Amphibia: Calamity Trios, Grossout, Mystery, and Yet Another Show Where I Like The Family The Best

10:41 PM · Jul 25, 2021 "hop pop"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah this is gonna be full of spoilers. I watched the full series for this one. If you want to watch Amphibia but haven't, I'd suggest avoiding this one.

Inhale... Exhale...

Amphibia Season 1. Starts off strong. Ends Strong. The middle is kind of...

6:17 PM · Jul 1, 2021 "Why is there a 2 in the ampm ep of amphibia"
7:16 PM · Jul 1, 2021 "Why is this episode so nasty????"
7:16 PM · Jul 1, 2021 "Amphibia didn’t NEED grossout"
7:17 PM · Jul 1, 2021 "Stop forcing gender roles on Polly"
7:19 PM · Jul 1, 2021 "this is such an awful episode..."
7:33 PM · Jul 1, 2021 "anne talking about shipping and polly just screams at her. me too polly."
2:14 PM · Jul 3, 2021 "amphibia is so tropes..... :-("
2:15 PM · Jul 3, 2021 "nevermind hop pop is dying"
2:27 PM · Jul 3, 2021 "Polly is an insane person"
2:28 PM · Jul 3, 2021 "Hop pop goo episode"
2:46 PM · Jul 3, 2021 "why is this show getting worse."
2:51 PM · Jul 3, 2021 "they are drinking toxic slutch"

Yeah the show starts out pretty tropey and pretty grossout. Tropes are to be expected because it is a kids show, and sometimes they're done well. "Civil Wart" does a good moral about caring about your loved ones, despite being a shipping episode.

3:48 PM · Jul 3, 2021 "the shipping episode...."
3:50 PM · Jul 3, 2021 "i like that the moral of this shipping episode has nothing to do with shipping and everything to do with being kind to your siblings"

And "The Big Bugball Game" focused on being a team player, but focusing on the fact that Anne is a tennis player, so she doesn't rely on a team in sports.

6:52 PM · Jul 15, 2021 "I like that the teamwork ep plays out with it being more Anne only knows individual sports"

This could have meant something once we got to finale, but I'll get back to that. 

Grossout is pretty standard fare for kids shows too, but it's not all that common on Disney shows. In fact, I would say about 11 shows I've watched on the Disney Watch rely on grossout humor, and that is being liberal and including series like Fish Hooks and Lilo and Stitch.

I think the best comparison for the grossout in Amphibia would probably be Brandy and Mr Whiskers, a show that can also arguably be considered an isekai. The gross factor usually comes from how gross we consider animals and bugs, with some other gross character moments. Also, I'd argue Anne and Sprig are basically Brandy and Mr Whiskers if the two liked each other, which is why I think Amphibia surpasses Brandy and Mr Whiskers, despite all my qualms.

Another Disney show I noticed a lot of similarities with is Pepper Ann. Particularly in the Mr. Warburton-esque style of the bodies. I never really commented on that until the episode before finale, when I actually saw Pepper Ann, but really, I think there's a lot here.

Anne and Pepper Ann both have that relatable not-always-the-best-person middle school girl energy that people still relate to as they grow older. They're incredibly comfortable and casual in their femininity, something I respect from both shows. They are also very different characters. My friend who I was watching Amphibia with admitted to being like Anne in middle school, a good friend, but also a careless follower. Meanwhile I think I acted more like Pepper Ann in middle school, clever, but also a insensitive oddball. And yeah usually when either of them do something assholish, they get some sort of comeuppance and learn a lesson. They're both really good characters.

There's also a ton of references, naturally, for a kid show. I think I like it more as an adult because you can see the inspiration from your favorite shows.

2:54 PM · Jul 3, 2021 "THEY PUT A MARY TYLER MOORE REF IN THE FROGGY SHOW"
3:43 PM · Jul 3, 2021 "they put a mst3k ref in the froggy show"
4:41 PM · Jul 24, 2021 "KERMIT"
4:49 PM · Jul 24, 2021 "frog soos"

Like man, I wonder how a show about a woman leaving everything she's ever known and forging a new life, a show about a man shot off the earth and forced to deal with the unpleasant consequences, a show with a funny talking frog, and Disney's first popular mystery series could have ever influenced Amphibia.

We meet a ton of characters too, though really Anne and the Plantars are the focus. I'd say I enjoyed the side characters, but I think I only really liked Ivy and the dude who grew Tulips.

7:22 PM · Jul 1, 2021 "why does amphibia have a drunk in it. also tangled but"
7:29 PM · Jul 1, 2021 "wait they're keeping sprig engaged..... wowie...."
7:32 PM · Jul 1, 2021 "kevin mcdonald is in this show :-0" 

Though to be fair, early season 2 wasn't much better in that regard. Really, season 2 started off pretty boring, but got better as it went along.

12:49 AM · Jul 17, 2021 "I’m gonna be honest, I’m not digging the road trip"
12:49 AM · Jul 17, 2021 "Like it’s fiiiiiine but it feels like the characters we see aren’t as fun as the wartwood freaks"

And I think it got really good when Yunan, who is probably my favorite of the characters living in Amphibia.

4:26 PM · Jul 24, 2021 "They put a girlknight in the show"
4:26 PM · Jul 24, 2021 "She’s silly I like her"

Marcy showing up also improves the season, because she's a fun goofball. Really, the three girls are the best part of the show. When I discussed how Anne feels like a genuine character, I could probably say the same thing for the other two girls to a lesser extent. Sasha for example is really controlling and a jerk, but it is evident she cares for her friends.

11:26 PM · Jul 16, 2021 "LEAN ON ME?"

And that isn't a redeeming trait in that it forgives the other things too. Instead it drives her to fix herself, and it just makes sense. Marcy on the other hand is smart and goofy, but ultimately sneaky and insensitive toward the needs of her friends. Also not immune to sword.

I think it's easy to relate to at least one of the girls in one way or another, and I really enjoy their dynamic. So much so, that I made a very helpful chart of other Disney trios.

If one more person complains about Huey and Louie being in the wrong slots i'm gonna snap.

Anyway onto Season 3. Like Proud Family and Pepper Ann, I found the Boonchuy family to be the best part of the show. It's evident that Matt Braly was writing what he knew with Anne's parents, which kind of makes them the best characters in the show. They're incredibly funny and caring people, and they were kind of the driving force that made me up the show's grade by a tier.... Unfortunately they are only in the show for half a season and once they left it wasn't quite the same.

Season 3 kind of had the opposite problem of season 2. It started great and then slowly stumbled into mediocrity. Certainly there were some really good moments focused on the main trio toward the end, but ultimately, I found myself so spoiled by the funny adventures of the Plantars and the Boonchuys that going back to townie frogs made me not care a lick.

Season 3 makes it pretty evident that the show isn't all that great at intrigue either. For example, we learn Andrias is fucked up and evil because he used to be in a polycule (I believe this is canon if you read the appendices and by appendices I mean crew members' twitter accounts) and his girlfriend had a prophecy about how if they used the music box more, the moon would crash into the earth. Naturally that is really cool and mysterious. What could it be? The universe going out of whack and messing with the gravity of planets? Pulling a whole ass moon into your dimension? Yeah no the core just hacked the moon. I don't know that just could have been talked over and it bugs me a lot.

Season 2 kind of has this problem too, with setting up this great mystery with little payoff.

10:00 PM · Jul 25, 2021 "anyway the whole music box intrigue thing being solved with "hop pop is a conservative" is like... in character, but it is a tad anti climactic"

I think in Hop Pop's case, it's a little better because it ultimately drives his character, but it's not the most emotional reveal.

The finale of season 3 is... not that great. Ignoring the poor timing, the finale ultimately relies on Anne having to punch the moon herself when it feels like the rest of the show is going for this equal footing teamwork thing. Bring It On did it in a pretty amazing way, with everyone having their own battles, but the finale spent ten minutes having our protagonist sacrifice herself in the series least emotional fakeout death, only to bring her back and have everyone say their goodbyes.

Finale definitely left things too closed. They made it evident that the characters couldn't jump across worlds anymore, told us the characters all went their separate ways, and showed us how they were all doing ten years down the line, and I don't think they needed to do that? I get that most shows have this "all questions will be answered" sort of mindset, but I think it ultimately ruins a little of the magic of an ambiguous ending.

Amphibia is a good show. It has its high points and its low points, but much like its inspiration, Pepper Ann, the high points are absolutely amazing!

Overall Rating for Amphibia: B Tier