You may know that this blog has recently started a new custom
of looking into two very recent animated series in-between looks at older ones,
both coming from Disney. Well this
review set officially begins a look at the other show I was referring to. It’s only over a year old, and it’s proven
to be highly astounding as a quality animated series with a frankly very
creative premise:
Amphibia (Season 1)
Basic Premise
To me, a telling sign of a great animated series
is how imaginative its setup is. It’s a
sure way to see the potential of the people behind it and what they can bring
to the medium that can make literally anything happen.
All of this applies to how enticing Amphibia
seems to be just from a description of what it’s all about.
It’s all about a girl named Anne Boonchuy who’s transported
to a world inhabited by talking frogs and other amphibians. While trying to find a way home, her time
mainly consists of adventures with the various characters she meets. Most of them are shared with the family she
stays with, the Plantars. There’s Sprig, a plucky innocent adventurous kid, Hop
Pop, the parental guardian always keeping order, and Polly, a loud aggressive
character in the form of a cute little tadpole.
Together, they find great excitement whether it’s running into frightening
creatures, venturing to interesting locations, or interacting with the citizens
of their hometown, Wartwood. With all of
this in mind, you can probably suggest that this series is largely character
driven brimming with personality. In my
experience, large emphasis on characters is key to a memorable experience, and with these various personalities and adventures, this show
already has a big selling point.
In addition to the prospect of a promising cast, the appeal
of this series is also telling of how it easily rolls with its concept. A show about a world of talking frogs is
certainly unusual and doesn’t even sound like something that would attract
large audiences, let alone of all ages.
However, just from the theme song, it’s impressive how far it goes with
the craftsmanship of the series and its unique world. The frogs themselves have vibrant designs and
colors. The environment is perfectly
suited to the series, from the plants and foliage suitable for amphibian
habitats, to giant monsters based on their natural predators. There’s a constant feeling of blue-green to highlight a frog’s pond or swamp throughout the entire visual
aesthetic. It’s factors like these that
allow this animated series to immerse itself in its frankly strange theme
which also makes the likes of Anne, our main protagonist, stand out in the
crowd. As a few extra touches, this show
is sure to reach out to all kinds of audiences with a promising female
protagonist who’s also a good advocate for Thai culture. Not to mention, it’s got the talent to really bring
this potential to life with its creator, Matt Braly, having impressive past
animation credits, and the timeless support of Disney guiding the way.
So, Amphibia seems
to have the makings of a solid animated series. To see if it lives up to the potential, sit
back and enjoy these reviews of the cartoons of its first season. Ribbit! Ribbit! Jump on in it!
Now on with the reviews:
Anne or Beast?
So the series begins with an introduction not just to the major players and the principal setting, but the basic tone. Put together, that’s pretty solid.
At first, there’s a suggestion of a dark element with shots of a scary forest at night filled with threatening creatures experienced by a frog going about his business. One of those supposed creatures is the main drive of this story. After this, things become lighter with the appearance of the main Wartwood residents, the Plantars. Right away, they show great entertainment together. Sprig has a relatable desire to be responsible, but also comes off as amusing with excitable line deliveries and energy that clearly needs control. The other Plantars, Hop Pop and Polly, serve as fitting foils to Sprig’s hyperactivity. Hop Pop is stern and parental, while Polly is loud and authoritarian which is funny coming from a a creature as small and spherical as her.
Working off of the earlier forest scene, a few other Wartwood citizens are solidly introduced. The frog who saw the strange creature, One-Eyed Wally, is the town fool who really sells his role with a talent for the accordion and thick accent standing out from everyone else. When he reports his sightings of a beast, there’s an introduction to Mayor Toadstool. He’s a clearly self-centered leader ready to take drastic measures more for power than care for his people. Given his desire to be responsible, Sprig is eager to search for this beast despite Hop Pop convincing him to stay put. After taking care of Polly by giving into her childish weakness of candy, Sprig sneaks into the woods where he finds the reported beast.
This brings us to our main protagonist, Anne, who for a human teen, becomes quite interesting within this world. Through her apparel of a battered school uniform and twigs and leaves that seem to stay in her hair, Anne sells the concept of a human lost in the woods. Still, she and Sprig are quick to form a pleasing dynamic. Even through Sprig’s eccentricities and Anne unsure if she can trust him, they get along well. As Anne explains her situation of being stuck in this world, you really feel like they’re connecting.
In fact, when the town finds her and Sprig and captures Anne, it feels like forced drama when Anne feels Sprig set her up when capturing was not on his mind. It doesn’t even last long when Sprig soon proves his friendship to Anne by helping her fend off a predatory creature, a giant praying mantis. The crowd is still too dense to see Anne as more than a beast, but Sprig firmly establishes a huge leap towards responsibility. He stands up to everyone, pushing them to help Anne instead of antagonize her. Only his family supports his actions, but it’s still rewarding that they see benefits in his action.
Finally, the true tone of the series is established. You'd think this is just going to be about adventures with monsters and dark forests happening while Anne tries to find a way out of this world back home. However, with the passage out of the world unsafe and a magic music box that brought Anne here ineffective, she has to live with the Plantars for the time being. In other words, this show is going to be as much about family life with Anne and her surrogate frog family as it is about her story of getting home.
On the whole, this cartoon gets the series off to a great start with
emphasis on not just its imaginative world, but its figuratively and literally
colorful cast as well.
A
Best Fronds
While the series premiere was a solid introduction to the
major characters, this cartoon is where the audience officially starts to get
to know them.
Out of them all, Anne easily gets the deepest insight when it comes to
not just how she got to Amphibia, but also where her character flaws come from.
A flashback that starts the cartoon gives a basic explanation of how she ended up in this situation. At first you suggest a shadiness to her as it’s shown that she got the music box that transported her to Amphibia by shoplifting it from a thrift store. However, she’s watched the whole time by her human friends, Sasha and Marcy, suggesting that maybe this was their idea, but still not being clear. For that, when the focus shifts to the present with Anne living with the Plantars, she obtains the audience’s sympathy. She laments about being away from her home, especially since she’s separated from her friends, without whom she clearly feels lost.
This brings on the heart and genuineness of her new friendship with Sprig. He aims to make Anne feel less homesick through what this strange new world has to offer. Upon Anne mentioning that one of the things she and her friends used to do was hang out at the beach, Sprig decides to take Anne out for a day at the local lake. Hop Pop forbids it, feeling that Wartwood still needs time to get used to Anne, but that sentiment doesn’t hold much power for long. Anne and Sprig manage to sneak the key to the house lock when Hop Pop’s not looking with Anne’s claim that friends help other friends get what they want guiding the way. This is clearly unethical and a strong basis of everything Anne will need to work through for successful character development.
For her sake, everything that follows as she and Sprig head to the lake offer welcome progress of that. They arrive to find a danger sign which, according to Sprig, was not present the last time he was there. While advocating to just ignore the sign, Anne subtly hints to her role in the music box theft through giving examples of how friends help other friends get what they want. Among them is stealing such a music box from a thrift store even if you really don’t want to. This more or less reveals that Anne is not bad at heart, but merely a pushover driven by fear of losing her only friends, thus making her more endearing. As for Sprig, he shows a sense of awareness of danger from the sign, making him uneasy about the lake. Then you consider his own background on how he’s never had friends of his own before Anne mainly because of his established eccentricities.
This gives believable weight to go back on his fears and jump in the lake to make Anne happy and keep her as a friend. There’s a collection of fun scenes that capture the feel of such a setting and bring an innocent feel as well as appeal in this friendship.
Soon there
turns out to be a good reason for the danger sign when Anne and Sprig run into
a giant water snake. In a legitimately
dangerous situation come healthy developments for both of them. Anne realizes the fault in her mindset of
friends existing to get what others want, and Sprig has another good instance
of resourcefulness in taking care of the snake. Sprig’s moment also has a touch
of cleverness by referencing an earlier gag with really hot peppers, ultimately benefitting the appeal of the series.
With Anne and Sprig safe and them coming home before Hop Pop
notices they’re gone, it seems like a simple end to a simple story. Then the deeper side of the series’ tone
makes itself known with the true last scene of the cartoon. It’s a short scene in a dark environment with
red lighting, contrasting with the cooler more inviting feel of Wartwood. Within a prison tower, there’s a foreboding
authoritarian toad interrogating a prisoner holding a shoe, the one Anne is
missing, which reveals there are other humans present.
The prisoner he interrogates happens to be one of Anne’s human friends,
Sasha. That’s all there is to the scene,
but while it’s short, it’s very telling of deeper things to come in the series
amidst light-hearted adventures.
In the end, this cartoon perfectly demonstrates what we’ll be
getting into with this show. The
characters have layers to their background, refreshing development, and genuine
likability, and the storytelling successfully pulls off fun activities and deep
foreshadowing. It’s a formal introduction
to how great this show is destined to be.
A+
The Ranking
1. Best Fronds
2. Anne or
Beast?
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