Amphibia Review: The Ballad of Hopediah Plantar / Anne Hunter

"Audiences want clear stakes, Hop Pop! And action."

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In my last review, I delved into a lot of my general thoughts in terms of where I stand with Amphibia; it's a show that I appreciate deeply, but also a show that still feels cozily embryonic at times. It knows what it wants, but throughout Season 1, I rarely saw it trying to explore different paths, leading to a solid but streamlined feel. My greatest hope, then, is for Season 2 to demonstrate a willingness to defy expectations and ultimately find a distinct voice among its competitors, and with this batch of episodes, I feel like we might be getting on the right path.

"The Ballad of Hopediah Plantar" certainly stands in raw defiance to audience expectations, at the very least. There's a formula deeply-embedded in most of the show's episodes; a character or group of characters commit some cardinal mistake that sends them scrambling to resurrect goodwill in an attempt to salvage the situation, always ending in some happy ending that puts a nice cap on proceedings. While this episode certainly follows those basic, initial beats, it also shows an interest in tampering with that formula, and the final outcome is potentially one of Amphibia's most quietly daring episodes yet.

Similar to "Handy Anne," "The Ballad of Hopediah Plantar" is quick to look back upon the advancements of the first season and consider them from different angles. In this case, Hop Pop feels underappreciated for his revolutionary deeds of the past going literally unsung by his family, with Sprig's folk ballad about Toad Tower framing him as a coward. Hop Pop's always a fun character for Amphibia to dedicate an episode to, however rare that tends to feel; even if he's the voice of authority a lot of the time to Anne, Sprig, and Polly's antics, he's also a character who struggles with insecurities about the degree that he's respected. We saw that a few times across Season 1, but in light of the fact that Hop Pop's proven himself to be an actual, bonafide revolutionary regardless of how much recognition everyone else will grant that, there's no better chance to delve into the thick of it.

The fact that we're no longer confined to Wartwood, either, means that Amphibia can now use a variety of new places and locales to feed into its storytelling. The idea that Anne and the Plantars pit stop in a literal small town, where its residents are almost as big as their coins, isn't just an inspired bit of goofiness; it allows Hop Pop to stand up for the little guys and happily bask in the gratitude that he always wanted from them. Unfortunately, that also turns out to be a slippery slope when he flags the attention of what turns out to be a full-fledged toad gang, now tragically tasked with proving he can live up to their overblown, heroic image of him.

All of that is pretty par for the course with this show, but as we push into the climax, Amphibia proves it's got a few more tricks up its sleeve. Sprig, Anne, and Polly assist Hop Pop in staging an epic, western showdown against the Hasselback gang, but their ruse falls apart when the gang matriarch catches on and outsmarts Hop Pop, knocking him out cold... only for the townsfolk to suddenly go berserk and finally fight back, inspired not by Hop Pop's heroism but by his frailty (and cruelly turning his heroic spiel of helping those in need against him).

It's a pretty cynical way for "The Ballad of Hopediah Plantar" to go out, bookended nicely with another slightly spirit-crushing fiddle ballad from Sprig about Hop Pop running away again, and while I could imagine that might rile some people up, I loved seeing such an unexpectedly cynical slant amid the show's more agreeable conclusions. While undoing such a core principle to Amphibia's underlying philosophy and structure might sound counter-intuitive to the show finding its identity, I see it as the opposite; it's the show expressing a willingness to shed itself of its sugary coating and aim for the jugular while still pulling off the sort of meaningful character work that it's always been dedicated to. Perhaps that description is... a bit too angsty—"The Ballad of Hopediah Plantar" isn't Amphibia going through its teenage years—but it's a truly welcome surprise.

"Anne Hunter," on the other hand, is another return to the show's formula, but it's one executed at the highest possible level, all while using our self-awareness of its predictable narrative beats to feed into the excitement of what's coming next. A large part of that is just that by the midpoint, with Sprig and the other Plantars kidnapped by a half-scorpion, half-lion behemoth (a Scorpileo), the game of "Anne Hunter" is incredibly obvious: Anne will have to rescue the Plantars by performing the silly and, to Anne, degrading hunting rituals that Sprig demonstrated for her earlier.

The premise and set-up, again, are nothing too special, and while "Anne Hunter" isn't looking towards reinvention, it's at least eager to jazz its premise up with a flurry of great touches. Perhaps one of the most enjoyable elements is Anne's apparition of Sprig following her around, instructing her on what to do and ultimately grilling into her conscience whenever she hesitates; while the circumstances are pretty straightforward, the fun exchanges between the two keep things loose and exciting while opening the door for some fun comedic beats. Once the realization strikes, too, that Anne will have to go through all of the steps of hunting the Plantar way, waiting for the episode to do as it's clearly been coordinating becomes enjoyable in its own right simply because of the ridiculousness of the situation and seeing how Anne reacts at every step.

All of that culminates, of course, in the episode's grand finale, with Anne becoming one with nature by performing a dance to distract and disorient the Scorpileo on the verge of eating the Plantars. It's as silly of a climax as you could possibly imagine, but that's why it works; whatever dignity Anne was trying to maintain from her second-hand embarrassment towards Sprig is irrelevant in the face of saving her family, and in its own weird way, her bizarre undulations and flat-out slamming her head into a tree to the rhythm of nature grants her even more respect. There's nothing particularly new on-paper to see another plot forcing Anne to acquiesce to the circumstances that she might otherwise object to for the greater good, but "Anne Hunter" is a display of how great Amphibia is at applying a new layer of paint, even if it could afford to step further from its comfort zone.

Ultimately, these are two solid entries that point towards the fledgling season being sharper than ever, but we'll just have to see how Amphibia continues to hone in on itself. No matter what, the show will be able to conjure up something enjoyable, but it's clear that Amphibia wants to be more than just a flashy diversion and I'm anxious to see if Season 2 will continue to step up to its ambitions.

FINAL GRADES:
"The Ballad of Hopediah Plantar": A.
"Anne Hunter": B+.

For my review of the last two episodes, "Handy Anne" and "Fort in the Road," CLICK HERE.

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