Trolls

Movie Title-- Trolls

Release Year-- 2016

Running Time-- 1 Hour and 40 Minutes

Director-- Mike Mitchell

Cast-- Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, James Cordon, Russel Brand, Zooey Deschanel, Gwen Steffani, Jeffery Tambor, Ron Funches, Icona Pop, Kunal Nayyar, John Cleese, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Christine Baranski, Walt Dohrn

After twenty years in hiding, Princess Poppy must go on a quest to save her friends from being eaten by the Bergens, who one day a eat trolls to make themselves happy.

The Trolls are small creatures that live their lives by singing, hugging and dancing, keeping themselves always happy. One day their Troll tree is discovered by the Bergens, a race of large, ogre type creatures that are never happy but they realize that they can be happy, if only for a moment, by eating a Troll. The Bergens put a cage around the Troll tree and one day a year they celebrate “Trollstice”, where they eat a Troll to be happy.

On this particular, very special Trollistice, Bergen prince, Prince Gristle Jr. (Mintz-Plasse) is to have his very first Troll, all the Bergens gather at the Troll tree and Chef (Baranski) gives Prince Gristle a very special Troll; a princess for a prince. However, when Prince Gristle eats the Troll, they learn that it is a fake. The Bergens then go on a mad dash to find the Trolls who at that very same moment are being led by their king, King Peppy (Tambor) through underground tunnels to safety. Furious that the Trolls have escaped, King Gristle Sr. (Cleese) banished Chef from Bergentown.

Twenty years later King Peppy's optimistic and extremely happy daughter, Princess Poppy (Kendrick) is getting set to throw a large party in honor of their heroic escape, although she has been warned against it by Branch (Timberlake) a gray and grumpy Troll.   Branch believes that by throwing a large, loud party, it will attract the Bergens.

Branch's fears are realized when Chef, who has been searching for the Trolls since she was banished, sees the fireworks from the Troll's celebration and follows them to their hiding place. Chef collects a handful of trolls to take them back to Bergentown so she can be accepted back.

Poppy, feeling like the kidnapping of her friends is all her fault, is determined to follow her father's motto from 20 years previous “No Troll left behind!” and to save them, she recruits a very reluctant Branch to help her, since he knows the most about the Bergens.

Once they arrive in Bergentown, they learn that Chef has presented the once Prince Gristle, now King Gristle with the Trolls and they are preparing to have a Trollstice dinner the following night. As a show of good faith, Chef encourages King Gristle to eat one of the Trolls and she picks out Creek (Brand) at random. Poppy and Branch watch as Chef pops Creek into King Gristle's mouth.  After this, Branch believes that Creek is a goner but Poppy has hope that he is still alive and knows that they only way she can try to find him is to free the rest of her friends.

Poppy and Branch learn that the castle scullery maid Bridget (Deschanel) is guarding the remaining Trolls and when they find them, they see that Bridget is in love with King Gristle. Determined to show Bridget that happiness can be had without eating Trolls, they all work together to transform her into Lady Glitter Sparkles, in order to get her a date with King Gristle while getting close enough to find out if Creek is still alive.

This movie is GREAT!!  Let's just be serious, it is basically a movie musical and the music is just awesome. Yeah, most of it seems to be revamped versions of older songs but that doesn't matter because they are all done so well.

After being so long winded in the summary, I don't really have too much to say about this film. I have watched this more than a dozen times (that's what happens when you have a 4 year old!) and it doesn't get old. Sometimes the music gets stuck in your head (even for days...) but it gets stuck in your head in a good way. Sometimes when we need a pick me up, we will turn the soundtrack on and just dance.

I say pick this film up, it is a great watch and a great sing/dance along kind of film. Grab your favorite little people and Don't Forget the Popcorn!!!

Newtown

Film Title-- Newtown

Release Year-- 2016

Running Time-- 1 Hour and 25 Minutes

Director-- Kim A. Snyder

Following the December 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut, the family members of the deceased remember the short lives of their children and their attempts to move on from such a horrible tragedy.

I don't have much more to add as a summary than what the description above says. This is an uplifting documentary while being sad all at the same time. The audience is introduced to a few people, some of them parents, other friends or neighbors and they talk about their children. How full of life they were or how funny or brilliant and all of this leads to the most devastating day of their lives.

After describing their horrible loss they begin to talk about what they have done to try to move on from their tragedy, most of which have gone to D.C. To try to tighten up gun laws in this country. Don't get me wrong, I am the mother of a small child and if it were me, I have no clue how I would be able to even try to pull my life back together if I lost her but these parents have found the strength to try to move on and do good in the names of their little lost loves.

The BEST part of this documentary is that NOT ONE TIME does anyone that is being interviewed mention the name of the gunman. They do not give him the honor or the recognition that I am sure he was hoping for before he did this heinous crime (for anyone that doesn't remember this story, the gunman (I will also refuse to use his name since they did such a great job of avoiding it in the film) killed his mother, then went to the school she worked at and killed 20 children and 6 adults before killing himself). I believe that is one of the worst parts of the media and that is, most of the time, they give more attention to the person that committed the crime than to the victims and this documentary shows that the people that were affected by this crime is giving absolutely no thought to man who did this to them. They are making sure they remember everything they can about the child that was taken away and as hard as I am sure that is, it is a beautiful thing. To honor those sweet babies memory is the best thing the community can do to heal themselves, even 5 years later.

Now, let's touch on a very sensitive subject—gun control. These parents went to D.C. And helped to petition the high courts to try to tighten gun laws and unfortunately for them, stricter gun laws were denied.

In MY PERSONAL OPINION I think that people should be able to keep their guns, for protection and for hunting or whatever it is people use their guns for but I DO NOT think that ANYONE should be walking around with an assault weapon. If you are not in the military and out on missions or training, there is no reason for you to have control of an assault weapon (let's be clear, if you ARE in the military but just hanging out at the base, far from danger, you also should not have control of an assault weapon). An assault weapon is not for protection, an assault weapon is for murder and death. I don't believe that people should have their guns taken away but if that gun is an assault weapon, you are not protecting yourself, you are waiting for an attack or to attack and that isn't something that someone should just be sitting around waiting for.

This is a documentary that every parent should watch, if for nothing but to see and feel these people's strength. Watch this documentary with a box of tissues and when it is over, go squeeze your children because you are lucky enough to still have them by your side and Don't Forget the Popcorn.