'Trolls Band Together' directors inspired to reach 'impossible' goal with hit animated films
Walt Dohrn and Tim Heitz reflect of Branch and Poppy finally kissing, and pose the idea of an Eric Andre director's cut of the movie
Co-directors of Trolls Band Together, Walt Dohrn and Tim Heitz, continue to reach for the "impossible" goal of creating films that everyone can enjoy with the famed movie franchise.
"That to me is one of my favourite creative challenges, working at DreamWorks," Dohrn told Yahoo Canada. "I've been here over 20 years now and the idea here is that we make movies for everyone, or make movies for humans."
"It's an impossible goal, ... but I like shooting for that goal and finding ways that the adults can enjoy it, younger kids enjoy it. If you're really, really little, you can still have fun, really old, ... like me, like an older man, I enjoy these films. I think it's a great creative challenge and really rewarding."
How to watch 'Trolls Band Together'
Trolls Band Together is currently available on digital, 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD.
Buy the movie through Prime Video or Apple TV in Canada.
Buy the DreamWorks hit Trolls Band Together for $24.99
For Trolls Band Together, in particular, music is one way the animated DreamWorks movie was able to appeal to people of all ages, integrating songs for different generations, in addition to an original new song from NSYNC, "Better Place."
"A huge part of our process is figuring out what songs go where, and where there's going to be ... older songs, versus ... original songs," Heitz explained. "Justin Timberlake obviously is a huge part of that discussion, as well as our music producer, [Joseph] Shirley."
But the directors themselves are also willing to put their own ears to the test for great music.
"It's a good test for the music, because we listen to it over and over and over, and we still want to listen to it," Dohrn said. "We put it in our car. Sometimes, ... like the NSYNC song, just hearing it over the phone in secret, ... immediately you've got that hook in your head."
"I never get tired of the songs in our movies. It's crazy to say, but it's true.
The kiss 'Trolls' fans have been waiting for
Diving deeper into the Trolls legacy, Trolls Band Together fulfilled a massive wish for fans of the franchise, a kiss between characters Branch (Justin Timberlake) and Poppy (Anna Kendrick), or #broppy.
"We are very connected to the fans and are grateful for them, they keep these characters alive, ... even outside the film itself," Dohrn said. "We listen to what they say."
"For a while there was a petition to get these characters to kiss, which I just loved and adored. And we're like, how do we do that in an authentic way, that will satisfy the needs of the characters, as well as the fans."
"It means so much to us too, because we're very connected to these characters, and we care about them, and we want the journey to be satisfying, just as much as I think the fans do, if not more in a way, because we spend every single day working on these stories with them," Heitz added. "So to know that it connects to them and that they feel excited and enthusiastic about where things are going, and they look forward to seeing more, it makes that much more rewarding."
What's next for the 'Trolls' future
One of the great things about working on Trolls, for Dohrn and Heitz, is being able to create within a world that's almost limitless.
"I think that's one of the most fun things about working on these movies, is the fact that anything can happen, and hopefully will happen," Heitz said. "It does feel like there's almost no limits to where this thing could go and where the characters can go, and what their journey can look like."
"That makes it a really fun environment to to play in every day and to create in. It's kind of saying, OK what have we done before, and how do we not just repeat that, but go somewhere, hopefully, that feels totally new and totally unexpected, while still feeling like it belongs in the world that's been created."
Buy the DreamWorks hit Trolls Band Together for $24.99
So moving forward, Dohrn and Heitz teased that they are always thinking about new ideas for future films.
"We're always talking about where the movies could go and different aspects of the characters, and other new worlds we'd like to see, it's always just a constant conversation," Dohrn revealed.
"We'll just have to wait and see. If the world wants a movie, we've got a lot of ideas swirling around."
One possible idea, still related to Trolls Band Together, is a directors cut of the film featuring hours of improvisation from Eric Andre, who voiced John Dory in the movie.
"We have reams and reams of his improvisation," Dohrn revealed.
"We'll release like a three and a half hour director's cut someday, that's just Eric's improvisations. Even an hour of just sound effects. ... Every record we had with him, I would leave with my face hurting from laughing so hard. It was a real gift."
