Spider-Sprig

"Spider-Sprig" is the first segment of the seventh episode of the third season of Amphibia, and the eighty-seventh episode overall.

It premiered on November 13, 2021, alongside "Olivia & Yunan".

Synopsis
Determined to make his mark on Earth, Sprig becomes a superhero.

Plot
The episode begins with Anne, her father and the Plantars watching a superhero movie, causing Sprig and Mr. Boonchuy to cry when they see the ending. Sprig says the movie is inspiring to him and wishes that he could be lovingly embraced by humanity, but Anne tells him that he still has to keep a low profile. Sprig protests back, saying that when Anne was in Amphibia, she didn't have to keep a low profile.

As he is not listening to Polly point out all the flaws with the movie, Sprig decides to ignore Anne's warning and after doing a superhero monologue, he makes his own hero costume. He ventures into town, trying to become the hero that the city will cheer for called Frog-Man.

When some local youths are getting fined for running a lemonade stand without a permit, Sprig interferes with a community patrol officer named Robert Otto, who thinks he's a hero as well.

As Sprig's popularity grows, he makes a splash on social media, and even saves Robert and his granddaughter Molly Jo in an incident with a brakeless bus.

As Sprig becomes more widely recognized as a hero throughout town, he overshadows Otto as the figure that everyone looks to for help, angering the community safety officer. Sprig's actions earn him the ire of the junkyard owner, but the admiration of the people of Los Angeles including Molly Jo. Robert discovers Cloak-Bot's arm in his junkyard and becomes a villain to get revenge on Frog-Man.

His quest leads him to downtown Los Angeles, where he finds and challenges Sprig in a battle wherein copious amounts of property ends up destroyed and passersby are put into danger just because the two are fighting. Molly Jo intervenes and points out they’re doing more harm than good, and in something new for this kind of scenario, we see the two team up to repair all the damage that they've caused. While Sprig takes off and returns home, Otto is arrested and held responsible for everything.

Anne, who saw Sprig in his Frog-Man persona on social media, is furious and confronts him but Sprig, realizing that he was simply seeking attention, gives up being a superhero, but ends up angering Anne again when he reveals he cut up her clothes and sewed them together to make his costume.

Cast

 * Brenda Song as Anne Boonchuy
 * Justin Felbinger as Sprig Plantar
 * Bill Farmer as Hop Pop Plantar
 * Amanda Leighton as Polly Plantar
 * Brian Sounalath as Mr. Boonchuy, Male Movie Actor (credited as additional voices)
 * Brad Garrett as Robert Otto
 * Cassie Glow as Molly Jo, Female Child Actor (credited as additional voices), Lemonade Girl (credited as additional voices)

Additional voices

 * Eden Riegel as Female Movie Actor, Lemonade Boy, Panicking Driver
 * Matt Braly as Bus Driver, Pizza Owner, Police Officer
 * Roger Craig Smith as Tarantulad, Blonde Man, News Anchor, Spanish News Anchor
 * Jeff Bennett as Buffer Fish, Man With Cap

Trivia

 * Lead character designer Andy Garner-Flexner can be seen in the crowd admiring Sprig.

Continuity

 * The junkyard Otto owns is the same one the Cloak-Bot pursued the Boonchuys and Plantars to from "Anne-sterminator". Its destroyed arm remained there since its destruction.
 * The blond haired man from "Thai Feud", "Mr. X", and "Sprig's Birthday" appears again.
 * The tree that Sprig saves a cat from has "Ally wuz here" carved into it, possibly hinting to Ally.
 * Plus, it is the fourth episode of the series to have the words "wuz here" is shown during the episode after the three previous episodes "Prison Break", "After the Rain" and "New Wartwood" respectively.
 * Tyler's boyfriend/fiancé from "Sprig's Birthday" appears again.

Allusions

 *  - The title of the episode, as well as the entire episode, is a reference to the famous Marvel Comics hero.
 * Sprig creating the slime to climb the wall, as well as his costume-making montage, is taken from the original Spider-Man movie.
 * - Robert Otto is a reference to the famous villain: He has a similar name, a strong tentacle arm and similar clothes.
 * - Molly Jo is a reference to the famous character from the series.
 *  - Tarantulad: The World I Call Home is an homage to the tokusatsu series. Tarantulad's design is based on Kamen Rider 1.
 *  - One of the costume ideas Sprig drew is based on the outfit of Piccolo.
 * - DuzzFeed is a parody of this real-world website and its disputed status as a news outlet when it posts irrelevant topics and content having little to do with current events, which DuzzFeed' tagline, "it's news, maybe", lampoons.
 * - Dimgur is a parody of the online image repository.
 * - During the Spider-Sprig montage, a video titled "Frogman Save Entertainment" is seen, where Sprig is being interviewed by a talk show host who resembles Conan O'Brien.
 * "Distracted Boyfriend" - One of the posts with Sprig and Robert's faces pasted onto a picture references the stock photo meme.
 * - The sign "Eggs" mimics the logo of the sandwich deli chain.
 *  - The pizza man has an appearance that resembles Mario, including a similar haircut, mustache, and cap with a letter on it.

Errors

 * Molly Jo wears black leggings throughout the episode. But she briefly doesn't have them when she first gets out of the bus Sprig stopped.
 * When Robert Otto obtains Cloak-Bot's arm from the junkyard, Sprig acts as if he's never encountered the arm despite having encountered Cloak-Bot 4 times prior.