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New Wartwood
When a season introduces a promising new character, it’s natural for the audience to want to see more of them or be considered in the same regard as the main protagonists. Since Marcy has been starring alongside Anne and the Plantars frequently and is a very likable personality, it’s welcome that she’s now as prominent as they are.
To prove this further, the cartoon featured here is all about her first day in Wartwood, and her excited repetition of declaring this first thing in the morning makes it clear. However, things don’t go as well for her as she hoped, for when the citizens of Wartwood first meet her, they’re not exactly warm and welcoming. They’re taken aback by her different appearance, her constant talking, and overall strangeness. It even gets to the point where they feel she’s worthy of being mobbed against. There could be a deeper reason for this disdain after their bad experience with Anne’s other friend Sasha; that was the reason for Sprig’s initial distrust of Marcy after all. Without a cause for the attitude towards Marcy however, what she gets from the Wartwood citizens feels very shallow without giving her a fair chance.
At least they’re not too stubborn, for when Marcy acts fast to fix up a blunder in the town’s infrastructure, they can see their appeal and potential. Fixing things is something Marcy clearly enjoys and is very talented at. Anne informs her of anything wrong with Wartwood, and Marcy can solve them all in a manner of seconds. Even when she gets the acceptance of the citizens from what she does though, she feels that she needs to go bigger. Slowly this reveals hidden depths to Marcy’s character. It’s like she feels she constantly has to do things in order to find true connections, and her willingly overworking herself like this feels necessary. Never mind ever forming true bonds based on how she is. Plus, it comes with several implications to exactly how and why she’s so loved back in Newtopia.
As for her idea of going bigger, it comes when Mayor Toadstool arrives on the scene, and he’s so impressed with her work on the town. They team up for the biggest renovation of all that will boost both their morale. By replacing the small homes with big two story buildings made of marble and adding lots of accessories, they practically transform Wartwood into a frog replica of Disneyland. While it looks impressive, there turn out to be major drawbacks to the new construction of the town. Everything is just too heavy for the ground Wartwood was built on top of, so everything starts sinking. This is a slight point of concern because Marcy already knew the town shouldn’t be too heavy, and even brings it up again. It just doesn’t make sense that she would just forget it. Still, she does know exactly how to fix everything by getting rid of all the heavy accessories while the mayor laments the loss of them and refuses to learn anything from this.
As for Marcy’s reputation among Wartwood, they still turn out to accept her after all, if only because they remind her so much of Anne whom they’ve grown to love. It’s still somewhat baseless that their judgement of her is as basic as this and they only accept her because of familiarity, but at least Marcy is quick to own up to all mistakes. That shows that she is at least worthy of acceptance despite some implications for why she’s desperate for it. As far as first days in Wartwood and the first starring role for Marcy in the main setting of the series go, this one is solidly enjoyable.
B+
Friend or Frobo?
A big sign of how big a story is involves how it changes the status quo, develops major characters in a significant way, or both. This is one of those instances where a work from this show stands as something big for both reasons. Several past cartoons have had instances, mostly at the end of them, of a frog robot built in the old ruins following the Plantars to and from Newtopia. Granted there were also long stretches between cartoons that didn’t look into the robot, but its presence was still peculiar enough to feel like it would lead to something. That moment is now, and it’s surprising who it connects with the most.
Over in Wartwood, it’s just another average day for Anne and the Plantars with Marcy in tow. However, almost all of them are all about being responsible and conscious about what’s around them, meaning no rambunctious mischief. The only one up for that sort of thing is Polly, and she’s very deliberate in saying that wacky destructive mischief is her intention. Since everyone is being responsible, including Anne and Sprig needing to clean up a mess she makes, Polly is left to commit mischief by herself, except that’s just no fun alone.
Lucky for her, she soon finds a companion who can join her in all sorts of wacky shenanigans. In a nearby trash pile, Polly finds that frog robot, it finally meeting someone from the Plantar family. As it’s built to look like a frog and bears resemblance to robots Anne showed on her phone earlier, Polly gives the robot the name, Frobo. For a machine, Frobo shows a lot of endearment in how he repeats Polly’s name and shows a limited vocabulary. This has Polly instantly recognize that despite Frobo’s big metallic structure, deep down, he’s an innocent child looking for an older authority to follow.
So, following Polly’s lead, she and Frobo do all the mischief Polly wanted to do and more. With Frobo’s strength, they lift up buildings to big heights, craftily steal a pie off a window, swing from tops of buildings, and dive into the fountain in the center of town. Now tomfoolery from a little tadpole is relatively harmless, but that’s not the case with a huge frog robot joining in, and there’s a lot of destruction to the town property. If there’s anything endearing out of this, it’s the extent of Frobo’s loyalty to Polly. When a mob of Wartwood citizens rightfully enraged by the destruction gang up on Polly, Frobo enacts weapons and goes after them, seeing them as threats to Polly’s safety.
As more destruction unfolds, there’s an air of maturity in Polly. It would be easy for her to blame the robot, but instead, she admits that Frobo wouldn’t be causing trouble if she didn’t ask him to. She takes responsibility for his actions to both Frobo and the Wartwood citizens, and it proves effective as Frobo does back down when she asks him to stop. As for getting Wartwood to back down, it’s achieved through a combination of Polly taking responsibility and Anne and Sprig standing up for her perceptions. In the end, Frobo’s introduction changes the status quo somewhat, and Polly grows in a most worthwhile way. Someone so rambunctious and excitable around destruction should learn of responsibility and knowing there’s a time and place for everything. For that, this cartoon was simply made for Polly as its lesson really seems to stick with her, further shown as she enhances the status quo by getting Frobo permission to stay.
In a basic slice-of-life day in Wartwood, there turns out to be a lot to walk away with.
A
Fan Art
Series Ranking
1.
Hopping
Mall
2.
Reunion
3.
Marcy at the Gates
4.
Toad Tax
5.
The First Temple
6.
Anne vs Wild
7.
The Domino Effect
8.
Toadcatcher
9.
Prison Break
10.
A Day at the Aquarium
11.
Anne of the Year
12.
Contagi-Anne
13.
The
Shut-In
14.
Best Fronds
15.
After
the Rain
16.
Family Shrub
17.
Hop-Popular
18.
Anne Hunter
19.
Wally and Anne
20.
Children of the Spore
21. Friend
or Frobo
22.
A Night at the Inn
23.
Handy Anne
24.
Scavenger Hunt
25.
Lily Pad Thai
26.
Dating Season
27.
Anne or Beast?
28.
Combat Camp
29.
Little Frogtown
30.
Cursed!
31.
Snow Day
32.
Civil Wart
33.
Stakeout
34.
Croak and Punishment
35.
Taking Charge
36.
Flood, Sweat, and Tears
37.
Bizarre Bazaar
38.
The Plantars Check In
39.
The Sleepover to End All Sleepovers
40.
Wax Museum
41.
Return
to Wartwood
42.
Sprig Gets Schooled
43.
Swamp and Sensibility
44.
Trip to the Archives
45.
Anne Theft Auto
46.
Hop Luck
47. New
Wartwood
48.
Ivy on the Run
49.
Night
Drivers
50.
Quarreler’s
Pass
51.
Hop Pop and Lock
52.
Plantar’s Last Stand
53.
Fort in the Road
54.
A Caravan Named Desire
55.
The Big Bugball Game
56.
Fiddle Me This
57.
Truck Stop Polly
58.
Family Fishing Trip
59.
The Ballad of Hoppediah Plantar
60.
Girl Time
61.
Breakout Star
62.
Grubhog Day
63.
Cane Crazy
64.
Lost in Newtopia
65.
Sprig vs Hop Pop
66.
Cracking Mrs. Croaker
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