Amphibia Spoiler Review: Fight at the Museum/Temple Frogs
Amphibia’s fourth episode of season three “Fight at the Museum” and “Temple Frogs” gave us a ton of new lore, some of the best one-liners of the show, brought some important storytelling, and really hit me right in the feels with a bunch of Tupperware.
The themes in this episode were trust and community. Set in that order, there was a very natural progression between the two segments.
“Fight at the Museum” gave us a look at Anne’s developing trust issues. At the start of the series, Anne was rightfully wary of her new surroundings. She was suddenly in a world full of talking frogs that had bug monsters constantly trying to kill her. It makes sense that it took her a bit to warm up to the people of Wartwood and the Plantars. Season one was important because we not only got to see Anne’s openness to the people around her but also how important it was for her to learn to trust people.
Season two was the turning point. King Andrias started out so overly kind that everyone was swindled. Of course, he’s the real villain of the story. Then, the two people Anne loved and trusted the most betrayed her. Sasha continued to manipulate Anne until Anne finally stood up to her. Before “True Colors,” Anne repeatedly defended Sasha to the Plantars who had their reservations. And of course, the reveal in “True Colors” that Marcy had lied the entire time and brought the girls to Amphibia in the first place was a true breaking point.
It makes sense that at this point in season three Anne is a bit wary of a stranger like Dr. Jan. Not only does she feel the need to protect the Plantars from the dangers of her world, but Anne’s trust has also been very recently burned one too many times.
It’s good for Anne to be wary. I know from experience that trusting people blindly can lead to getting hurt. But cutting yourself off completely and never trusting anyone is the wrong extreme too. Trust is about knowing who and when to give it to someone. Yes, there is always a chance to get hurt. That’s the nature of it.
Knowing when to ask for help is just as important. Anne can’t do everything alone especially looking for answers that are well outside of her knowledge. It would be dangerous for her to completely cut herself off from everyone and take on the burden herself. We saw in “Fight in the Museum” Anne quickly burning out. The Plantars clearly were worried for her. This was the right moment to address Anne’s trust issues to set her on the right path again. Yes, she will need to still work out things with Sasha and Marcy, but it’s a good moment to nip it in the bud.
Dr. Jan is also a fun new character. I’ve really enjoyed seeing how the humans are adjusting to our little frog family. The Boonchuys of course accepted the Plantars, which I discussed last week. But Dr. Jan and the Thai community are way more of a risk compared to Anne’s parents. It was nice to see how quickly they warmed up to talking frogs from another planet. I'm looking forward to learning more about Dr. Jan.
But I have to point out how much Dr. Jan reminds me of Marcy and Andrias. I don’t know if I can fully trust her yet. She’s excited about the Plantars and the pursuit of knowledge about another world. I could see in her eagerness to learn about Amphibia that Dr. Jan could be manipulated like Marcy. Dr. Jan is also overly nice from the get-go, a lot like how Andrias was at the start. Anyone blatantly overly nice is always a bit of a red flag for me in Disney properties. Just look at Zootopia, Coco, Incredibles 2, and Frozen where the nice guy ended up being the twist villain. All this said I don’t think Jan is a twist villain. As she’s an adult and not a desperate, scared young woman like Marcy, I believe she wouldn’t fall for manipulation. But it’s not off the table and I felt the need to point it out. Maybe I should take a page from Anne learning to let go of trust issues.
But I really want to get into talking about “Temple Frogs” because oh man, that episode might just be one of the best of the series.
It’s so cool seeing how effortlessly Matt Braly has integrated his culture into Amphibia’s third season. I love scrolling through Twitter and seeing how much this is impacting fans. It’s fun for me because I’m realizing how little I actually know about Thai culture. The show makes me want to learn more which is great. But I can only imagine how important this is to a young fan seeing themselves for the first time on the Disney Channel. I can sympathize to a certain extent. As a queer woman, watching Catra and Adora kiss in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power or Luz and Amity get together in The Owl House makes me feel so seen as I explain here. Reading Leox Gyasi in Star Wars The High Republic: Into the Dark as a fully fleshed-out Asexual character living his best life brought me to tears. But at the end of the day, I’m a white woman. I’ve always been represented on screen.
I can’t even imagine how important this is to so many fans seeing themselves represented for the first time in a show. Thai kids will grow up knowing they can be a hero like Anne. Matt, the cast, and the crew are doing such incredibly important work here. This is groundbreaking and truly something special. Normalizing different cultures in media, especially children's media, is so essential. Even portraying characters of color correctly goes such a long way.
But let's talk about Tupperware.
The moment Mrs. Boonchuy pulled out those Tupperware containers, I knew exactly where the story was going even before Anne asked about them. I was raised in a Southern Baptist house. I’d been to many potluck funerals full of Tupperware. When my nephew died last year, I watched my sister’s revolving front door of friends and family bring meal after meal of Tupperware containers. I cooked a few myself. Same when my best friend’s father passed. I helped her mom rearrange the fridge to fit in more Tupperware meals.
The Tupperware is a symbol of a community during a time of loss. People come together to help a family struggling through their hard times. It allows them the space to grieve because the simple necessity of eating is covered by other people. Luckily for the Boonchuys, their story ended up okay as Anne was able to return home. That doesn’t erase the pain that Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy felt for five months. Their community came together to help them stay financially afloat as well as run their restaurant while they looked for Anne.
What’s fantastic is how universal the story that Matt Braly's telling is. In a time where it feels like there’s a huge divide in our world, communities are the same in a lot of ways. We’re more similar than different. It doesn’t matter if we used to be Southern Baptist or Thai, our community and found family are important to our foundation. They’re always there to pick us up and support us. He got all of that across with Tupperware. Bravo, sir.
Anne’s community banding together was just like Wartwood. There were so many parallels between the battle at the Thai temple and any monster attack on Wartwood. It was really fun to see. It also cemented Anne’s struggle with trust in “Fight at the Museum.” As Anne is starting to open back up to trusting people again, it falls back on those in her real life as well. She needed to trust her community, just as the people of Wartwood learned to trust her based on the Plantars vouching for her. It was really cool to see those storylines come full circle.
So when I wrote my Essential Amphibia Episodes article, there was a reason I was very clear about the importance of watching the entire show. I said from the get-go that with no knowledge of season three, there would be episodes I would miss. And lo and behold, “Quarreler's Pass” was one of those surprise episodes that was nowhere close to my radar! Tell new people to watch the entire show, everyone!
This is because Dr. Jan found a hidden message on the vase in the museum which means it’s time for LORE!
The vase itself pictures a frog with the Calamity Box, looking an awful lot like the pink frog who used to hang out with Andrias. I have to think this is how the box came to Earth in the first place. Eventually, we’re going to learn more about the frog and toad who betrayed Andrias. I can’t wait to see it.
But there is also an important message on the vase saying, “Seek the mother of olms. She will guide you to your destiny.” After Googling what an olm was, it’s an aquatic salamander where there are only about 400 left in the world. Many Amphibia fans were very quick to point out that we have already seen olms in the episode “Quarreler’s Pass” with the fighting olm twins that are connected together. They specifically mention their mother. There is also a ton of olm imagery throughout the show in the three temple episodes.
The hints have been here all along. But again, it cements the importance of watching every single episode. You never know what will end up being important later. Will this Mother Olm end up being some great being like the Axolotl from another series Matt Braly worked on? Or will it be simpler than that? We’ll have to wait and find out.
Some random thoughts to round out Fight at the Museum and Temple Frogs:
-This is the single best frame of the entire show.
-As someone who non-ironically loves CATS, I died at seeing Hop Pop as Rum Tum Tugger completed with a musical trill to accompany him.
-Hop Pop has a lot of great one-liners like screaming eat the rich and revealing he’s a flat earther. He was hilarious this week!
-I love the frog bot’s little evil laugh. It’s so creepy!
-So a really cool note that Twitter pointed out was Polly’s Thai voice actress Lhakkana Nhaksiri (ลักขณา นาคศิริ) coached Polly’s American voice actor Amanda Leighton on how to speak her lines fluently in Thai.
-We found out Mr. Boonchuy’s name is Jeff! Hi Jeff! I can’t wait to find out what Mrs. Boonchuy’s name is!
-I’m still waiting to see Sasha and Marcy’s family. Yes, I know we’re only four episodes into the season. But if the word is starting to get around that Anne’s back, I’m expecting the other parents to show up at the Boonchuys’ door any time now.
“Fight at the Museum” introduced a great new character with Dr. Jan and helped push the overall story forward. But “Temple Frogs” is such a standout episode. It’s easily my favorite of the season so far and vaulted into one of my top choices for the show. Great job, Amphibia cast and crew!
