Veneer is the former secondary antagonist of Trolls Band Together. He's a fake pop-star from Mount Rageous who uses the Trolls' talent to become famous. He is Velvet’s younger twin brother.
Appearance
Veneer and Velvet, being twins, are both spindly, attractive, doll-like, pearly-white-skinned humanoid giants with green hair, deep-blue eyes, lavender-pink rosy cheeks and sports minimal makeup.
Veneer has shorter green hair that has been gelled into a long quiff, and wears makeup consisting of grayish-cyan eyeshadows and green lipstick. He is noticeably shorter than Velvet, even when wearing heels. His blue eyes are also comparatively lighter than Velvet's.
For attire, Veneer and his sister wore matching outfits; a gold tank top under a V-neck crop-top with pointed shoulder-pads that is the same color, followed by a set of matching short-shorts. His accessories includes a choker, bracelets on both his wrists and high-heeled platform boots; all of them made out of indigo-blue crystals. He also dons a small, simple, bronze hoop-earring on his right ear.
As a child, he wore a pale green T-shirt with pale yellow buttoned collar, white shorts, and white shoes with blue stripes.
According to Velvet, Veneer is a "beautiful idiot", though it is unknown if she was just jealous of and trying to manipulate him, or if the term is actually true for a Mount Rageon. Meaning that it is possible that Veneer is considered "beautiful" by their species standard.
Personality
Veneer isn't an evil person, but more of a shy, emotionally sensitive, clumsy, and misguided individual. When not being with Velvet, he demonstrates a softer, but still weak-willed and cowardly side.
Due to his naivety, Veneer is easily manipulated to be away from his true and better self. Much of his negative traits are results of emulating Velvet's terrible behavior, but due to being constantly compromised with money and fame, he is long numbed to Velvet's manipulations towards him in hopes of being loved by her. He is actually terrible with lying and doesn't like keeping dishonest secrets, yet his people-pleasing tendencies are direct results of suffering from Velvet's desires of him. He is not without his merits, which is his loyalty and care to those he truly loves, but he is loyal to a fault to those who exploit his care for them.
Eventually, however, Veneer finally gets to see the errors of his ways, and by denouncing Velvet, he accepts his errors and takes responsibility for his actions, thus becoming a more mature and kinder person in the end.
Relationships
Velvet
Velvet is Veneer's older twin sister, and both siblings share a passion for being famous singers despite lacking minimal talent for it. Veneer initially mirrored Velvet and was her follower, enjoying imitating her just to make her happy.
Veneer genuinely loved his sister and aimed to please her, never opposing her since childhood. He blindly believed her about achieving love through fame, not minding being treated as a henchman, as he was long numbed to her abusive tendencies towards him. He was also kept in the dark about many details of Floyd's kidnapping, in a bid to gain some attention from his sister.
However, he eventually breaks free from her influence. By accepting his complicit side, and acknowledging that he and his sister should be detained for their crimes, he is now embracing more autonomy and starting to leave her legacy behind. Despite still loving Velvet, he will no longer enable Velvet's shortcomings for the sake of her and his own well-being.
Floyd
Despite initially not treating Floyd well, Veneer would later show that he doesn't enjoy torturing Floyd, although he also tells Floyd that he doesn't feel like he has any choice on opting out of the plan. Regardless of Floyd's disappointment in him, Floyd feels that Veneer is capable of changing into a better person, and genuinely worries for Veneer, who keeps taking the brunt of Velvet's abuse and not knowing how to make proper decisions on his own. In the end, Floyd's persuasive advice finally gets through Veneer, who confesses and stands up for himself against Velvet, and thus both Floyd and Veneer are finally able to put their past aside and become friends.
Crimp
Veneer doesn't hate Crimp, who is his assistant. However, with how Velvet badly influences him, much of his treatment towards Crimp is an imitation to how Velvet treats her. Despite Crimp getting payback by arresting him, she technically saved him from being assaulted by Velvet, and he accepts his punishment to atone his mistreatment for Crimp in the end. Therefore, despite Crimp still having tenuous beef with him, it can be assumed that they have now finally gotten onto friendlier terms with each other, after he indirectly but also voluntarily liberated her through his confession.
Rhonda
At first, Rhonda was distrustful of Veneer, who enabled Velvet throwing her into the cramped closet. He also cowered in fear when he noticed that Rhonda was being confrontational towards him. However, after watching him confess his wrongdoings publicly, Rhonda is shown to have become friendlier to him in the end.
Skills & Abilities
He has all the abilities of a Mount Rageon.
By placing a Troll in a diamond bottle, he and Velvet can take the singing abilities of any Troll and use it for their own means. The bottles are made of diamond, and can only be shattered by a close family harmony.
Music
It should be noted that both he and Velvet actually cannot sing at all, hence needing to rely on the singing of the Trolls.
Veneer is the backup singer to Velvet, who leads in their duo. They sing in a "Call and Response" style of music. This means that Velvet will sing to him by "calling" and he will "respond" to her.
In the final song medley, the duo are singing. Sadly, Veneer sings normally but is overwhelmed by his sister showing off her capabilities and talent that she's stealing from BroZone. As a result, he is reduced to being the backup singer, and can at times barely be heard with her singing over his solos and vocalizing where he does not. Veneer stays attempting to harmonize, but simply doesn't keep up with her and it gets worst as the song progresses. This is because Veneer supports his sister in the song, but it's clear that Velvet isn't interested in what he is capable of and is no longer trying to keep them equal as a duo.
Dancing
Despite being lacking in singing, he and Velvet are apt in dancing. It is also implied that he dances slightly better than Velvet, which is enough to make Velvet jealous of him and berate him for even trying so.
Vehicle Maneuver
As seen in the climax's car chase, he is shown to know basic vehicle driving skills.
Psyche
Veneer is not a very smart person, due to constantly being manipulated by Velvet. His impaired decision-making means he cannot distinguish between genuine praises or fake compliments. He also fails to understand sarcasm, such as misinterpreting Floyd's sarcasm as approval. But by the end of the movie, he has gotten slightly smarter, evident with how he finally exposed Velvet for what she had been manipulating him for, meaning that he will no longer fall for her lies easily from now on.
Songs
Trolls Band Together
Etymology
Veneer is a type of masonry, and normally is used for decoration and not as main support. This implies that he is being the follower to Velvet, who is the more dominant sibling.
Another meaning of his name is being "an attractive appearance that covers or disguises someone or something's true nature or feelings." This is heavily pertained to how he was part of Velvet's scheme on talent theft, forcing himself to comply despite his discomfort. It is also tied to his family background of being emotionally controlled and compromised, therefore giving up his true self for a long time by putting up a facade of being a nasty person, until meeting Floyd.
Medical Status and Issues
Age and Birth Details
Similar to the birth order of many Trolls characters presented, Veneer is portrayed as the youngest child, as he's shown having his height being beaten by his sister. This is also confirmed through the movie dialogues mentioning how he is the child born into the family later on, which Velvet noticed when she met him as a baby, though the 'time' of this encounter remains unknown as Velvet has a habit of exaggerating, leaving Veneer confused with the statement.
His age is unknown, but since all the known Mount Rageons are teenagers, it has been confirmed that he is also a teenager.
The movie strongly suggests that he and his sister are fraternal twins, given their similar height in childhood flashbacks, along with identical skin tone, eye color, and hair color. His status as a twin is also confirmed in Sister Squad/Band-tastic Brothers and The Art of DreamWorks Trolls Band Together, as well as a deleted storyboard for the movie.
Trivia
General
- Veneer and Velvet's relationship is an ironic juxtaposition to the Trolls. While the Trolls help their siblings with love and care despite their previous separations to lift one another up in the end, Veneer gets metaphorically and literally dragged down by his sister.
- Despite Veneer being unable to sing, his voice actor Andrew Rannells is a talented singer.
- Velvet and Veneer are nods to fake-celebrities. This happened from time to time in the 80's and 90's, wherein people with talent were deemed not good enough to promote so their talent was used and a someone else much more marketable was taught how to pretend. The most famous example of this being Milli Vanilli.
- Veneer and Velvet are the only Mount Rageons to be confirmed to have parents. However, both parents remain mentioned and are left unseen.
- He is the first known Mount Rageon to befriend a Troll.
- According to DreamWorks Trolls Twitter account, Veneer's 75 Soft Challenge list includes:[1]
- Standing up to Velvet (though he is uncertain if it's at least once a day, week, or month)
- Deep breathing exercises (to calm his nerves and added stress from "things")
- Yacht party every weekend
- Lighting candle every night before bed
- Daily shopping trips with Velvet
- Weekly hair appointments
- Monthly spa days with Velvet
Specific To...
- Trolls Band Together
- Although displayed in the movie that he and his sister were raised in the suburbs, an interview from the filmmakers revealed that he and Velvet were presumably forced to live and work below the cloud line of Mount Rageous, which are the lower class working districts. This implies he and Velvet's parents might've evicted them, which would have explained why Veneer was roped into Velvet's fake stardom scheme that involves exploiting Floyd. [2]
- Veneer's nickname Ven isn't spoken in the movie directly; instead it is revealed during a pre-revised scene where Velvet was exiting the dressing room.[3]
- Both Velvet and Veneer's hairstyles during their last concert symbolize the two major clefs of the music scale, with Veneer's representing the bass clef.
- In storyboards, while Veneer's shoulder pads retained John Dory as part of his captives, the other Troll he was captive of was Clay instead of Spruce.
- There was formerly a scene in storyboards of Veneer being sprayed forcibly with Floyd's essence by Velvet, who closed his coughing mouth with her fingers afterwards.
- His dominant writing hand is implied to be his left hand, since he was shown signing a fan's face at the red carpet with his left hand during the movie.
- In a deleted scene storyboard, it was revealed that his illegal pet monkey was named Snorkels, who was also a fierce specimen.
- Other Media
- In Trolls Band Together: The Junior Novelization, Veneer and Velvet were originally planned to be defeated together by falling off the yacht and into the river, prior to being arrested. This would've made Veneer unable to have any closure with Floyd at all. There was also another scene where Velvet showcased her mistreatment towards Veneer by spraying Floyd's essence into his mouth without warning him, with said warning given much later after she sprayed. He was also supposed to be the one who cuffed Velvet instead of Crimp.
- However, with the novelization being considered to be beta manuscript, these alternative scenes are therefore only considered as filler or alternative canon.
References
| Trolls Band Together characters | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trolls - Main Characters | ||||
| Queen Poppy • Branch • John Dory • Spruce • Floyd • Clay • Viva • Tiny Diamond | ||||
| Trolls - Minor Characters | ||||
| Guy Diamond • Satin & Chenille • Biggie • Cooper • Prince Darnell • King Peppy • Grandma Rosiepuff • Ablaze • Hype • Boom • Trickee | ||||
| Bergens | ||||
| King Gristle Jr. • Bridget • Miss Maxine • Aunt Smead | ||||
| Mount Rageons | ||||
| Velvet • Veneer • Kid Ritz | ||||
| Vacaytioners | ||||
| Brandy • Bruce & Brandy's Children | ||||
| Other Characters | ||||
| Mr. Dinkles • Cloud Guy • Crimp • Rhonda | ||||
| Cut | ||||
| Unknown | ||||