Grubhog Day
After building the world significantly, the tone shifts back to the episodic norm. In this case, there’s a fun atmosphere and the main conflict is relatable to anyone, but when driving home a basic message, it’s not exactly executed in the best way.
It’s a day of great fun in Wartwood all centering on a ritual where a creature called a grubhog comes out to predict the weather. However, what stands out the most is a carnival that the whole town enjoys immensely. As you could expect, young Sprig is extremely excited for the festivities, especially all the rides which I can totally relate to. However, upon learning that Hop Pop has signed him up to take care of the signature grubhog, Sprig has to miss the carnival. He could easily say that he doesn’t want to, but Hop Pop bringing up how doing this will make up for a past blunder a Plantar had with a grubhog is hard to ignore. Even harder is how proud he is when talking about Sprig being responsible through this act. It’s a very identifiable circumstance of being pressured into doing a task you don’t really want to do but are fearful of what could happen should you back out. Sprig is reasonably sympathetic in this regard, having to miss something he’s been looking forward to so suddenly and feeling unable to talk himself out of it.
Then comes Anne’s advice where she understands how he feels and offers good friendly support. Since all he has to do is watch the grubhog, he can just take it with him while enjoying the carnival. Now while this may go against traditional customs, in theory this does sound legitimately harmless. It really does get the job done no matter how leisurely it is. Basically, there should be little concern over this, and a montage of all the fun Sprig and Anne have at the carnival while watching the grubhog seems to prove this strategy productive. In fact, the plan only backfires over something they never could have seen coming. A faulty roller coaster causes the grubhog to fall out of the cart, and then it’s captured by a random bird. This is no doubt set up to teach the basic lesson of not bending the rules, but it doesn’t completely work. What caused Sprig to lose the grubhog had very little odds going in and isn’t even completely his fault. Also, what if the roller coaster didn’t have that bump in it and the bird didn’t show up? The message would be nonexistent by then.
Anyway, to cover the loss, Sprig has Anne pose as the grubhog using a sock puppet. Normally this would be an instance of people being too dense to see the obvious ruse, but Anne alluding the grubhog to a sock puppet earlier makes it work. The annual ceremony goes according to plan and no one suspects a thing. However it is contrived that Sprig ends up restoring the Plantar name right before the dark part of the ritual with the grubhog being cut open is announced. Wouldn’t it make more sense if the name was restored after the ritual was complete? It’s only then when Sprig comes clean about everything when the cutting is halted, and there is a good twist to the overall message. Hop Pop is actually sympathetic to Sprig and takes responsibility for putting so much pressure on him to look after the grubhog, which does feel warranted. That said, with the grubhog lost, I have to question how a sock puppet makes up for the ruined ritual. They still can’t predict the weather. At least things are resolved though. However, one last scene of the grubhog and the bird conspiring something feels like a waste as it sounds like it leads to something, but it ultimately doesn’t.
As
a result, this cartoon is solid fun if noticeably faulty and contrived.
B-
Hop Pop and
Lock
The main tone continues to veer in the simplistic direction with this cartoon, but it’s not without good charm, likability, and sense of fun. Plus, it gives nice humanity to the senior member of our main group.
Much of Hop Pop’s love life is revealed here when he meets an old flame from his past called Sylvia Sundew. She’s been out of town for a while, but has just recently returned, and she instantly has clear fondness for Hop Pop. It makes perfect sense as to why Hop Pop is smitten over her. Then it’s revealed that a dance is scheduled for the night which includes a competition to determine who has the best moves. As fate would have it, Hop Pop is approached by an old rival called Monroe, who has a history of upstaging him in everything. It would appear that he’s set on using the dance competition to steal Sylvia from Hop Pop, although I don’t see much threat in that. Sylvia clearly likes Hop Pop for who he is, meaning there’s very little chance that a single competition will change that.
Still, Hop Pop is very self-conscious and spends the rest of the cartoon doing whatever he can to improve his dance skills for Sylvia’s sake. This in turn brings on the highlight of the cartoon. Anne finds out about what Hop Pop is doing, and offers to teach him all she knows about dancing. It’s a charming instance of the new generation teaching customs to the old one, standing out with a human girl teaching a senior frog. The sequence is also very entertaining being backed by lively dance music and several high energy moves perfectly synced to what’s playing. You’re sure to get invested easily from the steps it takes to see Hop Pop understand the power of dance. Along with spirited interactions and chemistry from all the Plantars, this is nothing short of entertaining. In fact, it’s so fun that it overpowers the actual competition.
Hop Pop goes in with all the moves he learned, but Monroe upstages him effortlessly, making him feel like a cheap obstacle to show that he’s inexplicably better than him. He ultimately comes off as very one-dimensional and boring rival character. In the end though, Hop Pop does win over Sylvia in an… interesting way to say the least. During the dance training, he had an erratic way of doing free style, prompting Anne to dissuade from ever doing it again. However, in the name of expressing himself to Sylvia, he goes through with his mad take on free style anyway. Some moves are harmless, but for others, you get why the crowds are very disgusted. That said, it successfully wins over Sylvia who joins him. Again, there really wasn’t much doubt this would happen since she clearly liked Hop Pop for who he was to begin with. Either way, it’s satisfying to see Hop Pop win over Sylvia as the cartoon ends with a truly endearing dance scene.
There really isn’t much weight to the
conflict of this story with low stakes and everything ending as good as one
could easily expect. With a few
well-executed scenes though, it still leaves you feeling good.
B+
The Ranking
1. Toad Tax
2. Anne vs
Wild
3. The Domino
Effect
4. Prison
Break
5. Contagi-Anne
6. Best Fronds
7. Family
Shrub
8. Lily Pad
Thai
9. Dating
Season
10. Anne or
Beast?
11. Stakeout
12. Taking
Charge
13. Flood,
Sweat, and Tears
14. Anne Theft
Auto
15. Hop Luck
16. Hop Pop and
Lock
17. Plantar’s
Last Stand
18. Girl Time
19. Breakout
Star
20. Grubhog Day
21. Cane Crazy
22. Sprig vs
Hop Pop
The next Amphibia review features Sprig and Polly in an interesting take on sibling rivalry, and Hop Pop experiences the ways of politics by running for mayor.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "Adventures in the Elements", an episode of The Owl House well-suited for this festive time of year.
If you would like to check out other Amphibia reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
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