Do any of you millennials want *NSYNC back?!?
Well look no further and let *NSYNC take you to a better place with their first new song in 20 years, “Better Place”, which was just released September 29 and is to be a featured in the third installment of Dreamworks Animation’s “Trolls” franchise, Trolls Band Together, which stars the band’s lead vocalist, Justin Timberlake and costars Anna Kendrick as Poppy, the polar opposite and friend to lover, Branch.
Timberlake also served as the executive music producer for both prior films, Trolls and Trolls World Tour, writing and singing popular, upbeat fan-favorite radio songs, “Can’t Stop the Feeling,” and “The Other Side” (with singer-songwriter SZA), and he co-wrote “Better Place”.
Just as Branch reunites with his troll brothers, Timberlake reunites with his bandmates, JC Chaves, Lance Bass, Joey Fatone, and Chris Kirkpatrick in Trolls Band Together in which we discover more about Timberlake’s character, Branch’s past
As it turns out, he has four long-lost older brothers: John Dory, Spruce, Clay, and Floyd (four of them played by Eric André, Daveed Diggs, Kid Cudi, and Troye Sivan), and together they formed the boyband, Brozone, a band that Branch was in when he was just a toddler.
Unfortunately, like real life boybands, they had their disagreements, so they all went solo. Baby Branch looks sadly as his brothers walk out of his life, but Floyd, the sensitive one (boyband persona) explains: “Branch, we're ‘outta sync’; we've gone from ‘boys to men’, and now there's only ‘one direction’ for us to go: the ‘backstreets.’” Clever.
Before leaving, Floyd passes down his now-iconic vest to Branch (and the best brother of the year award goes to . . . Floyd and not the other brothers).
Now 24 and up years later, Branch still misses his brothers, but puts his dark past behind him and joins the present as he enters a relationship with Poppy. He joins her and the rest of the trolls (even ones from the previous movies) as they celebrate their good friends, the Bergens’, Bridget’s and King Gristle’s royal wedding (Zooey Deschanel and Christopher Mintz-Plasse reprising their roles from the first movie).
All goes smoothly until an unexpected and uninvited guest crashes the wedding—none other than Branch’s oldest brother, John Dory, who Branch hasn’t seen since the band broke up. John Dory needs Branch’s help to reunite the band to save their brother Floyd, who’s been kidnapped for his musical talent by Betty Boop looking pop-star villains Velvet and Veneer (Amy Schumer and Andrew Rannells). Floyd is trapped in a diamond perfume bottle prison that can only be shattered by the perfect family harmony.
Even though Branch feels some reluctance and hurt from the years of abandonment, with some positive emotional support from Poppy, he knows that he must save his brother.
Poppy and Branch joined by the iridescent young show-stopping Tiny Diamond (Kenan Thompson reprising his role from Trolls World Tour) band together with the band on another whimsical, song-filled adventure to create the perfect family harmony.
Along the way, Poppy finds her own family harmony when she discovers that she has a long-lost sister, Viva (the glamorous, stunning, and ever-so talented Camila Cabello) who is described as “being more like Poppy than Poppy.”
Speaking of banding together, let’s talk even more about NSYNC with no strings attached as they release their new song, “Better Place”, which was announced September 14 on NSYNC Instagram.
“If we do this song, it’s a love letter to our fans; I will be honored to have the group on this song” Timberlake said in the Instagram video.
NSYNC also got together at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards September 12 to present the Best Pop award to a star-struck Taylor Swift who literally had dolls of them growing up as any millennial NSYNC fan would.
Trolls Band Together will be in the theaters November 17.