Trollz is an American animated television series produced by DIC Entertainment. The trolls were based on the troll doll created by Thomas Dam in the 1960s. A single season was produced with a total of 27 episodes. A second season was planned, but was later cancelled.

Premise

The show centers the adventures of five teenaged female trolls (with gems on their belly buttons), who call themselves the Best Friends For Life, who use magic every day to help them with their everyday life as well as battling whatever magical creatures and issues they may find themselves up against in their everyday lives.

Characters

Main

The main characters in the series are collectively known as the "Best Friends For Life".

Villains

Supporting

Boys

Ancients

Rivals

Other

Additional voices

Episodes

Merchandise

During development of the property, DIC announced that the series would mostly see "tech"-related products to match the theme of the show. In November 2004, DIC appointed BBC Worldwide as the UK license holder for the property.

Broadcast

United States

The "Best Friends for Life" movie originally premiered on Disney Channel on August 27, 2005 (later reairing on Toon Disney in the next month) and then began its regular series run on the syndicated DIC Kids Network E/I block in 2005. The series would later re-air on the Cookie Jar TV block on CBS. As of 2022, the series is currently streaming on Tubi.

International

On October 8, 2004, DIC announced that CBBC and TF1 acquired broadcast rights to the series in the United Kingdom and France, respectively, and that the BBC and TF1 Groupe would also serve as the local consumer products agents for the property. On June 6, 2005, Nickelodeon acquired the exclusive cable, satellite and pay TV rights to the series in sixty-nine territories. The series aired on Nickelodeon channels in countries such as Spain, Holland, Belgium, Scandivania (including Denmark) Israel, Latin America, Asian territories (including Japan), India, Australia and New Zealand. On the same day, it was announced that free-TV rights had been picked up by Mediaset (Italy), RTVE (Spain), RTL Club (Belgium), Alter Channel (Greece), Televisa (Mexico), Saran (Turkey), RTE (Ireland), TVI (Poland) and TVNZ (New Zealand). In Canada, YTV aired the "Best Friends for Life" movie on September 4, 2005, but they did not air any other episodes. In Ireland, the series aired on RTÉ Two from 28 September 2005 to 2006. In the UK, the series would re-air on Pop Girl.

Home Video and Streaming

On July 28, 2004, DIC announced they had signed a deal with Warner Home Video for the series in North America, where the episodes would all be combined into nine feature-length movies. On September 21, 2005, DIC announced that the deal with Warner Home Video would be extended to all major territories across the world under a five-year deal, except for the United Kingdom, France, and Portugal., where the series would be released by BBC DVD, TF1 Video and LNK respectively. These story-arc versions of the Trollz episodes would later see a release on Netflix, including the rest of the scrapped ones.

North America

The first two releases - "Best Friends for Life - The Movie" and "The Magic of the Five", were released in North America on September 6, 2005. Each movie combined the story arcs of Episodes 1-3 and 4-6 respectively in a feature-length format, with additional footage not seen on the TV airings and replaced by "Spell Moments". Two additional releases - "Hair Over Heels - The Movie" and "You Glow Girls - The Movie", which would combine the arcs of Episodes 7-9 and 10-12 respectively, were planned for a Spring 2006 release but no such release occurred. On August 8, 2007, NCircle Entertainment, who already held a then-new home video with DIC, announced they had obtained the rights to release Trollz DVDs and announced they would reissue "Best Friends for Life - The Movie" and "The Magic of the Five - The Movie" on August 14, 2007. In December 2007, the previously-canceled third DVD release - "Hair Over Heels - The Movie" was finally released. NCircle then announced they would release "Hair Over Heels - The Movie" and "A Hair A-Fair - The Movie" in June 2008, the latter containing the story arcs of episodes 13-15, but both DVDs were never released.

International

Warner Home Video released "Best Friends for Life - The Movie" and "The Magic of the Five - The Movie" across the world in various regions beginning in 2006. On February 6, 2006, BBC DVD released "Best Friends for Life - The Movie" on DVD. In France TF1 Video, released "La Magie des Cinq" in October 2009 through their TFOU Video label, which contained both "Best Friends for Life" and "The Magic of the Five" on one disc. The company IDP later released a 5-disc boxset containing all 27 episodes in November 2015.

Lawsuit

On October 25, 2007, it was announced that DIC was filing a $20 million lawsuit against DAM, certifying that they had alleged claims of fraud in the inducement and negligent misrepresentation of the Trollz property and their licensing deal with the original troll dolls. DIC also claimed that DAM had failed to halt sales of counterfeit Troll Dolls appearing in the market. DAM counter-sued DIC a week later, claiming that DIC Entertainment financially misrepresented its ability to create and market a modern troll doll toy campaign and destroyed the image and goodwill of the doll.