Western Animation / Trolls World Tour

Spoilers for this film will be marked as usual, but due to this film's nature as the sequel to Trolls, that film's spoilers are left unmarked here. You Have Been Warned!

The happiest movie ever made.

Trolls World Tour is the 2020 sequel to DreamWorks Animation's 2016 hit animated musical Trolls, and the second feature film in the Trolls franchise. The film was released on-demand on April 10, 2020, foregoing a theatrical release in most countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Taking place two years after the events of the first films, Poppy (Anna Kendrick), who is trying to be a good queen, learns that there are six different kingdoms of Trolls aside from her own. They consist of Pop, Funk, Techno, Classical, Country, and Rock. Each kingdom has a set of strings that allow them to create music. When she discovers that Queen Barb (Rachel Bloom) of the Rock kingdom wants to obtain the strings and destroy all music that isn't rock, Poppy and Branch (Justin Timberlake) set out to unite the other kingdoms before Barb can destroy them.

Joining the cast is several big names of musical talent. These include the aforementioned Rachel Bloom, Kelly Clarkson, Anderson .Paak, Sam Rockwell, George Clinton, Mary J. Blige, Kenan Thompson, Ester Dean, Anthony Ramos, Ozzy Osbourne, and K-Pop group Red Velvet.

It was released for digital download on June 23 and was later released on Blu-ray DVD on July 7. Both sets come with an exclusive 4-minute short titled Tiny Diamond Goes Back to School, and an extras video named Tourist Map.

On November 19, 2020, the events of the film were followed up by Trolls: TrollsTopia, an animated series exclusive to Hulu and Peacock. Like the previous film, World Tour also spawned an NBC holiday special, Trolls: Holiday in Harmony, which brought back the films' cast, which was released on November 26, 2021.

A sequel, Trolls Band Together, was released on November 17, 2023.

Previews: Trailer 1 Trailer 2, International Trailer

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Trolls World Tour provides examples of:

#-F

• Accent Relapse: Once exposed as a Yodeler^note To the tune of "Hocus-Pocus" by Focus no less, Hickory reverts to a German accent, though he's heard speaking with a Southern drawl again at the concert.
• Actor Allusion:
  • Ozzy Osbourne voices Barb's father, Thrash. Barb sings Osbourne's own song, "Crazy Train" at one point.
  • This certainly wasn't the first time Kelly Clarkson has played a guitar-strumming cowgirl.
• Actor IS the Title Character: Not limited to only main characters, but the many promotional posters depicting characters include "(actor name) is (character name)".
• Actually Quite Catchy: This happens to Branch twice. The first time, a variant, is when he claims to like "Born To Die". The second time occurs when the Reggaeton Trolls and The K-Pop Gang find him; he listens to both groups' music moments before getting captured.
  • "Just Sing" is an exaggerated example. This trope is the song's overall point, since practically every Troll goes on to join the musical number started by Poppy, regardless of when they do.
• All Trolls Are Different/Gang of Hats: Discussed when Peppy tells Poppy about the other troll tribes that are different from them, she asks if she means different like the trolls in their village; Legsly, who can stretch her legs instead of her hair, Fuzzbert who's covered entirely in hair, or Skyscraper whose multiple troll heads and arms stacked on top of a single body. What he means by different are how trolls from the other tribes center their culture around a different genres of music and don't understand or like that of the Pop trolls. The trolls of the other tribes have physical differences that allude to other mythical creatures.
  • Rock trolls are mostly similar to Pop trolls, but with messier hair, angular features and muted colors in grey tones that make them look like they're literally carved out of stone. Their genre is Hard Rock, with some inclusion of Heavy Metal as well.
  • Country trolls are like centaurs in body structure, though their upper part is still very similar to that of Pop trolls with beigetone colors. Their genre is Country, and they have a Wild West-themed culture.
  • Classical Trolls are small, golden-skinned, glittery and winged, resembling cherubs. They have gems in their navels, which have the same pastel colors as their hair. Their genre is Classical, and their culture involves an emphasis on beatific aesthetic.
  • Techno trolls live underwater and are like mermaids, but they can also float through the air. They have features and markings so angular as to resemble pixels, most signified by a pixelated heart on their chests, with bodies that can move as smoothly as a synth or as erratic as a dubstep mix. Their bodies also glow in bright neon colors, with their hair resembling fiber optic wire. Their genre is Electronic (referred by the name of the "Techno" subgenre in the franchise itself).
  • Funk Trolls are the most open to other types of music as their princes are respectively also into Hip-Hop and Pop, showing their appreciation of highly eclectic sources. They're also the most alien compared to every other kind of troll, as they're modeled after the Troll giraffe toys; they have long limbs in either a quadruped or biped body structure and are covered in fur. Following this their tribe has the most advanced, sci-fi like technology, their entire kingdom housed in what's basically a terrestrial spaceship with futuristic devices like tractor beams and floating platforms.
  • There are other smaller tribes (commonly known as "subtribes" by fans) of trolls for additional kinds of music, which consist of members spun off from the main tribes. The only subtribe from which its members' origins are known is Hip-Hop, coming from Funk and Pop heritage. Even though the heritage of the rest of the subtribe members is unknown (being merely referred in supplementary material as coming from a location known as the "hinterlands"), they all physically resemble Pop trolls.
    • K-Pop trolls have glossy chrome skin, Reggaeton trolls have body markings, and the Smooth Jazz troll Chaz is capable of levitation.
• Animated Musical
• Anti-Climax: The Funk Trolls get ready for an all out battle with the Rock Trolls when they arrive, even having battle music play as the population grab their instruments and are heading off to face them. Only for the Rock Trolls to cut their power and they are sitting ducks.
• Art Course: While touched upon in the aesthetics of the first film, the entire world present in this film is made to look as though it was handcrafted, with various geographical points made of different materials and styles, sand being made of glitter and water made to look like tinsel and silk georgette.
  • Pop Village and the forest it exists in is made entirely out of felt, with an emphasis is basic pastel colors.
  • The coral present at the Techno Trolls' party looks as though it was croquetted.
  • Symphonyville is made of varying shades of bright yellow and gold, the world made to look like embroidered pillows to match the Classical Troll's sophistication and gentle tones.
  • Lonesome Flats and the surrounding desert have a theme based around quilting and natural fibers, an art form common to Old West themes. When Branch and Clampers dig through the ground, there's cotton stuffing instead of dirt. The rock walls of the canyon Poppy and friends fall into further show the land as stacks of folded quilts instead of strata.
  • Vibe City is the most diverse in its color palette (reflecting the Funk Trolls' acceptance in musical-diversity), which much of the outside and inside of the ship emphasizing sequins. The Funk String's chamber in particular is made of records repurposed as sequins.
  • The Rock Trolls have a heavier emphasis off of denim and black leather (the most common fashion in Hard Rock), their territory Volcano Rock City made of patches of black leather stitched together with reflective silk as the streaming volcano and spike-studs everywhere.
• Ascended Extra: Both Biggie and Cooper play more major roles this time around.
• Bad Liar: Queen Barb acts like she's offended that Poppy states she wants to become best friends with her. Despite staying gruff her half-hearted rant about not needing one makes it clear she is lying. After everything is solved in the end and Poppy asks if she wants to be friends, Barb excitedly says yes and immediately wants to form a Girl Group with Carol.
• Badbutt: Played for laughs when the Snack Pack try to impersonate the Rock Trolls. When called on it, they improvise a song that's sufficiently loud and angry-sounding, but the lyrics don't quite match up. They still manage to enter despite this, due to the idiotic nature of the guarding Rock Troll Sid Fret.
• Bathos: A number of serious moments in the movie, including the climax, have at least one humorous side scene or joke jutxaposed within them. This is different to how the first movie usually kept the dramatic and comedic parts separate from each other.
• Betty and Veronica: Subverted with Branch and Hickory. While at first it seems that Hickory (Veronica) is out to drive a romantic wedge between Branch (Betty) and Poppy (Archie), no such love triangle develops, with Hickory providing more of a Shipper on Deck role to Branch by offering him some valuable relationship advice.
• Big Bad: Queen Barb, who seeks to destroy all forms of music other than metal and assimilate every other tribe into her own.
• Big Finale Crowd Song: The "Just Sing" sequence near the end of the film involves the Trolls from all the major tribes and minor subcultures progressively joining in the song's performance, which is started and ended by Poppy alone. This symbolizes the reunion of all the Trolls after the previous events that happened in the film.
• Black Comedy Burst: The musical intro to the Country Troll village of Lonesome Flats has a crowd dance scene where one of the participants has a sudden heart attack and stumbles over into a coffin, which is casually closed as the number concludes. His ghost appears in the ending credits.
• Big Damn High-Five
• Bounty Hunter: When Poppy accidentally angers Barb by sending her an exploding glitter bomb, she enlists the Reggaeton trolls, K-Pop trolls, Chaz, and Hickory to track Poppy down, in exchange for them to be allowed to keep their music. Two groups end up capturing Branch instead, considering on using him as leverage against Poppy.
• Bowel-Breaking Bricks: This time, Cooper poops out a cake of several layers, complete with candles.
• Brainy Baby/Three-Month-Old Newborn: In a mild retcon to the first movie, Trolls are born fully cognizant, with Tiny Diamond having a hip hop number right after being named and a newborn Country troll being capable enough to be put to work.
• Buddy Snaps First: After getting hypnotized and almost captured by Chaz on the river trip, Branch watches Biggie as he calls out Poppy for the latter breaking their pinky promise that she'll protect him no matter what, and subsequently leaves the boat they're on. Initially, Branch doesn't think much about that moment, but it inspires him to later give Poppy a "The Reason You Suck" Speech for not listening to what others tell her after her arguments with Quincy and Essence at Vibe City; the two end up separating briefly over this.
• The Cameo:
  • Bridget and Gristle from the first movie show up at the very end of The Stinger, realizing they missed everything.
  • Cloud Guy also appears during the denouement, and in a gag meets a female cloud, marries her and starts a family with three kids.
• Can-Crushing Cranium: After drinking his "fiber" juice, Thrash crushes the box against his head.
• Can't Spit It Out: Branch can't bring himself to admit his love for Poppy who is focused on being queen. He does so at the end.
• Carpet of Virility: Chaz the Smooth Jazz Troll is always shirtless to show off his bushy chest hair. It's lampshaded by Poppy when she sees it.
• Chainsaw Good: Barb trashes her Angler Bus by slicing a couch in half via chainsaw, out of anger for getting glitter in her face. She apparently does this often because there are repair seams, and a Rock Troll in the couch doesn't flinch from reading his book when Barb reveals his hiding spot.
• Change the Uncomfortable Subject: When the Yodel trolls are revealed, Poppy asks if one of them has been playing the back half of their Country troll disguise the whole time, he angrily asks that they change the subject.
• Chekhov's Skill: Gumdrops. Soundproof and delicious.
• Children Are Innocent: The younger trolls warm up much quicker to different kinds of music than the adult ones.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Continuing up from the Trolls Holiday special, DJ Suki is nowhere to be seen in this movie—possibly due to how busy her voice actress is.
• Classical Music Is Boring: Barb's opinion, mockingly pretending to sleep when the Classical trolls prepare to fight her by playing a snippet of their music. She particularly doesn't like that their songs have no lyrics. Though that doesn't stop her from appropriating their music into a rock version as the Rock trolls go on the offensive.
• Close-Call Haircut: After Barb finishes her rant about Pop music and rushes to check on her dad, she tosses her chainsaw away, which buzzes a nearby Rock Troll's hair. Sid Fret comments that her hair looks nice.
• Color Failure: When Poppy destroys the harp and the six strings, every Troll loses their color.
• Comically Small Bribe: Barb hires several Bounty Hunters and states whoever can capture Poppy and her String gets to keep their music in their own territory. Said territory is a tiny speck on the map.
• Concert Climax: The climax and ending happen at a concert led by Barb after the Rock Trolls took the other Tribes' strings and members. It starts off as Version A, but switches to Version B when Branch and Poppy begin a relationship together.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Barb is the opposite of the first movie's Big Bad Chef in many terms.
  • Whereas Chef was the aged, resentful former royal chef to the ruling family of Bergen Town who sought to overthrow King Gristle Jr. out of revenge for his father scapegoating and exiling her twenty years prior for the Pop trolls escaping their kingdom, Barb is the young, devil-may-care queen of the Hard Rock Trolls who seeks to forcefully unify all the troll tribes under her music by destroying their respective genres so that only rock music remains.
  • Chef was a Manipulative Bitch who opted to hide her goals behind the facade of wanting to atone for her past failures and make her people happy once more, while Barb was all too honest with what she wanted to do with the strings of the other troll tribes.
  • While Chef immediately established herself as a threat to Poppy by kidnapping her friends and usually did her own dirty work, Barb never properly interacted with Poppy before the final act of the sequel, up until which point she had relied on bounty hunters to locate Poppy and bring her to Barb with the Pop trolls' string.
  • Chef wanted to rule over the Bergens for the sake of power and respect, which left her with little-to-no redeeming factors, while Barb was only trying to wipe out all non-Rock music in a misguided attempt to bring peace and unity to all trolls; she eventually learns her lesson and changes for the better.
• Contrasting Sequel Setting: The first movie saw the main Troll characters and their friends going outside their home to travel to a home of non-Troll creatures. This movie has them travel through the homes of the other newly-revealed Troll Tribes.
• Cool Boat: Hickory builds a raft — complete with firepit and coffee maker — to ferry the Pop Trolls to Vibe City.
• Cool Old Guy: Barb's father, Thrash, is the retired king of the Rock Trolls, and even while being old, wheelchair-bound, and senile, he still knows how to rock out.
• Crowd Song:
  • Poppy and Branch lead on "Trolls Wanna Have Good Times" with the Pop Trolls.
  • The climax has "Just Sing", sung by all the Trolls.
• Cue the Sun: The sun starts shining once Poppy starts singing "Just Sing".
• Cut the Juice: The Funk Trolls are the most technologically advanced of all the troll tribes, but have the glaring weakness that all that of their technology is vulnerable to having its unified power system cut. All the Rock trolls have to do to disarm them before they can finish mobilizing their army is literally pull the plug that Vibe City runs on.
• Dance Party Ending: The first part of the credits has this.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of Wide-Eyed Idealist. Poppy is convinced that all Trolls are the same deep down, and that she can befriend the Rock Trolls and bring all the tribes together. Unfortunately, this viewpoint leads her to dismiss her friends' views to the contrary out of hand. The Funk Trolls' king even points out that their differences are what make the tribes what they are, with the implication that Poppy's belief in treating them all like they're the same is more insulting than inspiring.
• Destroy the Villain's Weapon: In the Concert Climax, Poppy smashes the guitar holding the Strings in order to avoid every non-Rock Troll from being brainwashed by them.
• Disco Sucks: The obligatory joke in a movie about music comes when Poppy finds out there are more Troll tribes than her map shows. Branch notes its datedness makes sense by it still having Disco Troll territory on it. Somewhat ironic since both movies had disco numbers on the soundtrack.
• Disco Tech: The Funk Trolls' bubble transport is activated by a giant floor keyboard and Prince D prepares to battle on a turntable hoverboard that fires funky blasts by scratching.
• Disney Acid Sequence: A couple of them, actually—Trolls Wanna Have Good Times, the Trolls 2 Many Hits Mashup, and Chaz's smooth jazz all drabble into this.
• The Ditz: Most Rock Trolls qualify as this at different levels, but special mention goes to Sid Fret, who isn't capable of distinguishing Rock fashion and lyrics at all.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The plot of the movie is all about the conflicts between music fandoms. The Trolls of different tribes used to be in harmony until Pop tried to present itself as better than the others by remixing their music into its own, which drove all the tribes apart. In the present they're left wary and dismissive of each other as "not real music".
• Dressing as the Enemy: When the Snack Pack attempt to rescue Poppy after she's been captured by the Rock Trolls, they make outfits in attempts to pass themselves off as Rock Trolls. Because of the Pop influence in the creation, they look more like glam rockers compared to the others, but still manage to pass anyways. Even Barb is fooled when they get shunted into being her band during her final concert.
• Ear Fins: The Techno Trolls have a pixel-shaped version of this.
• Ear Worm: Barb outright calls pop music an ear worm as part of the reasons why she hates it.
• Easily Forgiven: Despite everything the Rock Trolls did, they're forgiven by the end of the film. Granted, it instigated the events that led to the tribes unifying peacefully.
• Easily Swayed Population: Continuing from the first movie, the generic Trolls almost always rely on the named ones to know what to do throughout the overall conflict.
• Embarrassing First Name: Barb's intimidating, tough-sounding name is actually short for the far more mundane Barbara.
• Epileptic Flashing Lights: Several strobing light effects are used throughout the film, mainly in scenes involving the Techno and Rock Trolls.
• Everyone Can See It: Hickory could tell Branch was in love with Poppy, and at the same time can tell that Poppy wasn't listening to anyone else's advice.
• Everything's Better with Rainbows: Fully emphasizing the theme of the film, all the tribes coming together in song at the climax has a rainbow made of glitter spread over the crowd, returning all of their colors. Then near the end of the song, the lava of Volcano Rock City becomes rainbow-colored, Poppy becomes decked out in a rainbow-colored ensemble and Barb grows a giant rainbow-colored mohawk.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Chaz the Smooth Jazz Troll is so entrancing with his music, even Branch can't resist fawning over his music.
• Evil Versus Evil: Two sub-genre groups, Reggaeton and K-Pop, have a dance-off over Branch. Neither group has any intention of helping him, though, because they're fighting to see who gets to keep the full prize for the bounty placed by Barb. This would be quickly subverted, as like shown before in the movie, they were just doing their job out of desperation to keep their music. They end up teaming out of respect for one another, and agree to split the capture.
• Expecting Someone Taller: After taking Poppy's mailed response of "friendship" as a threat and given the Pop Trolls were previously a threat to all Tribes and thus considered "evil", Barb finds the Pop Troll's appearance hilarious, pointing out that she's a full centimeter taller than Poppy.
• Eye-Obscuring Hat: Barb's drummer, Riff, wears a beanie cap that covers his eyes. He has to move it in order to make his eyes visible, though he otherwise doesn't seem to have any vision problems with it.
• Eyes Out of Sight: Barb's drummer, Riff, always has his eyes obscured by his beanie cap. The only time they're exposed in some way is when he peeks his right eye out of the beanie.
• Faint in Shock: A trio of flowers watching the dance-off between the K-Pop and Reggaeton trolls faint from excitement watching the Reggaetons get down.
• Fantastic Racism: The different Troll tribes don't really like each other's music and are wary of each other in general. This changes at the climax.
• Faux Horrific: The Pop trolls react to the idea of the other tribes not liking or even understanding Hammer Time with complete shock.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: Unlike the other Trolls affected by the Ultimate Power Chord, we don't see Poppy covered in a rock shell which she'd crack out from following the transformation.
• Flying Seafood Special: Techno Trolls are aquatic, but can breathe out of the water just fine as they float through the air.
• Foe Romantic Subtext: While not quite as blatant as other examples, some of Poppy and Barb's interactions can give off this feeling. When Poppy offers Barb ^note who happens to not have a love interest the chance to be "best friends", Barb angsts over the idea as if she was asked out on a date.
• Fog of Doom: When exiting from the restroom, Thrash has a smoke and fog show.
• Foreshadowing:
  • When Queen Barb is relaxing with her people, it's seen that she genuinely cares about her citizens and loves her father. It's also hinted that she's Lonely at the Top, as despite her negative reaction at Poppy's letter stating she wants to be friends with her, it's heavily implied by her actions she would like that to happen. This shows way at the beginning that Barb isn't necessarily an Obviously Evil villain.
  • The Techno Trolls' string turns from Blue to Red when Barb adds it to the guitar in which she'd use the Ultimate Power Chord, showing early on what her real plan is before she explains it herself.
  • The Yodelers are noticeably absent in the presentation when Barb rallies the Bounty Hunters and the only ones that did not have their pictures displayed when Barb was introducing them. They turn out to be Hickory and Dickory, disguised as a Country Troll.
    • In the same presentation, the Yodellers' poster depicts them falling into a ravine. They do that a few scenes later.
  • Hickory knew who Chaz was by name before he revealed it, hinting he knew more than he was letting on.
  • Hickory has an "H" stitched onto his left rear pocket, and a "D" on the right. The D is left unexplained until Dickory finally makes his appearance.
  • After King Peppy tells the story of the strings, he shows the Pop Tribe's ancient lyre that held all six strings. While this doesn't seem meaningful at first, the fact that the Pop String is still in the lyre is actually a small hint to how the troll tribes separation wasn't as amicable as it seemed. The truth, as told by Prince D, is that the other tribes took their strings and left both the lyre and the Pop Trolls behind for what they did.
  • Whenever any of the tribes perform a major song, something in the scene takes the form of a heart as a result of their singing. That's where their music really comes from, so when the strings are broken for good, they perform a Crowd Song with nothing but what they already have inside them — they're even led by a literal heartbeat.
• Forgot About His Powers: Several times throughout the film would have been easier for the trolls if they remembered they could control their hair.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: If you look closely at Hickory's manly sideburns, they are clearly just cut out pieces of felt stuck to his face rather than his actual hair. This is because they're part of his disguise, and they fall off when his true identity is exposed.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: When Poppy reveals to Hickory that she's been carrying the Pop String all along, he hesitates only a moment before pleading with her to run away, willing to risk the loss of his music for her safety.
• Friendly Fire: Hickory accidentally clocks Branch in the head with his guitar while attempting to fight off the bubbles from the Funk Troll spaceship. A second later, Branch kicks Hickory in the face while aiming for another bubble.

G-N

• Genre Roulette: The soundtrack's constant changing of genres is justified due to each troll tribe centering around a different genre.
• Glass Smack and Slide: Exaggerated to a degree in one of the promos, where most of the movie's cast, including a number of generic characters, are thrown into a fourth wall together. They don't slide down after that, though, instead remaining still due to the pression that's being applied to each other.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Barb's Ultimate Power Chord guitar, fully powered by the six Strings, can turn Trolls into Rock zombies with glowing red eyes.
• Gold and White Are Divine: The Classical trolls evoke this with their cherubic, beatific appearance and glittery golden skin. Their mountain village of Symphonyville has a lot of aesthetics that use gold accented by the white of the surrounding clouds.
• Gorgeous Garment Generation: The "Just Sing" sequence has a rainbow-colored outfit and dye job (the latter of which also happens to Barb when she joins in the song) appear on Poppy, seemingly at the behest of the audience of all the Troll Tribes acknowledging her.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!:
  • In the Lonesome Flats jail, Poppy kicks the ground and says "sugar".
  • After failing to prevent the Pop Trolls from escaping Lonesome Flats, Delta and her niece Clampers both exclaim "Well, dang-ity doodily!"
• Great Offscreen War: Many of the battles the Hard Rock Trolls have with the other trolls happen offscreen.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: Growly Pete was assigned to guard the jail that Poppy, Branch and Biggie were put it. By the time Hickory breaks the door off, Pete is fast asleep.
• Guilty Pleasure: Thrash likes Poppy's friendly letter to his daughter and hums the "Trolls Just Wanna Have Fun" message from the card. Barb is horrified at this, and quickly tries to get his mind off it.
• Happily Adopted: It turns out Cooper wasn't just an exceptionally different troll, but actually a Funk Troll lost to his people and found by the Pop trolls.
• History Repeats:
  • Barb's plan was previously attempted by the Pop Trolls' ancestral leader.
  • When Poppy destroys the Strings, Barb describes it as history repeating itself because, like in the past, a Pop Troll ruined everything.
  • Both this movie and the first one have a species finding out that something they thought they needed wasn't so necessary. The first movie had the Bergens learning they don't need to eat Pop Trolls to be happy, and this one has the Trolls realizing that they don't need the Strings to play music.
• Hitman with a Heart: Hickory, being a mercenary hired by Queen Barb to get Poppy and her string, spends some time with her and when she reveals she has the string with her, desperately tries to get her to run away with it and is genuinely distraught when she gets captured.
• Hollywood Genetics: Prince D and Cooper have pink fur, a trait that neither of their parents have.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Barb's need to keep up a tough appearance as Queen of the Rock Trolls has made her insecure about having friends, to the point where she mistakes Poppy's genuine offer of friendship as a cruel joke and hires mercenaries to hunt her down.
• I Know You're Watching Me: When Hickory catches Branch watching him through binoculars, he smiles broadly and waves.
• Iconic Sequel Character: While the Pop Trolls have always been present since the franchise's beginning, every other Troll Tribe has only been around since this movie, yet they're treated as fundamental to the franchise.
• Iconic Sequel Song: "Just Sing" is just as popular, if not more, than "Can't Stop the Feeling!" from the first movie.
• Ignorant About Fire: An "Ignorant About Lava" variant happens in a side scene of the climax, in which a generic Rock Troll falls into a pit of lava, only to comment "Uh... This is a little hot." as he's sinking. Likely justified as the Rock Trolls are implied to have heat resistance.
• Innocent Bigot: One of Poppy's biggest flaws in this film. She fully believes all Trolls are the same and how Pop Trolls act is the best way to live, not realizing that just because other Trolls are different that didn't mean they aren't happy with how they are. She believed that because Country Music is sad that the Country Trolls didn't realize that music was supposed to be happy and tried to "teach" them the correct way, which just ticked them off.
• Innocently Insensitive: Poppy presumes that the other trolls' music is wrong and plans to educate them about the "correct" form of music. Though her intentions are genuinely well-meaning, her ignorance of the other cultures makes her seem distressingly similar to Barb.
• Instant Cosplay Surprise: When Poppy starts their pop medley in Lonesome Flats there's a brief moment after the cut where Branch looks shocked to be all dressed up before quickly rolling with it.
• Instrument of Murder: The Rock Trolls use shooting guitars to fight the other Tribes, although not to kill.
• The Intern: Riff states that he's just serving under Barb for college credit.
• It's All About Me: Poppy's main motivation for stopping Barb's plan is prove that she's a worthy leader. She spends most of the journey proving that point wrong by constantly ignoring her allies and refusing to consider the consequences of her poor decisions.
• Joke of the Butt: At the Lonesome Flats jail, Biggie sits between Branch and Poppy on a bench. When he gets back up and turns around, a crackle on his shorts that briefly exposes his butt can be seen. Said crackle disappears after that moment.
• Jukebox Musical: Even more so than the first movie, since it covers more music genres.
• Kissing Discretion Shot: Between Poppy and Branch after their high-five at the end. If we see closely, we just see them hugging while the scene zooms out. Word of God confirmed that Poppy hug-kissed Branch during the zoom-out.
• Land, Sea, Sky:
  • The Rock Trolls Living Ship can travel through the ocean, run on the ground, or fly in the air.
  • The Techno Trolls swim, the Classical Trolls fly, and all the other trolls walk.
• Left the Background Music On: When Peppy tells the Trolls "we are not alone", a spooky alien music starts playing. It's quickly revealed that the music is coming from Mr. Dinkles.
• Living Ship: Queen Barb and the Rock Trolls travel on their world tour in leathery creatures capable of traversing all terrains of sea, land or air. They vaguely resemble angler fish (a female in Barb's case and the rest males).
• Lonely at the Top: In a private moment with Poppy as her prisoner, Barb confides some similarities she feels with both of them being Queens and how it alienates them from real friendship with their troll subjects.
• Long Song, Short Scene: Only the chorus of the movie's cover of Scorpions' "Rock You Like A Hurricane" is heard in the actual movie. The full song is only available in the movie's official soundtrack album.
• Lost Orphaned Royalty: It is revealed that Cooper is actually the long lost son of the King and Queen of the Funk Trolls.
• Love Hurts: During "Perfect For Me", both Branch and Poppy admit that having feelings for each other in spite of being so very different causes them a lot of pain.
• Macguffin: The plot is centered around six strings created long ago by the six main troll tribes together to make all kinds of music. Without them the tribes lose their music or so they think.
• The Magazine Rule: Barb got her list of bounty hunters from a Bounty Hunter Weekly.
• Magic Feather: Zig zagged; the six strings of the central tribes do have power over music and Trolls, but when destroyed the trolls realize they've long since internalized the power into themselves.
• Magic Music: Chaz's smooth jazz music is so smooth it puts everyone who hears it into a blissful hallucination.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": After Poppy's invitation sprays Barb with glitter, all of the other Rock Trolls get this expression.
• Meaningful Background Event: In any given culture clash sequence, there will be at least one troll that actually seems to like the foreign music, showing that there is at least a small possibility for all the trolls to get a long.
• Meaningful Name: "Tresillo" is Spanish for "triplet". He's the leader of a trio of bounty hunters.
• Meeting-the-Parents Sequel: After going on a journey to find a Troll Tribe that looks like him, Cooper finds out that he's part of the Funk Troll royal family, which includes his parents (the King and Queen) and twin brother.
• Mordor: The Rock trolls' settlement is Volcano Rock City, which is exactly what its name describes. It even resembles Mordor from a distance and has the same role of being the setting where the destruction of the Macguffin occurs.
• Mister Seahorse: Trolls of any gender can pop a troll egg out of their hair, as shown in the beginning of the movie when Guy Diamond gives birth to a baby troll named Tiny Diamond.
• Multilingual Song: The Crowd Song "Just Sing" has two verses sung by the K-Pop Gang and the Reggaeton Trio respectively in Korean and Spanish.
• Musical Assassin: The Rock Trolls use weaponized instruments to fight the other Tribes. Chaz and the Ultimate Power Chord are also capable of posessing Trolls under a specific music genre (Smooth Jazz and Rock, respectively).
• Never My Fault:
  • Poppy spends most of the journey ignoring her friends' opinions and pushing ahead with poorly thought out plans. When these plans fail, she refuses to accept the severity of the consequences or her own poor decision making.
  • Even though she was the one who gathered the strings, and planned to use them the same way the Pop tribe's ancestral leader once did, Barb blames Poppy for apparently destroying music by destroying the strings to stop her.
• Never Say "Die": Blatantly averted when Delta Dawn sings Kelly Clarkson's song "Born to Die".
• Never Trust a Trailer: Several of the scenes in the trailer are different than in the film.
  • Barb and Poppy don't meet until the third act of the film.
  • Biggie doesn't state "I can see our house from here" before they fall. Instead Hickory states "I hope Pop Trolls can swim".
  • "Can't Stop The Feeling" is never reprised in the film. Barb doesn't even say "Oh I can stop the feeling".
  • Tiny Diamond is never referred to as a Hip-Hop troll.
• No Man Should Have This Power: Poppy points out that as long as the Strings exist, trolls like Barb or the Pop trolls' ancestral leader will keep trying to use them to make their music dominant before all others. That's why she destroys them.
• Not Hyperbole: Barb is confident if anyone could get Poppy and her String, it would be the Yodelers. The Yodelers end up being the ones to capture Poppy and her String.
• No Power, No Color: When Poppy destroys the Strings, every Troll and everything around them is rendered gray in a near-literal Darkest Hour, as they believe that all music is gone with them. However, thanks to Cooper and Prince D, they then realize that music was inside them all along and restore their colors. The Tribes doing music together also produces some rainbow results in the Rock Arena.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • Deconstructed. Poppy tries to reunite the Troll Tribes by claiming this. King Quincy tells her because she is so focused as seeing everyone as the same, she is completely ignoring their differences that make them who they are.
  • Poppy is shocked that Barb and the Rock Trolls would want to use the strings to dominate the other tribes. She later learns that her ancestors, the original Pop Trolls, once had the very same idea. Barb herself says so, as she says they both want to reunite their tribes as one.
  • Branch's past trauma has made him sour and pessimistic. So despite being a Pop Troll, and being attuned to music that is energetic and cheerful, he finds himself identifying with the Country Trolls and enjoying their downbeat and sorrowful music.

O-Z

• Onomatopoeia: While Trollzart conducts the other Classical Trolls with the Classical String in his baton, music notes are visible in the air.
• Opposites Attract: Branch openly admits he is as different as can be from Poppy, yet she is the most important person in the world to him.
• Orphaned Etymology: K-Pop, since there isn't a Korea in the franchise's world.
• Overly Long Gag: The beginning of the movie opens with a Techno troll party, where King Trollex prolongs dropping the beat in "One More Time", to the point where he's being literally begged for it.
• Patchwork Map: To fit within the handcraft art style, most locations within Troll Kingdom feature completely different landscapes to each other, extending to just the borders.
• Pattern-Coded Eggs: A Troll egg usually shares one physical trait with the baby Troll it hatches, represented either in the shell or occasional hair.
• Perilous Play: A non-lethal concert variant happens with Barb's Victory Rock Concert. There, Barb shows the effects of the Ultimate Power Chord on non-Rock Trolls by blasting it to most of the captured Tribe leaders, resulting in them turning into so-called "Rock Zombies" brainwashed under Rock music. Branch also ends up receiving a blast via Taking the Bullet for Poppy, the only remaining leader to be blasted yet.
• Pinky Swear: A pinky promise between Pop Trolls has such power that it generates a Planar Shockwave when the pinkies connect, as seen with Poppy and Biggie.
• Pokémon Speak: Growley Pete usually just says different versions of the word "growl".
• Pooping Food: Cooper again, though this time he includes candles and fire with the baked goods.
• Power Floats: Somehow Chaz is able to float.
• The Power of Rock:
  • Barb and her posse of Rock Trolls steamroll every other tribe with their music. Her ultimate plan is to channel the power of rock through all six strings and forcibly convert all trolls into rock zombies.
  • After it seems that Poppy completely destroyed music by destroying the strings, all the Trolls realize that music now comes from inside themselves. As this occurs, Poppy and the other tribe leaders get the entire crowd to start jamming out to "Just Sing".
• Pretend to Be Brainwashed: After brainwashing Branch into a "Rock Zombie", Barb attempts to do the same to Poppy using her Ultimate Power Chord guitar. She seems to succeed in brainwashing Poppy until the latter points the guitar at her and reveals that she had plugged gumdrops in her ears, a trick she had learned from Hickory when he did the same thing to protect himself from Chaz's Smooth Jazz playing.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Queen Barb's drummer, Riff, implies that he's working her for college credit. Also upon being turned into a rock zombie, Branch asks the audience if they wants to get ripping tattoos on their bodies except for their faces in case they need to apply for office jobs.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Branch calls Poppy out for her selfish decisions and how she doesn't listen to him or others.
  Branch: I've listened to you and I've done it your way, and now it's your turn to listen. It's time to get back home.
  Poppy: I'm not like you. I can't just give up.
  Branch: Give up? I want to protect our friends and family.
  Poppy: I can't go home until I've proven myself as a good queen.
  Branch: So that's what this is really all about?
  Poppy: Why are you so upset?
  Branch: Because your dad was right, and Biggie was right, and Queen Essence was right. And I've been backing you up even when you ignore them. But you never listen to me.
  Poppy: Branch, what are you talking about?
  Branch: You want to be a good queen? Good queens actually listen.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Red and black is the signature color scheme of the Rock Trolls, although most of them don't dress with it (Barb is the only relevant example); instead, it's the coloration of their home and appliances. The trope is subverted by the end of the movie when they redeem themselves.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Downplayed. Although Barb has a red eye color, and any Trolls turned into Rock Zombies gain glowing red eyes, the color in itself is rather used to represent the Rock Trolls.
• Remember the New Guy?: Legsly is a close friend to Poppy despite never appearing once before this film.
• Rewritten Pop Version: This is the reason in-universe that the tribes separated and began to live in isolation. The ancient Pop Tribe leader hoarded the lyre of the six strings and began to remix the songs of the other tribes into pop, potentially erasing their music altogether unless stopped.
• Rock is Authentic, Pop is Shallow:
  • Played with. The premise is an inversion: the villains of the Rock tribe are trying to take over all the other tribes and convert people into rock-loving zombies, while the heroes from the Pop tribe try to stop them by convincing everyone that every genre is good (and eventually do so by making "authentic" music with their bodies and voices at the Concert Climax). However, the backstory also reveals that the Pop tribe tried to pull this previously by trying to convert all the other genres to pop.
  • Also, for her part, Barb fully believes in this trope, frequently lambasting pop as shallow and empty in contrast to rock.
• Roger Rabbit Effect: In Poppy and Branch's internal thoughts while brainwashed by Chaz, a live-action person who's only visible from the waist below shows up to give them "Fizzie Blues Juice". They return in the ending credits, where they can be seen above the waist, but their head remains unseen.
• Rotten Rock & Roll: The Rock Trolls, led by Queen Barb, are the main antagonists of the movie, and are more aggressive than the other troll tribes. Ultimately subverted when they're redeemed in the climax, as they're just as misguided as anyone tempted by the power of the strings.
• Scatterbrained Senior: King Thrash exhibits forgetfulness that suggests the onset of senility.
• Serious Business:
  • Music. The other Trolls split into groups to protect the music they liked.
  • Pinky promises. When Poppy promises Biggie that she'll protect him, it causes them to levitate toward each other and unleash a Planar Shockwave seen for miles when they connect.
    Cooper: (after he feels the shockwave) A pinky promise. Dang...
• Shout-Out:
  • The Techno Tribe is having a concert with everyone in attendance playing Daft Punk's "One More Time", before the Rock Trolls invade and imprison them after seizing their source of music. That and the intent to brainwash them alludes to the plot of Daft Punk's movie Interstella 5555, which is a visual adaptation of the song's album Discovery.
  • The opening of the "Crazy Train" scene is a reference to the chase scene from Mad Max.
  • The disguises that the Snack Pack use to infiltrate the Rock Trolls make a number of Rock 'n' Roll references:
    • Biggie and Mr. Dinkles' are meant to be similar to Elvis Presley. In Biggie's case, his outfit also has a notable resemblance to the Trash Can Trolls (a spin-off card series to Garbage Pail Kids based on the Troll dolls that ran in the 1990s) card "Performin' Norman/Bob Slob".
    • Satin & Chenille and Smidge's are based on characters from Grease (the cheerleaders and Jan, respectively).
    • Guy Diamond's is likely based on Buddy Holly.
    • Tiny Diamond dresses as a T-bird/"Greaser".
    • Legsly's is made to look like the outfits of the dancers from Jailhouse Rock.
• Sickeningly Sweet: Because of how brightly-colored the Pop Trolls were, Delta Dawn cites that they look like they "got beat up by a rainbow".
• Sins of Our Fathers: Poppy learns that her ancestor, Pop, the original leader of her tribe, wasn't a decent troll when it's revealed that he had attempted to warp the music of the other five tribes into Pop.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Pennywhistle appears when Poppy arrives at the now-destroyed Symphonyville and tells her about Barb's plans for the strings. This causes Poppy to change her plans from befriending Barb to stopping her and seeing her as a real threat. Pennywhistle stays behind to fix the city by herself, and only makes brief appearances for the rest of the movie.
• Solo Mission Becomes Group Mission: The same thing between Poppy and Branch from the first movie happens here. Poppy doesn't mind going alone again to travel through the other newly-revealed Troll kingdoms, as she now has a hot air balloon to travel safely. Branch immediately gets on the balloon just as Poppy sends it into the air.
• The Stinger: Gristle and Bridget from the first movie make an appearance at the very end, distraught that they missed the Dance Party Ending.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Tiny Diamond, as his name suggests, is physically identical to Guy Diamond but small enough to be held in his hands.
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: The Techno Trolls live underwater, yet Barb and her tribe have no trouble breathing down there without any kind of breathing gear.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Legsly is clearly this to DJ Suki, who doesn't appear in the movie.
• Tailfin Walking: Techno Trolls usually only rest on their fins on land and float through the air otherwise. There is a shot of Trollex walking on his tailfins during the "Just Sing" number, but it's from a moderate distance and easily overlooked.
• There Is Another: It seemed in the first movie that the trolls introduced in it were the only types of trolls, especially with the threat of the Bergens. This movie reveals not only that the trolls we've known are of a tribe called Pop trolls, there are other tribes in the world that are physically different and center their culture around different genres of music.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Poppy certainly receives this treatment a little. Throughout the movie, she was focused on the task at hand and didn't listen to Branch's advice along the way.
• Trailers Always Spoil: As the release date approached, trailers increasingly showed more and more clips that occur around the climax of the movie along with practically every plot turn along the way. The final trailer is the biggest one, as it ended showing this including: The scene of Delta Dawn and her niece Clampers becoming Rock Zombies, Cooper with his parents, spoiling that Cooper's actually a Funk Troll, Poppy destroying the strings in Barb's guitar and the scene of Poppy and Branch doing their high-five.
• Trash the Set: The Rock Trolls destroy every village they go to.
• Truly Single Parent: It is shown Trolls can reproduce without a partner.
• Two Men, One Dress: Hickory and Dickory, masquerading as the head and tail end, respectively, of a Country Troll.
• Unconventional Food Usage: Poppy uses a lollipop as a toothbrush just before the song "Trolls Wanna Have Good Times" starts up.
• Unwanted Revival: After Hickory and the Pop Trolls end up in a river escaping Lonesome Flats, Mr. Dinkles is on the verge of drowning. He gets a vision of heaven where a regally dressed worm welcomes him home before being revived by Biggie, thus all Mr. Dinkles can give in response to Biggie's joy is an exasperated groan.
• Villain Opening Scene: Following Cloud Guy's recap of the first movie, the film begins with Barb and the Rock Trolls' first invasion on her world tour at Techno Reef.
• Villain Song: A few, sung by Queen Barb: "Rock You Like a Hurricane", "Crazy Train" and "Barracuda".
• Vocal Dissonance: Tiny Diamond is Guy Diamond's newborn baby son... but he has the deep voice of Kenan Thompson.
• Water Is Air: In the opening scene of Techno Reef, the Rock Trolls are clearly breathing normally underwater, since they don't wear any breathing equipment, and the Angler Buses they're in lack cockpits.
• We ARE Struggling Together: Despite every Troll Tribe realizing that the Rock Trolls are a genuine threat, they're not willing to trust each other for help.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Queen Barb may be essentially brainwashing every other tribe into being rock trolls, but she honestly believes it's for the better because their differences divided their people.
• Whale Egg: It is revealed Trolls are born from eggs.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Poppy gets this from Biggie and Branch for not listening to anyone, including her friends.
• Wheelchair Antics: Riff backs Thrash's wheelchair in reverse when they expect Barb to go in a fury.
• With Catlike Tread: Legsly normally wears an anklet with bells on it, which she still keeps on when sneaking into the Rock Troll concert. This almost gets her and the rest of the Snack Pack exposed immediately.
• Written by the Winners: A noticeable inversion, as Pop troll history was actually written by the losers. Their history says that the trolls tribes separated amicably because they couldn't decide whose music was better and the leader of each tribe each took a string so their tribe could play their music their own way. But Prince D tells them what really happened was that the Pop Trolls' leader stole all six strings, and began remixing the music of the other tribes into Pop, forcing the other five tribe leaders to steal their strings back and separate their tribes to keep from losing their music to Pop.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: Poppy and Branch fail to stop Barb's World Tour from succeeding in collecting all the strings, so it's left to stop her plan in its final stages.

Tiny Diamond Goes Back To School

• Art-Shifted Sequel: The short uses an 2D animation style entirely made to look as if it was scrapbooked.
• A Day in the Limelight/Spin-Offspring: The short's protagonist is Tiny Diamond, the son of Guy Diamond born in the movie, though Guy is still a major character in the short.
• Protagonist Title: Goes Back To School.
• Surprise Car Crash: Played for laughs in the ending when Tiny goes to drive a car while singing. Guy remarks that it's the fourth car Tiny had crashed in a week.

Tourist Map

• Actor Allusion/Shout-Out: Ozzy Osbourne's nickname of "the Prince of Darkness" is referenced when Cloud Guy calls Barb "the Queen of Darkness".

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