Amphibia (TV series)
Amphibia is an American animated fantasy television series created by Matt Braly that aired on Disney Channel from June 17, 2019, to May 14, 2022. It follows a young girl who finds herself trapped and forced to survive in a world of anthropomorphic amphibian creatures. The series features the voices of Brenda Song, Justin Felbinger, Bill Farmer, Amanda Leighton, Anna Akana, Troy Baker, Haley Tju, and Keith David.
Amphibia has received positive reviews, with praise for its characters, animation, voice acting, humor and emotional weight.
Premise
The series chronicles the adventures of Anne Boonchuy, an independent, fearless and brave Thai-American girl. On her 13th birthday, Anne is peer-pressured into stealing a mysterious, magical music box known as the Calamity Box that magically transports her and her two best friends Sasha Waybright and Marcy Wu to the world of Amphibia, a wild marshland tropical island inhabited by anthropomorphic amphibians and threatening creatures, where they are separated from each other. Anne is taken in by the Plantars, a family of frogs consisting of excitable young Sprig; unpredictable and adventurous baby pollywog Polly; and overprotective and traditional grandfather Hop Pop who live on a farm in the town of Wartwood. As she bonds with her newfound family, Anne gradually learns what it means to be a hero and develop a true friendship, while trying to find her friends and return home. Meanwhile, Sasha allies with Captain Grime, leader of the warfaring toads of Toad Tower, who seek to control their home of Frog Valley.In the second season, Anne and the Plantars go on a road trip to Newtopia to learn the secrets of the Calamity Box and find a way to get Anne home. There, Anne reunites with Marcy, who offers to help restore the box's power through a series of ancient trials, unaware that Amphibia's ruler, King Andrias, secretly has plans for them. Meanwhile, Sasha and Grime plot to invade Newtopia and overthrow the monarch, allowing the toads to rule over Amphibia.
In the third and final season, Anne and the Plantars are transported to Anne's home in the suburbs of Downtown Los Angeles, where she must now help them adjust to the human world and keep their identities a secret while searching for a way to return to Amphibia and stop Andrias's invasion of the multiverse. Upon returning, they discover Sasha and Grime have formed a resistance force in Wartwood and aid them in their rebellion against Andrias, who is using Marcy as a host for his master, a multi-eyed artificial intelligence entity known as the Core.
Episodes
Production
Development
On February 23, 2018, Amphibia was greenlit by Disney Channel alongside The Owl House with an order of 20 episodes. The series was created and executive-produced by Matt Braly, previously a storyboard artist on Gravity Falls and later a director on both Gravity Falls and Big City Greens. According to his Twitter account, he had been working on the series for almost two years before being greenlit, though he began to conceive the project while work on Gravity Falls began to conclude. Matt had been developing the series with prototype designs of the protagonists in early 2015.On May 15, 2019, Disney Channel renewed Amphibia for a second season of 20 episodes ahead of its premiere.
On June 23, 2020, the show was renewed for a third season of 18 episodes ahead of its second-season premiere. In a Reddit AMA, Braly referred to Amphibia as a "three-act story" with season two as the "2nd act". He further clarified in the AMA that he had "structured the story for 3 currently", implying that the third season would serve as the final season of the show. Later on March 16, 2022, storyboard artist Alex Swanson confirmed on Twitter that season 3 was set to be the show's last.
Writing
The show was based on Braly's childhood trips to Bangkok, Thailand. The series' tone was inspired by films by Aardman Animations and Studio Ghibli, while its storytelling format was inspired by Gravity Falls and Steven Universe. Braly was also inspired by video games such as The Legend of Zelda and Chrono Trigger when creating the series. Other inspirations for the series include shows Braly watched in his childhood, such as Batman: The Animated Series and Disney's Gargoyles; he precisely cited Gargoyles as an inspiration for the series' story arc. On Twitter, Braly wrote that the show was also inspired by him watching an episode of Pepper Ann followed by an episode of Dragon Ball Z during his childhood. Pepper Ann's themes and character designs also inspired the show.According to Braly, one of the reasons he created the series was because he wanted a show whose lead character had a similar arc to Gravity Falls character Pacifica Northwest, as he felt that "to have this character change so drastically was so rewarding, and that's why knew wanted own show to have some of that element as well". The character of Sprig went through several changes through development, with the developers constantly giving him different ages, before choosing to make the character a younger brother-like figure for Anne. Similarly, Anne, Sasha, and Marcy were originally fifteen years old because they wanted the series to have a high school-like feel, but were aged down in order to appeal to the series' target demographic; due to this, the trio often realizes actions more akin to high school students, such as driving and having part-time jobs.
The series marks the first animated show to have a Thai-American lead. Braly, who is also Thai-American, chose to make the series lead character, Anne Boonchuy, Thai-American because he wanted more Thai characters in television series. According to Braly, Anne was loosely inspired by his grandmother. He described Anne being Thai-American as "a number one priority", as he wanted Thai-American kids to see themselves reflected on television. Braly also made the character dark-skinned due to his mother's family being tanned. Season 3, which is set on Earth, further delves into Anne's Thai heritage, including an episode set at a Wat Thai temple in Los Angeles. Braly described the temple's representation in the episode as "pretty accurate", as it is important for him to represent Thai culture accurately.
Braly chose to make the series centered around a frog-populated world because he felt that, due to how frogs change from tadpoles to frogs, they were perfect for the series' theme of change. Braly also implemented themes involving social classes and environmental awareness into the series, with Anne interacting with frogs of several different social backgrounds and learning to "appreciate the natural world around her".
Three of the series' four writers are women, which Braly felt was necessary due to the show centering on a teenage girl. Storyboard artists are allowed to pitch their ideas for an episode, a practice Braly took from his time at Gravity Falls. Braly wanted the series to feature intense sequences, yet still be appropriate for all ages, constantly checking-in whether a scene is too terrifying for children and whether a scene is what it's intended to be.
Casting and voice recording
On March 27, 2019, it was revealed that Brenda Song would star in the series as the voice of Anne Boonchuy. In April 2019, it was reported that Justin Felbinger would voice Sprig Plantar in the series. On May 15, 2019, it was reported that Amanda Leighton and Bill Farmer joined the cast as the voices of Polly and Hopediah "Hop Pop" Plantar, respectively. Over 50 actresses auditioned for the role of Anne, including Anna Akana and Haley Tju. While the role ultimately went to Song, Braly cast Akana and Tju as Anne's human friends, Sasha and Marcy respectively, instead. According to Braly, certain roles were written with a specific actor in mind, such as King Andrias, who is voiced by Keith David.Muppet performer Matt Vogel made an appearance in the season 2 episode "Swamp and Sensibility". However, Kermit himself was credited for the role in promotional material; Kermit previously appeared in two promotional web videos for the series, as well as in a D23 Expo panel promoting both the series and Big City Greens.
Voice actress Anika Noni Rose, best known for starring as Tiana in The Princess and the Frog, was cast in the recurring guest role of Dr. Jan, a museum curator and conspiracy theorist.
According to Braly, Song ad-libbed several jokes during the recording. Similarly, Alex Hirsch improvised several lines for his appearance in the season two episode "Wax Museum". During the COVID-19 pandemic, cast members had to remotely record their lines from their homes, after which they sent their lines to the series' editors.
Animation
, Sunmin Image Pictures, and Saerom each provide animation. Braly chose those animation studios due to them still working with hand-drawn animation, a style Braly favored for the series. The animators spend three to four months working on pre-production, with an episode taking about nine months to complete. Forty staff members at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California also worked on the series.James Turner, a British illustrator most well known for his work on the Pokémon series of games, provided artwork during the initial stages of the project. The series' visuals were inspired by Jim Henson's 1982 film The Dark Crystal and the 1977 animated adaptation of The Hobbit. The series' environments were also inspired by natural settings. According to Braly, storyboarding for an episode begins after its script is finished. Braly said that the different character designs for Anne and Marcy, in spite of both characters having Asian backgrounds, were because the producers "never wanted to be trapped into a character design just because of what people might think an Asian person 'should' look like in a cartoon", as the characters "are representations of folks, not caricatures".
By March 24, 2020, Disney Television Animation was closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with work on the series continuing remotely. By that point, the producers had started storyboarding the season 2 finale, while other episodes were only partially completed.