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Amphibia Episode 3A/3B Review

This has been something that’s been bugging me for a while now, so I’m going to get it out of the way. A while back, it came to my attention that my review/recap for the third episode of Amphibia mysteriously disappeared. I had every episode of the entire series covered save for that episode. Not one to leave something like that undone, I’ve decided to go back and redo my review. However, I’ll be doing it with the benefit of three years of plot and character growth, so it will also serve as a retrospective as we head towards the show’s finale.

Hop Luck

The premise behind this episode is pretty basic. Anne learns about Wartwood’s annual pot luck and how the Plantar’s lose every year, condemning them to the cage of shame. Not one to let her found family be humiliated, Anne jumps in to help them by teaching them the art of making pizza. Early series shenanigans ensue as they embark on a dangerous pizza quest.

Looking back on it, I think that this episode holds up pretty well. The early part of the series revolved around Anne trying to recreate life on Earth to give her some semblance of control in her crazy situation. Which also leads her into conflict with Hop Pop and his more traditional ways. In the end, they both end up learning something from the other and grow as a result. That, and this was also our introduction to Maddie, and she’s one of my favorite supporting characters. Just look at her!

Stakeout

This had to be one of my favorite episodes of the early series, and for good reason. When Sprig gets fed up with how much Anne and Hop Pop argue, he takes matters into his own hands. Pretending to steal their family’s corn, he tricks the two into doing a stakeout to catch the thief. Then the two end up getting high on each other’s beverages and it spirals out of control from there.

This whole episode was just so much fun when I first saw it, and it still is. Seeing Hop Pop and Anne use moves straight out of an anime (or Star vs., in Anne’s case) is so surreal, it reminded me of Regular Show. In hindsight, though, this can be seen as the start of Hop Pop beginning to consider Anne family. After all, by the time they reach Newtopia, he starts calling her his adoptive granddaughter. Seeing how they used to never get along like this reminds me of how far they’ve both come in the show.

Also, is Boulder-Tron a hint at Frobo’s eventual inclusion?

I Give “Hop Luck” and “Stakeout” a 4/5 Each

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Click here to see the first episode on YouTube

Amphibia Season 3, Episode 1 Review

It’s only been five months since the season two finale of Amphibia, “True Colors,” broke the Internet. It may as well have been a lifetime for the fans, though, given all that happened. Anne has magic superpowers now. Her, Sasha, and Marcy’s friendship is worse than ever. Anne and the Plantars are on Earth. Did I mention that Anne has superpowers now? It’s crazy! How does top something that monumental? If you’re Amphibia, then you don’t. You ease the viewers into the new status quo, the new normal.

Welcome Home, Anne Boonchuy

Picking up where the previous episode left off, Anne and the Plantars let the realization that they’re on Earth sink in, with Anne being more…enthusiastic than you would expect.

Some people might have an issue with Anne’s initial reaction to being back on Earth. Some would think that she would be more unhappy about it. After all, Sasha and Marcy remain in Amphibia; the latter stabbed through the chest. Worse, Andrias’ poised to conquer Earth, and Anne can’t get back to Amphibia to stop him. However, Anne tries not to bring her recent experiences up.

I think Anne’s reaction is understandable. As tough as she’s gotten, she just went through several traumatic experiences at once. If she dealt with it all at once, she’d likely have a mental breakdown. For now, her priority is to adjust to the new normal that is her life.

That means making sure her parents and foster family adjust to each other.

Meet the Boonchuy-Plantar Family

Considering everything they’ve been through, Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy take the revelation of where their daughter’s been…rather well. Granted, Anne and the Plantar’s don’t tell them the darker aspects of what happened, but that’s beside the point. Anne does point out that if they don’t take them in, the government will capture the Plantars and likely kill them. So, they all become one big family!

It’s pretty hilarious to watch. But it also brings attention to a major problem that Anne’s facing now that she’s back: her parents being super-protective. They won’t let Anne or the Plantars out of the house, which is understandable. They don’t know how much Anne’s matured in her time in Amphibia. However, Anne demonstrates this to them when they let her and the others go to the market.

Too bad that Andrias hasn’t forgotten about her.

Assassination Frobo & Anne’s Calamity Powers

Having learned that Anne remains connected to her Calamity Gem, Andrias will stop at nothing to kill her and keep Earth from learning of his invasion. Thus, he sends the Amphibian version of the Terminator to eliminate her, proving to be extremely dangerous. It’s only when the Plantar’s lives are threatened that Anne can use her power. As a result, the assassin robot retreats, with Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy none the wiser.

By the end of the episode, the Boonchuy’s agree to give the gang more freedom, but how long will it last?

Further Revelations

Thanks to the events of the episode, we confirm that Anne can use her powers when she taps into her innate heart. In this case, when her loved ones are in danger. However, doing so drains a lot out of her and leaves her feeling very uncomfortable. She’ll likely spend part of the season learning how to control them, as she’ll need them to stop Andrias and his robot assassin.

However, there’s a more immediate problem: Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy can’t be kept in the dark about what really happened in Amphibia forever. Sooner or later, Anne will have to come clean and tell them the truth. Hopefully, they’ll be able to understand that this is something their daughter needs to do.

As far as season premieres go, this was a slow but important episode. It doesn’t try to top the high that we experienced in “True Colors” because it knows that’s impossible. Instead, it focuses on adjusting us to the new normal for the show’s final season. I thought Anne’s homecoming could’ve been more emotional, but that’s just my preference. It was a good start to the season.

And, the new outro is SO ANIME!!!!

I Give “New Normal” a 4.5/5

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To See My Recaps of the First Two Seasons, Click Here

Stray Observations

• Marcy is still alive, as we already knew. Andrias’ keeping her alive for undisclosed reasons

• Andrias’ goofiness isn’t entirely an act. He does like one of the books Marcy got him into.

• The events of the first two seasons took place over the course of five months. Which is how long the break between seasons was!
• Are we going to see Sasha and Marcy’s parents, and find out how they reacted to their daughter’s disappearance?
• Does Anne still have to go to school, or is it summer vacation?

A Rundown of the Amphibia/The Owl House Panel for SDCC 2021

This has to be the panel I was most looking forward to at Comic Con this year, and for good reason. If you follow my blog, then you’ll know that I’ve kept up with Amphibia and The Owl House since day one. And while I’m bummed that I couldn’t write this for the people at The Game of Nerds, I knew that I had to do this anyway. The cast and creators of Amphibia and The Owl House joined together to sit back and talk about these two great shows. THE PROPHECY HAS BEEN FULFILLED!!!

Amphibia Gets Big News On Season 3

While the panel was supposed to be about Disney Animation as a whole, everyone knew that it was going to focus on Amphibia and The Owl House. After all, they’re two of the biggest cartoons Disney’s got right now. A good portion of the first part of the panel was spent talking about The Owl House’s currently airing second season. We even got a look at the storyboard process for the episodes. However, once things switched over to Amphibia, things got kicked into high gear.

If you watched the Season Two finale to Amphibia, then you know how big a cliffhanger it left off on. An Avatar: The Last Airbender Season Two finale level cliffhanger. Andrias proved to be a dimension-conquering tyrant, Anne went Super Saiy-Anne Blue, and Marcy? And the season ended with Anne and the Plantar’s waking up back on Earth. Needless to say, there was a lot to unpack.

Now, two months later, we got our first look at Season Three of Amphibia. And the results left many fans in tears…and then stitches.

My Thoughts And Premiere Date

Season Three of Amphibia starts off firing on all cylinders, with Anne reuniting with her parents, and the Boonchuy’s being introduced to her frog family, the Plantar’s. I practically cried when Anne got her reunion with her parents, only to laugh at how the Plantar’s jumped the gun. Clearly, this will take some getting used to on the Boonchuy’s part. In addition, Matt Braly confirmed that time passed the same on Amphibia as it does on Earth, so yes: Anne, Sasha, and Marcy have been missing for months. This will undoubtedly have consequences down the line, as the authorities will want to know where Anne’s been. That, and the Plantar’s will have to keep a low profile, or convince everyone they’re just cosplayers. Either way, the third season’s going to be amazing.

But that’s not all. While it wasn’t revealed in the panel itself, we got confirmation about the release date:

But wait, there’s more! Screenrant confirmed in this article that the third season will feature a boatload of guests. We’ve got Kate Miccuci, the voice of Webby on DuckTales, and Anika Noni Rose. If you don’t know who that is, she plays Tiana, the heroine of the Disney film The Princess and the Frog. So, this seems very fitting. And the best part: we’re getting an Amphibia Christmas special featuring music composed by REBECCA SUGAR! As in, creator of Steven Universe Rebecca Sugar.

The Crossover We All Dreamed Of

To end this stellar panel off, we got to the hear the casts of both shows do a table-reading of a crossover between Amphibia and The Owl House. You can watch it in the panel on YouTube, but it’s as fun as we hoped it would be.

Getting to see both of these shows working side by side really reminded me just how much I love them. They both share their roots with Gravity Falls, which makes them work so well together. I can’t wait to see how both shows turn out, and I can’t wait for October 2nd. Disney is on fire this year with its animation!

Amphibia Season 2, Episode 13A/13B Review

Trust. It’s one of the most things that a person can learn about in life. We need learn to trust in others, or else we won’t get far in life. Why am I bringing this up in a review about Amphibia? Because trust and honesty is the underlying theme behind this week’s episode. Keep reading some more, and you’ll see what I mean.

Ivy on the Run

Ever since the last episode, the ship of SprIvy has set sail, and it looks like there’s no stopping it! Nothing, that is, except for a nagging parent. Ivy’s mom, Mrs. Sundew, won’t stop nitpicking and criticizing her daughter for her shoddy job with her chores. Eventually, Ivy can’t take it anymore and decides to run away with Sprig. Not in the romantic sense, mind you; she just wants to go off on her adventures. Things come to a head when Ivy stands up to her mom and wants to quit her tea lessons. Felicia agrees, if Ivy can beat her in a fight. Then we get the big reveal that all those tea lessons were Felicia’s version of the old “wax-on, wax-off” teaching style shown in The Karate Kid. Afterwards, Ivy finally learns her lesson about being patience and waiting for her chance.

Look, I’m going to be honest. While I understand what Mrs. Sundew was going for, I think that she could have handled things better. It was obvious that her daughter wasn’t getting the point of the lessons, and in Ivy’s defense, her Mom did come off as nagging. Like, really nagging. It may be personal experience talking, but I think it would have been better had Felicia been upfront with her daughter about the purpose of her chores. At the very least, it would have encouraged her to put more effort into them.

Bottom line, Ivy should have more trust in her Mom, and her Mom should have just been upfront with her. Then again, that would mean no plot for the episode.

Speaking of trust…

After the Rain

So, remember how Hop Pop buried the music box and then lied to Anne about it for months? We all knew that this was going to blow up in his face, and in this episode, it finally does. Badly.

When Anne hears from Marcy that they need the box before they start their temple quest, Hop Pop freaks out and tries to dig it up, only to discover its missing. Actually, a lot of buried things in Wartwood are missing, but more on that in a moment. Anne catches Hop Pop in the act and forces him to come clean about everything. Shocked by the lack of trust and betrayal, Anne runs away, leaving Hop Pop to realize that he screwed up. Big time! Meanwhile, Sprig and Polly learn that the box (and everything else) was stolen by a magpie beetle as part of its mating ceremony. Which may or may not be a reference to the periodical cicadas that emerge every decade or so (and are due this year). Ultimately, they get in trouble getting it back, and Anne and Hop Pop have to work together to save them.

Afterwards, we soon learn Hop Pop’s reasoning for lying to Anne. We remember how Sprig said his mom died when he was little, right? Here, it’s revealed that Sprig and Polly’s parents were killed when a group of Heron’s attacked Wartwood. Despite being out of town, Hop Pop blames himself for not being there, hence why he’s so protective of his grandkids.

I won’t condone what Hop Pop did, as everyone agrees it was a jerk move. However, I can at least understand his motives. We still know next to nothing about the music box, and given what I’ve speculated about, maybe Hop Pop was right to be worried. That said, he still should have trusted Anne with the truth from the getgo. Especially since trust will be more important than ever going forward.

Now the Real Quest Begins

For the moment, I think we can chalk “Ivy on the Run” as being a fun breather episode. Something that’s meant to get us mentally prepared for something big that’s about to happen, while also sowing the seeds to future plot points. Could this be a sign that next time the Plantar’s have to leave the valley, they’ll take Ivy with them? I would certainly hope so, as it would give Ivy a chance to get even closer with Sprig.

As for “After the Rain,” its purpose is clear: things are about to get very serious. Thus, the heroes cannot afford to have trust issues holding them back, or else they may fail. And given all the fan theories people have been speculating on, they can’t afford to fail.

I would also like to point out that on the wall in Ivy’s room is a map that shows the route that the Plantar’s took to get to Newtopia. Just an interesting bit of world-building there.

Next week, though, we’re finally getting to see the First Temple and the return of Marcy as the latter half of Season Two finally kicks it into high gear. And not a moment too soon, either. With DuckTales about to end, I need a new adventure show to obsess over!

I Give “Ivy on the Run” and “After the Rain” a 3.5/5 and 4.5/5, Each.

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