Sprig vs
Hop Pop
Of all the cartoons made to showcase the dynamic of the main family, this is among the most perplexing. In some ways it’s decently funny, but if you look at it as a legit story, it’s hard to take seriously mainly from its tendency of exacerbating established character traits.
On the Plantar family farm, the kids find the daily chores long and hard, and life not terribly exciting. There’s a barrel to hold suggestions, but then they find out that Hop Pop has set up a pit of fire to burn whatever is put in. This demonstrates the overbearingly strict side of Hop Pop where he doesn’t even bother listening to suggestions and feels they don’t know anything about running a farm. Sprig is the most disturbed by this reveal, and in some ways it’s hard to blame him. It’s true that kid suggestions do tend to be ignored, but these measures of flat out destroying anything suggested is going too far.
To settle this, Sprig initiates one of the odd Plantar family traditions by challenging Hop Pop to claim leadership of a farm. It involves the two contenders pushing each other off a lily pad into mud with them both wearing nothing but a loin cloth, however you may make of that. Despite Sprig never winning these battles, he somehow manages to pull off victory this time, and gets the leadership he was after. As for Hop Pop, he takes losing very poorly and flat out walks out on his family, opting to live amongst a pack of beetles. It’s truly hard to figure out what to make of this. I can’t tell whether to find this funny for Hop Pop being overly dramatic about this, or unbelievably petty all because he lost at something with him as sore.
As for Sprig, how he runs the farm is pretty fun to watch at first. Promising that no ideas are bad ones, he makes the farm perfectly fun and suitable for himself, Anne, and Polly. There’s endless parties, creative ways of getting chores done, a swimming pool, and more. This is all fun to watch, but it isn’t long before the story shows how his ideas of running a farm are ultimately flawed. He doesn’t tend to responsible matters like food, and all his ideas bring the farm to shambles. The kicker is that even as Anne and Polly show concern for the obvious problems, Sprig just brushes off these concerns saying everything’s fine when it clearly isn’t. I know Sprig is plucky and spontaneous, but this is too much. It’s hard to accept a story for being so dense, not to mention Sprig ignoring his own philosophies of no idea being a bad one. Hop Pop is convinced to return to retake control, not because of concerns for the farm, but because Sprig sleeps in his bed now. Again, is all of this funny or weak storytelling?
I will say that a part that isn’t weak is the
payoff. During another traditional
family brawl, Sprig and Hop Pop have a civil conversation where they admit that
they were both in the wrong. Sprig takes
a dive to put Hop Pop back in charge, and when back as leader, Hop Pop is more
considerate of suggestions. While the last
scene of him still burning suggestions the beetles give him does show he reads
them now and doesn’t reject them all, is it really the best conclusion? The ending is still satisfying enough, and I
can call this cartoon solid, but being fueled by dense character moments for
the majority does not do it many favors.
C+
Girl Time
In my experience of watching shows, it hasn’t been hard for me to see that no matter what a character’s gender, there’s constant variety in their personality or interests. Some can be action-oriented, fashionable, shy, temperamental, you name it. This is especially true for females, who are often subjected for being the same interest-wise. These days, with so many strong female cartoon characters, it’s clearer than ever that they are not always the same. However, even with these standards proven to be outdated, they’re what drive this cartoon’s entire conflict.
Now, Anne is very much a tomboy from what's been shown of her, but in struggling to adapt to a rural world of talking amphibians, cleanliness is a big part of her character too. For that, it makes sense that she’s disturbed by the gross things Sprig and Hop Pop do as pastimes, mainly spitting. The thing is, she’s not too disturbed that they’re gross, but that they’re typical mannerisms of males. That’s one of many unfortunate gender stereotypes many shows over the past few years have trumped, yet are now being exploited in this modern show. This brings a bit of discomfort and lack of credibility for the rest of the cartoon.
Since Polly has been living with these males and their gross tendencies all her life, even if she enjoys the spitting, Anne feels she desperately needs to be taken on girl time. This girl time consists of many fashionable activities most people assume that only appeal to females. There’s spa treatments, hair styling, fancy dresses, brunch of tea and biscuits, and more. All throughout, it’s clear that this cartoon is aware that not all girls love these things. Anne clearly enjoys these activities, but Polly, believing this girl time was going to be fun, feels persecuted. In fact, while Anne is clearly in the wrong, Polly’s reactions to all her plans practically make the cartoon.
The standout part is during a massage treatment where Anne gets a painful one due to her human anatomy handled by a frog, and Polly bails promptly.
However, it’s after this scene when things really go too far. Anne finds Polly doing another gross round of belching with One-Eyed Wally, chastises her, Polly protests, and Anne concludes that she’s trying to keep her from being a slob. That is a new low with a disturbing lack of acceptance, though thankfully Anne realizes this immediately. Another thing to the cartoon’s credit is how it showcases the Plantars’ reputation among the town. To pay for girl time, Anne takes much of Hop Pop’s I-Owe-You cards believing they can cover everything, but certain visual cues reveal this isn’t so. With how much of them Anne used, though it’s clear she never could have known the truth, the family is now in big trouble and doomed to do intense physical labor to pay the debt.
Then Anne notices a way out of this through getting Polly to beat a town spitting record. The earlier harsh words hold her back, but all it takes is Anne apologizing for Polly to let out the spittle needed to get the trophy and use its gold to cover everything. This is nice, but you have to wonder if it’s really ok that one conversation has Polly feel good about her true self again. Also the cartoon ends with a clear message that interests should never be subjected to one gender. That’s something I agree with, but again, in this age, this should have been obvious.
While an outdated mindset
drives everything, this cartoon’s character moments and general entertainment
make the experience good enough as it is.
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. Girl Time
10. Breakout
Star
11. Cane Crazy
12. Sprig vs
Hop Pop
No comments:
Post a Comment