‘Trolls’
Ask any parent, and you’ll get the same answer: saying a kid’s movie is “not that bad” is the equivalent of fourteen thumbs up, because it means you didn’t spend two hours in a movie theater scratching your own eyes out while your children giggled at fart jokes and stuffed their faces with popcorn. But the animated musical comedy Trolls is surprisingly even better than that. The animation style gives a warm, fuzzy texture to the characters, including the titular Trolls Poppy (Anna Kendrick) and Branch (Justin Timberlake). The songs are mostly covers, but the originals are enjoyable earworms courtesy of Timberlake’s music supervision. And the story, which finds the Trolls trying to escape being eaten by the monstrous Bergens is your rote “be true to yourself” messaging, but treated with surprising sensitivity and heart. It may sour during the fourteenth viewing over a rainy weekend, but at least the first five times, you’ll find yourself saying, “hey, it’s not that bad!”