"Troll Rangers" is the second segment of the 4th episode of the seventh season of Trolls: The Beat Goes On!, and the 83rd overall episode in the series. It premiered on August 27, 2019.
Synopsis[]
DJ Suki's niece CJ is eager to earn her badges for a treat with Priscilla, but they learn that rushing through them isn't the answer.
Plot[]
Poppy is giving a scrapbook introductory scenario for the young Trolls as part of their "Junior Troll Ranger" outing. She describes them as being isolated after attempting to go to Bergen Town and they are stranded in an unknown territory from a storm. Their supplies are exhausted and it has been 5 days since they last partied. They have to make a party with whatever they can find to make an emergency shindig. Keith, Priscilla and CJ Suki all managed to find plants that can used to fit Poppy's scenario, and they're awarded patches.
At the patch-giving ceremony, CJ doesn't want to go onstage until her aunt DJ Suki turns up. In the eyes of CJ and Priscilla, DJ is the coolest Troll that ever lived. Poppy snaps a photo of how adorable the pair are and then states they can't delay the ceremony any longer, trying to give CJ her patch but she backs off. DJ arrives in time and states how proud she is of CJ, as she recalls when she got her first patch. She also mentions that she is going to offer CJ the same thing her aunt Gertrude did once she has all the patches; a trip to Wooferbug Valley to see the Wooferbugs' origins for both CJ and a friend that will last a week. The pair are excited at this news.
The next patch involves crafting balloon animals, which Smidge is overseeing upon. The balloon animals are turning out to be harder to make than it looks for all the kids and CJ thinks that at this rate she will never get the patch. Priscilla starts to look for shortcuts, while Smidge is giving every kid a tough critical on their animals. When she gets to CJ, CJ has made a balloon worm, which Priscilla confirms is an animal. Smidge awards CJ the patch.
The next patch involves coming up with their own dance, which is led by Guy Diamond. CJ skips this one by standing still, and thus inventing a dance involving no movement at all named "The Statue". Milton Moss leads the Critter training patch, and notes the kids will get the patch when they teach a critter 3 commands. They grab a Puffalo and "teach" it 3 commands that it is basically already doing; sit still, be quiet and stand on 4 legs; this gets the patch. They continue to get patches using the shortcut method.
At DJ Suki's pod, CJ and Priscilla break the news that CJ has all her patches already. As they go to pack DJ's suitcase, DJ questions CJ speeding through the patches and missing out on a lot of fun in the process, she asks them before they go on the trip if they really want to rush and miss learning all the skills related to the patches. When CJ agrees that she does, DJ then asks if she got the one on the back: the "Hair and Share" patch; they didn't even know there was one on the back. This patch is for helping the community.
This is up to Poppy to assign a task for the two girls to follow through. She takes to the river and shows them bridges made out of roots. The girls try and guess what Poppy wants and demand the patch, but it turns out Poppy has other ideas. They are to grow a brand new bridge from a tiny root. They can only give it a spoonful of fertilizer a day and it will take weeks to grow.
After Poppy leaves them to it, the pair are stuck on their situation. The root will delay their trip with DJ Suki for ages, and their impatience gets the better of them. CJ resorts to giving the root a large lot of fertilizer, and Priscilla states there was likely a reason Poppy had them give it a spoonful. Frustrated with Poppy, CJ kicks the fertilizer bucket, which lands on the root. The Root Bridge then shakes and goes wildly out of control, trapping the girls inside a cage of roots. The roots then grow and cause havoc in Troll Village as they destroy everything in their path.
The two have to get the root out of the bucket to bring it under control, but CJ's hair doesn't reach the bucket. Priscilla uses her own to push it further and finally they reach it. The root shrivels up and dies. The girls know they are in trouble.
DJ and Poppy come looking for the girls and rescue them. The girls apologize and realize they really did miss out on a lot of fun rushing the patches. Poppy accepts they have learnt their lesson. DJ confirms the girls' fear: they don't deserve to go on the trip to the woofer valley yet. Seeing her niece upset, DJ proposes that for now they have a sleepover at her pod. Poppy states that first they have a lot of clean up to do, and the episode ends with them taking a photo.
Cast[]
- Amanda Leighton as Queen Poppy
- Kyla Carter as CJ Suki
- Abby Ryder Fortson as Priscilla
- Fryda Wolff as DJ Suki and Gemma Fur
- Declan Churchill Carter as Keith
- Kevin Michael Richardson as Smidge
- Sean T. Krishnan as Guy Diamond
- Jonah Platt as Milton Moss
- Kari Wahlgren as Harper
Physical distribution[]
This episode is available on the "Trolls: The Beat Goes On! - Complete Seasons 5-8" DVD.
Trivia[]
- The plot of this episode is a repeat of "The Bunker List". The difference between them is the moral of the story. In The Bunker List, Branch gets into a silly bet and rushes the list that was designed to make him a better Troll. In this episode, Priscilla and CJ Suki rush their badges so that they can go on a trip with DJ Suki.
- Aunt Gertrude's name is a joke. The rest of the family is "_J Suki", with the first initial being changed as in DJ Suki, CJ Suki, PJ Suki and TJ Suki. Gertrude's name, however, breaks the family tradition.
- "Troll Girl Power!" is a term based on the popular 90s slogan "Girl Power", the slogan was especially popular with groups such as the Spice Girls. In the 90s in western media, there was an active bid to empower young girls to succeed despite their gender. This was an attempt to break stereotypes of girls being unable to do things such as pursuing a career in many areas that boys traditionally were dominate in, or as push to dare to go against other cultural and social stereotypes wherein young girls were often pressured to pursue, such as having to be prime and proper or being destined only to have value to raise a family.
- In regards to Trolls, while female Trolls and males can often mimic real life stereotypes (as often interest can often appeal more to one gender over the other naturally), Trolls don't seem to mock each other for having interests that aren't inline with the gender stereotype. The best example is Branch and his Bunker List, which contains a few items such as "receive a make over from a friend" which hinted Branch himself doesn't always abide to the male stereotypes his often portrayed doing. Rather they tend to be more likely to mock each other over things like wearing a diaper as seen in "The Bunker List". In short, being male or female doesn't tend to hold a Troll back at all the two girls quote of "Troll Girl Power" slogan misplaced.
- In fact, the only other episode to focus on a specific gender is "Girls' Night" from Trolls: TrollsTopia (again, female in this case).
- The snippet of the show's theme song Hair In The Air was heard, sung by DJ Suki.