Following a shift to VOD at the start of the COVID pandemic with Trolls World Tour, DreamWorks is bringing Poppy and Branch back to the big screen with the new third feature in the popular pop music franchise. Trolls Band Together is already a hit overseas, and held preview screenings nationwide in North America this past weekend, with an official release date of November 17th. Director Walt Dohrn shares info on the *NSYNC reunion, the visual splendor and if the “Trolls” brand will keep on rolling. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)

Jackson Murphy: The last time we spoke was in April 2020 for “Trolls World Tour”. Whoa — those were weird times, weren’t they?

Walt Dohrn: (laughs) Definitely weird times. I’m glad I’m here now with you in this way.

JM: Absolutely. The Trolls are back on the big screen for Trolls Band Together. In theaters. I’ve seen it. It’s a good time.

WD: That’s the whole point. So you get it. It’s a movie that’s scientifically engineered to make you feel better.

JM: The buzz surrounding it is already making people feel so good, especially because of Justin Timberlake getting *NSYNC back together with the song “Better Place”. So, because the core theme of this movie involves a boy band, and JT was in that band, was the thought of them reuniting for the song what got the plot going, as far as development on “Trolls Band Together”?

WD: I think this is more of a case of life imitates art. We wanted to do this story for a while now — Branch having these brothers that you didn’t know. And it would have to be way ago, like when he was a baby. That’s why he hasn’t brought them up. He doesn’t like to talk about them. It’s very hurtful to him. We started telling that story. “Okay, what if he was in a band with his brothers? And what if they were a boy band named BroZone.” We started talking about all that great music. We started talking with Justin about that experience. He has such a fun, healthy attitude of it all. We celebrate the music of the ’90s and boy bands, but we can also poke fun at it a little bit. That’s a nice healthy way of going about it. So as we were doing that, a little bit later in the process, he texted our producer Gina Shay, “What if I got the guys back together again?”

JM: Whoa!

WD: Thanks to “Trolls”, it happened. (laughs)

JM: You guys must’ve freaked out when he sent that text message.

WD: Gina says our heads exploded. That’s how she tells the story.

JM: That’s amazing. Wow. The song is great. It’s already a hit. The opening five minutes of this movie are hilarious — the way you categorize the different kinds of members of a boy band. That must’ve been a lot of fun diving into that.

WD: I love that. There’s so much fun with the boy bands of the ’90s. That particular era is such a big playground to play in, like the boy band identities: The Sensitive One, The Fun Boy. That was fun. We threw around a lot of different ideas for them.

JM: These guys got together to record this song. And then you also have Anna Kendrick, returning as Poppy, who was in the girl groups with the “Pitch Perfect” franchise. Poppy is able to embrace BroZone. How was it taking in those surreal moments with [Kendrick and Timberlake] with this band experience?

WD: It was really a gift to me… to the movie and to the audience… but to me personally it was so much fun. With Anna, who was a big boy band fan back in the day, she got to play this part of Poppy and herself that we haven’t seen. She’s a HUGE BroZone fan, which creates some fun conflict for Branch. But it’s great to see her fan out and geek out for this band.

JM: At its core this is also a rescue movie. It’s a mission movie. One of Branch’s brothers, Floyd, is held hostage by these really interesting villains, Velvet and Veneer, who look really cool.

WD: That took a while. We love creating new villains. Each film gets a new villain and they have all these different layers. We were really excited, and it was really hard to find that. It took us a while. We wanted to have these ’90s pop diva characters, but we don’t have humans in our world, so we gotta find a way to make them doll-like. We looked at bendy dolls and 1930s designs and blended it with 1990s sensibilities. They’re performed by Andrew Rannells and Amy Schumer, two actors we really wanted to work with. They really helped us grow these characters. When it was finally time to animate them, we really looked back at the ’30s to do this rubberhose animation, mixed with pop diva attitude. They’re wild.

JM: You’re right. They are the closest things to humans. And we go to a beach land where we meet one of Branch’s brothers and his family, and they’re kind of sock puppet-looking creatures. Is that what you were going for with them?

WD: Yeah. Good eye. All the “Trolls” movies have been inspired by puppets. All the fiber we use in this film for the textures of the world and the clothes. We said, “What if we took it one step further?” They’re vacay-islanders. We thought of them as a water balloon wrapped in a Terrycloth towel. It still blows my mind to watch that sequence — how it all comes together.

JM: There’s a key location visual of The Rage Dome. I thought, “Wow. This kind of reminds me of the new Sphere that’s in Las Vegas.” How about the timing?

WD: Isn’t it wild? It’s a coincidence. But then “Trolls” trailer got to be on that. Watching “Trolls” from space: that’s a first.

JM: That is cool! And this movie also has some absurd hand-drawn moments.

WD: I really love that sequence. You go behind the backdrop of space and time to see what’s there. I was trained in hand-drawn animation, so I really wanted an opportunity to play around with that — and with psychedelic visuals.

JM: In listening to this movie, the music sounds better than ever.

WD: Thank you for noticing. We wanted to make it feel like it’s a concert. We had so many great musicians and Justin as our executive music producer. We got a quality sound like we haven’t had before.

JM: And there are some great music montages. Do you have a list and just decide, “Okay, these are the ones we want to re-do this time”?

WD: It’s quite a process to go through. Even though it’s not a traditional musical… we allow the story to dictate what those are first. “This would be a good place for a song. What kind of song?” We all pitch in ideas.

JM: And what I love about this story is what you do in bringing it back around to the original and the theme of the Bergens — and putting a spin on it. Was that a goal for you going into this?

WD: Yeah. You’re right. And I think that really helps a sequel. You want new characters and new worlds, and you want to see the characters in the spine of the narrative evolve and grow. As different as we want to push them, we want to tie them all together and make it cohesive. We all love the Bergens. We wanted to check back in with them.

JM: This is the third “Trolls” feature. We’ve had two awesome holiday specials as well. DreamWorks has “Kung Fu Panda 4” on the way. So how many of these “Trolls” stories do you want to be a part of, Walt?

WD: (laughs) There is an endless well of inspiration with these movies. At the core of it is the human experience. We never run out of things to talk about for the Trolls to do that we have to deal with in our own lives. But also the creative possibilities are endless. We’d be happy to make more. If the world wants it, we’re ready to make more.