Hop Luck
I’m personally always down for sharing favorite passions with other people, so it’s particularly pleasing that such a concept happens a lot in this series. With the emphasis on the fact that Anne is a total outsider within a world of talking frogs, lots of stories are mined out of her introducing her human customs to said world. This cartoon provides one of the earliest examples, and stands out as endearing with its heart in the family dynamic.
There’s an annual potluck contest in Wartwood where the residents prepare dishes and compete to find out which is the tastiest. For the Plantar family, they have a history of making particularly unappetizing food for the potluck, which means they always lose. Not only that, but they’re always put in a cage that’s practically built on shame. With Anne in their lives now, they have a chance at actually winning for once. She does show arrogance when Hop Pop mentions his philosophy on following traditions within his family cookbook, and she simply responds that “old things are dumb.” However, she still has the right frame of mind to think that a strong winning contender would be something revolutionary to this frog world. That very dish is something very common to the human world, pizza, and just from young Sprig and Polly’s reaction to a food they don’t know, you can tell it has potential.
With that, the cartoon becomes a search for pizza ingredients highlighted by several delightful moments between Anne and the Plantars. A lot of them are demonstrative of the show’s emphasis on comedy. Some laughs come from character interactions like when Anne suddenly snaps into a sinister demeanor when Sprig mentions putting pineapple on the pizza for a few seconds. There are also quick remarks to when they get cheese from resident senior, Mrs. Croaker, and Anne immediately quips for her to not say where it comes from. Unfortunate implications are also humorously staged like when Sprig is forced into an arranged marriage with a dark girl called Maddie Flour so the family can get dough. The lines, their deliveries, and the clash between innocence and creepiness sell the humor even though Anne saying pizza’s worth costing Sprig’s happiness feels wrong. Even things we don’t see like how they get basil is funny for how much they point out how difficult it was afterwards.
Then humor is balanced out somewhat when Anne and the Plantars try to get tomatoes, which are rare to Wartwood for being guarded by a giant tomato monster. They approach said monster and quickly discover a new meaning of killer tomatoes as it eats them and they lose the ingredients they worked so hard to get. In a moment of danger, there’s room for consideration as Anne discusses how she really wanted to bond with the Plantars by sharing pizza with them, which is so relatable. So to have her see sense in her philosophies, she allows Hop Pop’s traditions to save them all. As a bonus, his cookbook notes help destroy the monster, leaving all the tomatoes they could ask for in its place.
Old and new traditions are
combined for the Plantars’ final potluck entry, and it turns out to be the best
dish they made. However, this praise
only builds the family up to bring them down as their food is still deemed
disgusting, which puts them in the shame cage once again. Anne joining them adds heart, but
the town throwing shame nuggets at them kind of quashes it. This and other moments aside, this cartoon
has enough charm in family bonding to make it enjoyable.
A-
Stakeout
At first glance at the premise of this show, you’d think that it would be all about Anne and her adventures with Sprig. However, the truth is that while he may be her main companion in this frog world, the heart is actually her relationship with all the Plantars. This is actually more beneficial to her development, for with more characters to bond with, the more she can learn about what to find in a true friend.
This time, she’s given a much needed chance to bond with the authority figure of the Plantar family, Hop Pop. The cartoon opens with a routine of them arguing about things with Anne saying how things are done where she’s from, and Hop Pop saying how they were done in his day. The line deliveries and wit to each aggressive statement are what make their fights actually enjoyable, which they wouldn’t be in most cases. Still, their constant fighting is understandably concerning to those who have to listen. By that, the one really affected by the arguments is Sprig who fears they’ll tear the family apart. Despite Polly’s nonchalant yet logical reasoning that Anne and Hop Pop are just getting used to each other, Sprig takes action and pits them both in a situation to help them bond. He spots that some of the family’s corn has been stolen, and Anne and Hop Pop are the only ones responsible enough to try and catch the thief in a stakeout. It’s only immediately after they leave when Polly points out that Sprig stole the corn and effortlessly settling the mystery, another demonstration of this show’s comedy.
As for the stakeout itself, the experience is complicated for Anne and Hop Pop, meaning that it’s neither completely good nor completely bad for them. At first they’re at odds, arguing over who’s going to be most awake and show pride in the drinks they’re going to take to stay up. Then they grab the other person’s drink, both of which they find unappetizing. This leads into a moment of sympathy when Anne says how much she misses her home and wonders if she’ll ever get back, and Hop Pop comforts her. The moment shows that Anne is capable of bonding with elders. However, the positivity takes an unfortunate turn when she just has to say something to make the situation all about her, and Hop Pop becomes offended.
The animosity doesn’t last too long as the cartoon goes in a more creative route with both Anne and Hop Pop developing hallucinations from each other’s interdimensional drinks. It’s a classic and pleasing way of allowing the animation crew to express the wild side of their imaginations. Out of this are memorable off-the-wall designs like Hop Pop with a tea kettle head, Anne with rainbow hair, and both of them performing all sorts of magic spells. That said, I have to wonder how they can think they can do this when they know these are all hallucinations. Plus, Anne will have beverages from this world a lot, so it doesn’t make sense that she’d get this way from Hop Pop’s tea.
Either way, when Sprig goes out to force
bonding even further and Polly tries to stop him, there’s a wild comedy of
errors as Anne and Hop Pop think they see the corn thief. It’s practically a comedic highlight when in
their hallucinated minds, the frightening corn creature breaks down begging for
mercy. After that, they find out what’s
going on and complement each other’s efforts.
Maybe it’s not the most genuine way to bond, but we can at least say
they’re on good terms. Ultimately, while
things don’t always make sense, with an emphasis on comedy and imagination,
you’ll have a good time with this bonding cartoon.
A
The Ranking
1. Best Fronds
2. Anne or
Beast?
3. Stakeout
4. Flood,
Sweat, and Tears
5. Hop Luck
6. Cane Crazy
No comments:
Post a Comment