Amphibia: Anne Theft Auto

August 3, 2021 6:49 PM - Season 1, Episode 9

Hop Pop says Anne can drive the family snail Bessie, but only if she reads a large book (that he wrote) explaining Bessie's life and facts about her. As a result Anne almost dies.

• Signs: "Vote TOADSTOOL. Please?" "STUMPY'S: It Probably Won't Kill You."
• HP: "Now if you'll excuse me, Polly's due for a wash." Polly: "No no no! I'll just get dirty again! You can't stop me! I learned this from watching you Anne!"
• Anne: "Heeey! What do you say we take a harmless test drive? Prove to Hop Pop we're fast learners!" Sprig (uncharacteristically insightful): "Hmm. You get the feeling this is one of those decisions we'll look back on and say, woo boy! We probably shouldn't have done that!"
• Anne and Sprig drink "swamp slushies" in this episode. Sprig's has flies in it, Anne's does not.
• This is not the first episode with a role for Ms. Croaker, who we find out later dislikes Sprig for spurious reasons. Maybe they're related to the events of this episode.
• Bessie the snail makes adorable engine noises.
• The first two pages of the book: "It was an especially cold morning the day Bessie was brought into this world. The leaves had just changed color. Now I shall describe these leaves to you in great detail. Some leaves were green with flecks of yellow in them, like a wart-ermelon that was gettin' good and ripe. Others were red as the first caterpillar of spring. Like the saying goes, 'Red hair on the 'pillar, go see Miller.' Miller of course refers to Webb MIller, Wartwood's first town clerk. 'Cause when those red hairs appear on the first caterpillar, you gotta go see Webb and pay dues on your (something) stand, otherwise you'll find yourself Parsnipped--named of course for Abigail Parsnip who one year forgot to pay Webb, then spent the rest of the summer chasin' the profits she lost. The following year, you'd better believe she watched those caterpillars like a Galumph--named of course for Leopold Galumph, a frog with eyesight so keen he could he could spot a pond mite on a skeeter's back from fifty Gullets! Gullets of course are named for Priscilla Gullet, who developed Wartwood's first unit of measurement."
• Bessie's get-out-of-trouble command phrase is "Bessie, things are gettin' messy!" It comes up later.
• The secret compartment on Bessie's shell contains berries, but also seems to provide direct access to Bessie's internal organs, urg.
• As Mrs. Croker speeds away laughing, Sprig: "I'm pretty sure I just got played." Anne: "That lady is everything I want to be!"
• Anne does, in fact, read the entire book, which is why she sometimes drives Bessie in later episodes, especially during the road trip arc in Season Two.
• Predator of the episode: killer hedgehogs.

(note: for some reason single quotes are getting filtered out of my descriptions)

posted by JHarris (1 comment total)

Huh, they only got filtered out on preview I guess.
posted by JHarris at 6:50 PM on August 3, 2021