When COVID-19 struck and movie theaters shut down, most theatrical releases got delayed. Originally meant to hit screens April 2020, Trolls World Tour still reached audiences at that time, but not in the expected manner.

Rather than push Tour to some later theatrical date, Universal chose to put out the film as a “Video on Demand” title. It became a success there, though it remains to be seen how much revenue the film lost due to the absence of a wide theatrical release.

A sequel to 2016’s Trolls, Tour shows how Queen Poppy (voiced by Anna Kendrick) adjusts to her new role as the leader of a pop music-loving clan of trolls. With wannabe boyfriend Branch (Justin Timberlake) by her side, she encounters a challenge when she learns that other troll clans exist.

Each of the six groups advocate its own musical genre, so in addition to Poppy’s pop realm, we find out about domains dominated by classical, funk, techno, country and hard rock. In the last of those, Queen Barb (Rachel Bloom) rules.

Intolerant of the other tribes, Queen Barb desires to take over and destroy all the rest. Poppy and Branch do their best to unite the trolls and prevent Barb’s conquest.

As a college student in the 1980s, one of my friends listened to nothing but Hair Metal. More than 30 years later, that remains a staple of his musical diet.

If he ever sees Tour, I suspect he’ll root for Barb and hope that Poppy fails. As one who doesn’t enjoy that level of affection for 80s hard rock, I can’t say I feel the same way, but I also can’t claim to care about Poppy or the others.

The original Trolls offered a derivative, mediocre animated tale, and Tour fails to improve on that model. If anything, it seems even more contrived and less organic than its predecessor.

Not that the first flick existed as much more than a series of marketing opportunities. Trolls seemed to reach multiplexes more as a way to sell toys and music and less as a creative endeavor.

A sequel to that kind of “cinematic product” would seem even less likely to thrive, though I guess the first flick’s relative success could’ve loosened up the filmmakers and allowed them to go a little nuts. Trolls did just enough business to justify this second tale, and the probable existence of a built-in audience brings the chance for those behind Tour to follow their instincts and worry less about box office.

Or maybe not, as the $100 million budget of Tour ensured the studio would keep tabs on the production. This means another movie that seems more created by committee than anything else.

In theory, the existence of the different troll tribes should seem clever, but it doesn’t really work. For one, this revelation feels like it comes out of nowhere, as it doesn’t link especially well to the first movie.

In addition, the various tribes seem like an excuse for a way to produce a soundtrack. Due to its orientation, the first movie went heavy on pop, so the broader scope of Tour can feel as though it exists just to pimp sales.

Not that Tour really emphasizes variety. Even when we get the Hard Rock Trolls, they offer exceedingly “soft” versions of songs like “Crazy Train”. We get rock done in pop clothing, all to keep everything non-threatening for the young audience.

This translates to all aspects of Tour, as it feels neutered for the wee ones. No, I don’t expect anything truly edgy here, but the best animated films find a way to satisfy adults as well as kids.

Tour can’t do this. It comes with a pretty good cast, and the basic premise doesn’t stink.

Unfortunately, Tour can’t generate any real creativity. The movie delivers generic cinematic product without anything especially clever or memorable.

Trolls World Tour appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Computer animated films tend to look good on Blu-ray, and Tour followed that rule.

Sharpness was fine across the board. This meant the movie delivered satisfying definition, with no obvious softness on display.

No signs of jagged edges or moiré effects occurred, and edge haloes were absent. Of course, print flaws never manifested themselves.

Colors tended to be broad and bold, with a wide palette on display. The Blu-ray delivered the hues in a lively, dynamic manner.

Blacks were dark and deep, while low-light shots offered nice clarity and smoothness. This became an appealing visual presentation.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, we got a Dolby Atmos soundtrack that offered a lively soundscape, especially during the action sequences. Those fleshed out the spectrum in an involving way and gave us fine movement.

Unsurprisingly, music dominated, and the various songs and score used the channels in an engrossing manner. None of this added up to a terrific soundfield, but it worked pretty well.

Audio quality seemed pleasing. Speech always sounded distinctive and concise, while music was peppy and rich.

Effects offered solid reproduction, with clean highs and deep lows. I liked this mix and thought it gave the movie life.

As we move extras, we open with an audio commentary from director Walt Dohrn, producer Gina Shay and co-director David P. Smith. All three sit together for this running, screen-specific look at story and characters, animation and design choices, cast and performances, music, and related domains.

Though the commentary comes with a good array of movie-making nuggets, it also suffers from a lot of happy talk, and those aspects can make it a minor chore. Still, the participants bring a light, lively tone and turn this into a breezy chat, even if I’d prefer less self-praise.

An interactive element called Dance Party Mode runs alongside the movie. It offers prompts to sing along with the tunes, follow dance moves and/or little pop-up goofy bits. Kids might dig this but it seems fairly forgettable otherwise.

A new short, Tiny Diamond Goes Back to School goes for three minutes, 46 seconds and depicts exactly what the title indicates. Tiny preps for his educational career in this mildly amusing piece.

With Trolls Dance Academy, we get a tutorial. Across seven minutes, eight seconds, it teaches how to do moves under six musical genres. This already appears with “Dance Party Mode”, but it’s good to have on its own if it interests you.

Trolls World Tourist Map offers an interactive affair. It allows you to select the six music-related domains found in the film.

Each location presents a short “sales pitch” that mixes movie clips with narration. It’s cute and that’s about it.

Seven Deleted Scenes fill a total of 19 minutes, 24 seconds. That time includes introductions from Dohrn, Shay and Smith, as they give us some notes about each of the sequences.

As for those segments, they tend to focus on secondary characters or minor story elements. The look at what happened to Symphonyville is actually pretty good, but most of the clips feel superfluous.

Next comes Trolls Perfect Harmony, a four-minute, 29-second featurette with Dohrn, Smith, Shay, co-producer Kelly Cooney Cilella, head of story Tim Heitz, composer Theodore Shapiro, head of character animation Carlos Fernandez Puertolas, executive music producer Ludwig Göransson, and actors Justin Timberlake, Anna Kendrick, Anderson .Paak, James Corden, and Kunal Nayyar.

They provide basic notes about the movie’s cast and music. It’s fluffy and without much substance.

Across three parts, Backstage takes up a total of nine minutes, seven seconds. It offers info from Dohrn, Timberlake, Kendrick, Smith, Cilella, Shay, production designer Kendal Cronkhite Shaindlin, and actors Rachel Bloom, Ron Funches, George Clinton, Mary J. Blige, and Kenan Thompson.

“Backstage” looks at the design of the different Troll domains as well as cast and characters. Like the other features, “Backstage” tends toward the superficial side of the street.

The disc opens with an ad for Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts. No trailer for Tour appears here.

Even though I felt the first movie lacked creativity, I held out hope the sequel might improve on the model. Unfortunately, Trolls World Tour seems even less inspired, as it presents an utterly forgettable experience. The Blu-ray boasts strong picture and audio as well as a mix of bonus materials. Tour becomes an uninspired animated effort.