I’ll admit that like many people my age, I wrote off “Trolls World Tour” as another schlocky consumerist sequel that exists only to sell mass-produced toys to children. And that’s exactly what it appears to be on the surface… but the film’s surprisingly refreshing take on racial politics may surprise you. 

“Hello?” you ask, tapping on the goldfish bowl that houses my brain. “What racial politics? This is Trolls, you idiot fool. You know, the same franchise that brought us the most annoying Justin Timberlake song to ever grace the radio waves.” And you’re correct! See, Trolls is a franchise that has a lot to offer, both good and terrible. A good example would be the introduction of Country Trolls, who are centaurs with stubby little horse legs that sing sad songs all day. A terrible example would be the existence of the James Corden troll whose name I won’t even bother to mention because he’s a cookie cutter copy of every damn character that James Corden has ever played. There are also examples which I’ll label as “secret third things,” which aren’t exactly good or bad, they’re just kinda… interesting. These examples include the mechanics of troll reproduction, which involve laying and incubating an egg in your hair regardless of your gender and then hatching it into a tiny little baby troll who’s already fully sentient upon birth. Next to the film’s racial politics, I think the fact that it made male pregnancy canon is enough to warrant my respect as both an artist and a consumer. But I digress; this is about troll race politics and not troll mpreg. That article will come later if you guys are well behaved.

So! To properly delve into the racial politics of “Trolls World Tour,” we first need to establish how they’re representing these subjects. I typically split anti-racist films into two categories: true and allegorical. True anti-racist films feature actual people in their stories and explicitly use real races for the conflict of the story, whereas allegorical anti-racist films use non-human characters and stand-in races/topics for the story’s theme and conflicts. “Trolls World Tour” falls into the latter category, and as such there’s only so deep it can get into its subject matter. It’s an animated children’s film made by Dreamworks, so we aren’t going to be dealing with any radical or revolutionary ideas here. Instead, we’ll be talking about music — specifically how the film uses music as an allegory for race and ethnicity among the different troll tribes and why this is a surprisingly effective way of doing things.

The main conflict of “Trolls World Tour” begins when the Hard Rock Trolls are led on a mission by their queen, Barb, to unite the other five troll tribes under their music. Poppy, queen of the Pop Trolls, sees this happening and aims to befriend Barb to bring her conquest to a halt. Poppy wants to unite the troll tribes against Barb and combine their music, showing that they’re more similar than different and that Barb doesn’t need to conquer all the tribes to bring harmony. Seems straightforward and noble, if you don’t think about it any deeper than it’s presented to you. Poppy’s friends voice their own concerns about this plan, as they have no idea how dangerous it might be or if the other tribes even want their help. But Poppy insists that this is all for the greater good, so they press onward. As Poppy’s merry band of misfits travel throughout the land, they come to realize a fatal flaw in their approach: the other trolls are even more different than they expected, so different in fact that they don’t even like pop music. In addition to that, they won’t accept Poppy’s help either. Poppy is aghast; how could her straightforward plan have fallen through so easily?! The reasoning lies in Poppy’s assumption that Pop Trolls are the paradigm of how a troll should be: colorful, passionate, and cheery, much like the music they sing. Poppy assumes that pop music is the ultimate form of music, which naturally means that Pop Trolls must spread their music to the other tribes so they can also be happy. But the other tribes insist that that’s not what they want or need; they want to defeat Queen Barb on their own terms.

If you haven’t picked up on it already, pop music is used as an allegory for whiteness in the context of this film. Poppy’s insistence on “helping” others and refusing to listen to her friends and the people around her is an astoundingly nuanced representation of how whiteness is commonly seen as a default, a harmless gold standard. The film alludes to the common misconception that if only people tried assimilating to whiteness, they’d be happier. Poppy laments the music of the Country Trolls at one point, remarking that they must not know that music is supposed to make you happy. This can be compared to the racist belief that people will be happier and more successful if they simply “act white.” Obviously, we know this to be false. You can never act white enough to appease those who insist you do so, or to alleviate the damage dealt by racism. One true anti-racist film that exemplifies this perfectly is Boots Riley’s “Sorry to Bother You,” a film about a Black telemarketer who is encouraged to put on a “white voice” to appeal to customers. Lo and behold, he not only gets more sales by using his white voice, but he gets more respect from his peers and even from his boss. Eventually he becomes so attached to this personification of whiteness that he begins to use it in his personal life as well, much to the frustration of those close to him. His inability to confront the harm of living this lie spirals him further and further away from those that genuinely care about him. Similarly, Poppy doesn’t just see pop as a genre of music, she sees it as THE genre of music. Pop is how music is supposed to sound in her eyes — or ears, rather. So, it’s only natural to her that all trolls would be better off if they sang pop. Never mind that some trolls feel that singing pop takes away what makes them unique, or that they simply don’t like the genre. They’re just… misguided! Easy mistake. Poppy and her subjects will lead them back on the right path so that all trolls can be united. What Poppy is doing here is comparatively like white saviorism, or the belief that white folks always know what’s best and must act as a guide for those who don’t. It’s an extraordinarily patronizing thing to do, and the other trolls tell her exactly that.

Eventually, Poppy is forced to confront the flaws in her beliefs when we’re introduced to the Funk Trolls, who are by far the most different from any of the other tribes. For starters, they all live on a giant flying saucer and have futuristic technology that none of the other trolls have seen before, only adding to their apparent mystique. I’m assuming this is a nod to the Afrofuturist movement — specifically George Clinton who voices King Quincy, the king of funk. I say this because Clinton developed the musical collective Parliament-Funkadelic, which contributed heavily to the sensory aesthetic of Afrofuturism and funk as a whole. This is a very drawn-out way of saying that the visual development team did their homework and that the Funk Trolls are the greatest gift that the Trolls franchise has given us. Anyway, Funk Trolls are real, and it turns out that we were introduced to one in the first movie: Cooper! We just weren’t aware that he was a Funk Troll at the time. Cooper is very visually different from all the other trolls we’ve encountered thus far. He’s quadrupedal with a long neck, has a bulbous body, and he’s covered from head to toe in fluffy fur just like all the other Funk Trolls. The Pop Trolls know he’s different, but they never point it out. Cooper knows he’s different, but he chooses not to focus on it. Although Pop Trolls come in many shapes and sizes, Cooper still felt like something was off, like there was something he needed that the Pop Trolls couldn’t provide for him. And so, when Cooper saw an old scrapbook illustration of trolls that looked just like him, he set off on a journey to find them separately from Poppy’s group. When he did finally encounter them, it was a celebration all around. He found the love and acceptance of a family that missed him dearly and hoped for his eventual return. Despite this, Cooper still feels connected to the Pop Trolls after finding his birth family, declaring himself to be both a Pop and a Funk Troll. There’s no need for him to choose between identities. Sadly, the cheerful atmosphere quickly disappears when Poppy relays her plan to the king and queen of funk. It’s then we learn that the Pop Trolls were the reason for all the tribes living in total isolation. They attempted to steal and reinvent the other tribes’ music many years ago, monopolizing it for their own gain. As a result, the five tribes hid to protect themselves and have stayed hidden ever since.

Although Poppy’s intentions are pure, the history lesson we receive sounds eerily similar to what she’s attempting to do. This is when the film makes a direct comparison between the Pop Trolls’ actions and the real-life cultural appropriation that exists in our own music. Before this we’re even introduced to trolls that embody subgenres of music, such as the K-pop Trolls and Reggaeton Trolls, who work as bounty hunters since they feel like they don’t belong within any of the established tribes. Subgenre trolls like the bounty hunters and multigenre trolls like Cooper can allegorically represent folks who are multiracial and may not feel like they belong to any one race or ethnicity, and instead exist between different racial identities. Really, I wasn’t expecting this much depth from a film that has creatures that poop cupcakes. Ogres have layers and apparently trolls do too!

Now, after finishing “Trolls World Tour” I asked myself how the hell this film managed to make this racial allegory work, whereas a film like “Zootopia” tried to make the same jump but ended up getting lost in the weeds by the end. I think “Trolls World Tour” accomplished this because the writers picked an allegorical subject that already has very deep ties to culture and race. Music is born from experience; experience is born from culture. All cultures contain people of many different races and ethnicities. There’s a clear-cut connection from the troll world to the real world through music. This makes the film’s themes and allegories connect much smoother, since these connections already exist in our day-to-day lives. “Zootopia,” on the other hand, tries to do this through the usage of animal species, specifically the division between herbivores and carnivores. This comparison is shaky at best, considering that carnivores are just kinda… built like that? They eat meat because that’s what their digestive system requires. That’s not comparative to racism, which discriminates based on completely subjective ideas. It’s a decent film, don’t get me wrong! But the allegorical lesson it tries to teach just doesn’t hold water in the context of how they’re attempting to use it. We’ll have to see if “Zootopia 2” fares any better than its predecessor in that department.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that if you’re a critic who reviewed “Trolls World Tour” back in 2020 and complained about it not making sense or being a story about pop vs rock supremacy, this article is written especially for you. I know your 6-year-old won’t stop singing that Justin Timberlake song and you aren’t super enthusiastic about this franchise as a result, but just know that sometimes there’s a lot more under the iceberg than some would like to admit. Not the case for me though. I have no dignity and a compulsive need to analyze every piece of media I consume within an inch of its life. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go draft up that Trolls male pregnancy article.