Amphibia Spoiler Review: Mr. X/Sprig's Birthday
This week, Amphibia brought us two new antagonists, the Boonchuys continue to be the best part of this season, and we celebrate best boy Sprig’s birthday in the episodes “Mr. X” and “Sprig’s Birthday.”
These creators really did go, “It’s the last season! Let’s make our series REALLY GAY!” didn’t they? It’s been such a delight seeing this crew really go all-in making LGBTQIA+ characters peppered throughout these episodes. From little cute gags of one man’s proposal to another man being messed up by Anne and Sprig to the healthy debate in the fandom about Jenny’s gender or whether they’re transgender to RuPaul’s fabulous character Mr. X pushing back against traditional gender roles, as a queer fan, I really appreciate how these creators are going for broke with queer content.
It makes sense we're getting all of this at the end of Amphibia's run with Disney TVA’s history with queer content. I talked about it for over half an hour on my podcast Hope Makes Chris Watch Cartoons when we covered Gravity Falls “The Love God.” Gravity Falls is a good example of how the corporate jerks up in Disney wouldn’t let Alex Hirsch have two little old queer ladies in the episode. But since the show was coming to a close, Alex was able to slide in that Durland and Blubs were a couple in the final moments. That’s what it feels like Amphibia is doing. We know the show is ending with season three. They don’t have to worry about some pearl-clutching parents trying to cancel the series over "the gays invading with some agenda" or whatever. Matt Braly and his crew have so much more freedom this season and it really shows.
And in the case of Jenny, I’ve seen some fans on Twitter and on the Amphibia wikia debating their gender or if they’re transgender. I’m okay with not knowing at the moment. This is what we hope to get to eventually with equal representation, where it doesn’t matter what gender a character is. They can just exist in a story. But since we’re not there yet, this crew needs to let us know either in the show or announce it at some point. This representation is important as we continue to push forward and get more queer rep established and normalized in young media. But for right now, Jenny is just Jenny which is perfectly fine in my book.
Until we do know, for this review I will be using the pronoun “them/they/their” when discussing Jenny.
To actually dive into the episode “Mr. X,” I love the opening intro to both Mr. X and Jenny. RuPaul shines in the role of the episode's title character and you can tell that he is absolutely having the best time. Mr. X and Jenny are adorable together as it's established right away why they work well as a team. And Jenny’s little blush when Mr. X compliments them was super adorable! Season three has given us a slew of amazing new characters on Earth, and these two are fantastic new additions.
While Mr. X and Jenny are starting out as antagonists, I don’t believe they will ever cross over into the villain territory. Honestly, they’re just doing their jobs. Neither are malicious, more excited about meeting people from another world. They want to protect their home in a similar way that Anne does. While Mr. X and Jenny are hunting the Plantars now, I have a feeling they’ll both join the fight for Earth when Andrias invades. Especially since they’re both pictured with our other Earth heroes in the season three opening credits.
It would make an interesting episode in the future of Anne and the Plantars learning to trust Mr. X and Jenny and vice versa. I hope it’s not some quick event and actually more of an uneasy allyship. If they’re never fully friends at the end, I would actually be very okay with that.
The Boonchuys are perfect and continue to shine with why they’re the BEST new characters. After the events of last week, they’re all in this fight playing key roles in this episode. It was great to see them go right into the action as soon as Mr. X came to their restaurant. They understood the danger and didn't back down. They acted to protect their daughter and friends using their skills as parents. Each week, Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy grow into amazing new heroes rising to the call to action. And they’re quickly becoming two of my personal favorites.
It also pushes Anne to trust her parents. Being adults, they’re capable of different skills that she doesn't have yet. It actually reminded me in a lot of ways of the season one episode “Sprig Vs. Hop Pop.” In both cases, the kids have a very different idea of how things should happen that challenges the parental figures and their experience. Both sides of the two episodes show the characters changing. Sprig learned that Hop Pop’s rules were there for a reason. Here, Anne learns that her parents are more capable than she originally thought. Hop Pop had learned that change is a good thing, while here the Boonchuys were shown to be valuable allies when facing Mr. X and Jenny. These two episodes had very similar vibes and allowed for great character development all around.
Anne has some interesting character moments in both “Mr. X” and “Sprig’s Birthday.” She’s still putting a ton of responsibility on herself. While she’s accepted she needs help from her parents, she doesn’t want to put them in danger. This is totally understandable. The Boonchuys don’t truly understand what a threat Andrias is. Also, do the Boonchuys know about Sasha being stranded in Amphibia and Marcy almost being killed? I have to think they don’t know about it because as parents, I feel they would be less amped about fighting robots and more concerned about rescuing two children in danger.
WHERE ARE SASHA AND MARCY’S PARENTS?
But I digress. Back to Anne. She’s still trying to face a lot of these threats alone to protect the Plantars from harm while looking for a way to get them back home. Also when she finds out it's Sprig’s birthday, she wants to give him the best Earth birthday ever. Now “Sprig’s Birthday” was the more interesting of the two as Anne pretty much makes Sprig’s birthday about herself. Yes, she is doing everything to make Sprig happy but it’s also because she wants to prove her worth as a friend. These choices make sense given all the events of season two. Manipulated by Sasha and losing Marcy probably made Anne feel like a failure as a friend. Not knowing if those two are safe, Anne probably feels like she needs to overcompensate to keep Sprig close to her. We always have to remember that Anne is a teenager and she is absolutely acting like one. It’s a great episode for her.
And Sprig… Our precious pure frog boy Sprig continues to be the best all-around. He doesn’t hold it against Anne for using his own birthday to justify her insecurities. Instead, he comforts her and makes her feel better. He’s totally okay with the simple Amphibia birthday but is still touched when Anne goes above and beyond to do something special for him.
Sprig is an absolutely amazing character and an inspiration. I think we should all strive to be like him. He enjoys fancy things, but he doesn’t need them. He’s never been materialistic. What’s most important to him are the people in his life and if they’re safe. He’s a fantastic role model that even I, a 34-year-old woman, want to be like.
Some random thoughts to round out Mr. X and Sprig’s Birthday:
-I love all the movie gags in the theater. The Sonic the Hedgehog parody killed me as well as the twenty minutes of movie trailers joke!
-Mrs. Boonchuy’s magic trick with Domino might just be the cutest thing she’s done so far oh my gosh!
-The line from Anne saying she enjoyed that the movie's protagonist had flaws with room to grow is absolutely meta-commentary from Matt Braly. He's stated before that Disney wanted Anne to love the world of Amphibia so she could be nice and fun-loving like many bland Disney characters that came before her. He pushed to have her be flawed from the start which led to a much stronger show.
-The background characters are so delightful this season! Good for the TV guys meeting and now dating! The mariachi band rocking out when Sprig accidentally set the Mexican restaurant on fire was AWESOME! And good luck to the lady who is off to do standup comedy! I love all of you!
-The Amphibia birthday tradition is PRECIOUS! Hop Pop and Polly singing to Sprig and his reflection time are both very sweet and some great subtle comedy moments.
-Sprig got his telescope! He’s always had a telescope in the opening credits and has used one before in the show. But it’s very sweet that he now has one specifically from Anne!
-And it’s revealed that Sprig’s hat came from his parents and he’s worn it all this time! SO PRECIOUS!
-Blair the Balloonist creeps me out. There I said it!
“Mr. X” and “Sprig’s Birthday” were both fantastic episodes. But I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how excited I am for next week. Ever since they announced the episode titles, I’ve been waiting for the episode “Olivia & Yunan.” Not only do I love both of those characters, it means we’re checking back in with what’s been happening in Amphibia while Anne and the Plantars are away.
I can’t wait for next week!
