"The New Normal" is the first episode of the third season of Amphibia, and the seventy-sixth episode overall.
It premiered on October 2, 2021.[1]
Synopsis
Anne and the Plantars get transported to Earth and try to adjust to a wild new environment.[1]
Plot
Anne and the Plantars are no longer in Amphibia.
Picking up after the events of "True Colors", Anne and the Plantar family find themselves in the middle of traffic on the streets of Los Angeles. Astonished by their new surroundings, the Plantars walk through Anne's neighborhood with her as the frogs ask what their next move is. Anne affirms her belief that Marcy is alive and vows to find a way back to Amphibia to help her and Sasha. They arrive at Anne's house as she is dumbfounded that she is about to see her parents again after five months. She tells the Plantars to hide until she gives the signal and decides to not tell her parents yet about King Andrias, how she was betrayed by both Sasha and Marcy, and especially to keep quiet about her "Blue Powers". Anne knocks on the door as her mother opens it and as the two see each other, Anne's mother tearfully embraces her daughter. Just then, Anne's father sees them and joins in the hug. As Anne shares an emotional reunion with both of her parents and her cat Domino, Hop Pop mistakes a bird squawk for Anne's signal and reveals himself. Polly reprimands him for it and Sprig introduces himself. Anne face-palms herself as her parents are left in shock at the sight of the three talking frogs, her dad even fainting.
Anne happily reunited with her family.
Anne puts together a presentation explaining what she has been doing all this time (while leaving out the events of "True Colors" to prevent more panic). As her parents process everything their daughter said, Anne asks if the frog family can stay; they are reluctant and Mrs. Boonchuy suggests calling the authorities. Anne is shocked by this, convinced that the government would perform horrible experiments on talking frogs. Seeing how much the Plantars mean to Anne, the Boonchuys agree to let them stay, but on lockdown. The Boonchuys work to enforce this rule as Mrs. Boonchuy pampers and hovers over Anne near constantly. Finally having enough, Anne demands that she be given space. When Mrs. Boonchuy tells them she's leaving to the market, Anne asks to come along and promises to disguise the Plantars and keep a low profile. After Hop Pop and Mr. Boonchuy point out that Anne is a lot more mature than she used to be, Mrs. Boonchuy finally agrees.
King Andrias telling a comatose Marcy her role had just begun.
Meanwhile, in Amphibia, at Newtopia Castle now guarded by Frobots, King Andrias, who is preparing for the upcoming invasion of Earth, has just ordered a silver-colored Frobot to kill the main obstacle of his dimensional conquest; Anne Boonchuy. As it arrives, it uses its cloaking device to stay hidden as it begins searching for Anne. Back in Amphibia, Andrias turns to Marcy, who is revealed to be comatose and kept alive in a suspension tank and says that her part in all this is just beginning.
Meanwhile, Anne disguises the Plantars as they head to market. Anne's parents are actually amazed at how responsible their daughter has become and actually agree to let Anne take the frogs to try the noodles. As the Plantars are loving the noodles, the Frobot assassin's cloaking device briefly wears off when it detects the fields of some refrigerator magnets, allowing Sprig to spot it as it nearly chokes Anne, but they manage to distract it and run. Not wanting to alert her parents, Anne and the Plantars pretend like nothing is amiss.
Anne heavily damages the robotic assailant.
Anne turns on loud music to hide any noise they make when fighting. Anne and the Plantars fight the Frobot and realize that it too is trying to remain discreet. The robot proves to be a formidable opponent, but they manage to trick it into running into a freezer. The Plantars freeze due to being cold-blooded and Anne is backed into a corner. After the frozen Plantars fall over and distract it, the drone attempts to attack them. Enraged by this, Anne finally unleashes her blue gem power and punches the Silver Frobot so hard it severely damages the machine and flees to safety. Upon escaping the freezer, Anne collapses and the Plantars use a pungent durian to wake her.
Anne and the Planters discussing what to do next.
The Boonchuys, none the wiser, commend Anne for being responsible and mature as she and the Plantars remain quiet about the incident. However, Anne decides that she does not want to use her powers unless she needs to as it severely weakens her and something about them feels off. As Hop Pop helps Anne by opening the car door, the frogs start craving noodles again while commenting that Earth is pretty nice.
In the last scene, elsewhere at a tower under a stormy night, the Frobot is repairing itself and decides to double its efforts to destroy Anne.
Cast
- Brenda Song as Anne Boonchuy
- Justin Felbinger as Sprig Plantar
- Bill Farmer as Hop Pop Plantar
- Amanda Leighton as Polly Plantar
- Keith David as King Andrias
- On Braly as Mrs. Boonchuy
- Brian Sounalath as Mr. Boonchuy
Additional voices
- Troy Baker as Cloak-Bot, Noodle Vendor
- Brian Sounalath as Store Greeter
Non-speaking cameo
- Marcy Wu (comatose)
Pictured
Mentioned
- The Core (indirectly)
Other characters
Songs
Instrumental songs
Transcript
| For a full transcript of "The New Normal", click here. |
Title in other languages
| Language | Title | Translation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
 Latin American Spanish
|
La nueva normalidad | The New Normal | |
 Brazilian Portuguese
|
O Novo Normal | The New Normal | |
 Bulgarian
|
В Новият Свят | In the New World | |
 Czech
|
Návrat | Return | |
 German
|
Willkommen zu Hause | Welcome at home | |
 European Spanish
|
La nueva normalidad | The New Normal | |
 French
|
L'autre monde | The Other World | |
 Hungarian
|
Az új norma | The new norm | |
 Hebrew
|
הנורמלי החדש | The New Normal | |
 Japanese
|
新たな生活 | New Life | |
 Korean
|
인간 세계 | Human World | |
 European Portuguese
|
O Novo Normal | The New Normal | |
 Polish
|
Nowa rutyna | The new routine | |
 Romanian
|
Noul normal | The new normal | |
 Russian
|
Новая реальность | New Reality | |
 Thai
|
ชีวิตวิถีใหม่ |
Gallery
Click here to view the gallery.
Trivia
- Viewership: This episode was watched by 0.43 million viewers on its premiere.[4]
- This is the first 22-minute special of the season.
- This is also the only 22-minute season premiere.
- This, "Escape to Amphibia", and "The Hardest Thing" are the only full-length episodes to immediately follow another full-length episode.
- A sneak peek of the episode was shown during the San Diego Comic-Con 2021.
- This episode marks the full-time appearance of Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy. Mrs. Boonchuy had previously appeared in flashbacks in the episodes "Lost in Newtopia" and "Ivy on the Run", as well as having been heard in "Family Fishing Trip".
- Similar to the first episode of the second season, "Handy Anne"/"Fort in the Road", this episode did not premiere on DisneyNOW the same day as its original airdate.
- The Doogle search results for "How to defeat evil Newt King" include three panels: one green, one blue, and one pink, referencing the Calamity Gems.
- This is the only season premiere to not feature the "BFFs" photo of Anne, Sasha, and Marcy. The photo's only appearance in Season 3 would later be in the penultimate episode, "All In" (if the retake from the series finale's credits sequence is excluded).
- Andrias says to a comatose Marcy, "Well Marcy, your friends are about to be eliminated from the equation. And as for you my dear, your part is just beginning". The former sentence is directed towards Marcy, while the subject of the latter is implied to be the Core.
- This is the first episode of Season 3 to use the short opening sequence. Previous episodes to use it include "Toad Tax"/"Prison Break", "Reunion", "The First Temple", and "True Colors", being followed by "Escape to Amphibia", "The Root of Evil"/"The Core & The King", and "The Three Armies"/"The Beginning of the End".
- This is also the only season premiere episode to use the short opening.
- This is the third of four full-length episodes to not use an alternate credits sequence, following "Marcy at the Gates" and "The First Temple" and followed by "Escape to Amphibia".
- Anne and the Plantars quarantining in Anne's house shares strong parallels to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since "The Quarantine Song" was recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic, this was a coincidence to the real quarantining caused by it.[5]
- Anne and her parents trying to hide the Plantars' identities in this episode and all the other episodes in Season 3A is similar to Season 1A, when Hop Pop tries to hide Anne's human form from the citizens of Wartwood, to prevent her from eating them or from drawing too much attention to herself.
- This is the only season premiere to not be animated by Rough Draft Korea. Instead, it was animated by Saerom Animation.
- This is the seventh episode following "Froggy Little Christmas", "All In", "The Hardest Thing", "The Three Armies"/"The Beginning of the End", "Newts in Tights"/"Fight or Flight", and "Handy Anne"/"Fort in the Road" to have its score released.[6]
- Mr. Boonchuy says that the authorities will take care of the Plantar family, which foreshadows the episodes "If You Give a Frog a Cookie" and "Escape to Amphibia" when they are abducted Dr. Frakes and Mr. X, Jenny, and FBI agents, respectively.
- Marcy's Journal: A Guide to Amphibia featured scenes cut from the episode:
- Anne discovers Marcy's journal in her backpack.
- Anne and her parents agree not to tell the Wus and Waybrights what happened to Sasha and Marcy because it will draw the authorities. Also Mr. Wu delayed his job transfer.
- Anne adds photos of both Sasha and Marcy's parents in the notebook.
- Anne also had trouble sleeping as she could not stop thinking about Sasha and Marcy.
Revelations and significant events
- Anne is reunited with her parents after five months in Amphibia.
- This also confirms that the passage of time on Earth is the same as Amphibia, since the same amount of time has passed on Earth.
- The sea lion calendar on a wall located at the 99 Ranchers store customer service shows the month is January, though which day or year is unknown. With this, one might assume Anne with the Plantars got to L.A. some time during January 2020 due to the initial teleportation occurring sometime in August 2019.
- Additionally, a sticker reading "Bernie 2020" (referring to United States senator Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign) can be seen on a pole, revealing that the events of this episode take place between February 19, 2019 and April 8, 2020.
- Matt Braly later revealed that the month on the calendar is inaccurate and that "Anne actually returned to Earth sometime in late fall/early winter."[7] Nonetheless, this is the only episode to contain a timekeeping system, as all shots of cell phone displays and ▶TOOB videos omit any sort of dates.
- Furthermore, entry 29 of Marcy's Journal: A Guide to Amphibia reveals that Anne was born in late-May to mid-June, rather than August.
- Matt Braly later revealed that the month on the calendar is inaccurate and that "Anne actually returned to Earth sometime in late fall/early winter."[7] Nonetheless, this is the only episode to contain a timekeeping system, as all shots of cell phone displays and ▶TOOB videos omit any sort of dates.
- A lyric from "The Quarantine Song" reads "trying on my clothes that haven't been sold", implying that some of Anne's clothing was sold during her stay in Amphibia.
- King Andrias sends a specific Frobot to Earth to assassinate Anne, but the robot fails its mission and has to retreat to repair itself.
- King Andrias keeps Marcy in a comatose state and mentions that she will have a part as he plans for his conquest of Earth, which is revealed at the end of the episode "Olivia & Yunan" as a host for his master.
- Sprig finally witnesses Anne's blue glowing abilities.
- Anne's parents now finally realize she is more capable and responsible.
Continuity
- This episode takes place in late-October/mid-November 2019,[8] immediately following the events of "True Colors" and coinciding with the events of "Turning Point".
- The events of the previous episode are also mentioned.
- Anne mentions the following events:
- She remembers that frog cannot be at low temperatures in the freezer or else they will freeze into ice, referring to the episode "Snow Day" and as well the fact that they are coldblooded making them sensitive to temperature, also shown in "The Third Temple".
- She mentions the events of "Anne or Beast?" to her parents, when she was living in the cave in "Cane Crazy" and the Plantars took her to their home.
- She also mentions the events of "Lily Pad Thai" as Mrs. Boonchuy asks about Maggot Larb.
- While explaining the events of what happened in Amphibia, Anne lies that, after Sasha recharged the red gem in the third temple, the Calamity Box malfunctioned and sent Anne and the Plantars to Earth.
- Hop Pop mentions the following events to Anne's parents:
- Anne setting the town on fire in "Anne of the Year", as well as her becoming frog of the year.
- Anne becoming a town protector in "Snow Day".
- Anne almost getting the Plantars eaten by large creatures in "Hop Luck" and "The Domino Effect".
- Sprig questions the existence of Anne's "blue powers", referencing that he was not present when Anne first used her powers in "True Colors".
- King Andrias has become a fan of the Cynthia Coven series thanks to Marcy, which was first shown in "Maddie & Marcy", as well as potato chips.
- At the end of the episode "Taking Charge", Anne's phone battery was charged up to 10,000 percent. When Anne and the Plantars end up on Earth, Anne's phone shows that the battery was currently low.
- Mr. Boonchuy telling the Plantars they have to be on lockdown to prevent being seen by anyone is a nod to the episode "Best Fronds" where Hop Pop forbids Anne from leaving the Plantar house until the residents of Wartwood have finally accepted her.
- Hop Pop even backs up Mr. Boonchuy by also informing his grandkids that they're on lockdown (with a confused Mr. Boonchuy looking at the elderly frog questioning his way of authority).
Production notes
- In original storyboards, the scene where Polly and Sprig were wearing glasses with a big nose and mustache, Anne made Hop Pop, Sprig, and Polly wear masks (with one that resembles Jason Voorhees), and when Anne opens the mirror to brush her teeth, Polly wears the same mask, however it was cut.[9]
Allusions
- Goodyear - During the pan up of the view of the Los Angeles skyscrapers, a "Good Day" blimp can be seen.
- 5G - Anne's phone automatically connects through a 5G phone network.
- Amphibiland - After Anne explains everything to her parents, her father refers to Amphibia as "Amphibiland", which was the original pilot name and the name of the series itself.
- Google - Anne finds information how to take care of King Andrias in the Doogle version.
- Garfield - The book Sprig was reading during the quarantine montage is titled Monday Cat, a reference to the Garfield comic strips.
- Later on in the episode, while in the 99 Ranchers store, Anne uses a TUESDAY mug to press the store's customer service microphone button.
- Nights into Dreams - In the living room below the TV, a Sega Saturn game control is visible with the game Nights into Dreams next to it.
- Play-Doh - Hop Pop's fake nose is made of Fun-Doh, a reference to the brand of modeling clay.
- Goodyear Blimp - A blimp can be seen in the background that says Good Day, which is a reference to the Good Year blimp.
- Donald Duck - One of the fridge magnets at the market is a duck with a sailor hat and a bow tie, similar to Donald. Additionally, the sailor hat also being red is a nod to Huey Duck, one of Donald's nephews, who is known for wearing red clothes.
- 99 Ranch Market - The 99 Ranchers supermarket Anne, her parents, and the Plantars go to is a reference to the real store.
- Super Mario - One of the fridge magnets resembles Wario, with a "P" on both of them.
- Sorry - The Boonchuy residence features a board game based off "Sorry!" called "My Bad!"
- Lloyd in Space - One of the magnets bears a resemblance to Lloyd Nebulon, the titular character of Lloyd in Space.
- Furby - When the Plantars are hiding in the garbage can, a broken toy that resembles a Furby can be seen behind Polly.
- Earthling - Andrias addressed humans are also called Earthlings, a term for an inhabitant of the planet Earth, often used in the context of Earth in science fiction.
- Trader Joe's - After the Silver Frog-Bot enters the portal to Earth, a store called Trader's Flo's can be seen in the background.
- Utz - A bag of clown popcorn has a girl on the bag.
- Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Anne's poster after they disguise the Plantars looks like a house in space.
- Super Smash Bros Brawl/Super Smash Bros Ultimate - Said picture looks like one of the playable stages from those games.
- BTS - Anne's bedroom has a poster resembling this popular boy band.
- Serena Willams - Anne's bedroom has a poster resembling this popular tennis player.
- Kobe Bryant - At the end of the episode, there is graffiti in the city saying "Kobe!", a tribute to this late basketball player.
- Since this episode takes place in 2019, Bryant is technically alive when this episode takes place.
- California State Lottery - Polly asks Anne for a quarter to play the lottery, but Anne tells her "I will do no such thing!", referencing the fact that anyone under the age of 18 in the state of California can't play the lottery and only an adult can buy it.
- Hi-chew - When Sprig points to Anne to tell her that's a robot, there's a candy called Chu-Chew on the right of the shelf with the fruit styled wrapper Hi-chew.
- Bernie Sanders - On the post of which Sprig repeatedly presses the crosswalk button is a sticker that reads "Bernie 2020", referring to this United States senator's 2020 presidential campaign.
- The Godfather - Andrias instructs the Frobot to "Kill the girl, get the book", similar to Peter Clemenza's line "Leave the gun, take the cannoli".
Errors
- During the scenes where Anne reunites with her parents, the front yard is all grass. However, the Boonchuy residence has flagstones in the front yard.
- Polly is seen to inflate her vocal sac while croaking, but female frogs do not have vocal sacs.
- The Calamity Box is missing its key when the scene cuts to King Andrias' throne room. But in the next shot, the key is back in its place.
- King Andrias mentions that Marcy had potato chips with her when she got to Amphibia. However, Marcy never brought a bag with her.
- It could be possible that she had a bag of potato chips in her hoodie's pocket all along, or that she made them herself later on in Amphibia
- In the bedroom scene, before when Sprig and Polly knocked over the shelf with things in it, there is a medal in the top half of the shelf, but when they knocked it over, the medal is gone in the next scene.
- After Anne and the Plantars run away from the Silver Frog-Bot, the magnets disappear from the fridge.
- When Sprig, Polly, and Hop Pop are frozen, they are able to move and see what is happening around them. However, as seen in "Snow Day", this was not possible. It's possible the store freezer was not as cold as Amphibia during the events of that episode, so they may not have been as deeply frozen.
- When Cloak-Bot is about to eliminate the Plantars, the laser is on its right arm. But when Anne attacks the Cloak-Bot, it is on its left arm.
- Hop Pop says "such puny vegetables" while picking up a tomato, even though in the episode "Hop Luck", tomatoes are labelled as dangerous vegetables.
- On Disney+, there are a few caption errors:
- When Polly uses her legs while walking to Anne's house, she says "Legs! Legs!", but the captions read "Lights! Lights!".
- After using the durian to wake Anne up, Hop Pop says "Oh, thank frog!", but the captions read it as "Oh, my God!".
Memorable quotes
Videos
Notes
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 October 2021 Programming Highlights. Disney General Entertainment Content (September 21, 2021). Archived from the original on September 21, 2021. Retrieved on September 21, 2021.
- ↑ Disney Channel Official [@disneychanneljp] (March 29, 2022). "Special program "Spring new work! Best Friend Sunday" will be broadcast on Sunday, April 3rd at 1:30 p.m. ! New season " #Mysterious Amphibia " Full of content, from recaps of the previous season to new episodes broadcast for the first time in Japan "Ghost & Molly" debuting in Japan Pre-broadcast of a new series depicting the strange friendship between a girl and a ghost" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Garner-Flexner, Andy. "Color design's file names". Andy Garner-Flexner's website.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Salem, Mitch (October 5, 2021). Saturday 10.2.2021 Top 150 Cable Originals & Network Finals. Showbuzz Daily. Archived from the original on October 5, 2021.
- ↑ Zogbi, Emily (October 30, 2021). Amphibia Season 3 Premiere Unveils Original Quarantine Song. Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on October 1, 2021.
- ↑ Hill, TJ [@tjhill] (July 1, 2022). "Happy Friday! Here are some score clips from Amphibia Season 3, episode 1 "The New Normal!"
https://youtu.be/Q6hd0KbpgCI
#amphibia #ost" (Tweet). Twitter. Archived from the original on July 8, 2022. Retrieved on July 8, 2022. - ↑ Braly, Matt [@Radrappy] (Nov 15, 2021). "Disregard the dates on calendars and youtube videos in the show thus far, Anne returned to earth sometime in late fall/early winter. I did not check some of those closely - that's my bad. Please imagine an employee forgot to update the store calendar :P" (Tweet). Twitter. Archived from the original on November 15, 2021. Retrieved on July 28, 2022.
- ↑ Marcy's Journal: A Guide to Amphibia by Matt Braly and Adam Colás. December 6, 2022. Published by Disney Press. Entry(s) 29. ISBN: 978-1484711392.
- ↑ West, Eddie (October 7, 2021). Some of my boards that got cut from the new normal. #Amphibia (Tweet). Twitter. Archived from the original on October 8, 2021.