Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Froggy Little Christmas - (Amphibia Season 3 Episode 9) - 'Toon Reviews 53

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Froggy Little Christmas

When it comes to episodic slice-of-life stories, some to look forward to the most are Christmas specials.  This holiday lends itself to many wholesome feelings and virtues as well as endless ways to express them through unique traditions.  In a show like this, such a special might not seem like a great idea with a lot of underlying plot that needs to be focused on.  However, not only does this show have a reputation for making the episodic stuff work, but this special also allows for notable coverage of said plot as well as strong character development.  This in turn makes for the show giving its own endearing Christmas experience.

Right away, a pleasing atmosphere that really feels like Christmas is made clear within Anne’s home, and no one enjoys it more than her mom, Mrs. Boonchuy.  She really goes all out with decorating the house and planning family traditions, making her passion for the holiday incredibly clear.  To really enhance this spirit, Mrs. Boonchuy gets an opportunity for something she always wanted to do for Christmas; get a spot in the annual Christmas parade for a float of the family restaurant.  It’s certainly an honor to be represented along with other community businesses on such a huge holiday, and Anne and Mr. Boonchuy’s excitement shows care for what this means.  Despite this great opportunity, Mrs. Boonchuy solemnly turns the parade spot down.  It turns out to be for a mature reason, being a way to support her daughter by protecting her and the Plantars from harm.  By avoiding parading around Las Angeles, they’ll be keeping a low profile and make sure everyone, especially the talking frogs from another dimension, are safe.  However, Anne’s Christmas spirit is strong as well to the point where she secretly accepts a spot in the parade anyway.  Even though Anne has also stressed the importance of keeping a low profile, there’s still apparent care in her actions.  She can see how much her parents have sacrificed for her, and as being in this parade is something her mom always wanted, Anne would believably risk her safety to allow that.  In fact, it’s a sound expression of the meaning of the holiday whose atmosphere continues persist throughout the special.

From here, Anne and the Plantars take action to set up the float as a gift for Mrs. Boonchuy.  All the way, there are pleasing moments to enhance this task where not only does Anne get further in her goal, but the main setting is further immersed in Christmas.  Some of these moments even tie into past events of the season, most notably when Anne gets help from some of the new characters introduced here.  Ally and Jess, the IT Gals, provide her with technical support and transportation of the float, and at the museum, Dr. Jan lets her use leftover mannequins to decorate it.  These new characters continue to be a joy through their charm, enthusiasm, and how well they apply their special interests to help others.  In addition to helping Anne, they also provide the Plantars insight on the holiday going on.  Being interdimensional creatures, the Plantars are a perfect group to comment on the excessive ways of celebrating the holiday and wondering the meaning for it is.  In fact, that’s something people in the real world can’t help but ponder.  Each character has their own different viewpoint on how Christmas works with some focus on traditions through how they’re celebrated and their historic context.  These teachings are taken to heart by Sprig who goes on to spend much of the special trying to find the perfect gift for Anne who means the most to him.  

As he and the rest of the Plantars continue to explore the Christmas traditions, the days leading up to it provide looks at them to really liven up the spirit.  Through joining Anne’s parents in the holiday preparations, and a running gag of Mr. Boonchuy struggling to get the perfect Christmas photo, the mood is fittingly wholesome.  

To seal the deal of this being a great capture of the holiday spirit, there are frequent cuts to a moving song written and performed by Steven Universe creator herself, Rebecca Sugar.  It says a lot about how this time of year has many different ways of celebrating, and by extension, different ways of spreading happiness and showing care for others.  If one is familiar with the musical style of Ms. Sugar, it should be unsurprising that this song has a pleasing poetic class to really set the mood and setting.

This special certainly works as something all its own, but it’s also helped by the notable ways it connects to the main plot at hand.  In addition to the appearances of Season 3’s newly introduced characters, there’s also a presence of the most major threat to the peace.  

Over in Amphibia, King Andrias is informed of it being Christmastime which he had learned from Marcy, and proceeds to use the holiday to his own advantage.  His servants provide him with a special Christmas gift he can use to assist is his plan for conquest, a remote control drone he can send to Earth to track Anne down.  As a result, there are stakes to the main plan of this special, exploring the risk of Anne going back on the plan of keeping a low profile.  While she’s off preparing her float, Andrias fortunately doesn’t have luck getting to her, but his failed attempts ultimately make the special’s climax very impactful.

Christmas comes, and Anne surprises her parents with her gift of the parade float.  As they later enter the parade, there’s a lot of endearment from the gratitude of finally being able to take part in this event.  Mrs. Boonchuy especially shines as a character as she explains deeper reasons for wanting to take part.  She and her husband are revealed to have moved to Las Angeles from Thailand, and for a while they struggled to adapt and fit in.  Having a float for the Christmas parade is indicative of how far they’ve come in this community.  What’s more, Anne can even relate to struggling to fit in from her time spent in Amphibia, which can be interpreted as kind of a Boonchuy family trait.  It can even be relatable to any immigrants watching who likely also struggle to fit in, allowing this show to really resonate with many people.  

This wholesome family moment ultimately allows what happens next to bring a very striking impact.  Through his drone and a conveniently blatant statement from Anne, Andrias finally tracks his target down through the drone.  He uses it to take control of an animatronic Santa Claus which attacks the parade and chases down the Boonchuys’ float.  As one may expect, this robot battle is very thrilling with a lot of fast-paced action.  Still, there’s a bittersweet feeling through everyone needing to dismantle the float to beat the robot back after all the hard work Anne put into it.  While that feeling can’t be ignored, the final takedown with a firework is a grand finish to the battle, and everyone is more caught up in the excitement of what happened.  There’s even something to resemble snow in Las Angeles with flakes of robotic ash, allowing the Christmas spirit to really shine through despite everything.

While the conclusion of a big battle would be a good place to end everything, the end of the special brings a lot more to take in on various fronts.  For one thing, there’s significant plot development through what’s coming next with a look at the possessed Marcy and how she berates Andrias’ failed attempts with Anne.  Still, Andrias has a good mind for conquest as well as a huge robot invasion ready to go, allowing this holiday special solid foreshadowing for the show as a whole.  

As for Anne and her family, the parade might not have gone as planned, but it’s rewarding that they’re satisfied with this Christmas.  Their stance on things even help the Plantars finally understand the holiday where it’s all about showing how much you care for the people in your life; things like decorations and gifts are merely tools to help show that care.  Sprig even gets a sense of that when Anne receives her gift from him, a small figurine of herself made from assorted small knick-knacks and is grateful for his consideration.  Then there’s one more verse of that ongoing Christmas song which could be a good stopping point, but the special has one more thing to show.  

In the final scene, Anne writes to someone about the sadness of not getting to spend the holidays with loved ones.  As she continues, it becomes clearer that the people she’s writing to are Sasha and Marcy’s parents to whom she promises to bring their daughters back from another world.  That’s another point in this holiday special’s favor in being a major acknowledgement of these figures in the lives of Anne’s friends.  There are even some subtle details to their background with Sasha’s parents each getting separate letters while Marcy’s get one, implying that Sasha’s parents are divorced.  Unfortunately, despite these details being brought up, neither of these two’s parents are ever shown after this, discrediting the scene’s value.  Matt Braly has said that this was because there wasn’t enough time to fit every detail in, and Sasha and Marcy’s parents aren’t as integral to their arcs as Anne’s are to hers.  He believes that fans would be satisfied with coming up with their own interpretations of them.  While there is credit to this decision, the fact that the show itself brought them and their backgrounds up brings a sense of emptiness to this element.  In other words, leaving Sasha and Marcy’s parents up to interpretation doesn’t really work, and that feeling is hard to shake.  Still, the scene does fit the theme and message of Christmas that have been portrayed well here, so while this direction affects the season’s quality, this particular special remains great.

Christmas can bring out the best in anything if the right effort is put in, and Christmas specials of shows are no exception.  For this show, it turns out a very endearing special that’s big on spirit and respect to what it’s really all about.  In its favor, it adds unique touches through different characters’ points of view, little interesting quirks, and plot development to keep it from feeling out of place in the grand scheme.  Basically, this show has turned out a very commendable Christmas special that’s great to view at “our special time of year.”



A+

Fan Art



Series Ranking

1.      True Colors

2.      Hopping Mall

3.      Reunion

4.      Marcy at the Gates

5.      Anne-sterminator

6.      Olivia and Yunan

7.      Toad Tax

8.      The First Temple

9.      Froggy Little Christmas

10.  Turning Point

11.  Battle of the Bands

12.  Barrel’s Warhammer

13.  Anne vs Wild

14.  The Domino Effect

15.  The Third Temple

16.  Toadcatcher

17.  Prison Break

18.  The Second Temple

19.  Temple Frogs

20.  A Day at the Aquarium

21.  Mr. X

22.  Anne of the Year

23.  Contagi-Anne

24.  The Shut-In

25.  Best Fronds

26.  After the Rain

27.  Family Shrub

28.  Fixing Frobo

29.  If You Give a Frog a Cookie

30.  The New Normal

31.  The Dinner

32.  Hop-Popular

33.  Anne Hunter

34.  Wally and Anne

35.  Children of the Spore

36.  Fight at the Museum

37.  Friend or Frobo

38.  Sprig’s Birthday

39.  A Night at the Inn

40.  Bessie and MicroAngelo

41.  Handy Anne

42.  Scavenger Hunt

43.  Lily Pad Thai

44.  Dating Season

45.  Anne or Beast?

46.  Combat Camp

47.  Little Frogtown

48.  Cursed!

49.  Thai Feud

50.  Snow Day

51.  Civil Wart

52.  Maddie and Marcy

53.  Stakeout

54.  Croak and Punishment

55.  Taking Charge

56.  Flood, Sweat, and Tears

57.  Bizarre Bazaar

58.  The Plantars Check In

59.  The Sleepover to End All Sleepovers

60.  Wax Museum

61.  Return to Wartwood

62.  Sprig Gets Schooled

63.  Swamp and Sensibility

64.  Trip to the Archives

65.  Toad to Redemption

66.  Anne Theft Auto

67.  Adventures in Catsitting

68.  Hop Luck

69.  New Wartwood

70.  Ivy on the Run

71.  Night Drivers

72.  Quarreler’s Pass

73.  Hop Pop and Lock

74.  Plantar’s Last Stand

75.  Fort in the Road

76.  A Caravan Named Desire

77.  The Big Bugball Game

78.  Fiddle Me This

79.  Hollywood Hop Pop

80.  Truck Stop Polly

81.  Family Fishing Trip

82.  Hop ‘Til You Drop

83.  Spider-Sprig

84.  The Ballad of Hoppediah Plantar

85.  Girl Time

86.  Breakout Star

87.  Grubhog Day

88.  Cane Crazy

89.  Lost in Newtopia

90.  Sprig vs Hop Pop

91.  Cracking Mrs. Croaker

The next review marks a huge turning point as Anne and her allies finally get their working portal to Amphibia.

Next time are more DuckTales reviews, but that won't be until the new year of 2023. For now, MC Toon Reviews is taking off for the holidays as well as more time to work on a special Christmas animation project, called Share the Joy.

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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