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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Amphibia Weekly Season 3 Reviews and Analysis: Hollywood Hop Pop and If You Give a Frog a Cookie: The Calm Before and After The Storm

Hello all you happy people! I’m Jake, I review stuff and things and i’m almost done with Amphibia for the year! Next Week’s Christmas episode marks the end of this half of the season and of new episodes for what will likely be months. Probably sometime in spring, though maybe not as early as last time given they also have to squeeze in big city greens and owl house. Unless they decide to try and just burn off the rest of owl house inconspciously because it’s “not with the disney brand”. Which is code for “WE let one homophobic shitweasel have too much power apparently so now this is going away. “ HOpefully fans, including my close friend @jess-the-vampire will keep up the fight. Seriously I just wanted to give her a nod for fighting hard and long for this and currently working on stickers to help the cause. It means a lot to her and I support that and this. We need more dammit.

So with that this is one of our last episodes and with it we finally get introduced to the rest of the characters from that shot in the intro with all the supporting cast from this season.. and get a change to it. Clearly Matt wanted to rub salt in the gaping wounds from last time, so Marcy in the tank’s been replaced with Marionette Marcy. Which took a long time to figure out as coming up with a name is hard.. and the fandom as a whole settled on “Darcy” which.. just dosen’t work given you know THIS happened to make that

I’m all for goofy nicknames, but there’s a limit and that limit is a 13 year olds screams of pain to make that version of a character exist.

This also once again brings up my longstanding fascenation with Disney Intros, how they used to NEVER change but disney’s become more and more opena nd thus we’re seeing intros reflect the whole show more and more often or get small but likely costly cosemtic changes to hide spoilers. Which still begs the question: Was Star Vs unable to change intros and thus kept posseed ludo LONG after he stopped being the big bad, or were they just lazy. You make the call.. mine is the former because the rest of seasons 3 and 4 strongly agree with my assement.

But being in the final lap of this part of the season, it has me sitting back and reflecting a bit, though i’ll save it in full for next episode as it COULD adress the only two complaints I have left. For now we get a nice calming batch of episodes after.. well see above for burning teenager. Wallace Shawn heartwarmingly supports Hop Pop’s dream, the most fabulous secret agent in existance returns, one of my favirite voice actors and the female equilvent to my keith david obsession joins the cast, and we get Cree Summer hamming it up in a voice she dosen’t get to use as much. A fun time is had by all before presumably next week kicks us in the testicles and runs off for a few months. So join me under the cut for Hollywood, Mad Science and Cookies, as well as a full analytical review with spoilers.

Hollywood Hop Pop:

Much like Spider-Sprig, this one’s a breather episode. While the former was ease us into the hellscape that was “Oliva and Yunan”, this one’s to ease us out of it and back into normal episodes for a sec. Sort of like a sandwitch with two halves of a crossant for it’s bread and a still living snake covered in mustard for it’s filling.

Given the show’s newfound LA setting it was really a matter of “when” rather than “If” the show would visit Hollywood given Hop Pop’s love of acting set up last season, one of the very few things during the road trip arc that actually advanced the story or characters. The others I can think of being the skipman, which we’ll get to next ep, frobo, polly’s episode and finding out Wally’s backstory. That arc continues to be a giant waste of time and good concept to me and could’ve been shrunk by a few episodes so we got more time with Marcy before...

Exactly. The fact she’s likely going to be gone an entire season makes keeping her out of focus last season during the Newtopia portion even MORE baffling than it already was.

Anywho, Hop Pop’s acting dreams were a nice bit of depth to his charcter, showing he didn’t ALWAYS want to be a farmer despite being so dedicated to it. Now granted, we still haven’t gotten the connective tissue for that, which frustrates me to no end, but it’s still more than “was born and died a farmer”, instad painting a picture of a kid who wanted to act but came to see his family leagacy as his calling, even if he still never regretted becoming a star. It may be the good foundation for a possible prequel. Hint hint Disney HINT HINT.

But to me it was just a character trait and not something that needed full resolution.. only for matt to give it one in this charming ep that was utterly heartwarming.

Our heroes are visiting Hollywood since Anne is being a good host and all. The Plantars have likely seen even more movies now their not limited to whatever Anne happened to have on her phone, been to a theater.. now it’s time to go to the holy land of filmaking. Hop Pop is naturally star struck, especially upon finding out as anne puts it we don’t just love actors here “we worship them as gods”... I mean given the altar I have for keith david hidden in my crawl space I concur.

So despite you know, being on the run from Mr.X... who Anne knows by name

I did go back and check the clip of his meeting Anne’s parents: he DID flash Mrs. B his creditals, so them knowing his name is plausable.. but it still feels clunky to have her just abrubtly state a character name that Mrs. B MIGHT know from the guy flashing his badge for two seconds.

Anyways, our heroes had after Hop Pop who runs around starstruck before bumping into Humphrey Westwood, an old man who happens to look almost exactly like him except human. He’s played by WALLACE MOTHERFUCKING SHAWN.

Granted Mr. Shawn does a LOT of voice work, smaller rolls like this one, so it’s not a massive shock he’s here but it just highlights how absolutely stacked the guest cast is this year. The other two years weren’t lacking, the shows always had some of the best talent, but this season has added Wayne Knight, Ankia Noni Rose (And shame on me for not pointing out that she and Keith David are reunited in a disney project, and might even come face to face (Probably not but a man can dream), Dana Davis, Kate Micucci (We’ll get to that), Cree Summer (Ditto), RuPaul, Brad Garrett, and now Wallace Shawn. And ther’es even great new additions like On Braly and Brian Sounalouth who arne’t as big names, but slap just as hard as all these sizeable guest names. The show is going above and beyond to nail the finish and bringing in everyone they can to do so. And it is WORKING.

So anyways, back on point: Humphrey is a vetran actor, having put his nose to the grindstone for 45 years hoping for his big break. It hasn’t happened yet but he’s not giving up either and he’s nothing but friendly to Hop Pop. And in most acting based stories you’d expect for him to stab HP in the back.. but no. He accepts this out of towner and welcomes him, and it’s the sweetest thing, even more when Humphrey gives Hop Pop his audition slot> He’ll have other chances.

Said Slot is for a commercial, something Hop Pop dosen’t realize as they don’t have those back home. He mostly nails the audition, but is almost let go for lack of a catchphrase.. until he lets out a

And thus gets himself an ad Campaign, with Anne accepting it because he says it was a play and Humphrey congradulating him. While he didn’t get the part he’s just happy for someone else. God this man is amazing.

Anne isn’t happy the next day to find Hop Pop’s commerical, which they shot that day because

Is now on all the channels and is pissed off while Hop Pop and the rest of the family are utterly thrilled with Mr and Mrs B even adorably appearing on the banister.. because they have an upstairs now? Probably always did I just never noticed the stairs before. Look over the past few weeks i’ve seen a killer robot, a baby riot, grime in hop pop’s bed, a food truck do a rail grind, a possum, a museum heist, a huge battle with the entire thai community of this part of LA, so gals being girlfriends and making robots, Mrs> B go thor on a motherfucker, Ru Paul as a secret agent and a teenager get horribly possesed by a sentient ai hive. It has been a lot of fun but also a lot. So forgive me for not realizing Anne’s house had more than one level despite it being obvious in hindsight.

Anyways their all cute on the Banister talking about how they know someone famous and Mr. B wondering if they shoudl charge rent.. then REALLY wondering if they should. Mr. B no. He also muses that because Mr. X is a busy goverment agent surely he won’t be watching tv. Cut to the obvious joke of Mr. X indeed taking time for himself to watch TV. We also get a peak at his personal life and it is adorable

He has a snazzy robe, an alien themed kitchen (Unsurprisingly) with all sorts of cool stuff I wish I had frankly, two posters of Ru Paul in drag race for m as a nice little nod , and the frogs from last time who he’s since adopted. Awwww. I know I know he’s trying to dissect our heroes but awwww.

So naturally he gets wind of this and easily finds out what Studio the commercial was at.. which wouldn’t be a big deal, he took HUMPHREY’S spot and thus they have his address.. but the Plantars happen to be heading to the studio as Anne wants to get the Ad pulled before they get found out.. only to find out it’s likely impossible given the campaign has spawned billboards t-shirts, mugs and other fine merch. And I could blame the fast turnaround on just being for the sake of a joke.. but the sheer amount of Tommorowland funkos still clogging up shelves show that companies simply put out a ton of merch and HOPE there’s a demand sometimes. Yet oddly disney STILL hasn’t given us anything for Amphibia. Your priorities disney I swear.

Anyways Hop Pop gets a call on Anne’s phone for his big break, which Anne is against but he plans to go for anyway. It’s even in a Water Tower. Huh, didn’t know the Warners were renting out that space for meetings.. or maybe Nora forced them to. Either is likely. Point is Hop Pop goes to embrace his destiny.. only to find Humphrey. Turns out he’s the janitor on the lot, has been for years. Wow the things he’s seen.. and picked up. I mean wakkos crumbs alone. And he’s once again HAPPY Hop Pop gets a big break. But Hop Pop isn’t... mostly because he’s been struggling all episode with the guilt. Humprhey gave up his big shot.. and Hop Pop took it. And what makes it work is that Humphrey willingly did, has no grudge against HP for his success.. and that just makes it WORSE as HP took it from someone who worked far longer for it.

We also get a great chase sequence with X, the Kids and HP, including fun callbacks for Trantulaman, Suspcsion Island, and the dowtown abby knockoff which dosen’t have real British persons to Anne’s shock.. and mine.

Thus the next part isn’t a surprise: X is once again humiliated as he attacks the tower.. only to find Humphrey, which not only humiliates the guy again (Again just because he’s against our heroes dosen’t make him a terrible person), but gets the FBI a possible lawsuit, something he understandably takes worse. Last time was an easy enough to write off loss.. this time not only hurts the bearu but his reputation as it makes the switch much less obvious.

Hop Pop explains himself to the kids: that Humphrey deserved it more (even thanking HP for getting his break at last), but also admits he put them all in danger... he had his moment in the sun... it’s time for humphrey to have his while Hop Pop apricates what he does have his family. He also wants to direct leading to another out of the cart shove.

Hollywood Hop Pop was a good, nice and fluffy breather episode, which we truly needed. While the next episode isn’t as intense given the last one was....

We as an audience BADLY needed this. Add in Wallace Shawn being as awesome as ever and some fun gags and this was another decent episode. Nothing amazing but again, it was following ^ that so i’m willing to cut it some slack. Onward.

If You Give a Frog a Cookie:

This one does finally tackle something it’s been bugging me the show hasn’t. No not the Boonchuy’s names.. or Sasha and Marcy’s parents... though the Christmas Special should get on those. I’m talking about the fact that the Plantars really haven’t talked about missing home or everyone they know, especially since they left just as a tyrannical dictator was set to wreck up the place and could easily use them as leverage if he wanted via his giant murder canon. Or just blow Wartwood up entirely to spite them. Both seem up his alley. While the show has made it implicit their worrying, what with their race to get home, we haven’t seen any sign of it. Granted that is a weakness this season has had, kind of just.. dancing around the emotional implications of what just happened in general, with Marcy and Sasha’s parents so far non entities despite that making absolutely no sense, something i’ll complalin about more if they don’t show up next episode, and Anne clearly hurt by the betrayals, but not really talking about them. The show dosen’t ignore the impact, it’s clear the plantars miss homne and Anne is trying to avoid her complicated feelings towards her GF’s, but it still feels like a missing piece of the show they’ll hopefully fill in.

Still this one at least addresses the Plantars getting homesick and missing everyone, so i’ll give them that. Hopefully the rest will come. Anyways we open the episode with the yard filled with mud, to Mrs. B’s understandable distress. Anne explains that depression has hit our heroes hard and their badly homesick, so she thought a swamp would help. It did.. but now they’ve sunk to lying around in mud depressed. Been there. So now Anne’s making cookies, “the solution to all of life’s problems” to try and placate them. Mrs. B warns against this: they NEED to accept the reality of the situation and cope with it instead of just being given placebos. Trying to help them feel better is nice but this pain won’t just magically go away. As for why their suddenly depressed I feel it’s because they’ve been there at least a month by this point. It was easy to distract themselves when their might be hope of a way home sooner, they had to adapt to the world and were trying to bond with their new family. There was also the killer robot trying to murder them of course. But now time has set in and it’s very clear they aren’t getting home anytime soon, have no way of knowing if home will even be left when they return, and the realization’s likely hit them like a ton of brick frogs.

Anne decides to keep trying to cheer them up and takes out the cicada cookies... and Mrs. B finds this out after having taken a bite and spits it out.. at jeff. Real love is never having to say your sorry for spitting cicadia cookie on your husband.

The cookies don’t exactly help... nor does the Plantar’s coping mechanisim: a scale model of wartwood with creepy little dolls of everyone, with hop pop even having one he made of himself dance with tiny sylvia and the kids sadly hugging the adorable hand sewn plushie of Bessie.. dammit now I want one of those. Anne TRIES to follow her mom’s advice only to get a call from Dr. Jan who has good news.. and a lead. A local scientest, Dr. Frakes is looking into interdimensional portals and could be their ticket home. That said Jan dosen’t want to take them to see her JUST yet: as she puts it the academic community has a lot of loose ends on it’s fringes. Best to make sure Frakes is safe and sane before they try talking to her.

Unfortuantely the Plantars catch wind of the call and Anne can’t say no to their overwhleming depression so it’s off to the doc they go. Turns out Frakes, who i’m 100% convinced is named after Star Trek TNG actor and David Xanatos Voice Actor Jonathan Frakes, is headquartered in a science center. For those less familiar their basically big places where children go to learn about science in fun ways. I went to one as a kid that was part of Union Station, it was a blast. So it’s no suprised the Plantars are enchanted. The kids there are also borderline feral when it comes to snacks.

After some putzing around our heroes make it to the back, and ask to be let in, finding Frakes assitant Terri. She’s played by KATE MOTHERFUCKING MICCUI, who I hero worship and crush on almost as hard as Keith David and for just as good a reason. She’s done plenty of screenwork, a lot of which I need to see, she’s built up a true talent and resume voice acting having voiced Sadie, Webby, Velma Dinkley for the last decade, and MANY more. So it’s a delight to not only see her pop up here, but in a very sizeable roll, especially since Disney canceled her starring role just as she was set to likely get a season long arc. I”m still bitter about Ducktales cancelation and I ain’t hidin it. Disney needs to learn to let series go on longer than 3 seasons.. or let them finish their seasons.. Disney sucks is what i’m saying you get it by now.

Terri is also the last of the supporting cast we see in the intro, the girl with blue hair. Whose also as it turns out 20 something. Terri also isn’t buying Anne’s very transparent lie that she’s a reporter. Where’s her yellow jumpsuit I ask you? But Frakes buys it.. not because a 13 year old is at all convincing but because as we quickly find out Frakes is a rabid egotist, and is also played by Cree Summers getting to use a voice she honestly dosen’t get to use as much but I recognize from.. somewhere. She’s done a LOT of things. I shouldn’t have to say who voice acting legend Cree Summer is. She’s been at this since the 80′s, shows no signs of quitting and has been great in her ocasional live action roles such as her longstanding role as Freddy, her supporting roll on better things and apparnetly a guest spot on what we do in the shadows which I need to watch. The lady has my utmost respect and has a blast here. She just puts everything into whatever roll big and small and I can’t help but repsect that.

Anyways as I was saying Frakes is an egotist, naming all her experiments after herself and feeling science is about naming things after herself. Huh.. so gyro gearloose is a woman in this dimension. Fascenating. Terri shows off that she’s not impressed with her boss or her egotisim, if quitely and snarkily.

Frakes leads them to her baby: an interdimensional portal. Turns out 6 months ago when the calamity box was opened and zapped our golden trio into Amphibia, a surge was sent through the power lines and into Frakes lab as Terri was hard at work and Frakes is rocking out on her skipman. Yes this is where the Skipman came from, as it gets sucked into amphibia as Frakes nearly does and ever since she’s been TRYING to build a portal. Sadly the most she gets are some foggy images of other worlds, one of which does look like amphibia, as she can’t get it to stay. My theory is that she has the right combo of exlectrical surges to create a portal.. but not the power or tech yet to keep it on or properly guide it to a world. And given only Andrias and the Core seem to know how the box works it’s fair a scientest not even knowing HOW the first portal happened and only able to barley replicate it could only get so far.

The Plantars pressure Anne into using the portal, and then guilt her when she refuses on very solid ground, not trusting Frakes for good reason and clearly regretting not letting Jan vet her. While this MIGHT be a way home... it’s through someone who clearly cares more about herself than actually helping people. And given the goverment is after them, that could mean she’d sell them out easily as long as she got public credit for it or something enought to satisfy her ego. But the plantars are blinded by seeing a way home at all and guilt anne into it.

So Frakes turns on the machine and knocks everyone back, getting a brief portal into somewhere. Bunch of shapes and stuff. But it’s not amphibia so the plantars are disapoitned.. and exposed as the blast knocked their clothes off. Shockingly the raging egotist who views science as a means to feeding said ego sees the frogs only as something to disect for her own glory and uses a localized force field to caputre the plantars for disection. Anne dashes off and runs into Terri and gives her the “I need to stop her speech”... and in a nice twist for the genre, where normally the beligured assitant would dicker a bit or worry about themselves.... Terri agrees right away. Science is important but those are innocent people and Frakes has clearly lost it. So Terri helps her get to the other part of the lab, but gets tripped up by some children who sense a granola bar on her so Anne’s forced to hoof it alone.

At the disection lab, Anne tries breaking the window open, and the plantars ar ein danger... till Terri prepares to shut it off. Frakes threatens her both with loosing her job and being blackballed asking if it’s worth it. One yup into my heart later and Terri frees the plantars, allowing them to escape. Frakes takes it as well as you’d expect and grabs a buzzsaw arm, and uses it to chase them. You know.. your threat to blackball someone is kind of empty when you follow it by chasing an elderly man, a teenager, and two children around a place full of kids with a buzzsaw. Just saying. Anne however saves her family with a chekovs gun, holding off frakes while they escape with Terri by throwing some cookies at her. Those kids don’t care if they have bugs in them. Their cookies man.

So as Frakes is slowly devoured by children, our heroes drive off in Terri’s car. Nice of her to give them a ride. Anne calls out the Plantars pointing out she understands, better than anyone, what their going through but they can’t rush this. Doing so got the three of them nearly cut up, and lost Terri her job. The Plantars apologize, realizing they did overguilt her and were wrong. Terri however.. is not remotely phased. Besides the fact that like I said the person trying to blackball her from science just charged through a public space full of children with a buzzsaw , she points out the job sucked anyway and her “mentor” was wrong about science: it’s abotu helping people, not yourself. She also makes an obvious point: the portal SHE’LL build will be more than enough to get a grant. I hear the venture foundation has a pretty nice one. It also once again shows what a big heart this woman has: she just met these people... and she’s fully into helping them get home, without them even asking first. Sure the portal could change the world and it’s worth doing on that.. but to her it’s clearly just as much worth doing because it helps these strangers. WIth thta our heroes pick up yet another helpful ally and some hope of going home.

IYGAFAC was excellent. The Plantars actions, while greasy , were understandable and it nicely sovles one of the overarching mysteries of the series, and in a way that helps our heroes get one step closer ot home. Terri is yet another great addition to the supporting cast, and kate miccui or now she’s shown to be a kind, badass scientest who wants what’s best for people.

Next Time: Mid-Season Finale Yo! Rebcca Sugar Song! The IT Girls Return! Andrias does something that thankfully isn’t sending his master over there! Maybe Anne gives her mom a pin I dunno! WOOOO!

#amphibia #hollywood hop pop #if you give a frog a cookie #anne boonchuy #hopidiah plantar #polly plantar #sprig plantar #humphrey westwood #mr. x #hollywood #wallace shawn #Mr. Wu #Mrs. Wu #Terri #kate micucci #dr.jan #disney channel

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