Trolls Movie: Go Behind the Scenes of the Animated Film

Join stars Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake for a look inside DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls movie

It was more than half a century ago in the Danish town of Gjøl that Thomas Dam, a local fisherman, carved the first Troll doll as a gift for his daughter. The doll was such a hit, first with his daughter and then with the entire town, that Dam went into business manufacturing the strange-looking toys. With surges in popularity over the decades, the dolls are now headed to the big screen in the first-ever animated Trolls movie. ComingSoon.net recently paid a visit to the DreamWorks Animation campus in Glendale, California and got a special behind-the-scenes look at the November 4 release.

Directed by Mike Mitchell and Walt Dohrn, the Trolls movie features a voice cast led by Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake, the latter of whom also serves as the film’s Executive Music Producer. After all, the Trolls movie boasts an elaborate mix of pop covers and original songs.

“I’ve never been the music producer for a film,'” says Timberlake, who voices a Troll named Branch. “…I think that overall you’ll find that a lot of the music has a little bit of a ‘70s funk to it. That was definitely an inspiration for ‘Can’t Stop the Feeling’ as well.”

“I would bet that 95% of what’s in the movie is from my session with Justin,” adds Kendrick, who plays a Troll named Poppy, “because, as someone who’s a singer, he gives such specific notes that are so helpful. It just tightened it up so much and I feel like we got so much more heart and mischief and sass.”

Songs in the Trolls movie stretch from Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” to “Clint Eastwood” by Gorillaz and also include four new songs written specifically for the film.

“I’m a big fan of musicals,” Timberlake continues. “The first ones that come to mind are ‘The Music Man’ and ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ where you’re getting a piece from the character that’s moving the story along… We definitely wanted to modernize our movie and make everything service the movie to move it along.”

In building the Trolls movie’s story, the filmmakers found a lot of freedom in the dolls’ lack of a backstory.

“There was no fairy tale,” says Mitchell. “There was no story. That was really exciting.”

“One thing we knew we had to keep, that remained so iconic throughout the decades, was the hair,” says Dohrn.

The look of the dolls wound up influencing the look of the Trolls movie’s fantasy world. Inspired by outfits that collectors would make their trolls in the 1970s, the decision was made to give the film a handmade look. Something like a tree might be modeled to look like a tree, but it has been given the texture of felt in a process the filmmakers have dubbed “fuzzy immersion.”

The look of the Trolls movie serves as the backdrop for a story that teams Kendrick’s ebullient Poppy with Timberlake’s grumpy Branch on a mission to save their entire race from getting eaten by gigantic creatures called Burgens.

“We wanted to make a movie where not only the world was unique, but where we could serve up happiness to the world,” Dohrn explains. “How do you get it? How do you lose it? This was the story discussion we had with our writers. We used that theme to inform the colors, the character design, the look of the film, the music.”

Each of the different Troll characters has something unique about their look, whether it’s the conjoined hair of Icona Pop‘s Fashionistas, the sheer glitteriness of Kunal Nayyar‘s Guy Diamond or the bizarre four-legged troll that is Ron Funches‘ Cooper. In fact, Cooper is even based on a classic Troll design.

“My first question to [the directors] after they finished pitching me the movie was, ‘Does Poppy have a diamond belly button?'” Kendrick laughs, “Because the jeweled belly button Trolls are the best Trolls! They said, ‘No, but she has glitter freckles,’ I was like, ‘Okay, that’s fine.’ I had the pencil toppers, which made it seem like homework was fun even when homework wasn’t fun. But they are that kind of ugly cute. It’s hard to say what draws kids to them, but I think it’s like pug dogs. They’re so ugly that they’re cute.”

The voice cast of the Trolls movie also includes James Corden as Biggie, Russell Brand as Creek, Gwen Stefani as DJ Suki, GloZell Green as Grandma Rosiepuff and Meg DeAngelis as Moxie.

20th Century Fox will release the Trolls movie in theaters November 4. Will you check it out on the big screen? Let us know in the comments below!