Put on your crazy, colorful hair and get ready to smile. I recently had the pleasure of interviewing two starring voices of Trolls World Tour: Flula Borg, comedian, Youtube star, and DJ extraordinaire, and Ron Funches, actor, comedian, and game show host. In fact, both of these talents are quadruple threats and more. It wouldn’t surprise me if they are household names before long.
Flula plays the role of the troll Dickory, and Ron voices Cooper. Each of their characters is special in his own way and has an important part to play in the story.
Trolls World Tour: What’s it about?
First, to set the stage, a little more on Trolls World Tour.
In this sequel to the 2016 hit, Princess Poppy (the voice of Anna Kendrick) discovers that there is a whole kingdom of trolls beyond Troll Village, each with its own music. The movie has some surprisingly entertaining and cute moments. I’ll be honest, this was way better than I expected.
In the original Trolls, Poppy uses her relentless optimism and gift for music to transform the dreary world of the trolls enemies, the Bergens. In the sequel Poppy is coming into her own. She is now queen, but she’s finding the job a little lonely. Then she gets an invitation from a fellow sovereign: Queen Barb (the voice of Rachel Bloom), ruler of the rock kingdom. But Barb has bad intentions that don’t bode well for the other kingdoms. This can only be settled with a battle of the bands.
Expect tons of glitter, some very danceable tunes with lots of nineties mashups, and to laugh when you weren’t expecting it.
Interview with Flula Borg: Comic relief comes in all forms, including trolls
Flu is a gifted funny man who thrives on wordplay and spontaneity. Flula is not afraid to be silly and to make himself the butt of a joke. He portrays Dickory, the Yodel Troll in cahoots with Queen Barb to bring down other music kingdoms, enticed by her farfetched promises.
Reel Mama: The world could really use a good laugh right now, so we appreciate all your work and contributions. My question is about your creative approach to your character. I read that you enjoy improvising a lot. And I wondered what did that look like in the context of animation where you’re not getting to work with other actors necessarily, you’re in front of a microphone?
Flula: What what’s really fun about it is there’s no limits. So you can really say anything. You can make any kind of weird, strange moves that may bring a very unexpected sound out of your mouth hole. So in this way, it’s very easy, and [it’s] difficult to make a mistake. Or if you want to try something new, you just say, “Flippity flop,” and they say, “Great, that ‘flippity flop’ makes no sense. Try something else.” And it’s very easy to do. With live action everyone has to move the cameras.
He makes a cranking motion with his hands.
This is still how they work by the way. But with animation, it’s very fun, you can experiment all of the days away. It’s easy and cheap.
Reel Mama: You’re very original, but did you have any influences or inspirations growing up or currently that you might like to share?
Flula: I think everything was very inspiring to me as a child. I would watch bowling for no reason. It’s like television, old World Cup soccer matches, Will Farrell, Glenn Miller, big band music…[everything] has something that can, inside your brain, spark a nice, fun idea. I have a neighbor, and he likes just to blow the leaves very loudly. Every two days for eight minutes. We don’t need it. There are no leaves, but he still blows them every place. I think this will inspire a fun techno song for me. He doesn’t know this, but still it’s inspiring.
Interview with Ron Funches: On being true to yourself
Ron’s entire being expresses positivity. Completely authentic and approachable, he’s a family man humble about his rising success in Hollywood. Appropriately, he plays Cooper, a memorable troll who stands out from the others. In Trolls World Tour, Cooper wants to learn more about who he is and where he comes from.
Reel Mama: The world of trolls seems to really be about love and acceptance, at least Poppy’s world. What is Cooper’s point of view in all of this? He still feels a little bit different. He’s giraffe-like features with dreads, and he’s so adorable. But sometimes he might feel like he doesn’t quite fit in. At least that’s what I took away from the movie. What do you think about his perspective and his journey of finding his tribe?
Ron: Well, I think Cooper feels like a lot of us at certain times in our lives. There are certain age ages where we just don’t quite feel like we fit in, even though they might be our friends. There are people that we love and have been around for a while. Sometimes there’s a little bit of like, “Oh, I don’t know if I fit in here.” I know I’ve felt that way. I grew up in a very small town and I felt a little bit different sometimes.
And I think that’s what Cooper felt like. And it’s just that he knew that he was a little bit different. It’s not like anyone ever made him feel like an outsider. It’s just that he had his own journey to go on, to discover himself and discover his family. And I think a lot of us go through that, whether it’s us moving away or going to college or whatever it may be for us, it’s a journey of self discovery. And I think that’s what Cooper was going on for this movie.
Reel Mama: Do you think Trolls World Tour will change the way movies are released? It’s so different than what Hollywood’s been used to for a long time.
Ron: Yeah, I think, you know, it definitely was a big success, and I think at least there are [going to be] some changes, but I really don’t know. I know I work and hope that they continue to make movies. But I think it was definitely a good case that things can be done at home as well. I also love a theater experience, so we’ll see.
