Puffalo Express

"Puffalo Express" is the first segment of the 5th episode of the fourth season of Trolls: TrollsTopia, and the 60th overall episode in the series. It premiered in September 2, 2021.
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Poppy entrusts the Country Tribe's Puffalo Express to deliver invitations for a Lownote Jones Surprise Party. But when she realizes one invitation is going to Lownote Jones himself, she must stop Gust Tumbleweed from delivering the invitation.
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Poppy and Val Thundershock meet up with Lownote Jones, who notes that he is chilled as today is his birthday and he knows Poppy will have something in store for her. After Lownote walks away, Poppy panics because she had no idea it was his birthday to the surprise of Val. She asks how she of all people forgot a Troll's birthday. Poppy claims that the Funk calendar is really complicated, and shows her via the gadget she was given. Val notices her age is 5,000 in "Funk Years". Poppy announces that before the day is done, they will have an amazing party and ropes in Val under her protest as she has other plans today, simply stating "welcome to friendship Val".
They made the invitations at a record pace, but now have issues on how to deliver them. They are approached by Gust Tumbleweed, who notes that the Country Trolls have a reliable delivery service: the Puffalo Express, run by himself. He ensures them that it is a respect. In 3 generations of his family (himself included), no-one's mail has failed to be delivered. He summons Holly who grabs the mail bags and jumps in the stagecoach.
After the stagecoach is gone, Poppy and Val congratulate each other for sending mail to everyone, then realize they accidentally sent one to Lownote himself for his own surprise party. They chase after the coach. Holly begins to hand out the envelopes to everyone as Gust drives the stagecoach, but the Country Trolls are stopped by Val and Poppy. Poppy explains the situation and goes to take it from the Funk bag, but Gust stops her. Gust explains that once he has handed the mail by the oath, he must deliver and there's nothing Poppy and Val can do, as he will stop at nothing to deliver the mail. Val tries to ask him to make an exception, but Gust will not as it will break the legacy of the mail Trolls before him.
Once he leaves, they know Lownote's party will be ruined the moment Lownote sees the invite, so the two put on bandit bandanas (color-coordinated with their outfits) and attempt to rob the stagecoach. They climb under the coach in a bid to wait until Gust's guard is down, but Holly suggests they take a shortcut in a field of Tickle Grass. As they pass the grass, it tickles Poppy and Val and they fall off in uncontrollable laughter. On a bridge, Poppy lets off fireworks to distract Gust and Holly while she steals the invitation. She steals the envelope, only to find that the invite she stole was a decoy so Gust could finish his delivery. Poppy notices the coach is heading for the Vibe Town Spaceship.
Poppy and Val ride Saddle Spiders after them. Upon spotting them, Gust and Holly take a detour through the Glitter Dodgeball tournament taking place in the south plains of Country Corral. The stagecoach cause Haystack Wiggins and Smidge to throw balls at each other prematurely and soon the tournament starts. As Val and Poppy chase the stagecoach, Holly hands out more invites. She is hit by a ball, and as per the rules of dodgeball she takes herself out of the game. Smidge aims at Val, but Val catches Smidge's ball, taking out Smidge. However, a ball hits her Saddle Spider and it takes itself out of the game. Poppy rides on and manages to stop Gust.
Gust begs Poppy not to take the invite for Lownote, but Poppy notes that means he has to get used to the idea of being the first Puffalo Express member to not complete his job. Poppy can't bring herself to let Gust fail, and hands back the mail. He completes his job and delivers the mail.
With the mail delivered, he turns around and says that now he is no longer "Gust the Deliveryman" he can help them get the invite back. Holly and Gust adorn bandanas and the four Trolls head back into Vibe Town to get the invite back.
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;Pop Trolls
*Amanda Leighton as Queen Poppy
*Kevin Michael Richardson as Smidge
;Rock Trolls
*Lauren Mayhew as Val Thundershock
*Charles DeWayne as Demo
;Funk Trolls
*Michael-Leon Wooley as Lownote Jones
;Country Trolls
*Megan Hilty as Holly Darlin'
*Eric Lopez as Gust Tumbleweed
*Matt Lowe as Haystack Wiggins
;Techno Trolls
*Synth (name and image only)
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*"Come Out On Top"
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*The Puffalo Express is based on the Pony Express.
*The episode is based on the "robbing a stagecoach" story trope of western films.
**Poppy and Val set off fireworks on a bridge, which is a nod to the trope of "blowing up a bridge with TNT".
**The bandit bandana that Poppy and Val adorn are a reference to the popular western attire that bandits wear.
**Haystack and Smidge mimic the "gun shot down" trope when they're seen channeling each other to go first. It was popular in gunslinging shootouts for two gunners in westerns to challenge each other. The two would stare each other down until one of the gunners gets the itch to shoot first. The other gunner then had to respond-shot at them. The quickest to draw was often depicted as the "winner" in such a match-up. To simply put it, the responding gunner gets their gun out faster, they shoot fast instead of the other gunner and therefore can respond to the other shooter's gunshot faster while preventing them firing first. If the first shooter gets their shot out first, the responding gunner loses the chance to counter them.
*"Funk years" is a reference to "dog years", the supposed age of a dog when scaled to that of a human, with 1 dog year being roughly equal to 7 human years.
*Gust is asked if he'd deliver the mail in "rain", "heat" and "Gloom of Night". This is a reference to the creed of the United States Postal Service; "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."
*Gust references that his father and grandmother were members of the Puffalo Express delivery service. This is just a nod to how families sometimes go into the same jobs generations after generations, and has been a gag in some popular media. For example in KindergardenCop, one of the most famous lines is also a nod to this gag, stating "My father was a cop... my brother was a cop... my mother was a cop's wife". The joke is supposed to represent how a certain job has been bred into the individual, and betrayal of the job is a matter of family pride and honor.
Category:Episodes
Category:Trolls: TrollsTopia episodes
Category:Country Trolls Story Arc Episodes
Category:TT Season 4 episodes
Category:2D animation