Greetings once again to the Animation Source’s Weekly News, the one-stop shop for the latest animation news published every Sunday! This week, we’ll look into what the critics say about DreamWorks Animation’s new musical Trolls, the new trailers for Sing and The Lego Batman Movie, and Cartoon Network’s pilot episode of Infinity Train.

Critics say Trolls is predictable, yet trippy

Fresh in theatres this weekend is Trolls, DreamWorks Animations’ big screen musical based on those Danish Troll dolls created by Thomas Dam.

Pop singers Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake headline this colourful adventure about Troll leader Poppy (Kendrick), and her polar opposite counterpart Branch (Timberlake) who set out on a journey that’s far beyond the only world ever known by the Trolls. It is helmed by directors Mike Mitchell and Walt Dohrn of Shrek Forever After, and written by screenwriting duo Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, writers of the Kung Fu Panda trilogy.

So how did the critics react this acid trip? Surprisingly, better than anybody would probably expect for a movie based on Troll dolls. Most critics have given the film okay-to-decent reviews saying that while formulaic and aimed more for kids, Trolls is an amusing ride that provides trippy visuals, an appealingly feel-good tone, and catchy songs (especially Timberlake’s big hit “Can’t Stop the Feeling”). A “Certified Fresh” seal on Rotten Tomatoes tells us that Trolls is time well spent.

Arizona Republic critic Kerry Lengel was unimpressed, describing the characters as “clichés” and the story “assembly-line predictable”. A more-enthusiastic review by The Globe and Mail’s Andrew Parker stated that “Despite the tiresome story, it’s a hard film to dislike.” Bill Zwecker of the Chicago Sun-Times praised the film by saying “On all levels, Trolls delivers. It is nicely paced, the jokes are spot-on (and will work for both the kids and their parents) and, again, this is visually a very special piece of animated artistry.”

Debuting in 4,060 theatres thanks to 20th Century Fox, Trolls made an estimated $12.3 million on it’s opening day, and so far has gathered $68.9 million overseas ahead of it’s American release. There is still a few weeks before Disney’s Moana releases on Thanksgiving, so Trolls should be able to make a decent amount before competition hits.

• Sources: Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, Box Office Mojo

Speaking of Trolls, the theatrical release has provided us with new animated movie trailers. Of course there’s The Boss Baby which I already discussed about two weeks ago, but today we’re going to focus on two others. Keep reading!

Sing - Trailer #3

Illumination Entertainment is continuing to hype up their next movie Sing as something special. This is clearly evident in the interesting trailers they have released, especially the newly-released third one, which in my opinion is the strongest yet.

On paper, it just seems like a cheesy jukebox musical with a whopping 85 licensed pop songs. But when you get into the meat of this new trailer, it really shows off the grand scale of the film. Featuring beautiful-looking shots accompanied with Eminem’s “Sing for the Moment”, and giving us more of a taste of the characters, with some of them having a surprising amount of depth.

Matthew McConaughey (Kubo and the Two Strings) leads the animal musical as Buster Moon, a koala who sets up a singing competition in an attempt to save his failing theatre. The movie also serves as the animation debut for director/writer Garth Jennings who, considering his prolific work on music videos, does seem like an interesting choice for this.

Whether this is going to work or not, we’ll find out when Universal Pictures releases Sing to the public during this Christmas on December 21. I’m personally pretty excited for this one.

The Lego Batman Movie - Trailer #4

Since the highly successful release of The Lego Movie, Warner Animation Group has revealed big plans to build a Lego Movie universe, with a 2019 sequel and several spinoffs films in the works. The Lego Batman Movie will be the first of those, and the fourth trailer gives us more of why it’s great to be Batman.

Reuniting Will Arnett as the plastic Caped Crusader, The Lego Batman Movie gives a humorous Lego incarnation of the DC Comics superhero. Billionaire Bruce Wayne lives both the life of luxury, and as Batman, the lone vigilante who fights crime in Gotham City. But in order to stop a hostile takeover by The Joker (Zach Galifianakis of Puss in Boots), Batman must learn the importance of teamwork, take responsibility of raising his sidekick Robin (Michael Cera of Sausage Party), and maybe lighten up a little.

As with the first Lego movie, Animal Logic provides their unique stop-motion-like computer animation to bring Gotham to life in Lego form, with Chris McKay, the animation director of The Lego Movie, stepping in as full director. Warner Bros. Pictures will not only be releasing The Lego Batman Movie on February 10, 2017, but also The Lego Ninjago Movie, which will be out in September later that same year.

For those like me who were disappointed with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, this should be guaranteed to wash away the bad taste, and serve as a fun diversion to see the typical Batman tropes get mocked.

Cartoon Network’s pilot of Infinity Train

With our last story of this week, I’d like thank Meemee for suggesting this one. To fill you in, Cartoon Network would occasionally release pilot episodes (or as they call them “minisodes”) to showcase possible future animated series for the channel. The latest one that they released on November 2 titled Infinity Train has caught the attention of many viewers for it’s intriguing concept.

Infinity Train is the brainchild of Regular Show writer/storyboard artist Owen Dennis, who first pitched the idea back in 2013, and completed the pilot 3 years later in March 2016. Inspired by Dennis’ long flight home from China to America, the story centres around Tulip (voiced by Ashley Johnson of Ben 10), a girl who is trapped on a mysterious train, and must learn to set her personal interests in order to make her way through it. In the pilot episode, Tulip enters a carriage ruled by corgis, and needs to help the king to save his people (or canines).

After watching the pilot, I gotta say that I was very fascinated with it. The concept of a train with different worlds in each carriage is both original and fascinating, leading to all kinds of possibilities. Plus the pilot has established Tulip as a strong and smart protagonist. It would be great to see her character be expanded in future episodes, like how she ended up on the train, where she got the glowing number on her hand, and how she deals with other worlds. With all these ingredients, this is a series I’d defiantly want picked up.

Keep in mind that this is only a pilot for now. Cartoon Network has not green-lit the show just yet, but we’ll be sure to inform you if the channel decides to put the series into the works. You can learn more about Infinity Train on Owen Dennis’ Tumblr post.

Well, thats a wrap for this week’s news. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, but please remember to be civil and stick to the subject of this week’s news stories. Until next week, stay classy!

• - Karlamon