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At the end of Trolls, Branch finds his true colours and his grey skin and black hair return to the vivid blue colours he had as a child before his grandma died.
In Trolls World Tour he's back to his old sad colours again.
What happened? Why didn't he keep his true colours?
If you watch the part where Poppy, Branch and Biggie sing the pop mashup in the country western town, Branche's hair is purple and his skin is a brighter blue. I think that singing makes Branch happy so his colour goes bright. But when he isn't singing, he is in his normal negative self so his hair goes black and his colour dulls. All the other trolls in pop town are happy and singing 100% of the time so their colours are bright all the time. Branch only sings happy songs with poppy rarely. (https://i.stack.imgur.com/6yo2d.jpg)
From what I have seen, there are 3 possible options.
One: Branch has depression, and though he has good days, he often has bad days, as many who suffer from depression never fully get rid of it, it just kinda... goes away for a moment and lingers quietly till it's ready to take hold again.
Two: (and please know I got this from a video theory on Youtube. They do much better explaining it and supporting the idea) Branch is a Hybrid, or rather isnt fully Pop troll. And the more he sings pop songs or acts like a pop troll singing and being happy, the more color he has.
The person who's video I watched pointed out that Branch has more pointed ears then most pop trolls, more like a rock troll who seem to be more gray/black in color. And as we never see Branch's parents in the original movie only his nan who passes away when he was young, it is a open possibility.
and Three, probably most boring answer:
The people in charge of the movie thought kids are stupid and figured they would not be able to identify Branch if they changed his color too much from how he originally was in the first movie.
OR they found gray/black materials for toys much cheaper and made the movie makers go with that.
I have only two possible explanations:
Maybe it would've cost more money for the film makers to make him his true colors, meaning they would have to make him his grey colors.
It could also be because he is more recognizable when he is grey. Obviously, this may be just my opinion, but through most of the last movie he was grey.
If you look very carefully though, Branch isn't his original grey colors. He is just a toned down teal and blue. In the scene where all the strings are destroyed and all color is lost, he becomes a dark grey. He was then darker through the rest of that scene until his colors came back.
Trolls Holiday, a 2017 short film set before Trolls: World Tour, sees Branch returned to more muted colours.
In one scene he is seen practising smiling and explains:
"I'm new to this whole being happy thing."
While Branch will never return to the state that he was in the first Trolls film, he is a work-in-progress and does not maintain the full vibrant colouration that he gains at the end of that film.
I think it's to stick to his main grumpy form, because when he gained his True Colors back, the colors might be that vibrant because he had finally gotten them back, then they turn down a little through time.
