Amphibia

[Daikun]

Early last year, Disney announced a new series from Matt Braly called Amphibia.

Created and executive produced by Matt Braly (Gravity Falls), Amphibia chronicles the adventures of Anne Boonchuy, a self-centered 13-year-old who is magically transported to the fictitious world of Amphibia, a rural marshland full of frog-people. With the help of an excitable young frog named Sprig, Anne will transform into a hero and discover the first true friendship of her life.

I usually wait for Disney to post trailers before starting new threads (we all remember what happened with Gigantic), and Disney usually posts trailers for their new shows and movies up to a year ahead of time, but here...they waited till practically last minute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw64Jq2FZXo

Amphibia will have a week of premieres from June 17-20, and it already has a second season order.

[Avaitor]

I've started the series, and I'm enjoying it, but so far it definitely has a bit of a pattern. Anne finds something that reminds her of home that interests Sprig and Polly, Hop Pop warns them that this is probably dangerous and that steering from tradition is bad, he's at least kind of right, wash, rinse, repeat. It at least has a good sense of humor, and is trying to develop the characters, but I'm wondering when things will pick up.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Been watching some episodes, and the frog show's pretty fun. Feels like Star Vs but with all the kinks ironed out.

[Avaitor]

I think that's what has been turning me on to the show. I liked Star Vs at first, but lost interest when it became clear that Daron Nefcy wasn't great at world or relationship building. Amphibia meanwhile tends to split the difference between episodic and serialized in a stronger fashion. While I was initially unsure about the main cast, I've really grown to like everyone over time.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Yeah, Star Vs had a lot of promise and wonder in its first two seasons, but it just stopped connecting after the Battle for Mewni arc. I think one of the issues some of these recent half-serialized/half-episodic Disney Channel cartoons go through is learning to juggle it all. Like suddenly, the gaggy side character the show previously only used for gags is now thrust into a dramatic situation that doesn't fit them at all, or the dramatic reveal character stays around and gets involved in wacky plot of the week episodes to mixed results. When done well, you get a show that can hit a hundred emotions at once. But when done poorly, it just leads to overly lighthearted drama and directionless jokes. I had those same issues from a few episodes of The Owl House I watched.

[Daxdiv]

Yeah, there is some balance of goofy stories along with some world building/character development in Amphibia. Season 2 Part 1 is doing pretty good with Newtopia arc right now, though since I did look at the episode titles before they're going on hiatus & it does look like we'll be back to Wartwood soon enough. Then we have to wait until the crew finishes more episodes due to Disney's new strategy of releasing episodes now.

At least I don't have to worry about them bungling the serious stuff in my country folks living in the big city show. :^) I know there's some continuity, but at least it isn't as heavy as the other shows.

[Avaitor]

I'll admit, of the recent Disney series, I am much more interested in catching up to Big City Greens than Owl House. It just looks more fun to me.

I've slowly been growing weary of Disney's current formula for their series, where they start off light and episodic, with just the slightest hint of lore, only to build up on that lore about halfway into the first season. It's one thing for that to be the basis for a couple of their shows, like Gravity Falls or DuckTales, but when seemingly every other series they're making develops in the same way, it becomes tiresome. It's partly why I never finished the Tangled show, and I'm still behind on DuckTales.

I'd prefer to see something like Gargoyles, which starts off continuity heavy right from the gate, or even something like Craig of the Creek, which has lore that's primarily set to the side for smaller adventures. Amphibia is a little closer to that, and I think that's why I'm enjoying it so much.

[Dr. Insomniac]

When Gravity Falls did it years ago, it was pretty novel. "Oh, hey! Disney Channel's paying attention to cartoons again! And this one has a plot and foreshadowing and all these story things their sitcom drivel doesn't have!" But then they kept making animated series like that, and the surprise factor wore off. Didn't help how frustrating Gravity Falls' last quarter was.

[Daikun]

New episodes resume March 6.

[Daxdiv]

Damn, that Season 2 finale was fire. Even though I watched it when it leaked, it was still fun watching it on my TV. I still can't believe Disney allowed that scene near the end.

Now I go into the part where I speculate what's gonna happen in Season 3 based on the intro they made for it.

Spoiler

-Right now my ideas are that we'll probably get a few episodes where Anne and the Plantars are screwing around on Earth before they go back to Amphibia/Wartwood to stop the King from dominating other dimensions/worlds. My prediction is that they'll probably get back to Amphibia by the end of Part 1 of Season 3 aka the 10th episode of the season.
-There will be an episode or two where the Boonchoy family tries to get adjusted to the Plantars, much like how it took a few episodes for them to accept Anne
-I'm expecting the secret agents will probably be interested in finding out more about the frogs and their world. Maybe that scene where Anne is trying to evade them will probably lead to them referencing ET Bike scene.
-As for the other people in the opening, I'm assuming that the lady in the center works for the museum, the 2 robot girls will help rebuild Frobo & will most likely be the LGBT+ representation that Matt has been hinting at adding. The little man will probably be the mayor. Not sure what to expect from the Blue hair lady
-Looks like Sasha and Grime will get the people of Wartwood on their side to start a rebellion against the King.
- As far as King Andrias using the portal, I think he'll only be able to use it partially to send his machines to Earth. I think Marcy plays a bigger part in needing the portal to operate, hence why she's on life support.
-Speaking of Marcy, I'm expecting some Masked Man from Mother 3 shenanigans to happen. I mean, being impaled like that had to do a number on her.
-As for Anne and her Super Saiyan Blue Transformation, I'm expecting her to get some control over it before returning to Amphibia.

[close]

[Daikun]

Tokyopop is publishing Marcy's Journal.

[Avaitor]

I forgot that TokyoPop came back from the dead.

I really should get back to this show, shouldn't I? I only got around to the first couple of season 3 episodes.

[Avaitor]

I stopped catching up a few episodes into the last season's release dates, so I was able to take some time and catch up this week. Like Gravity Falls, I don't love the show's turn to darkness at the very end, and I found the penultimate giant battle to be somewhat underwhelming and cliche, but I was won over with the finale.

What really made this show special to me, alongside the world building, was the character relationships, both Anne's with the Plantars and her with Sasha and Marcy, which the last episodes made sure to rely heavily on, especially that nice little epilogue.

So yeah, Amphibia isn't perfect, but I think it's one of the best post-GF Disney shows. I'm still a little wary of that formula, but it largely succeeded regardless.