Trollhunters

Trollhunters
Promotional poster
Genre	Adventure Action Fantasy
Created by	Guillermo del Toro
Based on	Trollhunters by Guillermo del Toro Daniel Kraus
Written by	Guillermo del Toro Marc Guggenheim Kevin Hageman Dan Hageman Aaron Waltke Chad Quandt A.C. Bradley
Voices of	Anton Yelchin Kelsey Grammer Ron Perlman Charlie Saxton Steven Yeun Jonathan Hyde Lexi Medrano Amy Landecker Fred Tatasciore
Theme music composer	Alexandre Desplat
Composer(s)	Tim Davies
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	26 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Rodrigo Blaas[1] Guillermo del Toro Marc Guggenheim Kevin Hageman Dan Hageman Christina Steinberg
Producer(s)	Chad Hammes
Production company(s)	DreamWorks Animation Double Dare You
Distributor	Netflix NBCUniversal Television Distribution
Release
Original network	Netflix
Original release	December 23, 2016 – present
External links
Website	www.dreamworkstv.com/shows/dreamworks-trollhunters/

Trollhunters is an American computer-animated fantasy television series created for Netflix by Guillermo del Toro and produced by DreamWorks Animation and Double Dare You.^[2]

The first two episodes of the series premiered on October 8, 2016, at the New York Comic Con.^[1][3] It was released worldwide on Netflix on December 23, 2016.^[4] The series was nominated for nine Daytime Emmy Awards in 2017, winning six including Outstanding Directing, Writing and Casting in an Animated Program. It was also nominated for four Annie Awards in 2017, winning three in the categories of Outstanding Achievement in Character Animation, Character Design, and Storyboarding in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production. On February 9, 2017, Netflix renewed the series for a second season of thirteen episodes, which is set to be released later in 2017.^[5] It will be adapted into a comic book by Marc Guggenheim and Richard Hamilton.^[6]

Synopsis

Beneath the fictional town of Arcadia lives a secret civilization of trolls, which humans are oblivious to. The trolls' common enemy are the Gumm-Gumms, evil trolls from the Darklands, whom the trolls' chosen warrior, known as the "Trollhunter", is supposed to protect them from, among other dark miscreants.

Fifteen year-old James "Jim" Lake Jr and his friend Toby find a mystical amulet which grants him the Trollhunter mantle. He is shortly approached by his new troll mentors, Blinky and AAARRRGGHH!!!. Despite his initial reluctance of leading two difficult lives, he eventually accepts his role after discovering that neglecting the amulet will nevertheless lead to its return. During his visits to Heartstone Trollmarket, the presence of the first human Trollhunter stirs resentment, but he quickly gains their honor. Throughout his training and missions, he befriends a gnome (which Toby dubs "Gnome Chomsky") and discovers that goblins and Changelings (human-morphing trolls that replace humans to spy) are gathering for the completion of Killahead Bridge, which will be a portal for the Gumm-Gumms from the Darklands – the project is being lead by Bular, the son of the Gumm-Gumm's leader Gunmar, and the Changeling replacing Jim's high school teacher Mr. Strickler.

While discovering more mysteries, he is forced to reveal the truth about his life to Claire Nuñez when she becomes a target of the goblins. After he, Toby, Blinky, AAARRRGGHH!!! and Draal infiltrate the gathering and destroy the bridge, Jim is forced to battle Bular and eventually kills him. He returns to Trollmarket, where the citizens celebrate Bular's defeat.

Shortly afterwards, Claire proposes a quest into the Darklands to rescue her baby brother Enrique, who has been replaced with a Changeling who they dub NotEnrique. Blinky informs them that the only way out of the Darklands is to kill Gunmar – the only way to destroy him is with the three Triumbic Stones. After finding the first two, their enemy Strickler frees ancient troll assassin Angor Rot from his bonds – using Angor's ring, he forces him under his control. After Jim indirectly causes his ring to break, Angor goes on a rampage, attempting to kill Strickler and Jim – in the process, Strickler and Jim's mother are injured. Trollmarket's leader, Vendel, informs Jim that the only way to cure it is to break the binding spell that ties his mother's and Strickler's fates together – however, his mother's memories of the troll world are erased. Strickler hands Jim the last Triumbic Stone.

Angor Rot begins to invade Trollmarket after stealing the key from Toby and Claire. They defeat him. During his rampage, however, AAARRRGGHH!!! is killed, much to the grief of the group, especially Toby. Thinking that he was responsible for the death and the endangerment of his friends, Jim sets off to the Darklands alone, not wanting to lose any more of them.

Cast

• Anton Yelchin (season 1) as James "Jim" Lake Jr./Trollhunter,^[1][2] the first human Trollhunter and a reluctant hero under pressure of leading two difficult lives. He has a talent for cooking and sword-fighting, and cares deeply for his mother and friends.
• Charlie Saxton as Tobias "Toby" Domzalski,^[7] Jim's best friend and brother figure who aids him in his quests. He obtains a magical warhammer.
• Jonathan Hyde as Walt Strickler,^[7] Jim's teacher (truly a Changeling), who works alongside the Gumm-Gumms.
• Kelsey Grammer as Blinky,^[2] Jim's troll mentor whose head holds six eyes. Jim sees him as his surrogate father. A wise and scholarly troll with a heart of gold, Blinky is fascinated by the human world and takes full advantage of a period in which he is cursed into the form of a human to satisfy his curiosity. His secret desire has always been to drive a car.
• Fred Tatasciore as AAARRRGGHH!!!,^[7] Jim's ally who has a deep bond with Toby. He was born a Krubera troll but joined the Gumm-Gumm army – after his traumatizing experience there, he became a self-proclaimed pacifist and remains guilty about his past. Despite his peaceful demeanor, he will fight with all his considerable strength to protect those he cares about.
• Lexi Medrano as Claire Nuñez,^[7] Jim's friend and love interest. She is a feisty, kind, jolly, sarcastic, curious, and intelligent tomboy who enjoys books and is a talented martial artist and gymnast. She obtains the Shadowstaff, a staff capable of creating portals through the user's emotions.
• Victor Raider-Wexler as Vendel, leader of Trollmarket. An ancient and wizened troll, Vendel is at first suspicious of Jim and seems a forever pessimist, but shows a softer side.
• Ron Perlman as Bular,^[2] the son of Gunmar. A hulking, powerful troll warrior, Bular was obsessed with freeing his father from the Darklands, so that they might be a family again.
• Amy Landecker as Barbara Lake,^[7] Jim's overprotective and suspicious mother. Her husband left her when Jim was five years old.
• Steven Yeun as Steve Palchuk,^[1] Jim's narcissistic bully.
• Matthew Waterson as Draal, the son of previous Trollhunter Kanjigar. He is originally jealous and suspicious of Jim but later befriends him – he acts as Jim's fighting tutor. During the final battle with Bular, Draal sacrificed his lower right arm to save the Trollhunter amulet, and later attained a mechanical prosthetic. Draal explains that his father kept a distance from him as he grew up, and he had hoped to become the next Trollhunter that he might earn his father's approval.
• Lauren Tom as Ms. Nomura, the changeling museum curator.
• Jimmie Wood as NotEnrique, the Changeling replacing Enrique. He has a rocky but brotherly relationship with Claire.
• Clancy Brown as Gunmar, the iron-fisted leader of the Gumm-Gumms who resides in the Darklands.
• Tom Hiddleston & James Purefoy as Kanjigar the Courageous, the noble Trollhunter before Jim and Drall's father. His ghost tutors Jim and often worries of his team fighting, believing that to endanger his friends – this leads to Jim's guilt and venturing into the Darklands alone.
• Ike Amadi as Angor Rot, a mysterious ancient troll assassin and wizard with an unknown past who hunts down Trollhunters' souls. In ancient times, Angor made a deal with the witch Baba Yaga, surrendering his own soul in return for his mystic powers.
• Rodrigo Blaas as Gnome Chompsky, a Gnome with sharp teeth adopted by Toby.

Production

Initially, del Toro envisioned the idea as a live action television series; however this was deemed impractical due to budgetary concerns, and as a result he instead turned the idea into a book. DreamWorks then planned to turn the book into an animated feature film, but eventually decided to instead turn it into a series.^[8]

Del Toro modeled the show's sensibilities after shows he grew up with such as Johnny Quest, identifying them as "really earnest and emotionally beautiful".^[9] To this end, he sought to make the main character of Jim "in that '70s mold," and "really a very good boy" with del Toro noting that this was a constant struggle for him to express to both writers and actors.^[10] Eventually he came across Anton Yelchin, who embodied those qualities although by del Toro's estimate it still took him a few sessions to fully understand the character.^[10]

When creating the show's narrative, del Toro noted that he wanted a "bittersweet journey" for the main character dealing with issues that most such "power fantasies" failed to address, telling indiewire "I wanted to say, 'Look, you can be in high school and you can have your problems. Then you get all these powers and then you have a different set of problems. There is not such a thing as a final, great outcome.'"^[9]

The show serves as one of Yelchin's final projects as he died shortly after recording most of his character's dialogue.^[11] Producer del Toro refused to replace his recordings,^[12] which del Toro noted was a challenge for the show's recording engineers.^[10] Of his decision del Toro stated that the actor "was proud of what he did, and we were so proud of how he did it." adding that his experience as a father and Yelchin's young age were also factors that led to the decision.^[8]

Episodes

Reception

Critical reception

Trollhunters has received acclaim from critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 93% approval rating with an average rating of 7.81/10 based on 15 reviews for the first season. The website's consensus reads, "Trollhunters manages to capture del Toro's enthusiasm for telling monster stories, in a youthful and more colorful fashion that may well earn him a new generation of fans."^[13] On Metacritic, the season has a normalized score of 69 out of 100 based on 7 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[14]

In 2017, it received six Daytime Emmys, more than any other television program, animated or live action, that year.^[15]

On January 30, 2017, Trollhunters writers Kevin & Dan Hageman stated that it is the most successful Netflix original show to date that is targeted at a younger audience.^[16]

Accolades

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Trollhunters panel at WonderCon 2017.

• Official website at DreamWorks TV
• Official website at Netflix
• Trollhunters on IMDb