What a fine wife she'll make for you, Sprig!
To win a village cooking contest, Anne leads the family on a quest to make pizza. Full Recap
On a pleasant day in Amphibia, Anne shows the fascinated Plantar siblings a video of her pet cat Domino on her phone. Polly is delighted how huge she feels upon seeing the tiny cat in the video while Sprig naively tries smashing the phone in hopes of "freeing" Domino, which Anne barely prevents. The discussion is interrupted when Anne smells a revolting odor emanating from the Plantar's house, which Sprig says can only mean one thing: Hop Pop is cooking!
Entering the kitchen to see what the hubbub is about, Hop Pop explains to Anne that he is preparing for Wartwood's annual village potluck: a contest in which competing families present the tastiest dishes they can make to be judged, with the creators of the winning dish being rewarded with adulation and copper coins while the family who made the worst-tasting dish must spend the following night hanging in the "Shame Cage". To the misfortune of the Plantars, their dishes have been deemed so repulsive to taste that they are the ones who spend the following night in the Shame Cage. Every. Single. Year.
Anne has no desire to see her caretakers face the humiliation of defeat and resolves to help them win. She soon deduces that the Plantar family's past failures have been due to their reliance on Hop Pop's family cookbook, which contains recipes to dishes that not even the bug-consuming populace of Amphibia would find palatable. To this end, Anne declares that they need to make a dish nobody in the village has ever experienced before to win, and she knows the perfect candidate: Pizza! Sprig and Polly are immediately won over by an an appetizing image of the dish itself, but it takes a bit of prodding to get the reluctant Hop Pop to get onboard. In order to make the pizza, Anne explains that they will need four key ingredients: dough, cheese, Basel, and tomatoes. Sprig makes the suggestion of adding pineapples to the pizza only for Anne to sternly (if not threateningly) tell him she will not tolerate pineapple on her pizza. Ever.
The group's first stop on their pizza quest is the town's bakery in order to obtain dough. To their luck, the baker is willing to do business and provide them with some...under the condition that Sprig agrees to marry his daughter. The girl in question is Madeline "Maddie" Flour, the textbook definition of a Creepy Child who eerily greets Sprig while slowly pushing a small wooden stake into a Sprig-shaped voodoo doll's chest. Anne decides it's a fair deal and agrees to the barker's terms, despite Hop Pop suggesting they wouldn't need to if they follow his recipe book and Sprig being unnerved by his betrothed, who claims to know how Sprig will die.
Once the dough is secured, the group heads to the Croaker Dairy farm to obtain cheese, though Hop Pop suggests there are recipes in his cook book that don't require cheese only to be dismissed by Anne again. To obtain the cheese, Mrs. Croaker has them herd her belligerent bull worm Brutus back into his pen, which Anne succeeds in doing so by guiding him with a red leaf like a skilled matador. Pleased with their work, Mrs. Croaker rewards their efforts with a hunk of cheese...which Anne has no desire to learn of how it is made in Amphibia.
Sometime later, the group has nearly all the ingredients they need for the pizza. Despite having risked life and limb having to fight off some giant aphids in the process, they have successfully managed to secure some Basel. Now all that's left for them is to track down some tomatoes, which they plan to do with a map Hop Pop had to (reluctantly) trade his favorite dentures for.
Entering the kitchen to see what the hubbub is about, Hop Pop explains to Anne that he is preparing for Wartwood's annual village potluck: a contest in which competing families present the tastiest dishes they can make to be judged, with the creators of the winning dish being rewarded with adulation and copper coins while the family who made the worst-tasting dish must spend the following night hanging in the "Shame Cage". To the misfortune of the Plantars, their dishes have been deemed so repulsive to taste that they are the ones who spend the following night in the Shame Cage. Every. Single. Year.
Anne has no desire to see her caretakers face the humiliation of defeat and resolves to help them win. She soon deduces that the Plantar family's past failures have been due to their reliance on Hop Pop's family cookbook, which contains recipes to dishes that not even the bug-consuming populace of Amphibia would find palatable. To this end, Anne declares that they need to make a dish nobody in the village has ever experienced before to win, and she knows the perfect candidate: Pizza! Sprig and Polly are immediately won over by an an appetizing image of the dish itself, but it takes a bit of prodding to get the reluctant Hop Pop to get onboard. In order to make the pizza, Anne explains that they will need four key ingredients: dough, cheese, Basel, and tomatoes. Sprig makes the suggestion of adding pineapples to the pizza only for Anne to sternly (if not threateningly) tell him she will not tolerate pineapple on her pizza. Ever.
The group's first stop on their pizza quest is the town's bakery in order to obtain dough. To their luck, the baker is willing to do business and provide them with some...under the condition that Sprig agrees to marry his daughter. The girl in question is Madeline "Maddie" Flour, the textbook definition of a Creepy Child who eerily greets Sprig while slowly pushing a small wooden stake into a Sprig-shaped voodoo doll's chest. Anne decides it's a fair deal and agrees to the barker's terms, despite Hop Pop suggesting they wouldn't need to if they follow his recipe book and Sprig being unnerved by his betrothed, who claims to know how Sprig will die.
Once the dough is secured, the group heads to the Croaker Dairy farm to obtain cheese, though Hop Pop suggests there are recipes in his cook book that don't require cheese only to be dismissed by Anne again. To obtain the cheese, Mrs. Croaker has them herd her belligerent bull worm Brutus back into his pen, which Anne succeeds in doing so by guiding him with a red leaf like a skilled matador. Pleased with their work, Mrs. Croaker rewards their efforts with a hunk of cheese...which Anne has no desire to learn of how it is made in Amphibia.
Sometime later, the group has nearly all the ingredients they need for the pizza. Despite having risked life and limb having to fight off some giant aphids in the process, they have successfully managed to secure some Basel. Now all that's left for them is to track down some tomatoes, which they plan to do with a map Hop Pop had to (reluctantly) trade his favorite dentures for.
Tropes:
- All for Nothing: Again...
- After they have gathered the dough, cheese and basil for the pizza, Anne and the Plantars end up losing them all when they get swallowed by the tomato plants and the ingredients fall in gastric acid.
- Despite making the best dish the Plantar family has ever entered in the Pot Luck, they still come in last since it was still one of Hop Pop's disgusting recipes.
- Arranged Marriage: Mr. Flour makes Sprig promise to marry his daughter in exchange for the pizza dough.
- Bait-and-Switch: The Plantar family's dish is the best of theirs the Mayor has ever tasted! ...just not enough to be better than last place.
- Berserk Button: Anne gave a really menacing look to Sprig just for mentioning adding pineapple to pizza.
- Big "NO!": Anne gives one of these when the group loses all the pizza ingredients they'd gathered.
- Bittersweet Ending: Since they failed to get all the ingredients for the pizza, the Plantars' latest recipe comes last and they must once again enter the Cage of Shame. However, Sprig notes that despite that, their recipe came out better than before. What's more, Anne decides to join the Plantar family in the Cage.
- Blatant Lies: Anne suggests making something, not in the family cookbook. Hop Pop asks what granny would think. Anne looks at a picture of her sewing a quilt with "tradition means everything" on it.Anne: She'd say "Move on!"
- Brick Joke:
- The episode opens with a shot of dragonflies flying by, one of which is carrying One-Eyed Wally, begging for help. Some time later, the same dragonfly, still carrying Wally, flies by.
- Sprig's new betrothed informs him that she has foreseen his death, and that it will come as a surprise. Later, upon being dragged into the maw of the killer tomato plant, Sprig laments, "MY FIANCÉE WAS RIGHT!!"
- Bull Seeing Red: Anne lures a cow worm back in its corral by waving a red leaf and shouting "Toro!" She waves it the whole time, which makes it a little closer to how real life bullfighting works.
- Creepy Child: The baker frog's daughter is a variation of this, being a Tsundere/Yandere for Sprig to the point she keeps a voodoo doll of him, which she stabs.
- Damned by Faint Praise: Unfortunately, given the Plantar family's past performances, this year's dish is the best they've ever produced hasn't cleared a particularly high bar.
- Eating the Enemy: Anne and The Plantars end up getting swallowed by the carnivorous tomato plant monster and barely catch themselves at the base of its esophagus before they can fall into its stomach acid. How do they get out? Well, once Hop Pop reads from his cookbook that the plant's throat happens to be delicious when eaten raw, the gang decides to turn the tables by giving the beast's stalk a taste test.
- Epic Fail: What else can be said about the fact that the Plantars are the ones who've ended up in the Cage of Shame every. Single. Time.
- Happily Adopted: Anne admits in this episode that the Plantars are as good as family to her.
- Hidden Depths: Anne reveals that she loves cooking, and knows how to adapt simple recipes.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Though her tactfulness leaves something to be desired, Anne makes a valid argument (one Sprig and Polly agree with) when she bluntly says that Hop Pop's reliance on his family's cookbook hasn't been doing the family any favors because they haven't won for years due to the recipes in it being for repulsive dishes, even by frog standards. Though reluctant at first, Hop Pop comes to see Anne's point admits they may as well try something new.
- Kill It Through Its Stomach: Anne and the Plantars actually eat their way through the tomato stalk while it still thrashed about, killing it from the inside.
- Left the Background Music On: A musician provides the drum roll while the Mayor is deciding who will win. The musician also provides the Losing Horns when the Plantars are declared the worst.
- Lethal Chef: Hop Pop again, as his dishes always come in last in the contest. And apparently, almost everyone in his family is, given how the recipes in the cookbook seem more like ways to poison someone.
- Loophole Abuse: Defied; Anne mentions she's technically not part of the Plantar family but wants to help. When this means she doesn't have to enter the Cage of Shame, she goes in willingly because she considers herself part of the family.
- Man-Eating Plant: The tomato plants in Amphibia turn out to be carnivorous. They show all typical aspects of this trope, with giant toothy jaws, grappling vines and scary roars.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Cowterpillars.
- Neck Lift: Anne grabs Sprig by the front of his jacket and slams him into a wall for daring to suggest they put pineapples on pizza.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Anne mentions they fought off at least ten giant aphids to get the basil, but we only see the result.
- Serious Business:
- The village potluck contest, in which the ones who come in last place are forced to spend the night in the Cage of Shame.
- Anne has a... strong reaction to Sprig's innocent suggestion that they put pineapple on their pizza.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Anne tries her best to help the Plantars win the competition. Due to some really bad luck and the Plantars not explaining to her that tomatoes are a bad idea, they lose.
- A Simple Plan: Anne's plan is simple: make pizza from four ingredients— dough, cheese, basil and tomato— and win the contest! The dough would be the hardest part, but fortunately, they have a baker in the village. Of course, it goes wrong, because no one mentions that tomato plants are carnivorous in this universe.
- Swallowed Whole: Anne and the Plantars are all eaten by the tomato plant. They manage to avoid falling into the stomach acid by bracing at the base of the esophageal tube.
