Amphibia Review: Cane Crazy / Flood, Sweat, and Tears

"Oh. Oh, I like this."

While the first episodes of Amphibia more firmly established the show's overarching narrative, "Cane Crazy" and "Flood, Sweat, and Tears" reel it back a little. Anne's got two months before she can embark on her journey to the mountainous edges of Amphibia, so the pair making up today's batch is more of a look into what we'll be getting in the meantime, turning out two serviceable episodes more focused on lighthearted adventures with faint beats of character development along the way. They don't aim high, but they make for satisfying entries more focused on getting us comfortable with the characters and their dynamics than adding anything more pressing into the formula, and that's alright with me.

The first of the two, "Cane Crazy," is by far the least eventful, though that's not an inherently bad thing. Both episodes suggest that Amphibia is subscribing to the "monster of the week" episode formula, but it manages to do so in a fun enough way with plenty of creativity, with Anne accidentally breaking Hop Pop's prized, family heirloom cane. Obviously, Hop Pop would be mad at discovering what she did, and she fears that he'll live up to his threats of kicking her out of his house for misbehaving, so Anne, Sprig, and Polly meet up with the local wood expert, Leopold Loggle, a fun character with some fun eccentricities in his devotion to woodworking and unfortunate speech patterns. He ends up pointing them in the direction of the Doom Tree (which turns out to be a strange tree-insect beast) where the original cane's wood comes from, and they set out to fetch a new branch to replace it.

While I never mentioned Polly in my previous review, I suppose it's worth talking about her a bit more now that she's been in a more significant role. She's... fine, I suppose. She exists largely as a character of comic relief, though the general two-dimensionality of her personality and role—she's Sprig's tadpole little sister with an ongoing obsession with candy bribes and delivers the occasional wisecrack at another character's expense—and as a result, she felt largely unnecessary here in terms of carrying weight in the episode's cast. With that being said, the fact that she got her moment, hitting the Doom Tree around with Leopold's prosthetic limbs, gives me hope that she'll establish more of an interesting place in the show further down the road.

The bigger revelation of the episode comes from Hop Pop, who reveals after Anne confesses to breaking the cane that he would've never kicked her out of his house in the first place; he simply wanted more respect from her because she reminds him of himself when he was younger. I really like that Amphibia is making a conscious effort to preserve him as a strong character with a good heart, and that twist subverts our expectations in a way that registers as legitimately sweet: instead of letting the episode end on an easier, more hacky note, Anne's already been completely accepted into the family, and that's a nice bit of progress.

That sense of camaraderie in examining Anne's rapport with the Plantars is explored with a bit more aplomb in "Flood, Sweat, and Tears," with the flooding of Anne's makeshift bedroom leading her to share a room with Sprig in the meantime, even though Polly and Hop Pop repeatedly suggest it's a bad idea. Like "Cane Crazy," there's nothing too heavy to the episode, but there's something inherently comedic about examining both Anne and Sprig in how they contrast to one another. While, at first, their nights are filled with "would you rathers" and pillow fights, it quickly devolves into begrudging restlessness, with their worst, most disruptive personal habits on full display.

There's a lot of predictability to the formula that makes up the episode, but I'm giving it a pass because it's a fun premise that allows the show to develop its two leads effectively this early into its run, and putting pure comedy at the forefront keeps everything breezy and fun. The humor never turns too mean-spirited either, with Anne and Sprig attempting to mask their frustrations with their new living situation with complete sincerity: they want it to work so badly because they're such close friends, and it's a compliment to the show that they never end up exploding into some massive argument.

Rather, they make the revelation that they're miserable at the exact same time, running into the flooded basement in hopes of clearing it up so Anne can move back down there at the same time. While there's a little bit of argument in both being mutually offended, it quickly gets sidelined when Anne and Sprig get dragged underwater by the sea creatures responsible for the leak, and the two team up to fight them off with a good old-fashioned pillow fight, calling back to their giddy sleepover mentality when living together in the first nights. The ending, too, helps further the two's bond: Hop Pop reminds them that honesty in friendship is more important than anything else, and that they've ultimately grown closer in realizing who they both are in more detail.

While, further down the line, I'm sure we won't really remember these episodes too much, they serve their purpose as two fun early entries into the show that play it more low-key, and that's respectable.

FINAL GRADES:
"Cane Crazy": B-.
"Flood, Sweat, and Tears": B.

For the last set of Amphibia reviews for "Anne or Beast?" and "Best Fronds," CLICK HERE.

For updates every time I post a new review, follow me on Twitter @Matt_a_la_mode.

P.S. While I'm not super enthusiastic about the airing schedule of Amphibia's first season, spinning out two episodes a day for the next five weeks, people seemed to like my first review enough that I'll keep trucking along, at least for now.

Also, I didn't post this on the r/amphibia subreddit because of how late I'm posting it, so if you find this, good on you! I like your curiosity.