Name : Alan Scherstuhl / Alias : Village Voice
In studio movies, especially for children, all it takes to be great at something difficult is a good heart and a training montage. Go on, America, keep yelling at Common Core while parking your kids in front of this stuff.

Name : Justin Chang / Alias : Variety
A winning lightness of touch prevails in this delightful continuation of the durable DreamWorks franchise.

Name : Alonso Duralde / Alias : TheWrap
Between the witty screenplay, delightful visuals that jump back and forth between 3-D and 2-D animation, and a consistently game voice cast, this third serving never feels like a dull retread or a lazy cash grab.

Name : Brian Truitt / Alias : USA Today
While it lacks the wonder and nuance of earlier Pandas, there are enough new faces and wowing, Asian-influenced style to also keep parents amused for an hour and a half.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
The "Kung Fu Panda" formula works, still, and if directors Alessandro Carloni and Jennifer Yuh don't reinvent the panda-as-martial-artist wheel, they avoid making the story seem stale.

Name : Christian Holub / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
Just complicated enough to reward steady viewers and just simple enough for parent escorts to enjoy without much prior knowledge.

Name : Michael Rechtshaffen / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
Refuses to panda to the lowest common denominator.

Name : Peter Hartlaub / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
Successful on multiple levels, with a brisk pace, excellent location work and a strong lead performance by Norwegian comedian Otto Jespersen.

Name : Joe Williams / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"Trollhunter" has a lot of down time as the crew treks to the fjords, but it's also got dryly subversive humor and, eventually, some impressive special effects.

Name : Michael O'Sullivan / Alias : Washington Post
It can't seem to make up its mind about whether it wants to frighten us or make us laugh. It does a little bit of both, to be sure, but not nearly enough of either to make much of a lasting impression.

Name : Moira MacDonald / Alias : Seattle Times
Those fog-draped fjords provide a distractingly pretty backdrop to this tale of mysterious, massive creatures who roam the forest by night, searching for Christians on whom to munch.

Name : Steven Rea / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
Andre Ovredal's enjoyably goofy scare-pic purports to offer real footage of real horror - in this case, a variety of forest and mountain trolls.

Name : Peter Debruge / Alias : Variety
Enormously entertaining chiller.

Name : Michael Wilmington / Alias : Chicago Reader
The film is shot with handheld cameras in the standard mockumentary style, but the content is often hilarious, especially when the trolls show up.

Name : Owen Gleiberman / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
As the stoic titular slayer, Otto Jespersen is the one actor who holds you.

Name : V.A. Musetto / Alias : New York Post
You'll want to catch this clever movie before Hollywood ruins everything with a dumb remake.

Name : Robert Abele / Alias : Los Angeles Times
A monster movie with a love for mountainous, tree-lined Scandinavian scenery and an even greater love for setting memorably ugly, hulking and destructive mythological creatures against it.

Name : Joe Neumaier / Alias : New York Daily News
This is what happens when the Norwegians try to make their own "Blair Witch Project": We get three-headed trolls that hate Vitamin D and references to "Deliverance."

Name : Ty Burr / Alias : Boston Globe
Once again, material for a great short film has been expanded to feature length at its peril and ours. Still, this is clever stuff and surprisingly engrossing on its own terms.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
It's so steeped in troll and paranoia lore, it risks boring you with the details at times. But it also makes you more inclined to believe it, and the frights are real enough.

Name : Nigel Floyd / Alias : Time Out
Given that the cast improvised all the scenes live on set, the dialogue has a surprising ring of truth, and is shot through with an unexpected, often unsettling, humour.

Name : Roger Ebert / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
They spend a great deal of time roaring, bleating, squealing and snorting at a very high volume, which is, after a point, too much of a muchness.

Name : Rex Reed / Alias : New York Observer
Like the folks who dreamed up lycanthropy, the Trollhunter writers either have an abundance of imagination or they've been smoking a controlled substance.

Name : Mike Hale / Alias : New York Times
One of the many pleasures of the Norwegian director Andre Ovredal's clever and engaging mock documentary "Trollhunter" is the way it plays with the idea of the supernatural rule book.

Name : David Rooney / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
An enjoyably off-kilter hybrid of The Blair Witch Project and Where the Wild Things Are.

Name : Joshua Rothkopf / Alias : Time Out
The film takes off into a witty realm of nonplussed responses and folklore made roaringly real.

Name : Nick Pinkerton / Alias : Village Voice
As de-mythologizings go, Trollhunter has neither the wit, nor art, nor social insight to honor the legacy of George A. Romero's Martin.

Name : Eric Kohn / Alias : indieWIRE
Yes, Troll Hunter is derivative, but Ovredal seamlessly assembles his reference points with a steady ability to do them proud.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
With impressive technical credits, stunning fjord and forest locations and a winking ownership of its own absurdity, "Trollhunter" manages to be at once spooky, satirical and endearing.

Name : Noel Murray / Alias : AV Club
Here's what's not so good in Troll Hunter: the actual troll hunting.

Name : Andrew O'Hehir / Alias : Salon.com
A drily comic blend of irresistible ingredients that gets better as it goes along.

Name : Jeannette Catsoulis / Alias : NPR
Genially simpleminded and more sweet than scary, Trollhunter never settles on a tone. Fairytale fantasy, supernatural comedy, serious horror? All are sampled, to the detriment of the whole.

Name : Brian Truitt / Alias : USA Today
While it lacks the wonder and nuance of earlier Pandas, there are enough new faces and wowing, Asian-influenced style to also keep parents amused for an hour and a half.

Name : Alonso Duralde / Alias : TheWrap
Between the witty screenplay, delightful visuals that jump back and forth between 3-D and 2-D animation, and a consistently game voice cast, this third serving never feels like a dull retread or a lazy cash grab.

Name : Michael Rechtshaffen / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
Refuses to panda to the lowest common denominator.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
The "Kung Fu Panda" formula works, still, and if directors Alessandro Carloni and Jennifer Yuh don't reinvent the panda-as-martial-artist wheel, they avoid making the story seem stale.

Name : Alan Scherstuhl / Alias : Village Voice
In studio movies, especially for children, all it takes to be great at something difficult is a good heart and a training montage. Go on, America, keep yelling at Common Core while parking your kids in front of this stuff.

Name : Justin Chang / Alias : Variety
A winning lightness of touch prevails in this delightful continuation of the durable DreamWorks franchise.

Name : Christian Holub / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
Just complicated enough to reward steady viewers and just simple enough for parent escorts to enjoy without much prior knowledge.