sexual references

There are some mild romantic references in this movie, including:

  • There is some very mild flirtation between Queen Poppy and the cowboy, Hickory.
  • Branch, the Pop Troll, is trying to work up the courage to tell Poppy that he loves her.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Biggie’s pants come down and you can see his bottom.
  • When the smooth Jazz Troll appears with a love heart shaped tuft on his naked chest, Poppy says in awe, “Look at his chest hair”.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • When the Trolls are subjected to some ‘smooth jazz’ they enter an intoxicated state.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Butt
  • Dang
  • Pipsqueak.

In a nutshell

Trolls World Tour is a silly but fun film with quite a few laughs. It is full of great music that kids will love, and many adults won’t be able to resist tapping their feet too. The story involves the usual goodie vs. baddie stuff but the positive messages about diversity and tolerance shine through. Although there is not a lot that will disturb children over the age of five, parents should know that this is a very flashy, noisy and fast-paced film that some children might find a little overwhelming, especially if they see it on the big screen at the cinema, therefore, parental guidance is recommended for children aged 5 to 7.

The main messages from this movie are that the world is a better place if we can learn to appreciate the differences and diversity between us and live together in Harmony.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Tolerance for different cultures and their unique customs.
  • Keeping your promises.
  • Being a leader can be a lonely job.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • What would it be like if we were all the same and all liked the same things? Would the world be a better place or a worse place?
  • Queen Barb wants to take over the whole Troll world. Do you think it’s fair for one culture to try and take over another?