Trolls appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Like most computer animated affairs, this one looked terrific.
Sharpness was excellent. At all times, the movie exhibited virtually flawless definition, without a hint of softness on display. No signs of jaggies or moiré effects materialized, and edge enhancement didn’t appear. I also failed to discern any print flaws in this clear presentation.
With a broad palette, Trolls offered delightful hues. The colors were vibrant and bright at all times, as they showed eye-popping vivacity. Blacks were deep and tight, while shadows appeared smooth and well-defined. This was a fine image.
While not as strong, the film’s DTS-HD MA 7.1 worked well for the movie. The soundfield tended to focus on the front speakers, though the rear channels kicked to life at times.
These occurred mostly during the occasional action scenes; we got good movement for all the antics on display. Otherwise, the music showed nice stereo dimensionality, and the track gave us a positive sense of place and involvement.
Audio quality was fine. Speech seemed concise and crisp, while music offered good range and clarity. Effects were also accurate and full, as they represented different elements well. I thought the track lacked the scope to be more than a “B”, but it seemed more than adequate for the story.
We can watch Trolls in two alternate ways. Sing Along adds lyrics to the movie’s songs, while Party Mode adds other elements. It also includes the sing-along but it throws in additional interactive components the viewer activates via remote. Kids might like these options.
Three Deleted Scenes fill a total of seven minutes, 24 seconds, a running time that includes introductions from director Mike Mitchell and co-director Walt Dohrn. We find “Story Time With Poppy”, “Bringing Back Happy” and “So Many Dresses”.
“Happy” and “Dresses” offer production numbers that don’t work because they don’t fit their characters well. “Story” just makes the king look senile. None of them offer much entertainment. Mitchell and Dohrn give us good thoughts about the sequences and why they got the boot.
A few featurettes follow. Travel Through Troll Village goes for four minutes, 43 seconds and provides an animated tour with “Cloud Guy”. It basically offers an overview of various movie characters. It’s cute but more or less worthless, as it tells us nothing we don’t know from the movie.
During the five-minute, six-second The Potion for Stop-Motion, we hear from Dorhn, Mitchell, visual developer Priscilla Wong, and production designer Kendal Cronkhite-Shaindlin. “Potion” discusses the creation of the scenes that demonstrate Poppy’s “scrap-booking”. It becomes a quick but informative piece.
Next comes Creating Troll Magic. It goes for five minutes, 21 seconds and offers info from Cronkhite-Shaindlin, Wong, Mitchell, and Dohrn. This connects to character and visual design and expands on “Potion”: to offer another brief but tight discussion.
With Inside the Bunker, we locate a two-minute, 54-second reel that gives us another tour from “Cloud Guy”. It details Branch’s “survival bunker”. Like “Travel”, it lacks much value.
Finally, Troll 2 Troll fills four minutes, 46 seconds. It gives us “debate” between Branch and Poppy about hot topics like “cats or dogs” and “early bird or night owl”. This breaks into six short promo reels, and they use original voice actors Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake. The snippets offer minor amusement.
The disc opens with ads for The Boss Baby, Sing, Home: Adventures With Tip and Oh, and Spirit: Riding Free. Sneak Peek adds clips for Voltron: Legendary Defender, Kung Fu Panda 3 and Home. We also get a trailer for Trolls.
Under The World of DreamWorks Animation, we find various promotional elements related to Shrek, Madagascar, How to Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, The Croods, Turbo and Home. Mostly we get music videos, but a few trailers appear as well.
A second disc brings us a DVD copy of Trolls. It includes the “Travel”, “Motion” and “Magic” featurettes as well as some ads.
As animated comedies go, the best I can say about Trolls is that I’ve seen worse. Without much originality or spark, the movie offers minor entertainment at best. The Blu-ray brings us excellent visuals as well as pretty good audio and mediocre supplements. Trolls fails to turn into a memorable affair.