Fall of the Gnomes: a review of Trollhunters, A Rise of the Titans

Trollhunters, A Rise of the Titans

Directed by Johane Matte, Francisco Ruiz Velasco, Andrew Schmidt

Written by Guillermo del Toro, Marc Guggenheim, Dan Hageman, Kevin Hageman

Based on Tales of Arcadia by Guillermo del Toro and Daniel Kraus

Produced by Marc Guggenheim, Dan Hageman, Kevin Hageman

Starring Emile Hirsch, Lexi Medrano, Charlie Saxton, Kelsey Grammer, Fred Tatasciore, Tatiana Maslany, Diego Luna, Nick Offerman, Colin O’Donoghue, Alfred Molina, Steven Yeun, Cole Sand

There’s a lot to like about Rise of the Titans. Guillermo del Toro has created a sophisticated and intriguing world, easily the equal of Avatar, and peopled it with beguiling and arresting characters. The animation and art are as good as it gets, and there’s no shortage of action and adventure.

The movie tries, and to a certain extent succeeds in wrapping up the diverse and complicated story lines that evolved over 49 episodes over the three series of Tales of Arcadia, 3Below, and Wizards. Because it’s only 104 minutes, a lot of former central characters get cameos in this and little else. Vendel, the chief of Trollmarket, appears as a younger character in Wizards and in Titans. I would have liked to have seen more of his backstory, and more development with ARGGGHHHH. (Hm. For some reason that didn’t give my spellchecker fits.)

The baddies are a satisfying trio of demigods, one of whom develops a conscience and wonders if restoring the Earth really necessitates the end of humanity. Like most of del Toro’s characters, the trio are surprisingly nuanced. The trinity, while contemptuous of humanity, honestly believe they are doing good.

One irritant that became flat-out annoying was the role of Steve Palchuk (Steven Yeun). He was the conceited school bully in Tales of Arcadia who got his comeuppance and then became the series butt monkey over the course of 3Below. Far too much time is wasted on him boasting, cowering, and having various terrible things done to his delicate psyche, culminating in his girlfriend getting him pregnant with septuplets. This wasted nearly a fifth of the runtime of the movie and added exactly nothing.

But the movie has to be classed as an interesting failure. Since I try to avoid spoilers and it’s impossible to discuss the ending without ruining it for people who like to be surprised, my problem with the film is in white text and can be viewed by dragging the mouse to highlight it.

Several of the central characters die in this episode, including Strickland, Nomura, Merlin, Nari, and Toby. It could have been an extraordinary finale, but someone at Dreamworks, or perhaps del Toro himself, decided that was too graphic for the younger members of the audience. So they played a variant on the “…and then he woke up” copout, sending Jim back to the moment of the first episode of the series, waking to his alarm. He, and he alone remembers what happened over the subsequent years (and del Toro subtly aged his human characters over the series, making the 15 year-old Jim a bit jarring). Jim remembers how he came to become the Trollhunter, and decides he doesn’t want any of it. So he sends Toby to find the amulet and be the new Trollhunter while he goes to hit on Claire. It’s a ruinously bad ending to a great series. It feels tacked on and a copout, like the endings for AI or Grimm. It doesn’t work on any level.

Kids will probably watch the movie with uncritical glee, and overall the series remains a stellar accomplishment. And while flawed, Rise of the Titans is a remarkable accomplishment.

Now on Netflix.