Walt Dohrn (‘Trolls Band Together’ director) on using songs to move the story forward

Charles Bright
·3 min read
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In “Trolls Band Together,” director Walt Dohrn says that one of the most important aspects of making sure the film works is determining where and when specific songs should be used. He says the central thing to keep in mind is where they can help move the story forward in a unique way. He then illustrated this using the song, “Sweet Dreams,” as an example. “How do we do that? We have the lyrics, so what we do is just start blocking them in going, okay, this would be a good place for it rhythmically. We just start slowly building it, putting songs in, just rough songs,” he tells Gold Derby during our recent webchat for our Meet the Experts: Film Animation panel (watch the exclusive video interview above).

Even with all the songs that are used, there are still instances of ones that Dohrn really wanted to use but wasn’t able to make work and he had that specifically with the David Bowie song, “Fame.” “It was a great song. I cut it in, we boarded to it, but it just didn’t have the same kind of energy as the theme from the film ‘Fame.’ Plus, tonally, that one felt a little more irony in it.”

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“Trolls Band Together,” which is produced by DreamWorks Animation and is currently in theaters, marks the third film in the series. Dohrn directed the film alongside Tim Heitz. Branch finds out that one of his brothers, Floyd, has been kidnapped and he must embark on a journey with Poppy to reunite with his three other brothers so they can all rescue Floyd. The movie stars Justin Timberlake, Anna Kendrick, Eric André, Kid Cudi, Troye Sivan, Daveed Diggs, Amy Schumer, Andrew Rannells, Zooey Deschanel and Kenan Thompson.

Casting became a particularly challenging task when it came to selecting who would play Branch’s four brothers who make up the boy band BroZone. Each brother needed to have a distinct voice so that there would be a specificity of the sonic texture of their voice. “These actors that we cast, they each brought themselves into the role and they really helped develop who the character was and made them even more distinct.” The actors chosen for the roles were Eric André, Troye Sivan, Kid Cudi and Daveed Diggs. André’s character of John Dory had a personal connection for Dohrn. “He was a little bit based on my older brother who seemed like he was 10-feet-tall and he was a big hero to me but he also didn’t apply or adhere to social rules or constructs.”

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