Life With the Plantars

Disney’s committed to making sure Amphibia’s their big cartoon of the summer. Every Monday to Thursday from now until July, they’re airing a new episode of Amphibia. So far I am loving it, and I love watching Anne exploring her relationship with the Plantars in today’s episode.

Cane Crazy

After being insulted by Anne one too many times, Hop Pop threatens to throw Anne out of the house. While he goes to take a nap, Anne makes fun of him even more, only to break his favorite cane in the process. Determined not to go back to living in a cave, Anne drags Sprig and Polly to find a replacement cane.

Unfortunately, the only tree that has the wood needed is the extremely dangerous Doom Tree. It has earned its name, though, because it turns into a tree/bug monster and chases them all the way back to the wood shop. The resulting fight ends up wrecking the shop, and they have to give up their new cane as repayment. Even so, Hop Pop admits he wasn’t going to throw Anne out. She reminds him too much of himself as a kid. Still puts on dish duty for a month, though.

Flood, Sweat & Tears

The Plantars basement gets flooded after a leak springs in the ground, forcing Anne to bunk with Sprig in his room. Even though the two are best friends, Hop Pop’s afraid they can’t handle being roommates. As the nights drag on, we see that each of their habits rive each other nuts. The breaking point finally comes after two weeks when Anne breaks one of Sprig’s action figures.

Desperate to get their space back, they dive into the basement to find the leak, only to find the cause: river lampreys. With a little teamwork, though, they clobber the leaches and drive them out, fixing the leak. Even if they don’t work out as roommates, Hop Pop points out that the whole thing made their friendship even stronger. So, Anne sleeps on the couch until the basement’s dry.

Review

This episode wasn’t as much fun as the premiere was. It’s kind of hard to want to stick with episodic content when you consider the bigger plot going on. This is the first season, though, and that should be spent world-building and establishing character relationships. As far as I’m concerned, this episode helped to do that.

We got a good look at how Anne’s adjusting to life with the Plantars, and so far, she’s doing a good job. She’s best friends with Sprig, Polly Plantar’s started liking her, and even Hop Pop admits he’s fond of her. With the show already set for a second season, we can expect to be entertained for years to come. Plantars and Anne against the world!

I Give “Cane Crazy” and “Flood, Sweat & Tears” a 4/5

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