‘Trolls Band Together’ 4K Ultra HD movie review

One might find it hard to believe that an obscure, vintage Danish doll line could be reimagined for a third movie in an animated franchise now burgeoning on blockbuster status.

However, the world welcomed Trolls Band Together (Universal Studios Home Entertainment, rated PG, 92 minutes, 2.39:1 aspect ratio, $39.98) late last year, and the colorful musical comedy is now available in a singalong edition in the 4K disc format.

Our favorite pop troll couple Branch (Justin Timberlake) and Queen Poppy (Anna Kendrick) return to a story focused on the once-epic boy band Brozone. Branch was a young member of the ill-fated group with his four brothers until they broke up due to a clash of egos.

Years later, brother Floyd (Troye Sivan) is kidnapped by a pair of pop star wannabees — Velvet (Amy Schumer) and Veneer (Andrew Rannells) — and taken to music mecca Mount Rageons.

Floyd’s sibling John Dory (Eric Andre) shows up to Queen Poppy’s village looking for help.

Floyd is trapped in a diamond perfume bottle (a reference to the original dolls) to spritz his vocal essence and improve the evil pair who are sucking the life out of him.

Branch, Poppy and John Dory with help from an armadillo bus named Rhonda and Tiny Diamond (Kenan Thompson) embark on a harrowing journey to reunite the other brothers Spruce (Daveed Diggs) and Clay (Kid Cudi) and rescue Floyd by hitting the illusive perfect family harmony to set him free.

Children, particularly early tweens, will be consumed by the colors, dances and songs in the singalong version of the movie and can belt out the lyrics to 14 songs such as “Perfect,” “Let’s Get Married,” “Family,” Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family” and The Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams.”

Parents will find the themes of family and teamwork welcomed and enjoy watching the polished computer-animated extravaganza, but they may doze off during some points of the rather uninspired plot.

4K in action: A nearly blinding color explosion takes full advantage of the ultra-high definition formats’ clarity and high dynamic range enhancements.

Let’s call it overall an animation clinic on creating flowing and spiked hair, fur, shiny plastics and textured cloth fibers — and all surrounded and saturated with a neon-hued pallet.

Viewers will marvel at the lifelike and meticulous craftsmanship displayed such as Poppy’s three-strand rope headband, the Cloud Guy throwing up a river of glitter, an ocean made of translucent water beads, cotton candy gumming up a fan and a translucent troll.

Now, equally impressive is a scene of the gang sucked into the Hustle dimension offering a show-stopping Peter Max-inspired traditionally drawn cartoon segment bursting with primary colors.

Best extras: Viewers first get a relaxed optional commentary with producer Gina Shay, co-director Tim Heitz, head of story Colin Jack, production designer Rueben Perez Reynoso and visual effects supervisor Marc J. Scott.

The joyous group covers the gamut of creating the film often focused on story, action, music, environments and humor; and details down to choosing the type fonts, styling the trolls, designs of troll’s abdominal muscles, the all fiber-based effects, adding lighting effect glints, selecting camera movements and Bridget’s balloon/glitter dress.

Next, viewers get five featurettes (roughly 20 minutes) that quickly cover the production touching on voice-over work, the story, the animation and the NSYNC reunion.

Also, six segments (12 minutes) are available that cover the voice over cast gushing about their characters.

And, youngsters will most appreciate a set of precise tutorials on building Poppy and Viva’s Hug Time bracelets as well as story artist Wendy Sullivan teaching budding artists how to draw Baby Branch, John Dory, Spruce, Clay, Floyd and Viva.

Finally, fans of the Trolls universe will certainly relish the included cartoon short “It Takes Three,” which finds Poppy, Viva and Tiny Diamond sucked into the very cool Hustle-verse and having to sing their way out of the psychedelic wonderland.