Amphibia Season 1 Reviews!: Anne Or Beast?/Best Fronds: Spriganne Begins (Patreon Stretch Goal)
Hello all you happy people! So if you’ll endulge me, it’s time for a bit of a story:
Back in 2020, I started covering animation on this blog with some simple reviews of Ducktales Season 3 that quickly snowballed into a career with three patrons, a regular schedule and a much more fufilled me. And since covering Ducktales regularly got me going and was a runaway success, I decided to cover another Disney show as it came out that i’d happily binged the previous year while watching my youngest nephew: Amphibia. So I covered ALL of season 2 as it came out (still need to put that in one post), and have worked my way through season 3. While regular coverage CAN be exausting I do love the conversations it leads to, how many of you found this blog through it and just getting to cover a whole show.
But as a result of starting in the middle of the show, and having not started this blog when season one aired in one large mishapen pile, that leaves season 1 as a large gap. So I put it up as a patreon stretch goal figuring it wouldn’t take long for just ONE more person to join, as my goals are on a per person basis: everytime someone joins, a new project is added to the to do list and I get to it as soon as possible. Long story short.. took about a year. Still better late than never as i’m finally jumping into the first season of Amphibia. If you want the same treatment for the owl house, hop on over to my patreon, apt choice of words, and sign up. Just a buck a month (though more is appreicated) gets you a review of a half hour tv episode of your choice (a little over is fine), a seat at the table when selecting things for my monthly polls, and hits my next stretch goal. Owl House season 1, just like this , once a month, come rain, shine or swamp snake. To sweeten the pot i’ll also review that spider-man two parter where a homeless doctor octopus was haunted by hammerhead’s atomic ghost. I’m not making any of that up.
So now here we are, back at the starting line with the finish line looming in the distance. It is fun to go back, and not the first time I have either as I helped @jess-the-vampire binge the show months ago. But it’s a great time to go back: see what’s changed, reflect on how far everyone’s come etc. I won’t be doing JUST one episode a month, i’ll be doubling up after this, but you’ll still get the same amount of content, wit and shenanigans from me.
For now though we’re back at the start and it’s a weird sort of whiplash. By season 3 the show is gearing up for it’s end, with the arcs having a very crisp pace and a nice ballance between character based slice of life eps and plot advancement.
Season 1 though? While it’s not bad by any means the larger arc is on the back burner: The Calamity Box is only adressed in three episodes, and the arc involving Toad Tower only factors into about 4 episodes. There’s a strong continuity, including a smaller arc about Hop Pop loosing the stand, as always, but it’s really more about the journey than the destination. Season 1 is more about Anne’s growth as a person and slow acceptance by the town as she adapts to this brave new world, than it is about the larger picture. And honestly whie it could be mildly frustrating when watching season 1 as it came out, even if season 1 again came out in one big ole pile, in hindsight.. it works. Anne’s growth as a person is VITAL to the show as it goes as is the town’s utter love and loyalty to her that’s carefully grown over the season. Seeing her go from selfish, reckless lazy teen to a mildly responsible town protector is wonderful to see and nicely contrasts how Sasha outright refuses to change for most of the series and Marcy SEEMINGLY has changed.. but at her core is still the same person. It also provides a lot of the thrust for Season 3 as seeing how much Amphibia changed her for the better helps her parents accept the whole experince faster. So while Season 1 dosent, for the most part, reach the highs of it’s followups, it’s got tons of charm, character, and worldbuilding to make up for it so let’s hop right to it under the cut!
Anne or Beast?
Our series begins in Wartood as we quickly get a sense of things: populated by frogs, swampy townscape, rural area. All neat stuff that’s set up by visual alone.
We also meet our boy Wally who wonders home from Stumpy’s, a nice bit of establishing the place now for when it has an ep later in the season.. and finds a hideous creature in the darkness! Another nice touch I really like I didn’t notice the first two times I watched this one: the fact Anne is absent for the first act. By doing this we’re put in the frog’s perspective and thus eased into the world more gently than anne, getting a sense of the kind of place wartwood is, what amphibia is like and why they’d be so afraid of her
And the answers are just as cleverly laid out the next day: we see a bustling small close knit town that’s charming and clearly still at most fantasy rpg levels of technlogy, but happy and close knit. And we also see a guy casually taken away from his wife or girlfriend by a bug, highlighting this world is dangerous as hell, anything can and will kill you so of course they’d be suspcious of a human. To us we’re just another monster and the town reaction to Wally’s story is to form up a mob. It’s not RIGHT they treat Anne like this, but it’s understandable given how isolated they are and how everything ELSE that’s out in the unknown of the forests and swamps tries to muder them on a daily basis.
We also meet the rest of the main cast.. and an adorable slug we never see again.
Yeah for some reason despite Bessie being established as a long time part of the family and their only snail not long after this, we have this slug they changed their mind abouts. I call him jeremy
No not you Jeremy, my hellish source of entertainment. He gets shockingly good bandwith on streaming i’ll tell you. My best guess canon wise is Bessie was sick and one of the neighbors let them borrow their slug. I’m going with Chuck. He grows tulips.
Anyways we get a good sense of the Plantars from the get go: Hop Pop is strict , protective and responsible, Sprig is a little scamp, and Polly is agressive especially for a baby. Hop Pop also dosen’t find Sprig responsible after a string of incidents that not only set up the worlds danger even more but SPrig’s impulsivness. The punchilne is also great “So yesterday was a bad day”.
Sprig decides to prove he’s responsible by hunting the monster himself and bribes Polly with candy to keep her tiny mouth shut (”Bribe accepted!”). He goes out into the woods, finds himself caught in a snare and meets the most fearsome creature of all: A Teen-Ager!
And so we’re finally properly introduced to Anne, who just wants Sprig to leave her alone and wasn’t trying to eat Wally so much as get some help. She plans to just leave the child dangling in the woods, but an oncoming giant mantis gets her to change her mind kid and she saves him, leading to one of my faviorite lines of the ep. Seriously as always for the show the jokes are on point “Your a hero, an ugly ugly ugly hero!” this also shows Sprig ALWAYS lacked Tact, he’s just gotten worse with time. Then better: So far he hasn’t brought up any underlying emotoinal issues casually and made everything worse. So far.
Anyways the two then Bond, with Anne explaning she’s trapped in a world she never made, she has no idea how to get home or where she is and she’s been living in this cave. So that’s pretty neat. Sprig offers to get her something to eat after she turns down bugs, which creates a nice runner: Anne absolutely refuses to eat them at first and is horrified when she does, but slowly grows to like them the longer she’s there. It’s really neat.
The Angry Mob heads to get her, with hop Pop and polly tagging along and once they catch Anne she thinks Sprig set her up. But this misunderstanding gets cleared like most too: by an even bigger mantis showing up and trying ot eat her. Sprig saves her, a friendship is properly forged and the two fight the mantis off together using the ropes anne was bound with.
Mayor Toadstool decides to get rid of Anne anyway because safety. Honestly it’s shit like this why all the frog mutants packed up and left for an island I tell ya. Damn shame that giant tortise ate it in this timeline. Damn shame. Anyways Sprig stands up for Anne and while that dosen’t move him because when has an honest heartflet plea ever moved the cold mechanical heart of a politican, Hop Pop taking responsiblity for her does. He also expresses pride in his grand son for doing the right thing.
Anne is greatful but understandbly plans to ease on down the road since you know, trapped in another world. But conviently for the plot Anne can’t leave the Valley for 2 months, as it’s blocked and has to just roll with it, though HOp Pop kindly offers her home and the basement and Sprig sweetly offers his plushies and kind words, forging a friendship that crosses dimensonal barriers and some emotional boundry lines. Once alone Anne tries simply opening the box in private.. but it dosen’t work. As we know now it needs a fresh charge. But she promises to find her friends and a way home.
Anne Or Beast? is a stellar start to the series setting up the tone , the plot and the main cast beautifully. It’s truly great stuff and shows why the series got a fanbase so quick. WHile Disney has a lot of issues as a company.. a lot a lot.. like way more than they resonably should, they know how to make a first episode truly spectacular.
Best Fronds:
So first up is some backstory: We see Anne stealing the music box and being peer pressured into it, but neatly we don’t get a sense of who Sasha and Marcy are just yet, instead just getting the short version so we see them open it and wind up here. Anne thinks it was all just a dream only to find out nope, she really is stuck with a bunch of frogs in a death world for two months. Sprig is jealous, Polly wants to kill her before she can eat them, and Hop Pop is worried she sprays acid. Which to be fair when encountering a creture I dont’ know tha’ts my go too. Anne confirms she’s not going to eat a creature that clearly dosen’t bathe (Hop Pop: Fair point) I’d also like to point out some early bumps in the voice acting from these eps: Brenda dosen’t quite pitch her voice up as much in the first ep to sound younger like she does later and Justin is still sorting out his delivery. Though the real noticable ones are Bill and Amanda: Hop Pop sounds MUCH older and croakier, heh, and Polly sounds more nasly. Both things wouldn’t LEAVE, old man and baby respectively, but they’d be more ballanced as the show went on, with hop pop sounding more like a person and polly sounding less like she’s showing the first signs of having been bit by a were urkel.
Anne is bummed though missing her friends, so Sprig offers to be her friend and while most of the things she lists just have him go
With his face, the mention of a beach has him decide to take her to the lake. Hop Pop vetos this as he wants them safe and her to ease into the town.. despite the flaw in that that if the town dosen’t see her often they won’t get used to her. Anne simply opts to steal the key rather than try some of hop pop’s plot convience peppers like Sprig does. Thankfully turns out Hop Pop sleeps with both eyes open and as much as a regular old man: 86 years, often while yelling at a cloud or writing about hearing the word bra on tv.
So our heroes go out, though Sprig notices a forboding sign of doom and wants to bounce. We then get our first taste that Anne’s friendships.. are not healthy, though this mostly sounds like Sasha. One weird quirk of season one is I ge tthe feelign they didn’t know QUITE what they were doing with marcy, so most of the bad elements in Anne’s relationship clearly come from Sasha in hindsight, but are directed at both. It’s weird. Anyways Sprig leaves but comes back , the two have a fun montage. But then a dripping wet giant snake rams itself into their day
Our heroes try not to get eaten by the snake, I try not to have to use the Goodnight Everybody gag twice, and Anne apologizes, realizing she was selfish. It’s a nice bit of character shwoing sh’es starting ot realize Sasha really is a terrible role model.. she just hasn’t realized Sasha herslef is terrible. Which agian comes off weird given Marcy ISN’T expotiative or anything, but whatever. Sprig nearly dies but uses the peppers to queel the girthy thing, our heroes head home and succesfully duck hop pop and confirm their bond and Polly is bummed she dosen’t get to put anne in a chokehold for trying to eat them. I mean she coudln’t with those arms but let her dream. Let. Her. Dream.
But we get another Sprig of plot, sans the actual sprig as we meet grime being all intimdating as he found anne’s shoe and knows Sasha was lying about others, confriming to us that Anne wasn’t the only one stranded here. I also find this endlessly hilarous now he’s basically her dad and now I have images like this
Of who I rightfully assumed was going to be the big bad of the entire series. Time makes fools of us all.
Next Month: A two fer as we go striaght from a menacing teaser of what’s to come to sitcom hyjinks: Anne breaks a cane, we get your standard feud episode, Sprig gets sold into marriage and Anne and Hop Pop trip balls together like any good grandaughter and grandpa. See ya real soon.
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