Review: Amphibia “Truck Stop Polly; A Caravan Named Desire”
OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
The time away from home begins to have an effect on Polly, so much so that she starts seriously disrupting the trip in order to replicate being there. When the rest of the fam gets fed up with her, she tries replacing herself with a purple rock to see if they get worried. Unfortunately it is too convincing and they leave without her. Even worse, the rock is actually an egg for a giant bird, so Polly gets one of truckers at the gas station they stopped at to go save them. Luckily they get rid of the bird and the family reconciles.
Later, the Plantars enter The Dry Swamp, where Hop Pop gets the chance to live out his long forgotten dream of being an actor, only to find out that the troupe he’s working with actually uses their plays to rob villages. Despite having his dream fulfilled, he chooses to out the thieves and save the day.
OUR TAKE
Anne takes the week off from getting development, meaning that it’s just the Plantars’ turn to get the spotlight. No check in with the frogbot this week, so you can’t even say this is even remotely plot related. Still, these episodes are perfectly solid in all the ways that count. The comedy is as sharp and snappy as ever and the character arcs and development plenty strong for the episodes they’re in. Polly gets her first focus episode of the season (and I think her first focus episode since early Season 1!) and it’s about a very relatable problem: resisting change and wanting things to be normal, something I can definitely relate to right now. Polly, being the youngest, happens to have a lot of energy but that also means she’s less likely to understand things that are going on outside of her, so naturally something that everyone enjoyed back home should still be enjoyable here, right? Well, no, and she learns that the hard way by almost endangering her family. It’s an adjustment for all of them, but it can be helpful to get reminders that family needs love sometimes. Thanks, insightful truckers!
And with the other story, my first thought was that it’s a bit soon to have another Hop Pop story after just having one last week, though this kinda adds up with his wanting to be a hero or running for mayor. Hop Pop likes having authority and attention and being an actor definitely provides the latter. But he’s also a man of principles, which shine through in the end despite finally having a dream he once thought he would have to abandon pop up in front of him suddenly. The b-plot with Sprig actually compliments this quite well, as his search for approval from the cool actor kids is resolved in a similar way: by being honest and showing he has integrity and self-respect. Which I’d say is a pretty good lesson for the kids at home! “Be true to yourself” is often thrown around like a rather empty platitude, but I think it would apply as the moral of this episode, though mainly because it applies it by showing that, ultimately, it’s gotta be you who shows respect for you, even if that’s at the cost of something you thought you really wanted. And maybe you’ll get it anyway as long as you’re not using it to override ignoring what’s right and wrong.
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