Not to be confused with the game Trolls Pop.
Pop Trolls are a Tribe of Trolls who have been the main focus of the DreamWorks Trolls franchise during its 2016-2019 era, and one of the 6 Troll Tribes since its current 2020-present era. The current leader of this Tribe is Queen Poppy. They were formerly led by King Peppy.
Due to the focus of the DreamWorks Trolls franchise on this Tribe, much is known about them. In fact, within the franchise before Trolls World Tour, whenever the term "Troll" was mentioned, it generally referred to this Troll Tribe above all others. There are some conflicting information therefore between the facts for a "Troll" and a "Pop Troll" for this reason. As such, just because the Pop Trolls do something does not mean it applies to all Trolls. The franchise's use of "Troll" when it referred to "Pop Troll" has led to some attributes given to Pop Trolls to end up being associated with all Trolls. This is a result of development oversight, but an understandable one due to the circumstances behind how a franchise progresses.
Also note that K-Pop Trolls are not part of this Tribe despite the similar name.
History[]
The Pop Trolls' Selfishness[]
At some point in the past, the ancestors of the 6 Tribes created 6 Strings for each type of music. As their name suggests, they were centered around "Pop music". Together with the other five Tribes, the Pop Tribe partied, and thus life was a big party.
The Pop Trolls with the stolen Strings
The Pop Trolls wanted to only play Pop songs and didn't want to enjoy the other Tribes music. Over time they became selfish and stole the Harp, forbidding the other Trolls from playing their music. Instead, the Pop Trolls would remix every kind of music there was into their own genre. When the other Tribes finally caught up with the Pop Trolls, they took their strings and a argument broke out. The elders of the six tribes made the call that all Trolls should separate from each other. They took their strings and ran away from each other, leaving the Pop Trolls behind.
At that point, the Pop Trolls became isolated from the other Tribes seen in Trolls World Tour, and for the most part their population came to be unaware of other Troll Tribes. Only individuals like King Peppy would come to beware of their existence, although over time the story of the Strings became vague and the Pop Trolls' involvement was forgotten by their own Tribe. In addition to them possessing their Pop String, the Pop Trolls also had been left the white Harp that once housed the 6 strings.
Trollstice[]
The Bergens built their homes around the Troll Tree, essentially making the Pop Trolls prisoners in their own home until they escaped.
The Pop Trolls made their home in a green land of woodland trees, within a tree that would be later named the Troll Tree.
The Pop Trolls had a carefree life until one day, when a Bergen ate a member of their Tribe. This made the Bergen feel overwhelming happiness. Soon, the entire town of Bergens sprouted around their tree, and they were trapped at the very center of it all. The Bergens began a tradition known as Trollstice, wherein unhappy Bergens were given a Troll to eat so they could feel happiness. While no length of time was given for how long this lasted, in the Trolls: The Beat Goes On! episode "Sorry Not Sorry", King Gristle Jr. mentions that his grandfather ruled before his own father King Gristle Sr..
Despite all things, the Trolls tried to continued to live normal lives, as exampled by BroZone. However, despite this causalities occurred such was the fate of Grandma Rosiepuff and others.
In the year King Gristle Jr. was set to eat his first Troll, the entire Tribe, led by King Peppy, escaped via a tunnel and ran deep into Troll Forest, which was the premise of Trolls during Trollstice. In Trolls Band Together, it was revealed that the Putt Putt Trolls had gotten separated from the other Pop Trolls, including among them Poppy's sister Viva and Branch's brother Clay. The Trolls had all been cut off by a falling boulder, and though Peppy attempted to go back for them, he did not manage to rescue every Troll. They took a alternative tunnel and ended up running in the opposite direction to the rest of the Pop Trolls.
Both groups rebuilt their civilization far from Bergen Town.
The Bergens Return[]
20 years later, Princess Poppy decided to throw the biggest, loudest, craziest party there was. Despite warnings from Branch, the only one of their Tribe still wary of being found by the Bergens, Poppy threw the party anyway. Chef, the previous keeper of the Troll tree who had been held accountable for the Trolls' escape by King Gristle Sr., attacked and took various members of The Snack Pack.
Events that took place lead to the entire village being captured and thrown into a cooking pot to be eaten by the Bergens. With help from Bridget, a Bergen Poppy helped during the film's events, the Trolls were freed, at the cost of her life. Poppy went back to save Bridget, which led to the Bergens finding happiness without eating Trolls. She was crowned Queen of the Trolls, succeeding her father King Peppy.
The Rock World Tour[]
Sometime after being freed of the Bergens, they re-learnt that other Troll Tribes existed when the Rock Trolls invaded the lands of the Troll Tribes to steal their Strings. The Rock Trolls captured all Trolls of all Tribes, the Pop Trolls' leader went on a mission with Branch and Biggie (the latter tagged along by accident) to unite the Trolls against Queen Barb, but had failed to get other Trolls to unite. The Pop Trolls all ended up in Volcano Rock City one way or another, with their Tribe member Branch being converted to a Rock zombie by Barb when he protected their Queen Poppy. Poppy is the only leader spared from complete conversion to a Rock zombie, and stops Barb by destroying the Strings.
The Pop Trolls, along with all other Tribes lost their music temporarily, since they quickly discovered that they could now draw music from themselves instead of the Strings. The Pop Trolls sung with the other Tribes and music was restored, with the Trolls now becoming an united nation again.
Trolls Band Together Reunion[]
In Trolls Band Together, Viva and the Putt Putt Trolls were rediscovered. In addition, the brothers from the boyband BroZone were reunited.
Biology[]
Anatomy[]
Most of the Trolls from Trolls appear as standard Random Trolls and they're 6 inches tall - although this wasn't always a rule that applied to named Trolls like The Snack Pack. They also have a variety of hair, nose, body and eye colors. With the exception of Cooper, the Trolls were bipedal; Cooper's quadrupedal appearance would be explained in future installments, as he wasn't like the other Trolls of Troll Village. With the exception of Branch, all Trolls wore Hug-Time Friendship Bracelets.
These Trolls became the template for all future design variations of the species known as "Trolls".
As the Trolls era was expanded, the introduction of Troll families or sub-tribes occurred. These families were:
- Rainbow Trolls - had hidden rainbow-based colors that would come out if they were at their best.
- Glitter Trolls - naked Trolls covered in Glitter.
- Treasure Trolls - appeared as any other Troll except for the presence of a gem or "wishstone".
- Guru Trolls - had a Zen or spiritual appearance and attitude on life, though seemed to be frauds at times.
- Giant Trolls - the largest Trolls with short hair and large bodies.
- Maker Trolls - Trolls who dressed based on an "art and crafts" motif, of which they were experts upon.
- Teaspoon Trolls - the Giant Trolls' opposite, having small bodies and long hair.
- Sporty Trolls - dressed based on their preferred sports, which they focused on expertise.
- Nature Trolls - explorers, nature lovers and scientists who studied nature and dressed according to their profession.
- Trollimals - Trolls based on animals.
- Fuzzling Trolls - Trolls who lacked a body, head and arms, instead consisting only of hair and feet.
- Retro Trolls - Trolls who loved music based on 20th-century styles, wearing clothing based on their favorite era or theme.
Not all of these families had members present in the Trolls movie, as it didn't give the expanded family explanation. This was an idea that came about between Trolls and the Trolls: Crazy Party Forest! app. The family status would remain from 2016 to 2018, when it was retired as focus turned to promotion of the Trolls: The Beat Goes On! TV series.
The TV series expanded upon the Trolls' design. Trolls would have more distinction, even as Random Trolls. Although the series started out roughly with the expanded Trolls-era families in mind, it would vary from ignoring them to not even mentioning them, with Fuzzlings and Glitter Trolls being the only two to be mentioned by name.
With Trolls World Tour came updated information on their Tribe, now known as "Pop Trolls". This also explained why Cooper was different to the other Trolls in Trolls, as he wasn't from their Tribe at all. The Pop Trolls are similar in appearance to Trolls, with the note that female Trolls have less design variations on their dresses than before. Most of the previous families from the Trolls era are gone, but Glitter Trolls and Fuzzling Trolls remain, though the former are the only family in the Tribe to have a major overall appearance in crowds. The Trollimals were reworked into Funk Trolls.
Their distinct bright coloration is the most notable trait of their Tribe. Upon seeing Pop Trolls for the first time, Delta Dawn, the mayor of Lonesome Flats and leader of the Country Trolls, comments that "they look like they were beaten up by a rainbow".
Poppy is seen shaving her legs in a brief scene shortly before the Trolls Wanna Have Good Times medley. It appears that these Trolls have naturally hairy legs that they actually shave off.
One note of the Pop Trolls is that it's explained that the other Trolls are different to this Tribe in ways that they cannot imagine. This is noting that among their Tribe they have a variety of variations on their Tribes' overall design, and are far more variable than most other Tribes in general appearence.
Due to many assets being reused from Trolls: The Beat Goes On!, they appear mostly the same as they did in previous 2D animations.
The Trolls Band Together movie re-introduced the families/sub-tribe classification, with the introduction of a new Tribe within the Pop Trolls the Putt Putt Trolls with the two most notable examples being Viva and Clay.
Otherwise, the Pop Trolls look mostly the same as they did in the previous movies, with them resembling Trolls World Tour more then Trolls (though this is due to the technical differences between those two movies being greater then that of Trolls World Tour and Trolls Band Together.- Sexual Dimorphism
In Trolls and Trolls World Tour, males have arms that are the same length as females but have bigger hands, as a result their fingertips reach lower than the groin area when their arms are at rest, while a female's fingertips are in line with the groin area. These are much more subtle and can be difficult to notice at first glance. Females wear dresses with one of a few designs, and males wear pants with a single strap. Females tend to have eyelashes while males do not, though there are exceptions such as Keith. For Glitter Trolls, the eyelashes and voice are the only major indicators of gender. Outside of attire, males of the Tribe stand as tall as females, but have bigger stomachs and wider shoulders. In general, eyelashes are the quickest way to identify the gender of most Trolls, though male trolls generally have larger noses than females (barring Techno Trolls, who lack noses altogether).
In Trolls: TrollsTopia, similarly to the movie, females usually wear dresses with shorts underneath (though named Trolls usually end up being the exception) and males have pants with straps. For Glitter Trolls, eyelashes and hairstyle are the only indication of gender, as well as nose size.
Through the series it has often been shown that older males can get quite plump bodies, with King Peppy, John Dory and Spruce all displaying these traits.
- Juveniles
In Trolls, children and babies of this Tribe mostly resemble adults, but are smaller and have less hair.
In Trolls: The Beat Goes On!, like adults, they generally have more variations than what Trolls offered. Three age groups were shown in the series: babies such as Vega Swift, toddlers like Gemma Fur, and slightly older children such as Keith, Priscilla and CJ Suki. Babies are loosely based upon baby Poppy from Trolls.
In Trolls World Tour, Baby Trolls seem to have been changed from having a appearance similar to baby Poppy. The only example of a Pop Troll egg hatching, however, didn't produce a Pop Troll; instead, Tiny Diamond was born as a Hip hop Troll.
In Trolls: TrollsTopia, Babies have been redesigned from Trolls: The Beat Goes On!. They no longer resemble Poppy's baby model in Trolls, and now look more similar to Tiny Diamond from Trolls World Tour. However, the older Trolls: The Beat Goes On! puppets are still seen from time to time as filler characters.
- Eggs
One slight update to their Tribe is that they hatch from eggs, which have a small tuff of hair on.
Habitat[]
A series of "pods" hanging from trees, the homes of the Pop Trolls
The Pop Trolls are forest Trolls and live among the trees. Their homes called "pods", hang from trees and resemble tree decorations.
They are made from strands of their own hair, making them eco-friendly and biodegradable. In Trolls: The Beat Goes On!, it was shown that some pods are made from mushrooms, as is the case of Harper and Meadow Spriggs. Cooper, who lives among them, also resided in a mushroom pod, though this was changed to a normal tree pod in Trolls World Tour. Their current location isn't their original home; the Troll Tree has been abandoned due to the events of the last Trollstice. As mentioned by King Peppy, the requirements they make for their home is "fresh air, clean water and sweet acoustics".
Diet[]
The Pop Trolls seem to have a sweet tooth and are seen eating mostly confectionery goods like cupcakes and ice cream. Poppy presumes in Trolls World Tour that Queen Barb will enjoy cotton candy and other sweets as she herself loves them. The bitter-sweet taste of gumdrops caught Hickory off guard when he tried one, and hints this is a taste their Tribe has but other Trolls don't. Biggie is seen alongside Hickory on Hickory's boat preparing a slug-like critter he had warmed up over a open fire. The slug is eaten alive by the Trolls.
In Trolls: The Beat Goes On!, they also eat fruits such as Diced Fruit and berries and love drinking Stoutberry juice. From time to time, they have been witnessed to eat small insects. Branch and Nova Swift are the only Pop Trolls who were shown to be able to handle wider tastes; both enjoy Fluffleberry (Branch in the form of cake and Nova in the form of a latte), which is seen as disgusting to most other Trolls, including Cooper, a Funk Troll. In "Marshtato Fairy", Marshtatoes are shown to be one of their overall favorite treats.
In the non-canon book Biggie and the Disastrous Dance, Sweetbug Sticky Sap was a rare Pop Treat that all Trolls enjoyed.
Tribal Abilities[]
- Tribal Traits
The Pop Trolls are seen to be the most adapted at using their hair. An example of such usage involves them swinging faster through the trees than a Bergen can walk. They appear to be the Tribe most reliant on their hair; Branch states in Troll 2 Troll that a Troll's (which at the time would have just referred to their Tribe) hair is their best natural defense, and they need to move it freely at a moment's notice. Trolls like King Peppy are physically strong enough to carry a number of other Trolls. In 2D animated series, the Trolls are seen that when they pull their hair their hair lights up.
According to King Quincy and Queen Essence's bios, when the Pop Trolls had the Strings, they had the ability to convert any kind of music into generic Pop via use of medleys, auto-tuning and remixing. This resulted in the other Tribes being unable to play and enjoy their music, and making it a lot more bland than it was having removed anything special from their music.
In "Journey to the Center of TrollsTopia", Poppy mentions that Pop Trolls have "hair that is so plentiful it clogs up everything" as she explains why the Pop Trolls have a giant plunger, noting she doesn't understand why they don't have 10 of them.
- Intellectual
The intelligence of the Tribe varies among members, but most appear to be average in such terms. However, their preference to always "be happy" has led to severe underestimations from some of its members. Part of the issue in Trolls was that after 20 years of freedom and happiness away from the Bergens, Poppy had organized their 20-year celebration with no consideration of any Bergen seeing their lights and sound show. Yet at the same time, no other Pop Troll sided against the party; in fact, they all supported it and ridiculed Branch for being against it, labeling him a "party pooper" in the process. For most Pop Trolls, it's a not a question of if something is intellectual stimulating or not to them; they just prefer to see the "fun" side of things over the dull side, making Branch the oddball of their Tribe for liking such things. For example, in the Trolls: The Beat Goes On! episode "Wormhole", when Branch tries to explain how Wormholes work, the others "boo" over his complicated explanation of how they worked until he made it more fun and accessible.
Ignorance remains the biggest issue that members of this Tribe have, including when it comes to dealing with other Trolls, and this trait is displayed by even the smartest members. Their positivity, generosity and trust is easily exploited and can be a severe weakness at times. The Bergen Chef, Tribe member Creek, Yodelling Trolls Hickory and Dickory and the Party Crashers have all taken advantage or exploited these Trolls.
- Other
The Pop Trolls appear to be much more "average" in comparison to the other Tribes, which often have more unique tribal traits. As such, the Pop Trolls tend to stand out in their behavior more than their abilities as a Tribe. However, Glitter Trolls and Fuzzling Trolls have extra abilities normal Pop Trolls lack.
Society[]
The Pop hand gesture
Behavior[]
The Pop Trolls' lives are (currently) carefree. In the past, the Pop Trolls had been villains, although they had hidden what they had done. Compared to their ancestors, the modern Pop Trolls are nothing alike.[1]
As mentioned in the "Tourist Map" video from the Trolls World Tour movie extras, Cloud Guy calls the Pop Trolls the friendliest Trolls. They're among the friendlier Troll Tribes overall. Their ruler Queen Poppy generally promotes happiness, and tries to make effort to see the best in everyone. A typical Pop Troll is extremely happy, strives happiness and seeks fun above all things. They are prone to absolute panic when things go wrong, often overreacting in a comical way; the sole exceptions are their leaders (alongside those close to them like friends), who usually manage to remain level-headedness, and Branch due to this past experiences.
The Pop Trolls collectively aren't stupid, but often display certain amounts of ignorance and are blissfully unaware of the greater scope of their world. Until Trolls World Tour, they thought of themselves as "Trolls", and weren't aware of there being other Tribes, even that they themselves were "Pop Trolls". While some of this may be contributed to the events with the Bergens and their confinement in Bergen Town, it also extends to things like the Party Crashers. It is not that they don't mistrust or are cautious about others, it's that they're willing to try and come to a common ground, which separates them as a Tribe.
While the other Tribes tend to use specific terminologies related to their themes, such the Techno Trolls making use of puns by their name, the Classical Trolls speaking with music theory terms and the Rock Trolls making Rock-based puns, the typical Pop Troll doesn't do any such thing. The only common way speech pattern they often use is simply a habit of using sweets and other treat-based analogies when looking for examples to talk about. One such example is the use of the "cupcake metaphor" in "TrollsTopia Part 2", which was used as a metaphoric meaning: they had planned to give the ambassadors from the other Tribes a taste of something good so they'd want more of that good thing. Alternatively, anything fun-sounding (like "twisty slides", which Branch used in "Wormhole") is also used in such metaphors and other speech analogies.
Despite Biggie "owning" Mr. Dinkles (and Biggie denying he is a pet) in "BPF", Pop Trolls are the only Tribe who typically do not own pets and all other Tribes of Trolls do own "BPFs".
Social Structure[]
The Pop Trolls have a King or Queen who is in charge of leading their people. The current King or Queen steps down at some point, and appoints their heir to the throne when they feel that they're ready. The leader has the most power and looks out for the general population, who generally respects them. Aside from this, their leader doesn't really stand out from other Trolls in the population, and others will speak out against their leader whenever they disagree with them.
Pop Trolls tend to be willing to befriend anyone such as non Pop-Trolls, and spend much of their social lives with their best friends. Individuals who are negative rather than positive can be seen as outcasts or "party poopers", and grey-colored Trolls aren't favored over the more vividly coloration of other Trolls. This was exampled by Branch and Creek in Trolls, although the Pop Trolls' attitude to Branch has changed since the events of the film and they generally are more open to negativity. Spruce also gained much admiration for his physical physique, being muscled in his youth.
The Pop Trolls generally enjoy making friends and can often try to make many friends quickly, in the "Tourist Map" video from the Trolls World Tour movie extras, they are identified as the friendliest of the Tribes. However, as of Trolls World Tour this has met with some issues.
They also hold boybands in high regards, with the best example being that of BroZone, once the No.1 boyband of the Tribe.
Inter-Tribe Relationships[]
The Pop Trolls are wary of the other Tribes at first, as exampled by Peppy's words "don't dance like us and don't sing like us" when speaking of them. Cooper was accepted by them because while they acknowledged he was a Troll, they didn't know much else about their species as a whole. On the other hand, when dealing with the other Tribes in general, Poppy's adventures in Trolls World Tour don't run smoothly, and the Pop Trolls show quite a bit of naivety towards how other Trolls are.
This does not help by the fact some of the other Trolls still had grudges against them, and the only reason The Funky Family gave them the time was due to Cooper since the Funk Trolls still remembered what their ancestors did to theirs. The Rock Trolls meanwhile held a huge disdain for them that was the driving force towards Queen Barb singling out them as her biggest threat. Some Tribes like the Country Trolls had forgotten what a Pop Troll even was leading more to curiosity from the Country Trolls and complete misunderstandings from the Pop Trolls to why the Country Trolls prefer their style of music, with Poppy concluding they "need serious cheering up". In the process, she accidently offends the entire Tribe. One issue that remained was shown in Trolls: TrollsTopia that while Pop Trolls often find solutions to problems among the Tribes, they can be far too up front for some Trolls. This was shown in a number of episodes, but best examples are "Trollvial Pursuit" and the Trolls Scrapbook Stories short "Poppy's Rock Queen Transformation", where the handling of Hard Rock Trolls was not done particularly well.
Since the events of Trolls World Tour, the Pop Trolls' leader at the moment, Poppy, sees harmony as embracing difference among her people and learning to live alongside others; in Trolls: TrollsTopia, she came up with the idea of TrollsTopia in hope to tackle this situation. For this reason, the Pop Trolls are far more tolerable towards differences than Tribes like the Rock Trolls tend to be, mostly because of how varied they themselves can be, which is evidenced down to simple differences, such as Biggie's unusual large size and Legsly's height-changing appearance, and their willingness to befriend non-Troll creatures different to them, such as the Bergens. That said, learning to get along with the Tribes proved to not be easy for the Pop Trolls, as many other Trolls didn't click instantly on them at first.
Tactics[]
Pop Trolls' typical tactics when threatened is to run and hide, which has kept them safe for a long time and is the primary solution that both Peppy and Branch rely on. Oddly during Trolls World Tour, this proved to be the only effective method of avoiding capture by the Rock Trolls, as it led to members of The Snack Pack escaping them. One of their best tactics they often apply is simply try to befriend their enemies, thus minimizing the chances of them rising up against them in the long term.
Though their present stance isn't a reflection of their past, as noted by their history with the Strings, and they have been on the offense instead of the receiving end, being once the best to take advantage of the other Troll Tribes; in other words, these Trolls were once a fearsome Tribe to contend with.
Holidays & Events[]
The Pop Trolls have a holiday for every day of the year, meaning they are constantly having one party or another. For the Pop Trolls, having a "Blank Day" is horrifying. Even though, the presence of a Blank Day is a chance for a new holiday to be created, as chosen by their leader. The process of Troll holiday selection is simple: a Troll proposes a holiday and if lucky, their leader chooses it over all others. Their leader can also just establish a new holiday willingly without proposals. As mentioned in "Funsgiving", King Peppy created a holiday of himself when he started to get old.
In Trolls Holiday, the sheer number of holidays they have is addressed, and it becomes apparent that the Trolls celebrate just about anything and everything, much to the annoyance of the Bergens, who end up remarking their holidays "sucked" and are very un-Bergen-like.
Even if the number of holidays isn't enough, according to Sky Toronto in "The Giver", there are 18 parties, 12 soirees and at least 5 shindigs on an average Troll night. In Trolls: The Beat Goes On! and Trolls: TrollsTopia, Poppy has hosted many holidays, parties and other events in Troll Village. In fact, it's normal for every Troll to host parties, and the only two to avoid it were DJ Suki and Branch. DJ avoided hosting parties because she wasn't good at it, as shown in "Party Crash Course", where they tended to end in disaster. Branch meanwhile had basically been held back socially by his inability to feel happiness for over 20 years, causing him to avoid partying altogether. Poppy saw it as an achievement when he finally hosted his own party in "Bye Bye Bunker" for the very first time, as it meant he was finally a normal Troll.
For a list of Holidays & Events that have occurred on this tribe, see Holidays & Events#Pop Trolls.
Party Games[]
When Pop Trolls play certain party games, they become victim to that game, though details are yet unknown as to why. Though these seem like simple games the Pop Trolls play, they also have the ability to impact creatures and Trolls of other Tribes, which bring the question on if these are truly games at all. Trolls don't seem to be able to break out of these games at all once they're victims to them.
For a list of Party Games & Sporting Events that have such an effect, see Party Games & Sports.
Culture[]
The Pop Trolls' culture is limited but extremely varied, since its membership diversifies in many directions.
Architecture[]
As mentioned in the "Technology" section, the Pop Trolls often focus on making their homes out of hair and other recyclable things. Troll "Pods" are found in the trees and Pop Trolls mostly enjoy a simplistic home design; everything in a pod is all that a Troll owns. They are made to look like tree ornaments and together make a tree look decorative. Homes were also shown to be made of mushrooms in Trolls: The Beat Goes On!, though this wasn't seen thus far outside of the series.
Other than this, Pop Trolls tend to build much more simpler structures then some other Tribes; stages are often just made of wood with cloth curtains, but seating is simple chairs. It is often colorful and uses a wide variety of rainbow colors. Their structures are almost all open-air.
Music[]
They enjoy singing and dancing like any other Troll Tribe. Their music is centered around "Pop Music" and it's where they get their name from. Pop Trolls love music with a hum-able hook, enough beat and melody, catchy tunes that get into your head and make you want to snap your fingers, tap your toes, and move your butt. Their music covers EDM, hip hop and rap, and generally focuses on the theme of happiness and fun. According to the story of the Strings, the Pop Trolls like to remix the music of other Troll Tribes.
They have DJs and turntables similar to the Techno Trolls, but unlike their tribe, things are a lot more simplified and some families like those in the family of DJ Suki and CJ Suki use Wooferbugs. The Techno Trolls music otherwise shares a lot of common themes with the Pop Trolls. However, Pop Trolls music is regarded as almost the complete opposite of the Rock Trolls favored style.
Pop Troll music, like other aspects of their culture, generally struggles to grasp the concept of sorrow and sadness, with this being foreign to their music as well.
In the past, they had a very rich music culture with a number of named singers and hit bands, the most notable was BroZone but according to BroZones website, others existed around the same time as them.[2]
Dancing Style[]
For these Trolls, life is a giant party, and they're almost always singing, dancing or hugging; the sole exception was Branch until the events of Trolls. Pop Troll dancing is quite varied with a lot of energy and different varied moves, and is less distinct than what other Tribes tend to be. They generally form together to do complimenting movements with each other that involve a lot of movement patterns and use of their entire body.
Cultural Criticisms[]
The Pop Trolls' music wasn't well liked by other Troll Tribes and subcultures, having strong opinions of it. Queen Barb believed it's not real music; at her victory concert, she had called it "the worst of all" of the other genres. She described it as bland, repetitive, with lyrics that had no meaning and that it crawls into one's head like an earworm, with the latter being proven moments later when her father King Thrash begun to sing the Trolls Wanna Have Good Times medley. Delta Dawn, upon hearing Poppy, Branch and Biggie perform refers it as a "crime against music", and states that she has to wash what they call music out of her ears. Chaz calls it pointless and cheesy. King Quincy and Queen Essence didn't wish to have anything to do with the Pop Trolls when offered to combine their music of Funk with Pop against Barb. In their official bios, it's mentioned that Pop tried to make their music bland and autotuned in an attempt to de-funk their music, which led to the Funk Trolls fleeing for fear of their music to the furthest corner of Troll Kingdom.
Unlike his brother Prince D who is half-Hip hop, Cooper is half-Pop, despite his heritage being primarily that of a Funk Troll; the result is that he also covers music related to the Pop genre. He's the only known half-Pop Troll, with his fondness for Pop music originating from him being raised by the Pop Tribe.
Technology[]
The Pop Trolls focus on technology that can be easily recycled, such as why their pods are made of their own hair and therefore biodegradable.
However, throughout the franchise, they're shown to have varying technological advancements, even though they generally don't display things that use too much modern technology. It's clear that the technological level of their Tribe is adjusted to suit the story when needed for each part of the franchise. In the base core of the franchise, it's quite basic, but in some parts, it can be more advanced. In Trolls: The Beat Goes On!, their technology varies greatly when the storyline suits it. For example, there's Sky Toronto's party shop, a factory that contrasts the rest of the technology displayed by the Pop Trolls. Sky's factory allows him to mass-produce game pieces for games quickly, but are considered not as fun as the Country Trolls' method of growing them on plants. The advantage it does give is the ability to work through the winter, while plants die quickly.
Another example is with Branch's bunker. It's shown to be mostly engineering skills involving a limited technology in Trolls, and the focus of the introductory short "Inside the Bunker" shows no technology beyond the shaft at all. However, in Trolls: The Beat Goes On!, it shows places that use more technological advancements, such as the ones seen in "Bunker Break-In" to power the vault that kept Branch's flag safe.
Use of Flora[]
They are shown throughout Trolls: The Beat Goes On! and Trolls: TrollsTopia to mostly invest in horticulture pursuits and agricultural pursuits are limited to a few individuals such as Branch. Individuals like Creek do not invest time in growing crops and will pick from whatever plant is available. Smidge is noted as the only Troll capable of breaking into Stoutberries for their juice physically.
In "Troll Rangers" and other episodes, it was shown that they can make use of wild Flora for party supplies.
Use of Fauna[]
They make use of creatures at times in place of things like vehicles.
Record Keeping[]
The Pop Trolls love scrapbooking. Their scrapbooks form their main means to gather and record information. Trolls, for example begins with Poppy recapping the events of the escape from Bergen Town using a scrapbook. Scrapbooks also became a common plot focus of many Trolls: The Beat Goes On! episodes, with the Trolly Tales episode series particularly displaying examples of this.
The scrapbooks are made of paper, have things the Pop Trolls cut or gathered stuck to the pages, and often contain elaborate paper-crafted decorations such as pop-up pieces and tabs. They're often wordless, yet the Trolls can read from the pages and re-tell entire stories.
However, in Trolls World Tour, it was pointed out that their method of book keeping has a flaw: the truth can be lost. The scrapbooks only contain pictures and images pasted together by the victors, so such certain aspects of the story can be lost in the process and over time, forgotten or embellished. The Pop Trolls' ancestors also painted themselves in a good light to avoid revealing what they've done in regards to the Strings. This makes their primary means to keep records unreliable in the long run.
A second example came a movie later in Trolls Band Together as Clay, Viva and King Peppy all gave extra details on The Last Trollstice that Poppy had left out in her re-telling of the event in Trolls. This is because the event was traumatic for those involved and thus Peppy had made the decision to just not talk about it.
The Pop Trolls habit of focusing on happiness leaks elsewhere into other aspects of their culture. In "The Farmer and the Hound", it is stated that Pop Trolls don't enjoy sad endings to scrapbook stories, since they write happier endings. Even Poppy was taken back when Holly Darlin' revealed the ending of the book which the episode was about and fainted at the thought of the Farmer never finding his loyal Hound. Biggie also is noted to be an exceptionally sensitive Troll in the episode and the duo tried to stop him reading the ending. When asked to rewrite the ending, Poppy writes a typical Pop Troll scrapbook ending, but gets carried away and leaves an ending that makes no sense in context of the book. The only exception to the Pop Trolls is Branch, who related to the farmer in the book and was clearly upset that he was reading a book that felt like he was reading about himself. Regardless of Branch relating to the story, a typical Pop Troll simply will not write such a sad scrapbook ending, nor do they normally enjoy them.
Influences[]
The Pop Trolls, more than any other Tribe, are a reference to the 1980s Troll toyline "Troll Dolls", also known as "Good Luck Trolls". The toyline was popular and sold millions of dolls. The dolls were mostly identical save their hair, and were sold originally as good luck charms for kids. The principle of these toys is that, rubbing the hair of the Troll for luck in times of bad. Therefore, carrying the Troll around would result in the luck remaining with the child throughout the day, and if something went wrong, they could rub the hair for more luck.
The main difference between the Pop Trolls and the 1980s dolls is their skin; the Pop Trolls' varies in many colors, whereas all the dolls basically had the same tone: a tan brown color. The dolls also were all basically the same mould, while the Pop Trolls have much more facial diversity. In addition, two of the Trolls-era families, the Rainbow Trolls and the Treasure Trolls, are named after classic toylines. This is also why a number of Trolls like DJ Suki have gems in their belly buttons, as these are "Good Luck Troll" charms. In the original Good Luck Gem Troll Dolls toyline, children were supposed to rub the gem for luck instead of the hair. A few Pop Trolls, such as Guy Diamond, are based on the older 1960s Troll Dolls. The Trolls era "families" themselves were likely based on the description of Trolls "lore" from the 1990s Russ Dolls which noted that families of Trolls have hair color that matches their environment, such as rainbow for Trolls living near the end of rainbows, Green for forest Trolls and Blue for sea Trolls.
The book "The Art of DreamWorks Trolls" details about the Troll Dolls and how they influenced the Trolls film's development.[3]
"Pop" is short for "popular music", and referred to currently trending music at the time in the 1960s; it separated itself from the current music genres over the time. As such, it actually was a broader term in the past than it is today, and originally included numerous genres such as "Rock". It is renowned for its catchy lyrics and use of repetition. The Tribe's use of bright colors and preference for Pop songs such as "True Colors" are all nods to their genre. Even with Trolls: The Beat Goes On! and Trolls: TrollsTopia, a lot of the music genres are likely more pop-styled, with touches of Electronic Dance Music (EDM) added in.
Pop music tends to be fluid in its definition, and didn't gain attraction as a major genre until the 1980s, with the 1990s being the time it became the dominant genre in many Western countries, pushing aside Rock music, which had dominated the music scene in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Pop Trolls are also likely based on elves due to them living in a forest environment, and a few other traits related to elves, such as Poppy's royal attire being plant-themed. However, the term "Elf" is seen by the Pop Trolls themselves as a racial slur; in the Trolls: The Beat Goes On! episode "Marshtato Fairy", Marshtato Mary addressed the Trolls as "elves", to which Branch responded that it's deeply offensive to them. In Trolls World Tour, they were confirmed to be considered like Forest Sprites.[4]
The idea of the Pop Trolls being a secondary villain in Trolls World Tour had been taken from the idea that people didn't know The Beatles and Elvis Presley had taken ideas from other singers before them. Despite Poppy describing the Rock Trolls as using their power for evil, the Rock Trolls aren't considered evil, unlike the Pop Trolls' ancestors, who were written to be bad guys. This was confirmed in an interview by Rolling Stone with screenwriter Jonathan Aibel.[1]
Known Members[]
The following is a list of the known members of this Troll Tribe, divided by the media where they first appeared in.
Due to them being the main focus of the first Trolls film, as well as its various merchandise and related media including Trolls: The Beat Goes On!, the Pop Trolls currently have the most named members of any Tribe.
Pop Trolls often have names to do with nature or the world around them (Branch, Creek, etc are named after natural things, Satin and Chenille are fabrics) or their nature (Biggie and Smidge describe their size, Poppy describes her personality and color as "Poppy Pink").
Movies[]
.jpg "Troll Child (Six).jpg (9 KB)")
![Darius[5]](/wiki/File:Darius.png "Darius.png (392 KB)")
![Uncle Ron Sr.[6]](/wiki/File:Uncleronsr.png "Uncleronsr.png (294 KB)")
- Doreen - is known only by a magazine cut out. She was the winner of a "win a date with Spruce" competition and gave an interview about her date with him for the magazine. Since BroZone happened before The Last Trollstice, but Doreen is absent in the current storyline, it is unknown where and what has happened to her in the current timeline and her whereabouts remain a mystery.
TV Series[]
2D animations are considered secondary canon, due to them being official storylines with a connection to each other. However, they have conflicting issues with the 3D canon storylines. All the characters exclusive to them are accepted by DreamWorks.
- Celine Starburst (voiced by Zehra Fazal) - she is a female Troll who appeared in "Mr. Glittercakes" and "Blank Day".
- Timpani (voiced by Zehra Fazal) - she is a small female Troll about the same height as Smidge, she appeared in "Mr. Glittercakes".
- Vega Swift (voiced by Kari Wahlgren) - she is the cousin of Nova Swift and a baby, she appears in "Vega Swift".
- Hank Montana (voiced by Fred Tatasciore) - he appeared in "DJ's Got Talent", he is a cowboy-esque type Troll who had several nieces and nephews in CJ's class.
- Violet (voiced by Fryda Wolff) - appeared in "Switcher-Ruby", she is a Troll who held a party where Poppy had previously attended. She shares her name with a Troll named "Violet" from Trolls: Crazy Party Forest!.
- Toby Poppits (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson) - he appeared in several episodes starting from "Party Crash Course", he is a partying Troll with a carefree nature.
- Smarge (voiced by Kari Wahlgren) - briefly appears in "The Helper" as a joke Troll, her name was a joke that sounded like a mispronounciation of "Smidge".
- Laroux Laroux (voiced by Fryda Wolff) - she is Nova Swift's former intern. She was given a promotion after speaking out against Nova and Nova herself admitted she adored her. She appears in "The Interns".
- Dare-lene J. McGuffin (voiced by Kari Wahlgren) - she is the most daring Troll to ever live. She appears in "Truth or Dare" as an adventurer, stealing her statue was the goal of Biggie's "dare".
Also mentioned are:
- Alice, Brian, Elliot and Nate - are Trolls named in the episode "Friend Matching". According to a survey, Poppy had made that Nate and Brian had limited potential to be instant friends, while Nate and Elliot were also incompatible and so were Elliot and Alice. All four have Random Troll designs, though it's worth noting that Nate is one of the 4 possible Treasure Troll colorations that can generate in episodes of the series.
- PJ Suki, TJ Suki and Gertrude - are the 3 aunts of DJ Suki, as well as the great-aunts of CJ Suki. They're mentioned in "Troll Rangers".
- Bitsy, Teensy, Weensy, Pinch, Puny, Puny Jr., Petite and Yea Big - are the ancestors and relatives of Smidge mentioned in "Smidgician". They're all featured in the episode, but appear in scrapbook form. The only thing known about them is that they were good illusionists.
- DJ Carefree - is a DJ who plays 9th mix in G-minor, and only mentioned in "Neighbor War".
One note in regards to the Trolls: The Beat Goes On! Trolls is that they often have both a first and last name ("Gia Grooves", "Mags Gumdrop", "Sky Toronto", etc.), whereas most movie Trolls, save a few ("Moxie Dewdrop", "Aspen Heitz", etc.), have just a given name ("Poppy", "Smidge", "Branch", etc.). This rule is also applied to names of other Trolls in later 2D animations.
Alongside returning Pop Trolls from Trolls: The Beat Goes On!, new members were added. The following are the new Pop Trolls to the series.
- Odnecserc Etand - mentioned and seen in "The Buddy System", his name is a joke as its just Dante Crescendo spelled backwards. Cooper initally read his name upside down.
- Rhonda Sparkleman (voiced by Megan Hilty) - she is an employee at Sky Toronto's Funtime Factory. She appears in "R&B in R&D". In truth, she's really a baby pretending to be an adult to work at the Funtime Factory.
- Raisin Ruby - is a spirit of a Troll who supposedly haunts the abandoned Pod on the hill past the Pillow Palace, seen in "Extreme Sleepover Club: Spooky Edition!". The Pod is a mansion that's incredibly big for an average Pod. The story goes that she used to put raisins in every baked goods. Poppy and DJ Suki note that they only tell the story because being scared is fun; it's unclear by the end of the episode if there's any truth to the story at all.
- H.T. Hairnum (voiced by Matt Lowe) - he is a designer of hair products who appeared in "Follicle Fitness". Holly Darlin' stated that her mother treated her to his products when she was younger, and, according to Gust Tumbleweed, his pomade would make Trolls feel like their hair was given a big hug. Gust eventually invites him to TrollsTopia to hand out hair products to Trolls.
Toys Only[]
These Trolls appear only as "toy" Trolls, and were part of the 2016-2018 marketing. They didn't appear in any media. There are actually far more Trolls than DreamWorks has noted in the toy Troll range, but most don't have their names known. Many also appear in Trolls: Crazy Party Forest!; outside of this app, they mostly appeared in the Hasbro Small Figurines blind bag range.
They're acknowledged by DreamWorks but not in their entirety due to their nature, and have never been used in any DreamWorks official media, leaving their only media appearances to be as toys or by third-party license holders.
Books[]
Generally, books are considered non-canon to the storyline, but nonetheless a number of Trolls have appeared with connections to existing Trolls storylines. These characters are usually completely ignored by DreamWorks themselves, since they're made by third parties with exceptions.
- Rhyme Dewdrop - appeared in Let's Dance. He is a relative of Moxie Dewdrop. Due to missing information, it's unknown how the two are related. Rhyme Dewdrop was meant to have a bigger role in the series, he has a curently abandoned trademark in his name from DreamWorks for toys, games and playthings and DreamWorks originally seemed to have planned to do more with his character.
- Tandy Stardust - mother of Mandy Sparkledust, only mentioned in Mandy's Trolls bio.
- Candy Stardust - grandmother of Mandy Sparkledust, only mentioned in Mandy's Trolls bio.
- Herman - seen in Biggie and the Disastrous Dance. A hermit who loves Sweetbug Sticky Sap, he lives in a cave at the edge of Troll Village. He's an old Troll who doesn't like hugs and hides whenever another Troll comes by. He doesn't trust the Bergens even though the Trolls befriended them. He's the only one who knew "The Dancemaster's Song", a song where Trolls can sing to make them dance anything, but it only works while being sung. He doesn't get scared easily, but when he does, his memory tends to remember things.
- Sierra - appears in Branch's Bunker Birthday. No other information was given on her and in the story she was a unnamed customer having her hair worked upon at Maddy's saloon by Maddy herself when Branch entered the Saloon.
- Rooty - a child Troll from Guy Diamond and the Rainbow Roundup.
- Leif - a particularly smart child Troll from Guy Diamond and the Rainbow Roundup who tends to overexplain everything and is far more intelligent than his peers.
- Twiggie - a Troll from Guy Diamond and the Rainbow Roundup.
- Jody - a Troll from Guy Diamond and the Rainbow Roundup.
- Poem - appeared in several late Trolls era merchandise, appearing in Trolls Pop and in the background of Let's Dance. Her description from the app is "Encourages her friends to treat each day like their making new music; that no matter how the beat goes - they make their own music."
- Bilbur - featured in Trolls magazines. Note: Due to limited information, little is known about this Troll.
- Queen Pippi - Peppy's mother and Poppy's grandmother as well as the daughter of King Loppy. She's another character who appears in the Trolls Graphic Novels on a painting. Queen Pippi was the ruler before King Pappy, she was succeeded by him.
- King Pappy - the grandfather of King Peppy and the great-grandfather of Queen Poppy, as well as the grandfather of King Peppy. He appears in the Trolls Graphic Novels on a painting. He was the previous King before Queen Pippi and was succeeded by his daughter.
- King Loppy - also appears on a painting in the Trolls Graphic Novels. He's the great-grandfather of Peppy and great-great grandfather of Poppy, and thus is the oldest known relative of Peppy and Poppy ever featured in the franchise. He is the oldest named monarch in any media and was the ruler before his son Pappy to become King Pappy.
Trolls: Crazy Party Forest![]
See Trolls: Crazy Party Forest!/Characters.
A number of Pop Trolls appear in this app. Some of these made their way into other media due to their images being available for use.
BroZone Website Musicians[]
For Trolls Band Together, a website for the group BroZone was created.[2] Each band member had a list of music they like. The following references to Pop Troll singers and bands were noted. All names and songs were Troll-based puns and references to real music, singers and bands. Who these Trolls are remains a mystery, as their only known by their singer or bands name and the song they had listed alongside them.
Singers
- Britney Sparkles - This was one of Branch's "Jams" and he choose her song "Hug Me Baby One More Time". This was a reference to the song ...Baby One More Time by Britney Spears.
- Justin Timber and Lakes - a pun on Justin Timberlake, who is Branch's voice actor. These singers had a hit "Jam" John Dory liked called "Trollin’ Up My Heart". This is a reference to the song Tearin' Up My Heart.
- Alanis Forrestette - a pun between "Forest" and Alanis Morissette. Floyd's listed favorite "Jam", "You Oughta Grow", is based upon the song You Oughta Know.
- ChristTrolla Huguilera - a pun between "Troll" and Christina Aguilera. Clay listed the song "What A Troll Wants" based upon What a Girl Wants as one of his "Jams".
Bands
- The Goo Goo Trolls - a pun between "Trolls" and Goo Goo Dolls. The song that Branch listed by them as his "Jam" was "baby Days", which was a reference to Better Days.
- Spice Trolls - a reference to the Spice Girls' hit song Wannabe, they sung one of John Dory's "Jams" "WannaTree".
- Trolls II Men - a pun between "Trolls" and Boyz II Men. One of Spruce's favorite "Jams", their only known song is "On Bended Tree" which is a play on On Bended Knee.
- New Trolls on the Block - a pun between "Trolls" New Kids on the Block. It was one of Spruce's bands that he listed with their song "You Got it, Bright Stuff" being his "Jam", this is a reference to the song You Got It (The Right Stuff).
- Bergen Park - a pun between "Bergen" Linkin Park. Floyd listed this band alongside the song "In the Bend" as one of his favorite "Jams", the songs title is based upon In the End.
- S Clay - a pun between "Clay" and S Club 7. One of Clay's favorite "Jams" by them, (Troll)s Club Party is based on the song S Club Party.
Trivia[]
- It was revealed in Trolls World Tour that the Pop Trolls are the Tribe of Trolls who appeared in the first film.
- Poppy's name itself, which comes from the color "poppy pink", is a play on "Pop".
- The only non-Pop Troll to appear in Trolls was Cooper, who has a Funk Troll heritage.
- Guy Diamond giving birth to Tiny Diamond in Trolls World Tour indicates the Pop Trolls are oviparous like all Trolls likely are. In the case of any other Troll seen hatching, they came from their mother's hair.
- The Pop Trolls use a hand gesture that means "good luck". However, this gesture can be offensive in certain countries.
- The gesture is likely a reference to the fact the Trolls were based on the original Good Luck Trolls design overall.
- Pop Trolls in particular find a Troll's True Colors very attractive and gray colors unattractive. Branch's True Colors in various media that have mentioned them are said to be simply beautiful to other Trolls. Stories like Satin & Chenille and the Fashion Show Disaster mention the twins' desire to bring out their friend's True Colors by making him happy using fashion. They're distraught when they make Branch mad instead and this was the reason they choose him as a model in the first place.
- In Trolls World Tour: The Junior Novelization, when Branch was captured by the K-Pop Trolls, he had an issue deciphering how they weren't "Pop Trolls", but the K-Pop Trolls maintained that they're not the same.
- It is unknown how large the population was in the past, but several hints about Trollstice indicates the Pop Trolls had previously suffered a great loss due to the Bergens. For instance, if Cookin' With Trolls has accurate recipes then Chef herself would have sacrificed many Trolls to complete the book, plus the holiday had been taking place long enough for the Bergens to build a town around the Troll Tree.
- The original plot of Trolls World Tour showed Queen Barb as being jealous of Pop for its dominence. Indeed this seems true in the Trolls World - Vacaytioners, Mount Rageons and Bergens all enjoy Pop music of some form.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-features/trolls-world-tour-music-criticism-990498/
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://www.brozoneband.com/
- ↑ "The Art of DreamWorks Trolls", ISBN no.;9781785653025
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ This member was named in Trolls: The Junior Novelization.
- ↑ This member was named in Uncle Ron Jr.'s bio from the Trolls: Crazy Party Forest! app.
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- †: retired lore