"Bringing Up Birdy" is the second segment of the 6th and final episode of the fifth season of Trolls: The Beat Goes On!, and the 63rd overall episode in the series. It premiered on January 18, 2019.
Synopsis[]
Branch must face his fear of birds when a nest of newborns think he's their parent. All of a sudden, upon going back to their home, he and Poppy find out that the other Trolls (including King Peppy) are all frozen solid.
Plot[]
Poppy, Biggie and Branch are walking and playing i-spy as Poppy gives Branch an i-spy, stating he is green and prickly, and takes time to grow. Branch complains they walk the rest of the way to the beach in silence, and that he is not prickly. Not noticing where he is going, Branch bangs into a rock and notices a nest of bird eggs. He screams, runs behind Poppy and hisses at the eggs. He asks Poppy what comes out of bird eggs, Poppy states "birds" and Branch corrects her with "pure evil". Poppy reacts with a frown at Branch's hatred of birds.
Biggie is curious to know why Branch hates birds and Poppy says not to get Branch started. This leads to a flashback of when Branch was ten years old; when he was flying a kite, a bird came along and shredded the kite. Biggie finds that sad and Branch continues. The bird grabs up the kite with Branch getting dragged along with it, as he tried to resist the bird's pull but was overcome by its strength. As the bird pulls him through the trees, Branch loses his shorts and is left in his underwear. The bird flies around for 20 minutes with Branch now stuck holding onto the kite. Biggie states that is awful, seeing how Branch would hate birds. Branch continues with the bird letting go, and he falls into a festival of spotlights just as the spotlights are lighting up. He is caught hanging there and slowly spins, leaving the spotlights shining on his underwear backside. A young Guy Diamond makes a remark that causes the audience to laugh at Branch. Embarrassed, Branch sees the heads of the Trolls turn into the bird's head as he is traumatized.
Branch goes to dispose of the eggs, but they begin to hatch. The three baby birds see Branch and snuggle up to him. Biggie says his heard of this and its called "Imprinting", Poppy states they think Branch is their mother. Branch tosses them away but they return. He runs to his bunker with the three chicks behind and jumps in his shaft. He tries to get the door to close but it is slow. At the last moment, one of the chicks grabs the door with its foot and the three climb inside.
At her pod, Poppy hears chirping. Branch is there with the 3 chicks; he admits they bonded, and wants to know how to make it stop.
It turns out the only way to get rid of the chicks is to teach them the skills they need to survive. They start with teaching them how to eat. Branch states he is not eating worms, but Poppy tells him to relax as they are candy worms. He eats one, spits it out and asks her what flavor that was. Keeping it realistic, he answers that it was worm flavor. He goes to shout at her, but she stops him as the chicks got the message and are eating the candy worms. Poppy asks what else the book states.
Branch is seen in a montage teaching the birds various skills, such as digging for worms, bathing, pecking at trees and flying, as well as making sure they have exercise. The birds grow over time until they are old enough to leave.
He says his goodbyes to the birds, and lets them fly away. After they leave, Poppy comforts him as she can tell he's trying really hard to not show emotion and she can tell he bonded with them. He pretends not to care, but Poppy points out he's holding onto three feathers. He tosses them away, yet he has feathers in his other hand too. He yells to hit the beach, and is later seen with Poppy and Biggie at such place.
Poppy and Biggie are getting worried, and feel Branch is definitely missing his birds. He denies it, but they point out his sandcastle has turned into three bird figures. He tries to get rid of the sand birds, but keeps making reminders of them. Biggie reassures him that it's okay to miss them, as he can feel Mr. Dinkles even when they're apart, and determines he's getting chilled. An angry Branch returns to his bunker to take a nap.
Branch's nap is stressful, as he dreams about the three birds being chased by the one that tormented him as a child. He wakes up from his nightmare and realizes his birds are in trouble.
He and Poppy take a flyer critter out, and begin to scan the sky looking for the three birds. As the dream predicted, the trio are being harassed by the same bird from his childhood. Branch glides after the malicious bird and tells it to remember him. The bird and Branch fight, with the bird sending him crashing into the ground. The bond the other birds have with Branch makes them save him from falling to death.
Branch gives them one more tearful goodbye, and sincerely wishes them luck. Poppy is congratulating him for his efforts and tells him to imagine all the things he can do now that he loves birds. Branch corrects her, stating he only loves three birds.
The episode ends on a cliffhanger, with Branch and Poppy finding the Trolls in Troll Village frozen like statues.
Cast[]
- Amanda Leighton as Queen Poppy
- Skylar Astin as Branch
- David Fynn as Biggie
- Sean T. Krishnan as Guy Diamond
- David Kaye as King Peppy
- Other
Songs[]
- "Fly"
Physical distribution[]
This episode is available on the "Trolls: The Beat Goes On! - Complete Seasons 5-8" DVD.
Trivia[]
- The title is likely a reference to the 1919 film "Bringing up Betty".
- This episode marks the second time that Poppy wear her swimsuit, the first was "Laugh Out Cloud".
- Guy Diamond's comment as a kid "You go, boy!" actually may haven't meant to be malicious, as he's known to often pride himself in the all-natural look, and Branch being in his underwear would have earned him some respect; least as an adult. Nonetheless, the audience still laughs, even if Guy didn't intend to mock Branch.
- According to this episode, Guy is probably slightly younger than Branch.
- By showing Guy as a child, this episode is actually the only time a young Glitter Troll of any kind appeared, as all other child Trolls are normal. At this point, not even a baby was shown.
- Branch is shown with his regular colors in this episode, which leads to some issues with Trolls:
- If this takes place before Trolls, then he shouldn't be out in the open and live in the Troll Tree, not in the forest.
- If this is him living in the forest and Troll Village, he should be grey as this means the events took place after the Trolls' escape during Trollstice; they would have come after the death of Grandma Rosiepuff.
- From further installments of the Trolls franchise such as Trolls World Tour, it should be noted that Branch is generally colored green and blue, even in his "grey" state. So this wouldn't be considered an animation error at all, as he doesn't have his true colors in Trolls: The Beat Goes On!.
- Some oversights:
- Branch's bunker door isn't automatic in other episodes. In fact, it's a hatch door and not a sliding one. While hinges are seen suggesting that it's a dual opening door with an inner automatic one, this leads to uncertainty over why Branch would use an automatic door.
- Also, an automatic door is normally the same size as a hatch door, and Branch doesn't usually leave the bunker door open in case someone enters.
- In real life, most birds nest in trees and other high places, so the trio of birds here are of a fictional ground-nesting species. Oddly enough, this is the only episode where this species appears.
- "Imprinting" is a common method of training birds such as parrots, crows or birds of prey to cooperate. A baby bird relies on its parents for care and often bases its "species" reconigination and habits on its "parent". But if another takes its place as the "mother", the result is a failure to recognize their true parental bird. A natural example of this is when a water fowl species, such as a duck, lays too many eggs so to lessen the burden of raising so many potential chicks one of the parents puts the extras in the nest of another bird. However, it may mistakening put the egg in the nest of another species, thus the chick is raised believing it is a member of its foster parents species, causing it to completely fail to acknowledge birds of its own species even down to mating displays.
- The birds' chick models would be later reused with a different color in the Trolls: TrollsTopia episode "Manager Poppy".
- The fight scene where Branch rescues his birds had its storyboard animatic put up online.[2]
Videos[]
