Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans

Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans
Official release poster
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
Edited by	John Laus
Music by	Jeff Danna
Production companies	DreamWorks Animation Television Double Dare You Productions 88 Pictures CGCG, Inc. Original Force
Distributed by	NBCUniversal Television Distribution Netflix
Release date	July 21, 2021 (2021-07-21)
Running time	106 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans is a 2021 American computer-animated science fantasy film directed by Johane Matte, Francisco Ruiz Velasco, and Andrew Schmidt, and written by Marc Guggenheim and Dan and Kevin Hageman (who also produced the film).

The film is the finale of the Tales of Arcadia franchise by Guillermo del Toro, which features the television series Trollhunters, 3Below and Wizards.

Following a year after the events of Wizards, the Guardians of Arcadia reunite for the final time as they battle the nefarious Arcane Order, who have reawakened the primordial Titans.

It was released on Netflix on July 21, 2021, and it received generally positive reviews from critics.

Plot[]

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Master wizard Douxie Casperan and former Arcane Order member Nari are ambushed by the arrival of the Order in a moving subway train, while former Trollhunter Jim Lake Jr. & his girlfriend Claire Nunez accompany the two. Jim is wounded in a battle against Bellroc, the leader of the Order. Toby Domzaski, Jim’s best friend, accidentally snaps the train’s brakes, causing the train to be unable to stop, and complicating a plan to use 'trifurcate radiation' to render the wizards powerless. When the train is about to go off-track, Douxie conjures magical train tracks, after the radiation beam is broken. In a last ditch effort, Douxie switches bodies with Nari, leaving her in his body, with the Order unaware about Douxie’s spell. Nonetheless, the order flees with Douxie (in Nari’s body).

In a newly rebuilt Camelot, Jim recovers from his wounds, and his mother, Barbara reveals her engagement with Jim’s former principal, Strickler. Aja Tarron (the queen of the planet Akiridion-5) and Eli Pepperjack (the earth ambassador) arrive in Camelot and reunite with Steve Palchuck, Aja’s lover and Krel, Aja’s brother. Steve kisses Aja for the seventh time which, Aja reveals makes him pregnant. Blinky Galadrigal (Jim’s mentor and surrogate father) discusses about the Arcane Order’s plan of reawakening the Titans. The Order will control the beings to come to the center of the universe (which is the heroes’ hometown, Arcadia Oaks) and unite with a Heartstone (though the titans uniting with a Heartstone isn’t revealed until later on), thus the earth will be reborn back to the age of it’s first creation, where this time, humanity will cease to exist. Elsewhere, the Order discovers Douxie’s spell and reverts the two back to their normal bodies, but not before Nari alerts Jim "Trollhunter make the ninth configuration, Krohnisfere will make right". The heroes enter the Round Table and discover that the Arcane Order is already preparing a ritual to break the Genesis Seals. The heroes fail to destroy the seals, and the ritual is completed, thus the Titans, each controlled by a different member of the order, have been awakened.

The heroes split up. Claire leads a team (consisting of Blinky, Douxie’s familiar Archie, and Archie’s father Charlemagne) to Hong Kong to acquire the Krohnisfere from a new Trollmarket, where the artifact is at the hands of the leader of the TrollDragons, Zong-Shi; Krel, fellow alien Stuart, Steve, and Eli set off to retrieve Excalibur, while the rest of the heroes try their best effort to defeat the Titans. Both Strickler and his fellow changeling Nomura are killed in battle against the Titans, but Claire’s team manages to acquire the Kronisfere, as a result Zong-Shi being killed. Jim’s team (consisting of Aja and Toby) arrive in Hong Kong after receiving no contact from Claire’s team. Akiridion General Varvatos Vex, inside a gigantic robotic suit of Gun Robot (a character from a fictional movie series in the franchise), arrives and fights off Bellroc's titan from collapsing the bridge and trapping Claire's team. Despite his best attempts, the suit is destroyed by Bellroc’s Titan, though Vex escapes to safety. Claire’s team manages to escape the Trollmarket, but both Archie & Charlemagne stay behind, trapped by the collapsing of the magical entrance.

The heroes reunite and Douxie restores Nari’s freewill. She uses her Titan to kill Skrael in his Titan, killing herself as well. Bellroc’s Titan is still marching to Arcadia Oaks, because Blinky accidentally skipped a page Merlin's grimoire, but the heroes arrive at the town before them. Jim finally realizes that the ninth configuration is meant to represent him and his friends, who place their hands on the stone which holds the sword, enabling Jim to finally pull Excalibur out of the stone. The heroes come face to face with Bellroc, who proves to be too powerful for the heroes to handle. As Jim is left alone to face Bellroc, he comes to accept that the amulet never made him a hero, he already was one. Jim’s newly improved amulet (created with Akiridion technology, from the original blueprints from which Merlin had used when he first built the amulet and the hilt stone from Excalibur) begins to respond to Jim and flies towards him, giving him a magic/Akiridion armor which can empower Excalibur with greater power. Toby, after remembering the anti-magic radiation generator from their first encounter with the Arcane Order, uses it on Bellroc, giving Jim the opportunity to strike Belloc with Excalibur. Jim finds a dying Toby, who has been crushed by debris and is giving his last breath to thank his friends for their times together before succumbing to his wounds, leaving all of the heroes in sorrow.

Realizing that the Krohnisfere is meant for him to travel back in time and prevent any tragic events that happened to him and his friends, Jim decides to use to return to the very beginning before the events. He gives an emotional farewell to his friends and travels in time to the morning where he found the amulet. To prevent his friend’s death, he decides to give the mantle of the Trollhunter to Toby, who finds the amulet under the canals.

Cast[]

Production[]

Development[]

While planning the ending of the Netflix/DreamWorks Animation saga Tales of Arcadia, the producers, wanting it to finish with an Avengers-style crossover,^[1] debated whether to conclude it with additional Wizards episodes or a feature film, and eventually made a film because a cinematic format allowed them to "tell this story on the scope that [they] wanted and have the story be as big as [they] aspired it to be".^[2] Aware that audiences watching the film would not necessarily be familiar with the rest of the saga, a recap prologue was written for the start of the film.^[2] The film was also influenced by Marvel Studios' Avengers films, the filmmakers having taken a similar approach so audiences unfamiliar with the franchise could nevertheless enjoy the film's story.^[1] According to writer Marc Guggenheim, early production on the film happened while the studio was working on Wizards, which he felt gave the producers time to determine how to finish the saga's story.^[2] The writers included references to executive-producer Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim, througth they were careful to not to overload the film with Pacific Rim easter eggs.^[2]

On August 7, 2020, it was revealed that Netflix and DreamWorks Animation were developing the Tales of Arcadia finale film, Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans, with Johane Matte, Francisco Ruiz Velasco, and Andrew Schmidt directing, Guillermo del Toro, Marc Guggenheim and the Dan and Kevin Hageman writing and producing the film, with Chad Hammes and Tales of Arcadia creator Guillermo del Toro executive-producing.^[3][4] Emile Hirsch, Lexi Medrano, Charlie Saxton, Kelsey Grammer, Alfred Molina, Steven Yeun, Nick Frost, Colin O'Donoghue, Diego Luna, Tatiana Maslany, Cole Sand, Nick Offerman, Fred Tatasciore, Brian Blessed, Kay Bess, Piotr Michael, James Hong, Tom Kenny, Angel Lin, Amy Landecker, Jonathan Hyde, Bebe Wood, Laraine Newman, Grey Griffin, and Cheryl Hines were confirmed to be part of the cast of the film.^[3]

Animation[]

The film was produced with a higher production budget than previous entries on the franchise.^[2] The filmmakers choose to start the film with a highway speed chase sequence as a way to showcase the higher budget and animation quality to the audience.^[2]

Music[]

Jeff Danna, who previously composed 3Below and Wizards, and Scott Kirkland composed the score for the film.^[5] Dana and Kirkland composed new themes exclusive to the film, while also including themes from the previous Tales of Arcadia series in the score.^[5]

Release[]

On August 7, 2020, the film was confirmed to be released in 2021.^[3][6] On April 27, 2021, the release date was revealed to be July 21, 2021.^[7][8] The project marked the first DreamWorks Animation film to be released directly on a streaming service.^[2] The movie was released on Netflix on July 21, 2021.^[9]

Reception[]

Den of Geek reviewed Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans, stating that "Though brimming with stakes, Netflix's final movie installment of Guillermo del Toro's Tales of Arcadia rationalizes rather than justifies its conclusion."^[9]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, which categorizes reviews only as positive or negative, 86% of seven reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.90/10.^[10]

References[]

External links[]

• Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans at IMDb
• Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans on Netflix