The Crew Of ‘Trolls Band Together’ On How To Set Up A Collaborative And Creative Production
Dreamworks Animation’ third feature-length entry in the Trolls franchise, Trolls Band Together, is tearing it up at the box office with a mix of high-energy pop music, candy-coated visuals, and boisterous animation. It’s also the most technically ambitious film in the franchise so far and required Dreamworks to retool its entire render farm to support the film’s enormous scale.
Like the first two films in the series, Band Together is directed by Walt Dohrn. Tim Heitz, who directed the special Trolls: Holiday in Harmony, co-directs.
Cartoon Brew’s exclusive online event partner, INBTWN Animation, recently caught up with Dohrn and Heitz as well as the film’s head of story Colin Jack, vfx supervisor Marc Scott, and head of character animation Ben Willis. The group discussed their favorite scenes and sequences, some unlikely cinematic influences on the family film, and the collaborative nature of the production that allowed a wide range of people to contribute ideas and suggestions.
Picking up where Trolls World Tour left off, the latest installment in the Dreamworks franchise sees protagonists Poppy and Branch finally hit it off as an official couple. As their relationship advances, Poppy learns that Branch has a secret history as a member of the boy band BroZone. When Branch’s brother Floyd gets kidnapped by a duo of malicious pop-star villains, Branch and Poppy set off on a road trip to get the band back together and save Floyd from an undesirable fate.
Dohrn contrasted the approaches between this new installment and the last film. “[Trolls World Tour] was really kind of cultural, global themes we were dealing with. This one we said let’s go inside, let’s go into the interior emotional architecture of the characters. Why are they the way they are? … Plus, we started making it at the beginning of the pandemic, so we were discovering our own emotional architecture, what makes us tick.”
According to Heitz, the entire crew was excited to return to the world of the Trolls franchise after a few years off. “The world itself is such a fun sandbox to play in for everybody,” he explained. “It doesn’t feel like we’re scratching our heads thinking, ‘What else could we possibly do with this?’ It’s more like, ‘What else do we get to do in this world?'”
Vfx supervisor Marc Scott, who has worked on dozens of films, credits the directors with creating an atmosphere that invited collaboration and exploration of ideas. “One of the artists would pitch something in dailies which we’d all never seen before, and we’d run it back to [the directors and producer], and everybody would get on a chat and start geeking out on it. It’s not always like that. A lot of the times, as filmmakers, our job is to make sure we’re following the direction. I don’t think I’ve worked on a film with as much of an authority license to be able to pitch ideas and collaborate.”
The video has loads more anecdotes, stories about cut scenes, and insights into production, so be sure to watch the whole thing.
