Anne Theft
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There’s a lot of promise for fun when the subject of a story is going out for a drive, especially when the drive itself goes the extreme route, figuratively and literally. A thrill-seeking nonconformist like Anne is sure to bring such a ride when given the chance, which is what this cartoon is all about.
As it turns out, Hop Pop does believe that she’s the most capable of driving the Plantar’s snail which functions as their mode of transport, Bessie. However, he insists that Anne needs to read up on the snail before she even attempts it, and reading up on it comes with an overly extensive manual on this creature. Just from the look at the manual, Anne is instantly not keen on research, believing that all she needs to learn all there is to driving Bessie is experience.
On that note, she sets out to go about experience by taking Bessie for a joy ride while Hop Pop is busy. The idea of driving a creature as strange as a giant snail, as well as the fact that Anne is only 13, are enough reasons to see this as a bad idea. That makes it hard to fully go along with Anne coaxing Sprig to go along with this forbidden drive. Still, there’s solid fun throughout the joy ride from Sprig’s sudden burst of road rage when they pass elder frog, Sadie Croaker, and the adrenaline rush when taking Bessie off-roading. This is the most exciting the drive gets, and it only lasts about a minute, for when Anne decides it’s time to go back to on-roading, Bessie goes into her shell and refuses to move. That there is the consequence for Anne not doing proper research as nothing she thinks up is able to solve the problem.
While what happens next isn’t as fun as a wild ride, it’s still rewarding on both Anne and Sprig’s ends. Sprig gets more humor driven moments as he has Mrs. Croaker drive him home to get Hop Pop, and he stressfully deals with her dawdling, maybe deliberately from his road rage. As for Anne, she gets a major step in maturity while staying with Bessie. Without anything to do to keep herself busy, she lets her stubborn guard down and reads her manual. Over time, she grows to understand Bessie’s history, connection with Hop Pop, and how noble the snail truly is. It’s debatable if one can take it completely seriously considering how over-the-top her crying over the history is, but you can’t deny the benefits from her actually reading.
She finds the solutions to the issue by reading up on why Bessie hid in her shell, how to escape her hedgehog predators, and how to get her to really speed up. Ultimately, Anne turns out to be a really accomplished snail driver from both experience and research. She even takes to Bessie’s manual so much that she stays up all night reading the rest of it, and she never has to tell Hop Pop what she did. That said, staying up all night reading does make her close the cartoon in a crazed manner with Hop Pop’s only response being a single blunt statement that he doesn’t feel safe. That statement, by the way, is actually a very good way to describe the year of this written review, 2020.
While this cartoon about a drive
might not be the most exciting, it stands out for the few bits of fun it does
have, and how much the featured characters grow from it.
A-
Breakout
Star
Strange exotic creatures living in a world of a completely different species is often bound to come with uncertainty and struggle of acceptance. With Anne being a human in a world of frogs, as you can tell, she’s the one who has to deal with these things in this case. However, this cartoon is about her getting past the disdain of the world around her with something as frivolous as her appearance.
She wakes up one morning to discover that she has pimples, and it may just be how the show’s designed, but they’re very profound in appearance. As what is expected from a teen, Anne is outraged by these marks of puberty, and worries that it will only worsen the town’s perception of her, as they already consider her a monster. However, since her pimples are like warts which are very common to frogs, everyone suddenly loves her and showers her with praise because of her appearance.
I could call out Anne’s sudden rise to fame for being based on something so petty and meaningless which is certainly not good for the main environment, but somehow it works. As frivolous as this turn of events is, there’s a lot of satisfaction from Anne being hailed as a celebrity at all given the discourse she’s had to put up with for being different. She’s even considerate enough to share her affluent gifts with the Plantars.
However, her adoptive frog family ends up unfairly getting the shaft when Anne is appointed by Mayor Toadstool. He plans on allowing her even more gifts and special treatment all in the name of boosting his own public image for the upcoming election, typical for corrupt politicians. All the while, the Plantars prepare themselves for the expected outcome of Anne’s newfound fame changing her into a big shot who’s too good to be with commoners like them. They later find Anne in a luxurious room in town hall following a long list of celebrity assignments, and as they fear, she does seem to be far too involved with her high life. Still, she does appear to be on friendly terms with them, and her reasons for pushing them out are fair, but there is a bit of a point to the Plantars' disappointment. Nevertheless, they agree that it’s best to support Anne no matter how the fame is changing her.
However, her cause for fame soon disappears when she later discovers her face is all cleared up, and she’s doomed to lose what she’s gained because of this. While there’s promise for even more harm to this setup, what’s endearing is Anne’s ties to the frogs who really matter to her. The Plantars are quick to come help her, and Hop Pop is even willing to take the heat of a mob as he distracts them with Anne’s only shoe. The moment’s staged as a big sacrifice, but he’s clearly fine and did what he did to allow time for Sprig and Polly to use berries in place of Anne’s pimples. Anne’s heart wins out in all this too, for when told that siding with the mayor from now on means she can never be seen with the Plantars again, she reveals her face to be cleared. As expected, the town is no longer impressed with her due to this frivolous reason, but the overall ending is satisfying anyway. They show more disdain at a bigger insult with the mayor calling them idiots, and Anne and the Plantars, the frogs that actually matter, get a little more time to enjoy Anne’s riches.
So while this story is fueled by unfortunate
tones and expected story beats, there’s good heart from where things really
count to keep it enjoyable.
B-
The Ranking
1. The Domino
Effect
2. Best Fronds
3. Anne or
Beast?
4. Stakeout
5. Taking
Charge
6. Flood,
Sweat, and Tears
7. Anne Theft
Auto
8. Hop Luck
9. Breakout
Star
10. Cane Crazy
