Children of
the Spore
Here’s another instance where a story’s subject matter is a simple life occurrence with a touch of dark mystical elements. In addition, it’s highlighted by one of this show’s most well-rounded takes on the dynamic of the main family.
Hop Pop is the focus as is his challenges as a parental figure, only they’re more leisurely than average here. He’s trying to put together a model ship that he treasures so much, but he faces many difficulties all through the process. Anne, Sprig, and Polly are constantly acting rowdy by playing around when Hop Pop is working, getting in the way of his progress. While it is nice that they balance out their excitable energetic tendencies with sympathy when they get too much in the way of Hop Pop’s work, they’re still too much for him.
His ship under too much threat of getting wrecked, he soon gets a chance to get his kids under control. By chance, Hop Pop comes across a figure called Apothe-Gary, a frog with a giant glowing mushroom on his head, who gives him something to force the kids into obedience. By rubbing glowing spores onto their foreheads, they’re said to take away their will and involuntarily adhere them to whatever Hop Pop wants. From the sound of Gary’s name, the suspicious looking mushroom, and the idea of taking away free will, this sounds like a bad idea.
Once again balancing things out, the perspective shows Hop Pop feeling uneasy about going through with it. All it takes for him to support the decision though is another almost instant example of the kids being rowdy no matter what the circumstance. So the spores are applied, and their effects are realized. Anne, Sprig, and Polly are reduced to mindless zombies with big glowing eyes and never speak for themselves except to affirm that they heard Hop Pop’s orders. They also don’t experience genuine emotion whenever they do things like go out and play. In other words, this is a very freaky turn of events, but that’s kind of to be expected when dealing with artifacts from such a shady dealer. This doesn’t faze Hop Pop though since he has all the peace he needs to actually finish his ship. Still, he has sense in not wanting to go through with it again once the spores ware off. Then the kids just have to go back to their reckless tendencies to push him to take a will again.
However, infect them twice, and it’s all downhill for Hop Pop from there. The kids become locked in full zombie mode and trapped in a cult, now sprouting mushrooms of their own. Speaking of mushrooms, this was all part of a plan by Apothe-Gary to spread his spores and create his own zombie army. At this point though, it becomes too far-fetched that he was easily able to reach out to much of Wartwood’s populace. There’s no way they could all want to be under control the way Hop Pop wanted his kids under control.
At least the intended
scary atmosphere is nailed as Hop Pop finds himself surrounded by the zombie
army trying to infect him. To get out of
this, there’s a creative solution where Hop Pop gets creative and uses Bessie’s
appetite to eat the glowing mushrooms, save everyone, and beat
Apothe-Gary. He and his kids then
reconcile, both understanding their faults in the matter, though there’s humor
in how Hop Pop went even further than the wreckers of his ship. But, to keep the atmosphere going, we end
with one small hint of the spores still being out there. Nothing has come of this to date, but what is
present for this cartoon as it is still impresses with world building, storytelling, and
especially characterization.
A
Anne of the
Year
While the series may intend for the audience to want Anne to
find a way home, it seems just as convincing that she’s forged a good new life
in this frog world. This can be felt in
her growth amongst the community she landed in.
She was viewed as a strange beast when she first came, but then she
proved herself as loyal and brave in the face of danger, earning her the
respect of the majority. Now her status
reaches new heights with an event set to honor the Frog of the Year.
This is a social event where the town votes on which citizen best represents the virtues of being a civilian. As a turn of events, Anne is this year’s big winner, and she doesn’t even have to be a frog biologically. The usual winner, Mayor Toadstool is particularly shocked by this, saying that the Frog of the Year should be the most selfless citizen. Given his general character, he really has no right to be saying this, but his complaints on the matter soon get to Anne. It’s just as surprising to her as it is to the mayor that she was given this honor, and the pressure is on her even more when she learns she’s assigned to throw a big party for the town.
What should be a reasonably fun affair is then morphed into a task for Anne to really prove she deserves what she’s gotten. Instead of following her own interests, she goes along with a pre-established plan of standards that suggest the perfect party. In a smart move, this misguided approach doesn’t go too far immediately. While things like Hop Pop coming up with a good comedy routine and Sprig confessing his feelings to Ivy Sundew as a spectacle come with challenges, she’s reasonably patient. Then the lack of progress along with more critical snipes from Mayor Toadstool push Anne to get all edgy with her plans, no longer viewing this as a fun affair. Her aggressive pushes towards her adoptive family’s routines along with more extreme amenities like exotic food, complex dances, and a chocolate fountain reflect this state of mind.
The resulting party is one that looks exciting and glamorous, but on the inside, it’s a big mess trying way too hard to please everyone. The huge bravado going into Anne’s requests is its undoing as the entertainment fails to please and the décor causes a huge fire. In keeping Anne honorable, she recognizes her faults in the matter early into the party, and sets out to fix it. Maturely accepting Mayor Toadstool’s help, they're an effective team in saving the partygoers and using the chocolate fountain to put out the fire.
Everyone’s safe, but Anne is left feeling down about how everything went, understandably believing she never deserved the honor of Frog of the Year. That said, I wouldn’t agree with her being ‘selfish’ here because she did have good intentions to convince everyone they voted for the right figure. She was misguided for sure, but selfish is going too far. Her claims are then followed up on by a statement from Hop Pop that perfectly explains why she was named Frog of the Year. It’s not about how perfect she is, but rather how much she’s grown and changed ever since she came to this world. That says a lot on how people in general should be viewed. Flawlessness is hard, almost impossible to come by, but how we develop good virtues and learn to never lose sight of them is what deserves the real praise. That’s honestly very heartfelt and meaningful, and it’s a good basis for how things conclude for this cartoon.
The party’s reasonably
salvaged, the Mayor becomes genuinely humble and acceptable of Anne, and Sprig and Ivy
more or less get together naturally. Yet,
there’s still something huge to raise the stakes for next time when Anne is
called to a bridge to meet someone claiming to be a friend. As it turns out, it’s Sasha finally having
found her old friend and sporting the uniform of a revered commander. There’s adorable excitement from these two
reuniting. However, when it’s revealed that she’s brought a toad army with her,
that’s when you know something huge is to come from her sudden arrival in
Wartwood.
This cartoon is charming enough in how it shows that even if
Anne isn’t perfect, how far she’s come as an individual and friend to others is
worthy of praise. With the new
beginnings it brings to certain elements and how it sets up the next and last
entry for Season 1 though, it stands as a particularly impressive penultimate
work.
A+
The Ranking
1. Toad Tax
2. Anne vs
Wild
3. The Domino
Effect
4. Prison
Break
5. Anne of the
Year
6. Contagi-Anne
7. Best Fronds
8. Family
Shrub
9. Hop-Popular
10. Wally and
Anne
11. Children of
the Spore
12. A Night at
the Inn
13. Lily Pad
Thai
14. Dating
Season
15. Anne or
Beast?
16. Combat Camp
17. Cursed!
18. Snow Day
19. Civil Wart
20. Stakeout
21. Croak and
Punishment
22. Taking
Charge
23. Flood,
Sweat, and Tears
24. Bizarre
Bazaar
25. Trip to the
Archives
26. Anne Theft
Auto
27. Hop Luck
28. Hop Pop and
Lock
29. Plantar’s
Last Stand
30. The Big
Bugball Game
31. Fiddle Me
This
32. Family
Fishing Trip
33. Girl Time
34. Breakout
Star
35. Grubhog Day
36. Cane Crazy
37. Sprig vs
Hop Pop
38. Cracking
Mrs. Croaker
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