Mouth Guitar

"Mouth Guitar" is the second segment of the 8th episode of the first season of Trolls: TrollsTopia, and the 15th overall episode in the series. It premiered on November 19, 2020.
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A new Rock Troll named Blaze Powerchord arrives in TrollsTopia with a talent for playing "mouth guitar" (pretending to play guitar by making noise with the mouth). When Blaze challenges Minuet Sonata to a mouth guitar contest, Val takes Minuet under her wing and teaches her to rock out with a pretend guitar.
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Minuet Sonata is practicing her violin in a session that lasts several days. Upon leaving her home the morning after she finally finishes, she is passed by Dante Crescendo, who is on his way to a concert by Blaze Powerchord, a recent arrival to TrollsTopia.
Minuet attends the concert where Poppy explains the crowd is here due to the kill riffs and guitar solos. Minuet comments on how good his electric guitar skills must be, but Poppy explains that he plays "mouth guitar". Blaze appears on stage to perform an encore. Minuet doesn't appear interested at this technique at first, but soon finds it enjoyable. Val Thundershock claims that nobody mouths a guitar like Blaze, but once he gets going there is nothing to stop him.
The next morning, the Trolls soon find out what she means. Blaze disrupts a lot of Trolls in the morning playing mouth guitar. He even does it at the library, a place meant for more quietness, which causes the Trolls in the library to groan. At Minuet's recital, Blaze interrupts to play mouth guitar. Smidge asks him to take five so Minuet can finish, but he doesn't want to deprive a huge fan. Smidge says he is inconsiderate and Val calls Blaze their version of "that guy", pointing at Creek who agrees with her. As Minuet goes to play, Blaze interrupts her again and she has had enough. He says that she's jealous of his "skills", but she is not as there is no skill she can't master. Blaze states she is challenging him, to which she forces him to give up his mouth guitar if he loses. At first she objects, but in her annoyance at him agrees that yes. That is what she is saying when her audience "awws" in disappointment. He accepts the challenge for the following Saturday.
Poppy is impressed, saying she didn't know Minuet played mouth guitar, despite that she hasn't even started to learn about it. She is convinced she can learn it by then, however, with the right teacher and looks at Val. Val tries to explain that it is not about technique but about passion and involves looking deep inside yourself and performs a guitar note. Minuet copies what Val did, missing the point Val made. This makes Val ask her to stop doing whatever she's doing, as she will show her a few tips.
At practice, she asks Minuet to "grab a guitar, not a bass", pointing to nothing. Minuet goes to grab a guitar. but is told off for picking a trombone; she repeats herself, but Val tells her to put the bagpipes down. She reassures to Val that she also needs practice time.
Later, Minuet has mastered every trick Blaze can do. Although it impresses Poppy and Smidge, Val doesn't find it amusing, as Minuet still lacks passion. Minuet also didn't see Blaze do everything.
At Rock Hollow, Val shows Blaze playing to Minuet. Blaze is able to pretend to smash the mouth guitar by destroying a speaker that he was leaning on. Minuet loses her confidence at seeing such an impossible act. Val explains Blaze is able to channel his passion into his guitar, and ills it to smash. Val tells Minuet to stop focusing on technique and take more attention towards passion.
At the Mouth Guitar Battle Royale face-off, Poppy announces the duo and introduces Blaze with an amazing intro, then voices her hope while announcing that Minuet is standing up for them to not have to listen to his mouth guitar every second of the day. Minuet can't do this and tries to flee but is stopped by Val. Blaze is celebrating his victory, but Val tells him she can't let him win. The two have a banter where Val tells her to get back out there and unleash her passion, with Minuet admitting she needs more practice but being dismissed by Val, resulting in Minuet showing that she doesn't know how to unleash her passion. She throws the mouth guitar Val hands her as she proclaims that, only to destroy some things near her. Suddenly, she can "see" the guitar and "feel" it; Val tells her to get out there and "play it".
On stage it is as if they are playing real guitars, while the two trash talk each other. The audience sees the pair almost perfectly sound like their mouth guitar riffs (in reality and from the Trolls' perspective, they're still making noises with their mouths). The duet battle ends with Blaze's signature speaker destruction, which takes Minuet back a moment. Minuet responds with a blowaway effect, as soundwaves come from her, startling Blaze as she recovers. Finally, she ends with her guitar being electrified above her.
Blaze admits defeat and promises to never mouth another guitar again. Minuet, however, explains no one wanted him to give up his passion; just to not play when it is not recommended such as libraries or funerals. The two shake hands and Blaze says the crowd wants an encore. He gives her his guitar and goes to back her up on "mouth drums".
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;Pop Trolls
*Amanda Leighton as Queen Poppy
*Kevin Michael Richardson as Smidge
*Matt Lowe as Creek (cameo)
;Rock Trolls
*Tru Valentino as Blaze Powerchord
*Lauren Mayhew as Val Thundershock
;Classical Trolls
*Jeanine Mason as Minuet Sonata
*JP Karliak as Dante Crescendo
;Funk Trolls
*Ron Funches as Cooper
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*The mouth guitar technique from this episode makes reference to an air guitar.
*Creek usually throws off his inconsideration and passes it off as part of his Zen way of life, but in this episode he actually agrees with Val that he's just as bad as Blaze.
*A storyboard for this episode was added by Gregersen here. The storyboard depicts the scene of Minuet's battle with Blaze.
**It was previously named as "Mouth Guitar Superstar" as the episode's working title.
*Blaze's ability to mouth guitar makes him destroy a speaker as though he was holding a real guitar. Similar to this, in the Trolls: The Beat Goes On! episode "Lost In The Woods", Creek's excuse to get out of helping with Archer Pastry involved his "imaginary pet". When Branch criticized Creek for this, the "pet's" lead suddenly sprung up and ran off, even though there was no indication that the pet was real and it was just an excuse Creek came up with to get out of helping with Archer.
*Minuet mentions "Beetrollven", which is likely a portmanteau of "Troll" and "Ludwig van Beethoven". This is similar to the origin of Trollzart's name.
Category:Episodes
Category:Trolls: TrollsTopia episodes
Category:Rock Trolls Story Arc Episodes
Category:TT Season 1 episodes
Category:2D animation