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The Three Armies
The political undertones of the show have certainly given it an identity all its own. The tensions and unrest between frogs, newts, and toads has been clear through some amphibians having bigger status and better wealth than others. Much of the series has shown the harsh results of this inequality, but now with this resistance, they have a chance to come together and fight for a common cause. However, just as the long in-development resistance is finally about to actually take action, there’s a whole cartoon of how the political unrest is still a major issue.
Despite it being known for a while that all amphibians were coming together to take down King Andrias, the frogs, newts, and toads still aren’t keen on being a team. The fact that the resistance has been in the works for a long time makes everyone’s prejudices rather unreasonable, especially given what’s at stake. True, the best the others could do is tolerate each other and working together is a bit much for mindsets such as this, but it should be obvious what matters more. Things get even more hectic when Beatrix of the toads and Tritonio of the newts arrive and while they agreed to fight with frogs, they’re not inclusive to more amphibians.
With these matters getting out of hand, Anne steps in to get frogs, toads, and newts to put their differences aside and work together. All through the process, she shows strong heart and consideration to everyone all while guiding them to focus on the task at hand. For all of Anne’s efforts though, the long prejudice between amphibians has very lasting effects. All that happens through all of Anne’s strategies is that Beatrix and Tritonio argue about their strategies, and when Hop Pop of the frogs tries to intervene, they belittle and ignore him. Then Anne suggests more physical team-building exercises like amphibian knots, trust falls, and three-legged races to work off the tensions. While there is merit in these strategies, the different amphibian classes’ own stubbornness keeps them from making any progress. If anything, they end up wasting all their energy and fighting resources on a battle over nothing.
Frustrations abound after this, but luckily, Anne finally snaps from all this and unleashes her glowing blue powers which is the only thing to get everyone to listen. Her overall message is that instead of relying on her to settle things between them, they have to do that themselves while she no longer bothers with them until they do. With how dense everyone has been acting in such a dire situation, this show of emotions is easily earned for all amphibians.
However, Anne is understandably left upset that she lost her cool and failed to bring everyone together. Luckily, Sasha proves to be an understanding friend as she consoles her, demonstrating great growth on her part, and that’s not all. The leaders of the frog, toad, and newt armies did manage to come up with a plan by following Anne’s advice of settling things themselves, mostly from listening to Hop Pop’s plan for once. Everyone works out a strategy that factors in the strengths of every group, and it gets the full approval. They also get a quick opportunity to put it to use with the ending featuring Mother Olm appearing to tell the resistance that Andrias is going to start his Earth invasion tonight. At this point, the build up is finally over, and the audience knows that from here on, it’s nothing but grandness in scope to bring an end to the series.
As for this part of the whole thing, there is a lot of tension to sit through, and it’s hard to tell if it actually makes sense after all that’s happened. However, it’s all made watchable thanks to the exciting payoff it leads to, and one that will continue into the remainder of the season.
A-
The Beginning of the End
The process of forming the resistance against King Andrias was long and not always great, but from here, it’s nothing but grandness and excitement as it’s all put into action at last. Along the way are just about all of this show’s greatest strengths in building character, atmosphere, tone, and basically setting up huge and memorable events. It’s clear that this final stretch has the most heart and passion put into it out of everything in this season, and it gets off to a very strong start.
Just before the resistance takes off is a welcome dose of character insight to provide the audience with an integral background detail to the friendship of Anne, Sasha, and Marcy. It’s shown in a seemingly simple flashback of them watching a movie at a sleepover, specifically a favorite fantasy action film of Marcy’s. While she’s shown to be really passionate about this several hours-long movie, Anne and Sasha couldn’t really care less and promptly fall asleep when Marcy’s favorite part comes. This might not seem like a huge deal since that’s very common when watching a long movie, but it’s apparent how Marcy feels about occurrences like this. Her two best friends in the whole world don’t share the same interests as her, and never even seemed to attempt to properly understand and connect with them. She was always left to experience them alone even when her friends with her. Looks into the past like this are integral in really understanding the motives and personalities of the characters, and this flashback is very simple and effective.
This memory is also a vital piece for a major matter on Anne and Sasha’s mind as the resistance takes off. The sheer size of it brings promise for grand action almost half a season in the making. It’s all classes of amphibians as well as other creatures like olms, mushroom zombies, and flying moths coming together to achieve a common goal and are ready to bring justice at last. The grand potential is easy to see, but for all its physical strength, the matters of the relationship of the three human girls gives this epic display believable weight.
In addition to defeating King Andrias, Anne and Sasha’s big matter at hand is saving Marcy, although there is something big to consider regarding their friend. Sasha points out how messed it is that Marcy got them stuck in Amphibia on purpose. Because of that, even if they are able to save her, Sasha isn’t sure if their friendship can be saved as well, being too affected by WHAT she did. Being as heartfelt as she is, Anne takes a far more mature and understanding directive when it comes to Marcy and her past actions. She chooses not to be bothered by what Marcy did and instead be mindful of WHY she did it. After all, they’ve all made a fair share of mistakes, and the wise thing to do is accept that it’s part of life to choose the wrong thing. Among the mistakes Anne and Sasha made is being neglectful of Marcy by not paying any attention to things that mean a lot to her as shown in the earlier sleepover flashback. It might not excuse what she did, but having the reasons for that in mind is key in understanding her, which is the healthy way to go in life. It also helps that Anne knows from experience that it’s worth forgiving others for their mistakes even if they can hurt sometimes.
While it’s nice that Sasha ultimately sees the value of Anne’s wisdom, her feelings on Marcy, while making sense, contradict her stance on making mistakes a while back. Is it really legit that she could vouch for two olms she didn’t even know before, but not do the same for one of her best friends? Not to mention that Sasha has a history of also lying and doing things behind the backs of her friends and therefore should be seen almost as messed up as Marcy. It kind of questions Sasha’s morals, but her overall feelings do make general sense given the magnitude of exactly what Marcy did. Furthermore, it doesn’t make Anne’s push to understand her any less impactful.
With that notable character-driven layer at the center, the ensuing force of resistance is at its most engaging. This is especially shown when even Andrias himself is somewhat intimidated by the size of the army. It isn’t long before everyone is at the shores of Newtopia and it’s remarkable to see how everyone puts up a good fight. They take down many robot forces through their own power, and it also helps to have the originator of the mind control mushrooms on their side. Some characters even get major closure in some regards, particularly Wally who’s finally able to prove the existence of the Moss Man.
Of course, Anne, Sasha, the Plantars, and Grime are the main players in all this as they break into Andrias’ castle to save Marcy and retrieve the calamity box. Along the way, there’s a reveal of what became of Lady Olivia and General Yunan who are both fitted with mind control mushrooms and are turned against this group. However, their in-sync fight moves are counteracted by an exciting work of animation as Anne and Sasha take them out via their own in-sync routine of dancing. Their high-energy utilization of their favorite pastime allows them to dodge all of Olivia and Yunan’s attacks and free them from their mind control. After that exciting showcase, all seems well, at least from Anne and Sasha’s perspective, but there is one thing they’re unaware of.
The reveal of the hard truths is very effectively dark. They find the calamity box on a pedestal and it looks like they’re all set to take it and end Andrias’ reign. Then, like a cruel joke, they’re suddenly stopped by Marcy possessed by The Core, or Darcy. Effortlessly, the multi-minded entity catches Anne, Sasha, and all their comrades in their clutches, and just like that, the resistance is defeated. Everyone else is officially basically out of commission for the rest of the finale, not allowed to have the grandeur and pristine the main protagonists will get. At least they provided a strong show of force to get the main protagonists here. All the while, The Core delights in being cold and calculating, as well as charismatic, which is to be expected coming from the body of someone like Marcy. As a result, it’s both despicable and kind of fun to watch as it belittles Anne and Sasha for being poor friends to Marcy having picked up her memories after possessing her. It really drives home Anne’s points about how much her and Sasha’s neglect over Marcy led to their major situation, further showing consideration that all three girls are to blame.
With all the darkness unfolding, it’s impressive that Anne does show notable cleverness to have things work somewhat in her favor. The Core insists on killing her, thinking that it will get the glowing blue powers she absorbed to go back to the box, but Anne makes the strong point that this isn’t known for sure. Maybe killing her will just cause the power to disappear altogether. This successfully prevents The Core from taking her life, but it still remains a powerful entity. For that, this part of the finale ends on a dramatic note as the music box creates a portal to Earth, and all of Los Angeles witnesses the beginning of Andrias’ invasion. The audience, meanwhile, is left with great suspense in how everything is to unfold.
The overall title is the best way to describe this part of the finale where everything gets off to a very strong passionate start. The action is exciting, the atmosphere is well-realized, and the character conflicts are at their high point and already make for an endearing relatable center. And the big part about all this is that this final adventure has just gotten started…
A+
Fan Art
Series Ranking
1.
True
Colors
2.
Hopping
Mall
3.
Reunion
4.
Marcy at the Gates
5.
The
Core and the King
6.
The Beginning of the End
7.
Anne-sterminator
8.
Olivia
and Yunan
9.
Toad Tax
10.
The First Temple
11. Froggy Little Christmas
12.
Turning Point
13.
Battle of the Bands
14.
Barrel’s
Warhammer
15.
Escape
to Amphibia
16.
Anne vs Wild
17.
The Domino Effect
18.
The Third Temple
19.
Toadcatcher
20.
Prison Break
21.
The Second Temple
22.
Temple Frogs
23.
A Day at the Aquarium
24.
Mr. X
25.
Anne of the Year
26.
Contagi-Anne
27.
The
Shut-In
28.
Best Fronds
29.
After
the Rain
30.
Family Shrub
31.
Fixing
Frobo
32. If You Give a Frog a Cookie
33. Commander Anne
34.
The New Normal
35.
The Dinner
36.
Hop-Popular
37.
Anne Hunter
38. Fight or Flight
39.
Wally and Anne
40.
Children of the Spore
41.
Fight at the Museum
42.
Friend
or Frobo
43. The Root of Evil
44. Grime’s Pupil
45.
Sprig’s
Birthday
46.
A Night at the Inn
47.
Bessie
and MicroAngelo
48.
Handy Anne
49.
Scavenger Hunt
50.
Lily Pad Thai
51.
Dating Season
52.
Anne or Beast?
53.
Combat Camp
54.
Little Frogtown
55.
Cursed!
56.
Thai
Feud
57.
Newts
in Tights
58. The
Three Armies
59.
Snow Day
60.
Civil Wart
61.
Maddie and Marcy
62.
Stakeout
63.
Croak and Punishment
64.
Taking Charge
65.
Flood, Sweat, and Tears
66.
Bizarre Bazaar
67.
The Plantars Check In
68.
The Sleepover to End All Sleepovers
69.
Wax Museum
70.
Return
to Wartwood
71.
Sprig Gets Schooled
72.
Swamp and Sensibility
73.
Trip to the Archives
74.
Sasha’s Angels
75.
Toad
to Redemption
76.
Anne Theft Auto
77.
Adventures in Catsitting
78.
Hop Luck
79.
New
Wartwood
80.
Ivy on the Run
81.
Night
Drivers
82.
Quarreler’s
Pass
83.
Hop Pop and Lock
84.
Plantar’s Last Stand
85.
Fort in the Road
86.
A Caravan Named Desire
87.
The Big Bugball Game
88.
Fiddle Me This
89.
Hollywood Hop Pop
90.
Truck Stop Polly
91.
Family Fishing Trip
92.
Mother of Olms
93.
Olm Town Road
94.
Hop ‘Til You Drop
95.
Spider-Sprig
96.
The Ballad of Hoppediah Plantar
97.
Girl Time
98.
Breakout Star
99.
Grubhog Day
100.
Cane Crazy
101. Sprivy
102. Lost in Newtopia
103. Sprig vs Hop Pop
104. Cracking Mrs. Croaker
The next review is nearly an hour of action and character turning points on Earth in "All In."
Next time is more reviews of DuckTales.
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