Watch the Past: Trolls Review

Watch the Past: Trolls

 Everyday movie studios try to hit you with a sense of nostalgia while trying to bring in a younger audience. From Barbie to G.I Joe even the Care Bears, they have all had movies and cartoons some successes and failures but in the end, there was profit. So what franchise would be hit next, well didn't take long to figure out with the Trolls singing and dancing they're way to the spotlight. Would they shine or fade away like countless others?

The Trolls Grand Escape

 The Trolls were originally made in 1959 by Danish woodcutter Thomas Dam. Poor around Christmas time and with a daughter, he didn't want to disappoint her so he carved a doll out of his imagination and it was the original troll. Soon other children in the town wanted their own troll and so Thomas Dam's company Dam Things started to produce plastic dolls under the name Good Luck Trolls. The dolls became popular in European countries and became a smash hit in the United States lasting from 1963 to 1965. soon after the toys lost their popularity in the United States but stayed popular in Europe. As an attempt to become popular in the United States they changed up the name to Norfin Trolls, with an 'Adopt A Norfin Troll' logo on the tags. They were not content to just sell trolls to young girls they wanted to market to young boys. 

So they made Troll action figure lines such as the stone protectors, The Original Battle Trolls, They also had deals with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which had personalized trolls and Mighty Max which made their own troll line called hairy heads. Soon after the Trolls were inducted to the Century of Toys list, a list of the top 100 memorable and creative toys of the 20th century. Trolls have had their highs and their lows but in the end, the brand was here to stay touching little girls and boys hearts. It had become a multi-platform brand having games, radio shows, and tv shows. There was only one place to go, up the silver screen.

Trolls Review

Trolls is a colorful adventure movie inspired by the original troll dolls made in 1959. It centers on the trolls, specifically troll princess Peppy Popper and Branch who has a paranoid and grumpy outlook which we find out is because he lost someone. They go out to rescue their friends from the Bergen's who like to eat trolls. Their journey is hard and they face many obstacles, they learn to never give up, to believe in them self and each other and most importantly they learn to be truly happy. As the movie goes on you learn more about the Bergen's and why they eat Trolls, you get to learn more about King Gristle and how he finds true happiness in this bleak land.

The movie has some scary elements mostly when there being chased by the Bergen's but the movies light and positive message shines through. The movie tries to teach one central message and that is to look into yourself and find out what makes you happy and to never change for someone else if they can't accept you then that is their lost. This movie surprised me originally I had thought it was just another cash grab, but as I watched on I felt the warm and happy feeling the Trolls inspire. I recommend watching the movie at least once. See if it appeals to you, plus I think kids will love this movie.

Gaming Culture In America

American Gaming Culture 

Video games have taken over the world From Japan to America. It's considered to be one of the largest entertainment industries in America. Passing Hollywood the question isn't who's playing games, it's who's getting involved, it's how are they playing games and what games are the most interesting to American culture. Over 67% percent of households in America alone has a console and with 65% percent of them having someone who plays at least an hour of games. Over 155-160 million people play games in America. The overall value estimate of the video game industry in America is over 30.4 billion dollars that's including hardware, accessories, VR, and games. As you can see gaming is huge in America and there are multiple ways to experience gaming.

Mobile: has dominated the gaming market from Candy Crush to Clash of Clans, and some console games have gone mobile like Pokemon Go and Mario Run which has helped to spread the mobile game market, The benefits of mobile gaming you can play whenever on the bus, on the train, and during work. With most games being free or under 10$ Consumers can download a game and delete the game without feeling like they lost out. Mobile gaming makes most of their money from in-game purchases such as more lives, faster time management, and character skins. according to statistics about 35- 40 percent of Americans play on their smartphones or tablets.














PC gaming: has been around from the start of the gaming industry, having text-based games to full-on RPGs before any other platform, has made it a dominant market since the 80s. Hosting game like league of legends, Team Fortress 2 and Counterstrike its cornered the Esports market creating a brand new way to experience gaming. Almost 97% of American households own a personal computer making the pc gaming market the highest available platform to consumers.

















Esports and Gaming Content Creators: have taken over traditional media, times have changed where people prefer to watch their favorite Gaming Channels and Esports team than a new show or sports team. There have been times when more people tune into Esports Championships than traditional sports finals. Gaming channels have so much content being released with a rapid-fire audience watching their content daily. Now you can probably walk down the street and ask someone who is your favorite gaming channel, almost half the time they will give you a channel name either from youtube or twitch.

Virtual Reality: has not seen success in the PC or mobile market but it is growing in popularity because of game developers putting over large games like Doom, Resident Evil, Fallout and much more. They're a haven for indie developers who want to make a game since they support developers looking to make games for the virtual reality headsets. Several American companies have created their own headsets like Google, Facebook, Steam and several other smaller companies and they're leading the virtual console race but for now, it's still nowhere near PC or mobile markets.

Console Gaming: this is where America first really started getting into the gaming industry, sure there was arcades and the ping pong machine but it didn't really reach the audience it could get. No, it didn't reach the mass audience until Atari came along and showed the world you could play at home you no longer had to leave the safety of your home. Then there was the video game crash where no one wanted to buy a home console because of the flood of poorly designed games. Nintendo came along and fixed that, people wanted to buy a console again they were reaching the kids and their parents who grew up with Atari. Company's like Sega, Nintendo, Atari, Sony, and Microsoft lead the home consoles to greatness and they still are just in their own ways. Sega and Atari are still around but are mostly third-party company's now no longer producing consoles, they are producing games still, Sony is leading the home console market with the ps4 having over 50 million units sold worldwide, while Nintendo has taken the hybrid route where they combine the home console with the mobile console, something innovative and fresh you can play at home and on the go. Microsoft is focusing on the power and tech of their console with their announcement of the Xbox one x, the most powerful console to date.














Games are bringing us together: through the years the gaming community has grown and welcomed new people to the world of gaming. May it be from gaming with friends and family to watching Esports cheering gamers on and watching our favorite video content creators, to talking to people in forums we have grown attached to others in the gaming world and really I think that's beautiful. In America, we have one of the highest populations to grow up on gaming and to keep playing games we have adopted this art form and we don't plan to let it go.

All statistics were pulled from Entertainment Software Association here's a link to learn more about their data and research http://essentialfacts.theesa.com/mobile/)