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Little Frogtown
Even with a main plot and specific goals, this show likes to devote significant time to standalone self-contained stories. They’re not always the show at their best, but some still make for strong experiences. Through exploring unusual genres to the show while enhancing them with the charms of the featured characters, this cartoon turns out to be one of those highlights.
Continuing the Plantars’ stay in Newtopia, Hop Pop leads everyone to a secluded area of the city with a strong connection to the past. Since the past is something Hop Pop’s been known to cherish, it’s easy to predict this is a place he’s anxious to visit, even if the kids don’t share his excitement. In this part of Newtopia is an old sandwich shop run by Hop Pop’s old friend, Sal. Hop Pop has nothing but respect for Sal’s traditional ways of sandwich-making especially the sauce he uses for them. Now that Sal has a shop in Newtopia, Hop Pop has a chance to see how his old friend’s business has been doing in such a large city. When he enters the shop, it’s in complete shambles with only Sal’s old fedora left behind.
This is where the cartoon officially gets very interesting as Hop Pop dons the discarded fedora and his inner thoughts suddenly start narrating. In other words, the cartoon goes into full on detective mode and takes full advantage of the different aesthetic. Everything goes black and white, the narration becomes a prominent driving factor to the point where Hop Pop questions some of its claims, and the places he explores have a lot of class. All Hop Pop has as a lead is a note telling Sal to bring his special sauce, suggesting he’s been captured and held for ransom. He finds himself at a fancy gala party where he poses as a busboy to get more information on the sauce, is quickly exposed of in the dumpster, and finds a big clue about Sal there.
Like a good detective story, all these scenes serve a purpose in building to the conclusion that leads Hop Pop to a factory that mass produces Sal’s sauce. This doesn’t sit well with Hop Pop as it goes against Sal’s alleged beliefs in tradition. There’s even a boost in intensity from this discovery when Hop Pop is discovered by the floor manager, there’s a scuffle, and it ends with the floor manager falling into a vat of sauce. It can only be assumed that this means an onscreen death, meaning this show has really developed an edge with its storytelling.
It’s after this when Hop Pop is brought to the manager who turns out to be Sal. This means that everything Hop Pop saw from the rundown shop to mass producing the sauce and selling it to the gala were all intentional from his old friend. However, there’s an endearing talk of how sometimes breaking from tradition is necessary to survive in a business-sense, but the spirit of the past can still be brought along. Even nicer is that even an old traditionalist like Hop Pop understands this. The wholesome feel is slightly undercut with a reminder of a body in that sauce vat though, but the whole cartoon is still a solid take on the detective genre. It’s got just the right aesthetic and systematic storytelling, but also enhances itself with unique comedic touches. The many narration gags and cuts of a subplot of the kids waiting to get into an arcade with Anne breaking down over line-cutters really make things stand out. Plus, they both come together in the end with Hop Pop meeting up with the kids while giving the most self-aware comment to the narration.
This story might not have the most weight to the series, but it’s still a memorable experience.
A
Hopping Mall
For a city built up to be such a huge location, Newtopia for the most part has been used for more episodic plots with very little bearing on what’s truly relevant. Going into this cartoon, the setup feels like it’s going to be more of the same, but it turns out to hold pleasant surprises of solid character development and even strong use of emotion.
At the start, the audience is set to see this cartoon as just a simple story of the Plantars shopping for souvenirs at Newtopia’s big mall. Looking at that simple premise though, each member of the family has their own approach to the setup. Hop Pop is instantly won over by an expensive massage chair he tries out, ultimately breaking his own advice by paying for it with the royal credit card instead of haggling for it. The kids’ shopping turns out to be more substantial though with Sprig looking for something to commit to his romance with Ivy Sundew; while Polly changes the status quo by haggling for a chauffer snail just for her named Micro-Angelo.
Then there’s Anne, whose shopping is the most central to the story and is easily the most endearing. She’s aiming to get a nice gift for her mom as a way to make up for being away from her in another dimension for months on end. Right away, there’s very strong heart radiating from this objective that both touches upon the implications of Anne’s situation, and of course is full of strong love for family. The heart builds even more as the story progresses with Anne looking for the perfect gift. A lot of it comes from her knowing her mom well enough to easily remember her biggest interests, butterflies, tea, and famous artists. This is something that should not only make gift finding much easier, including in real life, but is also demonstrative of genuine care for a person in question.
Anne is fortunate enough to find a gift that relates to all her mom’s interests; a butterfly-themed teapot made by a famous artist. To get it, she has to win it in the mall’s annual derby of shopping carts. Anne is up for the challenge, but to not make things so simple, she soon meets the biggest competitor of the derby. She’s Priscilla, a tough, gruff muscular-looking newt who’s been the derby champion for 20 years. In accordance with her disposition and appearance, she’s aggressive towards Anne daring to challenge her and get the teapot, and comes off as a genuine threat.
Interestingly, despite what her appearance suggests, the directions taken with Priscilla are oddly endearing. For one thing, she has a young daughter named Pearl, and the two are clearly very close and loving. Pearl even has legit concern for her mom, worrying about her exacerbating her apparent tail injuries during the derby.
Speaking of the derby, it’s as thrilling an action scene as one could imagine with dynamic staging of shopping carts smashing each other. Though things get particularly intense between Anne and Pricilla, both of them are equally scared of hitting Polly and Micro-Angelo who stumble onto the arena path. This shows that they’re both on equal moral ground, with Priscilla especially putting in the effort to stop herself, even with her injuries. Anne still takes the opportunity to win over her in the derby, but the show of character is very pleasing nonetheless, and it doesn’t stop there.
After Anne is awarded the teapot, Priscilla tells her she hopes Anne keeps it safe to honor the newt who made it. In fact, Priscilla notes several key details about the teapot’s artist, mainly how it was the last thing she ever created. Putting everything together, Anne can tell this newt was Priscilla’s mom. Sensing and understanding the desire to feel closer to a mother who’s no longer around, Anne lets Pricilla keep the teapot and its memories. Anne does get something smaller to compensate, but the little gift of a simple butterfly carving made by Pearl has enough of her mom’s interests to be the perfect gift. Really, the whole character exchange here could be the cartoon’s highlight of heart, but amazingly, that's not all.
In the last moments of the cartoon, the entire series reaches what can be seen as its true emotional peak at this time. Anne and Sprig find themselves outside at night looking up at the stars, with Anne especially having a lot on her mind as she caresses the butterfly carving. Sprig asks her what her mom is like, and Anne describes her as a kind and loving woman in spite of some pet peeves like strictness over what to focus on and constant off-key singing. In spite of those peeves, Anne clearly sees them as a true sign of home, and thing she can’t live without; it’s her own way of showing she misses her mom and loves her. There’s something to be said about this show of character in how it’s a perfect representation of good relationships with parents. We might have issues with them, but it’s easy to see that they love and care for us, and it’s hard to think of life without them.
As a measure of solid and welcome character development, Sprig unearths an answer to a major question on his background. As he and Polly live with their grandfather, you can’t help but wonder what’s up with their parents. Well, to relate to Anne missing her mom, Sprig reveals that his own mom passed away when he and Polly were really little. This is even harder for him because unlike Anne, he doesn’t remember what his mom looked or sounded like. Then, as he ponders a heavy question on if you can miss someone you don’t know very well, Sprig is given a tight warm embrace by Anne, the two having something big to relate to. The staging, voice acting, and music work together well to make this a grand finish, and this whole story one of the strongest works of the series.
A work of animation is very special when it brings out a lot of strengths in places people would least expect. That’s the best way to describe this cartoon where a simple premise brings the expected fun, but also strong and meaningful character development, and powerful emotions. It’s here where this second season really comes into its own as a testament to just how great this entire series can be.
A+
Fan Art
Series Ranking
1.
Hopping Mall
2.
Reunion
3.
Marcy at the Gates
4.
Toad Tax
5.
Anne vs Wild
6.
The Domino Effect
7.
Toadcatcher
8.
Prison Break
9.
Anne of the Year
10.
Contagi-Anne
11.
Best Fronds
12.
Family Shrub
13.
Hop-Popular
14.
Anne Hunter
15.
Wally and Anne
16.
Children of the Spore
17.
A Night at the Inn
18.
Handy Anne
19.
Scavenger Hunt
20.
Lily Pad Thai
21.
Dating Season
22.
Anne or Beast?
23.
Combat Camp
24. Little Frogtown
25.
Cursed!
26.
Snow Day
27.
Civil Wart
28.
Stakeout
29.
Croak and Punishment
30.
Taking Charge
31.
Flood, Sweat, and Tears
32.
Bizarre Bazaar
33.
The Plantars Check In
34.
Wax Museum
35.
Sprig Gets Schooled
36.
Swamp and Sensibility
37.
Trip to the Archives
38.
Anne Theft Auto
39.
Hop Luck
40.
Quarreler’s
Pass
41.
Hop Pop and Lock
42.
Plantar’s Last Stand
43.
Fort in the Road
44.
A Caravan Named Desire
45.
The Big Bugball Game
46.
Fiddle Me This
47.
Truck Stop Polly
48.
Family Fishing Trip
49.
The Ballad of Hoppediah Plantar
50.
Girl Time
51.
Breakout Star
52.
Grubhog Day
53.
Cane Crazy
54.
Lost in Newtopia
55.
Sprig vs Hop Pop
56.
Cracking Mrs. Croaker
The next Amphibia review has Anne, Marcy, and the Plantar kids try their hand at the ultimate sleepover while stumbling into hidden surprises in Newtopia castle, and just as there's a breakthrough in the mysteries of the music box, Anne and the Plantars are faced with the possibility of being separated.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews, discover "Yesterday's Lies" in The Owl House.
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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