The Correct Order To Watch The Trolls Movies

Like the hair of a Chia pet Troll doll, the "Trolls" franchise seems to never stop growing. The glittery DreamWorks reimagining of Thomas Dam's ugly-cute collectibles kicked off in 2016 with the music-filled animated adventure movie "Trolls." Since then, the movie has spawned two sequels, two holiday specials, two TV shows, a series of short films, and countless toys and tie-ins. It's also picked up an Oscar nomination (for Justin Timberlake's song "Can't Stop the Feeling!") and a cool $600 million at the box office (per Box Office Mojo) despite one of its three installments debuting during pandemic lockdown.

The "Trolls" movies are successful, but they aren't exactly the most coherent kids' movie franchise around. If you're anything like me, you've likely caught bits and pieces of several movies, potentially out of order, when the little ones in your life decided to watch (and rewatch ... and rewatch) them. The series adds in a surprising amount of lore between its fairly basic first installment and its strange and surreal second sequel and some of it is shoehorned into shorts and spinoffs. If you want to watch the "Trolls" movies in order, that's simple, but if you or your child chooses to take the scenic route, enjoying all the optional add-ons, you might need a quick guide.

Whether or not you're a "Trolls" completionist, you should start your watch-through with 2016's "Trolls." This is the movie that introduces characters like Anna Kendrick's chipper Princess Poppy and Timberlake's paranoid Branch, along with Troll-eating Bergens (who eventually change their diets) like Zooey Deschanel's Bridget and Christopher Mintz-Plasse's Gristle. If you only want to watch the essential "Trolls" movies and plan to skip the myriad shorts and shows associated with the franchise, pull a Choose Your Own Adventure and skip to the slide below now.

For everyone else who's in it for the long haul, this is where you'll want to seek out the "Trolls" short films. "Travel Through Troll Village," "Dress Up," "Together," and "Trolla-Palooza Tour" are all brief shorts featuring characters like Cloud Guy (Walt Dohrne) and Satine and Chenile (Icona Pop). These shorts are all pretty superfluous to the franchise's plot, but they're a good way to introduce future movie buffs to the idea of short films. All of these are available on YouTube via the Peacock Kids channel.

Next up comes the holiday special "Trolls Holiday," followed by the Netflix TV show "Trolls: The Beat Goes On!" This series has a different voice cast and animation style and doesn't really have anything to do with the movies, but if someone in your life is itching for more "Trolls," it is an impressive 8 seasons long. After or during that watch, return to the main timeline for the second feature film, "Trolls World Tour," which is followed by the short "Tiny Diamond Goes Back To School," a second TV series, "TrollsTopia," and a second holiday special, "Trolls: Holiday in Harmony." Finally, wrap everything up with last year's "Trolls Band Together" and its accompanying short film, "It Takes Three."

If you don't have time to track down "Trolls" shorts and shows, you can also plan a streamlined triple feature of all three full-length "Trolls" movies to date. Start with 2016's "Trolls," then follow it up with "Trolls World Tour," the sequel that mostly fell between the pop cultural cracks (though it's remembered for pioneering the simultaneous release model) thanks to its April 2020 release. "Trolls World Tour" adds a rock and roll edge to this musical universe, with new cast members like Rachel Bloom, Mary J. Blige, and Kelly Clarkson.

After "Trolls World Tour," round out the marathon with "Trolls Band Together," the 2023 release that saw Branch reveal his secret boy band past when the members of BroZone (a boy band that the film's last-minute cameo confusingly reveals was modeled after NSYNC but was not the Trolls world version of NSYNC) start getting kidnapped and robbed of their troll essence. "Trolls World Tour" features the most galaxy-brained cast list yet, including Kid Cudi, Troye Sivan, Daveed Diggs, Camila Cabello, RuPaul, Andrew Rannells, and more.

These are the only 3 DreamWorks "Trolls" movies to date so far, but given that Timberlake joked to Apple Music in 2020 about wanting to make seven more, we wouldn't be surprised if Poppy and Branch return for another adventure soon. In the meantime, "Trolls," "Trolls Holiday," and "Trolls: The Beat Goes On" are currently on Netflix, while "TrollsTopia" and "Trolls Band Together" are on Peacock (the former is also on Hulu). The series' middle installment, "Trolls World Tour," is only available to rent online, as is "Trolls: Holiday in Harmony." The first four "Trolls" shorts are available free on YouTube," while the two most recent appear as special features on the second and third film's home media releases.