Amphibia Season 1 Review

So This is a type of blog I wrestled with whether or not I should do for a long time. I consider myself very well versed in cartoons, knowing all sorts of cartoon history and growing up with the various Animated Television shows of Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Disney from the 90s to the present. I am of course very nostalgic for the shows I grew up with, that said always love watching New franchises over any reboots of those as I highly value Creativity. That all being said I didn't want to do reviews just for the sake of it, as I felt that was a bit cliché, so I'm reserving this for ones that inspired me to do so. So I Just watched a new Show on Disney called Amphibia and it did just that.

So Amphibia is a brand new cartoon from Disney, so I should probably talk about my feel for the state of cartoons on that channel. Presently Amphibia is one of their only cartoons thats an original franchise, as opposed to the Ducktales reboot, Milo Murphy which takes place in the Phineas and Ferb series and several cartoons based on Disney Movies like Tangled, Big Hero 6 and Star Wars. Now none of those other shows I listed our Bad, in fact I know Ducktales at least is really good. But my point is if you look at the small amount of original series they had recently like Gravity Falls, Star VS The Forces of Evil and Wander over Yonder, you see 3 fantastic and popular cartoons which all sadly ended relatively early compared to most Cartoon Network shows for example. See this has me worried because Amphibia season 1, despite being 20 episodes long, was put out in only 5 weeks rather than 20, thats twice as fast a rate as the 4th season of Star was put out, which makes it feel like it isn't being treated as a big deal. Hence Forth, part of this review is going to be trying to show how truly good this show is.

So to give the general spoiler free description of this show, Amphibia is about a teenage girl named Anne who, after acquiring a mysterious wooden music box, gets sucked into an alternate dimension called Amphibia, a swamp like dimension inhabited by anthropomorphic amphibians. She then gets taken in by the Planter family and together they search for a way to get Anne back home, and go on some fun adventures along the way. 

So with that outta the way lets look at what this show really offers. So this show is really well executed in all regards in my opinion, there was not a single bad episode, character or plot, and the world building was very interesting and well done.

Speaking of the setting specifically, I LOVE the style this show is in, the backgrounds, architecture art and designs are all very reminiscent of classical american art from places like the Bayou or Everglades.

This is very fitting given the amphibious swampland setting and is actually kinda genius due to how it makes a marsh not only not look gross but beautiful. The Music on the other hand uses a lot of country style instruments and is beautiful and soothing yet still adventurous in a manner I have not seen done this well since Over the Garden Wall, and of course matches perfectly.

A lot of cool elements exist in this world ranging from the customs of the townsfolk to the way the government is set up, to real dangers of this world like giant insects, thieves, cannibals, mutants, magic and more. In fact I would say the way that this show is written is most similar to Gravity Falls, In that a lot of the episodes are these cool and fun adventures using various mystic elements of the show, having lots of really envelop pushing humor along the way, and the rest of the episodes are related to the main plot of unraveling the mysteries of the Music Box and trying to get Anne back home, these eps being filled with lots of mystery, twists, incorporation of past episodes that you didn't think were important, and some really good character moments, seriously the last episode of the season had me crying.

One thing in particular I want to praise this shows writing for is how, despite being about a girl who gets trapped in another dimension inhabited by beings who have a totally different culture and don't even know what a human is, it doesn't fall into relying on Fish Out Of Water stories. Anne adapts to this place pretty dang quickly, and a vast majority of the plots actually revolve around Anne setting new trends There which is much more fun and interesting.

So what about characters? Well there are 4 Main characters in this show known collectively as the Planters. Anne, our lead, is smart, adventurous and a bit of a rebel but unlike other characters like this is also largely responsible to the point she's very self aware when she's going too far, and even when she does end up doing so will assuredly own up to it which I think makes her feel much more real and the show overall never tedious. Sprig is Anne's best friend and the Wander too her Sylvia (If you get the reference you're awesome), he's very sweet, happy-go-lucky and loyal. Hop-Pop is Sprig's grandfather and is the wise old mentor figure for this show, and honestly he's the best execution on that trope I've seen in a Disney show. Lastly there is Polly who is Sprig's little sister, in fact so little she's still a tadpole, but she's also a super funny tomboyish snark who somewhat reminds me of Louise from Bob's Burgers if you're familiar with that.

Past that this show actually has a surprisingly strong supporting cast, a lot of fully fleshed out characters who end up having one episode dedicated to them and a lot of them teach really great lessons. Some standout Supporting characters to me were Maddie, Wally, Ivy & Mrs. Croaker. Also I can't really talk about the Villains without Spoiling stuff but MAN that was such a smart and clever take with them that this show does.

In Summary I think this is my Favorite show currently on Disney, its funny, its got a unique setting the characters are interesting and likable and the plot is getting really really good, leaving me genuinely excited to see where they take it. I Highly recommend this cartoon to anyone looking for a new one, the whole first season is out and I think watching it would be a treat.