Trolls Band Together celebrates the full pop-music extravaganza fans love about the Trolls movies – and turns it all the way up in local cinemas on November 15.
While the previous film, Trolls World Tour, explored and highlighted myriad musical genres, Band Together emphasizes, appropriately, bands… together. “The music identity of this film is pop music, and more specifically, ‘family band,’” producer Gina Shay says. “This film celebrates family bands (e.g., Bee Gees and The Jackson 5) and boy-band music through the decades. Justin Timberlake (co-executive music producer and voice talent for Branch) and the music team wanted to honor pop through the decades. As the film progresses, we hear all the eras of family band music of the ’70s through the early 2000s. Justin does a brilliant job of weaving in and out of these classic covers and original songs to invigorate and immerse the audience in this experience.”
Among the original songs for Band Together are *NSYNC’s “Better Place” (the first musical release in two decades by the iconic boy band, of which Timberlake was a member) and the newly released “It Takes Two,” performed by various artists led by Anna Kendrick (Poppy) and pop star Camila Cabello, herself a former member of girl group Fifth Harmony and who voices a new character in the film.
To ensure that the film stayed in-sync with Branch’s boy-band past, the filmmakers focused specifically on pop-centric sounds of the ’90s. “Branch and his brothers were in a pop-family band,” director Walt Dohrn says. “It was our mission to do a lot of pop this time. We brought in a number of collaborators to make sure that each sound fits into the narrative.”
The exciting challenge was commissioning original new songs that fit seamlessly into the musical landscape they were designing. “It’s hard to write original songs that stand up against classics we all love,” Dohrn says. “I feel the songs in this movie stand up to those.”
Timberlake has always been involved in the music of the Trolls movies and he was even more involved for this chapter. “Justin was essential in the last movie – working with all the different collaborators like George Clinton and Ludwig Göransson,” Dohrn says. “For Trolls Band Together, Justin had ideas with classic, familiar songs. We had even more collaboration with him on this film, and I’m excited to put the songs out into the world.”
In Trolls Band Together, Poppy (Anna Kendrick) and Branch (Justin Timberlake) are back for an action-packed, all-star, rainbow-colored new chapter in the beloved Trolls franchise. After two films of true friendship and relentless flirting, Poppy and Branch are now officially, finally, a couple (#broppy)! As they grow closer, Poppy discovers that Branch has a secret past. He was once part of her favorite boyband phenomenon, BroZone, with his four brothers. BroZone disbanded when Branch was still a baby, as did the family, and Branch hasn’t seen his brothers since. But when Branch’s bro Floyd is kidnapped for his musical talents by a pair of nefarious pop-star villains, Branch and Poppy embark on a harrowing and emotional journey to reunite the other brothers and rescue Floyd from a fate even worse than pop-culture obscurity.
Featuring Trolls’ signature psychedelic joy-bomb of new and classic pop hits, Trolls Band Together stars a dazzling cast of musical superstars and comedic powerhouses as new franchise characters, including Troye Sivan, Eric Andre, Daveed Diggs and Kid Cudi, as Branch’s brothers and BroZone bandmates; Amy Schumer and Andrew Rannells, as the pop-star villains who kidnap Branch’s brother Floyd; as well as Zosia Mamet, RuPaul Charles, and four-time Grammy nominee and Latin Grammy winner Camila Cabello.
The returning cast includes Zooey Deschanel, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kenan Thompson, Aino Jawo, Caroline Hjelt, Anderson .Paak, Ron Funches and Kunal Nayyar.
Tap into the beat before the new movie opens in cinemas with this sing-along of Kendrick and Cabello from the film’s lyric video trailer “It Takes Two”!
Get ready for another dose of infectious pop music when Trolls Band Together finally opens in cinemas November 15.