First Trailer: Dreamworks’ ‘Trolls World Tour’ Expands The Franchise With Multiple Musical Genres

Dreamworks Animation released the first full trailer today for Trolls World Tour, the sequel to its 2016 musical comedy.

The trailer introduces a wide array of new characters from six lands that represent different musical genres, which in turn means the animation team had to create a distinct stylistic approach to each of these regions and their inhabitants. Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake return to reprise their roles as the franchise’s protagonists.

Here is the official synopsis for Trolls World Tour:

In an adventure that will take them well beyond what they’ve known before, Poppy and Branch discover that they are but one of six different Troll tribes scattered over six different lands and devoted to six different kinds of music: Funk, Country, Techno, Classical, Pop and Rock. Their world is about to get a lot bigger and a whole lot louder.

A member of hard-rock royalty, Queen Barb (Rachel Bloom), aided by her father King Thrash (Ozzy Osbourne), wants to destroy all other kinds of music to let rock reign supreme. With the fate of the world at stake, Poppy and Branch, along with their friends — Biggie (James Corden), Chenille (Caroline Hjelt), Satin (Aino Jawo), Cooper (Ron Funches) and Guy Diamond (Kunal Nayyar) — set out to visit all the other lands to unify the Trolls in harmony against Barb, who’s looking to upstage them all.

With a universe now expanded to multiple realms, the voice cast, which includes plenty of musical talents, grows exponentially for this installment: Mary J. Blige, George Clinton, and Anderson Paak (representing the Funk tribe); Kelly Clarkson, Sam Rockwell, and Flula Borg (Country), J Balvin (Reggaeton), Ester Dean (Pop), Anthony Ramos (Techno), Kenan Thompson (Hip-Hop), Jamie Dornan (Smooth Jazz), and Gustavo Dudamel and Charlyne Yi (Classical).

The sequel is directed by Walt Dohrn, who served as co-director on the original Trolls, and Gina Shay returns to produce. The film is co-directed by David P. Smith and co-produced by Kelly Cooney Cilella, both of whom worked on the first feature. Theodore Shapiro (The Devil Wears Prada, 2016’s Ghostbusters) is scoring the film.

The original Trolls opened in the fall of 2016 and grossed $46.5 million domestically on its opening weekend. The animated adventure went to make $153.7 at home and $193.1 internationally for a global total of $346.8 million. The film received an Academy Award nomination for best original song for “Can’t Stop the Feeling!”

Trolls World Tour will be released in U.S. theaters on April 17, 2020.