The film was directed by Mike Mitchell from a screenplay by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, based on a story by Erica Rivinoja.

[6] It stars the voices of Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, Zooey Deschanel, Russell Brand, James Corden and Gwen Stefani.

Trolls premiered at the BFI London Film Festival on October 8, 2016,[2][7] and was theatrically released in the United States on November 4, by 20th Century Fox.

She gets herself into several potentially deadly situations and is finally rescued by Branch, who thinks her quest is hopeless and reluctantly follows her only to escape his crowded bunker.

Gristle appears to eat Creek, but Poppy still holds out hope that he is alive and finds her friends are guarded by a young scullery maid named Bridget.

On that day, his singing drew the attention of Chef, who found his home and took his grandmother away as she sacrificed herself to save Branch's life, which made him lose his happiness and turn into what he is now.

The Trolls form the super colorful rainbow wig to disguise Bridget as "Lady Glittersparkles", and she and Gristle go on a date at a roller rink/arcade restaurant.

He then steals Poppy's cowbell and later uses it to summon the rest of the Trolls, whom Chef captures and places in a giant pot to be served at the feast.

Hurt that her "crush" was nothing but a cowardly traitor and feeling sad and guilty that her actions put everyone in the hands of the Bergens, Poppy and the other Trolls fall into despair and lost hope and their colors and turn gray.

However, Chef refuses to accept the peace, and she and Creek are sent rolling out of Bergen Town into the woods via a flaming serving cart by a well-aimed spoon thrown by Bridget.

[28] The same month, DreamWorks Animation announced that Mike Mitchell and Erica Rivinoja has been hired as a director and screenplay writer to "reimagine" the film as a musical comedy, which would present the origin of the Trolls' colorful hair.

[30] Justin Timberlake served as an executive producer for the film's music and released the original song "Can't Stop the Feeling!"

In addition to Timberlake, the rest of the cast contributed to the film's soundtrack, which also features guest appearances from Earth, Wind & Fire and Ariana Grande.

The site's critical consensus reads: "Trolls brings its instantly recognizable characters to the big screen in a colorful adventure that, while geared toward the younger set, isn't without rewards for parents.

[43] Lindsey Bahr of Associated Press gave the film a positive review and said, "Ultimately, the 'get happy' moral of the story, while trite compared to something like Inside Out, is sufficiently sweet enough for its audience.

"[46] Bill Zwecker of Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and said, "You simply will walk out – or perhaps dance out – of the theater feeling very happy yourself.

"[48] Michael Rechtshaffen, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, called the film "an admittedly vibrant-looking but awfully recognizable animated musical comedy concoction.

"[2] Alonso Duralde of TheWrap said the film "combines the barely-there characterization and irritating cutesiness of The Smurfs with the hideous character design and awful pop covers of Strange Magic.

Trolls is cute, it's colorful, it has tons of catchy songs, and the messages are positive and easy to understand (happiness is inside everyone, if you know where/how to find it, and you shouldn't have to change who you are to get someone to like you).

On February 28, 2017, Universal Pictures, the studio's new distributor and parent company since 2016, and DreamWorks Animation announced that a sequel titled Trolls 2 would be released on April 10, 2020, with Kendrick and Timberlake reprising their roles of Poppy and Branch as well as Aibel and Berger returning to write the script.

[73] In May 2018, it was confirmed that Sam Rockwell, Chance the Rapper, Anthony Ramos, Karan Soni, Flula Borg, and Jamie Dornan joined the cast.

[78] In June 2019, along with promotional posters, new cast members had been announced, which included: J Balvin, Mary J. Blige, Rachel Bloom, George Clinton, Ester Dean and Gustavo Dudamel.

Most of the original cast (including Kendrick, Timberlake, Deschanel, Mintz-Plasse, Corden, Funches, Nayyar and Dohrn) all reprise their roles from the film.