Review: Amphibia “Scavenger Hunt; The Plantars Check In”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Anne and the Plantars enjoy the streets of Newtopia with Marcy when she gets a message from the king, only it’s in code that is only answerable by finding clues all over town. While Marcy easily finds the first two clues, Anne starts feeling dumb, finding solace in making friends with strangers in town. One of them suggests “faking it till you make it”, so Anne leads Marcy and Sprig down into the sewers on a hunch, only for them to be chased by an alligator. But luckily, the friends she just made end up risking their lives to save them, proving that while Anne may not be as intelligent as Marcy in finding clues, she’s plenty smart in making strong and instant connections with others.

Later, the Plantars finally meet King Andrias, who seems a lot nicer than one would expect. He’s also very curious about the music box that Anne landed in Amphibia with, especially with how the gems on it have grayed out when they were originally colored. While he and his researchers work with that information, Anne and the fam get his unlimited credit card (???) and take a day to just relax. Sprig, however, is restless and sneaks out with it, having some late night adventures such as becoming a speedster and riding a ferris wheel, but ends up losing the card to be picked up by Bella, a Newt bellhop voiced by Kristen Schaal, though the two eventually come to terms. When he gets back, everyone wants to go out and see the sights, but Sprig is pooped.

OUR TAKE

Well, looks like things have calmed down since last week and we’re back to two short segments per episode again. And this time, while plot important things happen in both, they really just end up being lead ins for smaller self-contained stories instead of expanding on the plot itself. We learn about Marcy’s contributions to Newt society like the sewer system and such, as well as how close she is with the king, who is voiced by Keith David of Gargoyles fame, though that’s mainly used to facilitate Anne learning that her strength is how she connects with people. Knowing that and how Sasha is clearly the more master manipulator, we now know how each of the three girls truly thrive in this world, meaning that any confrontation between them is likely to make use of these strengths. Though it’s also to put in a nice lesson that, just because you lack a quality a friend of yours has doesn’t mean that you don’t have your own contribution to things. This is a show for the youngins after all.

The other plot relevant detail for this week is that King Andrias, while very jovial for a giant guy voiced by Keith David, is also very heavily invested in learning about the music box, which I’m guessing is not for the means of helping the world’s problems. Though that may just be my cynicism at work. Maybe he’s a GREAT guy and I need to give him a chance! But of course, this does hint at what we could see happen down the road. Somehow Anne and the Plantars will uncover these true plans, Marcy will be caught in the middle and side with the king because she’s become such an icon in the city, and then Anne and co will be either imprisoned or flee the city. At least, that’s the way I think it might go. One of the things about this show that I so enjoy is that it can take the predictable and still surprise you even when things go exactly how you might think they will! And in the meantime, we’re learning plenty about Newtopia as a location and how our characters are interacting with it, which it seems we’re in for plenty more of as the next few weeks seem to be more sightseeing. At the very least it will at least be a fun few more weeks before things likely get pretty serious.