Trolls turned out in full force to kick off the first day of programming at Comic-Con — the ones with the wacky hair, not the ones that hurl insults on the internet.
Audience members in brightly coloured wigs watched Thursday as DreamWorks Animation debuted 16 minutes of footage from Trolls, an animated feature coming to theatres in November. It’s based on the toy with tall, neon hair.
Co-directors Mike Mitchell and Walt Dohrn said they were excited by the prospect of creating something with no pre-existing mythology.
In this world, trolls are tiny packages of positivity, who hug every hour. Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake voice a pair of mismatched trolls who have to rescue their friends from troll-eating giants.
Timberlake served as executive producer on the soundtrack, which includes remixes of classics like Simon & Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence and four originals such as Can’t Stop the Music.
Part of the footage shows Kendrick’s character, Poppy, who is bright fuchsia pink from hair to toe, tormenting Timberlake’s killjoy troll Branch with her singing. Branch gets his own musical moment too, eventually.
Producer Gina Shay said the film is informed by 1970s aesthetics — the trolls are the happy, bright, lava-lamp side of things and the evil giants, called Bergens, are brutalist and polyester.
“The whole production has a crocheted blanket vibe,” Shay said.
They also made sure to break “every princess rule in the book” by letting the female trolls be stumpy, short and shoeless, he said.
Hall H audiences also got a sneak peek at Boss Baby, an animated film about a devious baby with a grown up demeanour and voice. Alec Baldwin, who voices the baby, surprised the crowd with an appearance.
Director Tom McGrath said part of the process of getting a studio yes was showing an animation test with the baby saying lines from Glengarry Glen Ross. Baldwin laughed that he hopes that expletive-ridden test is never made available.
