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Truck Stop Polly
When it comes to the central characters, the one who seems to have the least to talk about is Polly, at least when it comes to actual development. Despite the lack of development though, she’s entertaining and well-defined as she is. She’s got a lot of wit and aggression and lots of great and well-delivered one-liners all coming from such a small spherical creature. As entertaining as Polly is by herself though, character development is still very welcome for her. This cartoon is one to deliver on that, but at the same time, it’s not exactly the series’ best showing of character.
Though the adventurous and destructive side of Polly is what the show has mainly focused on, here there’s exploration of the fact that she’s still just a child. She sees the frightening scenery during the trip to Newtopia and actually feels intimidated. She does, however, have some ideas of how to counteract the fright by turning to the family like joining Hop Pop for story time and getting Anne and Sprig to give her a bath. It’s like she has a good mind for parenting even though she’s the one who needs it. However, she comes off as impulsive through not seeing that Hop Pop is too tired to read and Anne and Sprig are too busy with chores to tend to her. That’s not even mentioning her inconvenient desire for the static electricity-induced game of zap tag that makes a big mess and leaves everyone electrocuted.
The thing is that while this sequence shows Polly’s youthful mindset, it’s neglectful of her past mature moments and sense of reason. I just feel like she should know better than to get in the way like this. Plus, the rest of the Plantars come off as harsh too as their venting over Polly’s antics lead to Hop Pop feeling they should have left her back in Wartwood. For all that she caused, it’s very understandable for Polly to not take this well.
In line with her usual mind for mischief, she tries getting back at them with a trick by using what looks like a purple rock holding a door at a truck stop to put in her place. This allows her to sneak out successfully, though it isn’t part of the plan for the Plantars to be so convinced by the rock that they leave her behind.
After that, Polly is rightfully freaked out over being left behind, but adjusts fairly well to her apparent new home of the truck stop. It even comes with her amazed by how the patrons there are mature, intellectual, and sympathetic instead of gruff and aggressive as most would expect them to be.
The following conclusion is also fittingly endearing on many fronts. When Polly learns that the purple rock is actually an egg of a monster chicken creature set to devour the first frogs it sees after hatching. Upon hearing this, Polly instantly knows her family’s safety is more important than her grudge, so she’s quick to try and save them. In an exciting chase scene, her love of zap tag is put to good use as giving the monster chicken a big shock, and saving the Plantars.
Afterwards there’s a nice moment of reconciling as Polly comes clean for her faults, and her family shows their genuine love and care, regretting their earlier comment. They also determine that the reason for Polly’s behavior is because for all her independence, she’s still a child who needs love and attention. This smart realization gives the cartoon a nice conclusion with Polly’s long-desired story time, and offers something interesting to think about.
It’s still a tad concerning how much the maturity of characters fluctuates here, but for broadening personalities and having good heart, this cartoon is worth stopping for.
B+
A Caravan Named Desire
As a series goes on, it’s not surprising that some briefly mentioned or explored tidbits about characters become much more prominent. In this case, there have been a few mentions of Hop Pop wanting to be an actor, failing as an actor, having an interest in plays, and majoring in theater. These instances point to this being a huge part of his character despite, at this point, not getting a full exploration. That all changes with this cartoon to give Hop Pop’s actor aspirations some attention, though it doesn’t make for the most compelling story.
As the Plantar’s voyage takes them to a very dry swamp, they meet up with a travelling show caravan, a perfect circumstance for Hop Pop. It’s run by the eccentric showrunner, Renee Frodgers, who at first seems like a dynamic and highly enjoyable character, theatrical even. The energy to her line deliveries is simply a joy. Maybe it’s typical for theater director-type characters, but maybe that’s a personality always suited for success. However, like most directors, Renee is very judgmental, and it shows when Hop Pop tries out for the caravan, and despite his efforts, she’s quite unimpressed. Admittedly, it’s admirable that Hop Pop sticks around even after Renee rejects him. There’s even solid humor when he’s driven to give a longwinded rant against her thinking he’s not cut out for theater, and that leads Renee to change her mind.
You can imagine how rewarding it is for Hop Pop to actually live his dream, and a subsequent montage of him performing really captures that feel.
Then the cracks in the idealism of living the wildest dreams show as the caravan turns out to be a ploy to rob banks. There’s an interesting twist with Hop Pop finding this out almost immediately instead of at the end, and calls Renee out. This turns out to mean nothing when he’s easily convinced to keep on acting in the name of keeping the arts alive even though this shouldn’t even matter with this truth revealed. From that boneheaded move, Hop Pop’s acting dream loses a lot of appeal. Speaking a lack of appeal, this also applies to a subplot with Sprig wanting to befriend the kids in the caravan, specifically, a bigshot thespian named Francois. All throughout, Francois is stuck up and judgmental, putting down Sprig’s sincere attempts to befriend him with his acting. He’s so irritable that the audience has no good reason to root for Sprig to befriend him. Even when he does win him over out of genuine anger which Francois thinks is acting, it’s hardly convincing.
Oddly enough, Anne’s subplot with a puzzle feels the most compelling and consistently entertaining of the cartoon. She’s got a hilariously chaotic flashback of a play to use as a reason to not join the caravan; her anger spurts when her puzzle keeps getting messed up is funny; and even when frustrated, she’s impressively the most rational one in the group. Still, this subplot that mainly exists for gag purposes being the most entertaining of everything isn’t very helpful to the cartoon’s case. The conclusion is fitting with Hop Pop doing the right thing of calling out the robbery, complete with a fun action sequence to catch everyone. There’s also solid comedy of him and the rest of the family rushing away from the cops before they find out their involvement in the robbery.
While it is admirable that Hop Pop’s acting dreams are touched upon here, this final product does not leave strong impressions from exploring it. There isn’t even much of a payoff to it either as Hop Pop being an actor is once again hardly further explored afterwards. The cartoon is still good overall with good energy, solid laughs, and attempts at exploring characters, but other works of the series have been much better performances.
B+
Series Ranking
1.
Reunion
2.
Toad Tax
3.
Anne vs Wild
4.
The Domino Effect
5.
Prison Break
6.
Anne of the Year
7.
Contagi-Anne
8.
Best Fronds
9.
Family Shrub
10.
Hop-Popular
11.
Anne Hunter
12.
Wally and Anne
13.
Children of the Spore
14.
A Night at the Inn
15.
Handy Anne
16.
Lily Pad Thai
17.
Dating Season
18.
Anne or Beast?
19.
Combat Camp
20.
Cursed!
21.
Snow Day
22.
Civil Wart
23.
Stakeout
24.
Croak and Punishment
25.
Taking Charge
26.
Flood, Sweat, and Tears
27.
Bizarre Bazaar
28.
Trip to the Archives
29.
Anne Theft Auto
30.
Hop Luck
31.
Hop Pop and Lock
32.
Plantar’s Last Stand
33.
Fort in the Road
34. A Caravan Named Desire
35.
The Big Bugball Game
36.
Fiddle Me This
37. Truck Stop Polly
38.
Family Fishing Trip
39.
The Ballad of Hoppediah Plantar
40.
Girl Time
41.
Breakout Star
42.
Grubhog Day
43.
Cane Crazy
44.
Sprig vs Hop Pop
45.
Cracking Mrs. Croaker
