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Fight at the Museum
While the tone of this season leans more on wacky adventures, there’s some acknowledgement to the heavy drama going on. In this cartoon, there are some ways the dark memories of last season influence the current events.
While Anne doesn’t overtly show concern for her friend betrayals or trauma from the deadly occurrence involving one of her friends, she practically obsesses over one thing. She’s all about getting back to Amphibia to return the Plantars to where they belong and stop the rampage of destruction going on there. This results in many sleepless nights of nonstop research, something the Plantars note as unhealthy. As for her mom, she feels that Anne’s sudden need for research should be applied to her studies. Even though Anne is never shown returning to her school during her time back home, she’s advised to catch up on things like science and history through a trip to the local museum.
While questions are begged upon what actually is to come of Anne’s education now, going to the museum does lead to a break in her goal. There’s an ancient looking vase with a carving of a peculiar looking frog who’s anthropomorphic like the Plantars. While studying it for clues that could help get the Plantars home, they’re greeted by the museum’s curator, Dr. Jan. With a great energy relatable to anyone with special interests all expressed by the voice talents of Disney legend, Anika Noni-Rose, Dr. Jan is certainly a delight as a character. She also offers to give productive information about the vase, but Anne declines. This in turn brings a suggestion of Anne being more traumatized by recent events than she lets on. She can’t trust Dr. Jan with information which ties into what she went through in the Season 2 finale. After being betrayed into thinking her friends could help her when they had ulterior motives, it makes sense that Anne would be hesitant for help. After all, there’s so much at stake and there’s no telling what could happen if they follow the lead of someone who turns out to be a fraud.
As a result, Anne decides to get the vase’s information through a heist where she and the Plantars break into the museum at night and steal it. Such an extreme measure is pretty hard to stomach, and it’s lucky that the context makes Anne’s motives understandable if misguided.
While the heist goes as planned at first, Anne and the Plantars have to deal with other major matters when they’re once again caught by that robot sent by Andrias. There’s an all-out fight built on strong compatibility between Anne and the others, and the museum exhibits making for an interesting backdrop to help and challenge everyone.
There’s a mess of pieces of the museum’s exhibit by the end, and it grabs the attention of Dr. Jan. The extremeness of her stunt and the difficulty of getting information convinces Anne that this is a time where she’ll have to take a chance with trusting someone.
So, all of the cartoon’s craziness comes to a wholesome end where Dr. Jan relates to Anne’s high ambitions for answers with a recount of what it feels like. It also helps that she sees the Plantars as the interdimensional frogs and agrees to keep it secret. She then offers to research the vase for Anne if she gets some sleep, ultimately uncovering a secret message that later serves as a game-changer to the story. Consider all of this a big relief that Dr. Jan turned out to be trustworthy and such a likable personality in context and to the audience.
It all unfolds in a relatable cartoon that, while not as deep as it could be, is a strong effort in following up on the previous season’s drama.
A
Temple Frogs
In an interesting direction, this cartoon is almost directly connected to the one it’s paired with for this episode. It’s set to instantly follow up on the discovery of that vase from the museum with Anne anxious to hear from Dr. Jan about what it may mean. However, this cartoon also makes a note to follow on the theme of Anne needing to break from her mission for other important things in life.
At the insistence of her parents, Anne joins her parents for market day at the local Thai temple to give out samples from the family restaurant and connect with the Thai community. With her anxiousness as well of lack of understanding of its importance in mind, Anne goes along with the plan with the condition that she stays there for an hour. So the temple becomes the main setting for the cartoon, and all the while, it brings a lot to admire about the atmosphere of this show. The temple stands out as more than a mere backdrop; there’s clearly a lot of care and consideration for the Thai culture that comes with it. The look of the place, the Thai music playing in the background, and especially the many things to do there make what the setting represents very immersive.
This is especially reflective in the things going on at the temple the Plantars immerse themselves in. Polly proves to be very fluent at Thai language and becomes the star of a class on the subject; Hop Pop’s frenetic dance moves make him a natural at kohn dancing; and Sprig easily becomes a star athlete of the Thai sport of sepak takraw. With these frogs trying to adapt to a world different from their own, it’s impressive to see them bond well with these elements of this culture. Anne is even impressed with how well they adapt.
All the same, she’s still set on leaving the temple to get the answers needed to help the Plantars get home. Impatience eventually gets the better of her and she plans to sneak off complete with a very impractical plan of getting a random look alike to cover for her. The plan doesn’t go anywhere when she’s found out by Mrs. Boonchuy and is promptly scolded. In the process, Mrs. Boonchuy civilly tells her daughter the importance of upholding ties to the community of their culture, specifically how important it is to the family. As it turns out, while Anne was in another world, the patrons of the temple helped ease the sadness the Boonchuy were enduring by helping them at the temple and restaurant. This was a true sense of community and care for each other, and Anne’s heart is open enough to realize it and that her culture is almost as important as her mission.
In a twist, both seem to come together when the temple is caught in a robot invasion. In spite of Anne’s flimsy attempt to explain it, everyone is quick to do what they can to beat the robots back, and they’re surprisingly effective. However, the Plantars make the biggest impact in the battle with all the cultural ties they acquired, but their contributions bring an even more interesting twist.
After beating the robots back, their disguises come off, and everyone is exposed to their true identities as frogs. However, they’re still very accepting of who they really are and are happy to welcome them as part of the temple. Some could say that it’s a stretch for everyone to accept them, but it fits the cultural message the cartoon was going for well. While the heart of this ending is strong enough of a close, there’s also consideration for the part of the audience intrigued in lore. Anne’s wish for answers is granted with Dr. Jan arriving to show the message on the vase, alluding to a being called the mother of olms, leaving something big to look forward to.
From cultural immersion, lore development, and great heart, this cartoon is one of this show’s most substantial packages.
A+
Series Ranking
1.
True
Colors
2.
Hopping
Mall
3.
Reunion
4.
Marcy at the Gates
5.
Toad Tax
6.
The First Temple
7.
Turning Point
8.
Battle of the Bands
9.
Barrel’s
Warhammer
10.
Anne vs Wild
11.
The Domino Effect
12.
The Third Temple
13.
Toadcatcher
14.
Prison Break
15.
The Second Temple
16. Temple Frogs
17.
A Day at the Aquarium
18.
Anne of the Year
19.
Contagi-Anne
20.
The
Shut-In
21.
Best Fronds
22.
After
the Rain
23.
Family Shrub
24.
The New Normal
25.
The Dinner
26.
Hop-Popular
27.
Anne Hunter
28.
Wally and Anne
29.
Children of the Spore
30. Fight at the Museum
31.
Friend
or Frobo
32.
A Night at the Inn
33.
Bessie
and MicroAngelo
34.
Handy Anne
35.
Scavenger Hunt
36.
Lily Pad Thai
37.
Dating Season
38.
Anne or Beast?
39.
Combat Camp
40.
Little Frogtown
41.
Cursed!
42.
Thai
Feud
43.
Snow Day
44.
Civil Wart
45.
Maddie and Marcy
46.
Stakeout
47.
Croak and Punishment
48.
Taking Charge
49.
Flood, Sweat, and Tears
50.
Bizarre Bazaar
51.
The Plantars Check In
52.
The Sleepover to End All Sleepovers
53.
Wax Museum
54.
Return
to Wartwood
55.
Sprig Gets Schooled
56.
Swamp and Sensibility
57.
Trip to the Archives
58.
Toad
to Redemption
59.
Anne Theft Auto
60.
Adventures in Catsitting
61.
Hop Luck
62.
New
Wartwood
63.
Ivy on the Run
64.
Night
Drivers
65.
Quarreler’s
Pass
66.
Hop Pop and Lock
67.
Plantar’s Last Stand
68.
Fort in the Road
69.
A Caravan Named Desire
70.
The Big Bugball Game
71.
Fiddle Me This
72.
Truck Stop Polly
73.
Family Fishing Trip
74.
Hop ‘Til You Drop
75.
The Ballad of Hoppediah Plantar
76.
Girl Time
77.
Breakout Star
78.
Grubhog Day
79.
Cane Crazy
80.
Lost in Newtopia
81.
Sprig vs Hop Pop
82.
Cracking Mrs. Croaker
The next review follows Polly turning to the internet to get help to fix her robot friend Frobo, and when another robot attack happens, Anne finds she has to come clean to her parents about what she's been hiding.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "Don't Rain on My Ed" and "Once Bitten Twice Ed" in Ed Edd n Eddy.
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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