Froggy Little Christmas

"Froggy Little Christmas" is the ninth episode of the third season of Amphibia, and the ninety-first episode overall.

It premiered on November 27, 2021.

Synopsis
''Anne attempts to surprise her mom with a Thai Go float for the city Christmas parade while the Plantars struggle to understand the holiday. Meanwhile, King Andrias prepares a deadly surprise.''

Plot
The episode starts with the Plantars wondering why Mrs. Boonchuy is putting up decorations so Anne explains that they are getting ready for Christmas, which is one of the most important human holidays. Just then, the phone rings, which Mrs. Boonchuy picks up and learns that there is an opening for a Thai Go float in the Christmas-Palooza Parade which she dreamed of for years, but she turns it down because she knows it would draw a lot of attention to the talking frogs and they need to keep a low profile, especially with King Andrias still after them and Anne which Mr. Boonchuy states. Sensing how disappointed her mother is, Anne secretly calls the parade people back and tell them that the Boonchuys have changed their mind because she decides to build her mother the parade float of her dreams and the Plantars are behind her.

Back in Amphibia at the Newtopia Castle that now has several smaller flying fortresses around it, Bartley, Branson and Blair inform Andrias that the Frobot army is now compete on time and under budget. While the giant newt king is pleased by this news, he is confused why the trio are dressed like elves and they explain that Marcy told them about Christmas, which the King doesn't seem to be familiar with, and the three newts then gives him a gift. The gift turns out be a moth-like drone prototype; Andrias decides that since Cloak-Bot failed to elimate Anne, he decides to send the drone to Earth so he can destroy her himself virtually, but not before testing the drone out on Bartley, Branson and Blair.

Back on Earth, Anne knows she needs help to build the float, so by the sugestion of Polly recuits Ally and Jess for their tech expertise. The I.T. Gals then explain Chritmas to the Plantars and Sprig comes to the conclusion he needs to find Anne the perfect gift. The next stop is the Museum of Natural History where she asks Dr. Jan for some supplies with she happily agrees while giving the Planters an extensive history lesson on Christmas, Hop Pop Plantar comes to the conclusion that it is similar to an Amphibian holiday called "Swamp Hallows Eve" (but without ritual sacrifices) while Sprig now more stressed out to find Anne a gift. Meanwhile, the drone makes it to Earth and Andrias starts looking for Anne via the VR goggles linked to the drone. After a montage, Anne presents the finished parade float to her parents, who are happy and delighted that they get to participate in the parade. Turns out, Anne's mom has held the parade as a symbolic representation of being welcomed to the community after they moved to the city from Bangkok and Anne understads how she feels after all the months she spent in Wartwood. As Andrias is realizing that the city is so big that it'd take him forever to find Anne, she appears in a parade directly in front of the drone with Sprig (yelling her name). Andrias, now remembering all about the holiday, decides to get a little festive with it, hijacking the parade float's giant Santa Claus with his drone, using nano technology to turn it into a giant robot that attacks Anne.

What follows is a giant Santa terrorizing Anne and her family and their parade float in a high-speed chase throughout the city. Just as Santa Andrias gets Anne cornered, the group realizes they can fire the Christmas Tree on the float using the equipped fireworks directly into the giant Santa's torso. When they do, not only does it pierce Santa, but impales the drone that Andrias took over with. Everything explodes, and they and the city think it is a miraculous snowfall before realizing that it's ash; ash from all the destruction is raining on the city.

In anger, Andrias demolishes the remote control with his laser sword while the three newts walk out of the room. He stops after hearing Darcy taunting him about his failure as a king but Andrias reassures his master that they will succeed, looking over his massive army of frobots saying that no one can stop them, especially not Anne or Earth.

The group goes home and laughs about all the danger, where Anne finally tells the Plantars that the true meaning of Christmas is spending time the ones that you love and all the gifts and traditions are just a way to express love. With all the pressure of about the perfect gift gone Sprig finally gives to Anne which she just loves, Mr. Boonchuy finally took the perfect photo (after several failed attempts throughout the episode) and everyone continues to celebrate the holiday inside. We later see Anne writing a letter to the parents of Sasha and Marcy, promising that she will help to bring their daughters home, and signing it anonymously, leaving just "A friend" on the bottom of it.

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
 * Haley Tju as Darcy
 * On Braly as Mrs. Boonchuy
 * Brian Sounalath as Mr. Boonchuy
 * Melissa Villaseñor as Ally
 * Dana Davis as Jess
 * Anika Noni Rose as Dr. Jan
 * Rebecca Sugar as Busker (uncredited)

Additional voices

 * Sam Riegel as Bartley, Branson, Blair, Butterfly Drone Soldier Prototype, Scared Museum Observer
 * Cree Summer as Rambunctious Museum Kid
 * James Patrick Stuart as Sad Clown Painter, Bearded Man
 * Laila Berzins as Timmy
 * Brian Maillard as Holiday Parade Announcer, Timmy's Dad, Radio Speaker

Mentioned

 * Sasha Waybright
 * Mr. & Mrs. Waybright
 * Mr. & Mrs. Wu
 * Cloak-Bot

Other characters

 * Frobo (head only)
 * Domino
 * Frobots

Songs

 * "Our Special Time of Year"

Trivia

 * Running gag: Mr. Boonchuy continuously doesn't take perfect photos and the Plantars try to understand what Christmas is truly about.
 * This episode is one of the two 22-minute specials of Season 3, along with the season premiere.
 * Dr. Jan mentions Sinterklaas, a Dutch tradition similar to Christmas.
 * This is the first time that Sasha's parents have been acknowledged at all, in this case, letters Anne is writing to them.
 * Along with "Olivia & Yunan", this is one of two episodes of season 3 to have different credits than the others. For this one, it's a Christmas ending.
 * This episode features a similar credits sequence from the season finales, "Reunion" and "True Colors". Only the music doesn't use Anne's Theme.
 * Sprig says "You're a hero" to Anne at the end of the episode much like he did call her a hero during the episode "Anne or Beast?" and during a flashback from "True Colors".

Revelations and significant events

 * When Anne is writing letters to Marcy's and Sasha's families, she mails one to Marcy's parents, but two mails separate to each of Sasha's dad and mom. This suggests Sasha's parents are either divorced or estranged.
 * Andrias has been building up his army of Frobots with larger numbers and multiple smaller flying castles ready to invade Earth.
 * Ally and Jess are college students, and they attend Palm Tree Community College.
 * Anne's parents are from Thailand's capital city, Bangkok, before they later immigrated to Los Angeles, California, USA.
 * The previous episodes of season 3 are referenced at the beginning of the episode by Anne's parents.

Continuity

 * Andrias is seen drinking a can of energy drink with juice from Zapapedes, a species of centipedes first seen in "Taking Charge".
 * Andrias mentions that the Cloak-Bot failed to eliminate Anne, which happened during the 4 previous episodes "The New Normal", "Fight at the Museum", "Temple Frogs", and "Anne-sterminator".
 * Bartley, Branson, and Blair appear again. The 3 newts were introduced in "Marcy at the Gates" and had a cameo in the Marcy Theme Song Takeover.
 * "Darcy" can also be seen holding the exact same dice Marcy used with said three newts in the Theme Song Takeover.
 * This suggests that even Andrias is quite a dictator, either some newts have no problem with/don't seem to mind of working for him as he held most of the power in Amphibia or were forced to work for him in different jobs, like Lady Olivia and General Yunan.
 * The Thai Temple from "Temple Frogs" and the museum from "Fight at the Museum" are visited again.
 * In the end credits of this episode, Anne gives her mom the blue butterfly trinket from "Hopping Mall" as a Christmas present.
 * A figure of the Chicka-lisk depicted from "Return to Wartwood" is featured as a float decoration.

Production notes

 * This special features "Our Special Time of Year", a song written by Rebecca Sugar, creator of , a show which Matt Braly formerly worked on as a storyboard artist.
 * Sugar also appears as a character in the episode, singing the song that she wrote for this episode.
 * Matt Braly admitted that this episode was originally not to be the mid-finale as a following episode was meant to be the mid-finale, but that he was okay with the change as he felt that the timing and release was more appropriate.

Allusions

 *  - One of the lyrics "A bucket of fried chicken" is a reference to the KFC "party barrels" in Japan served during the holiday season.
 *  - Another part of the lyrics "A costume for your dad" might be a reference to the film where Buddy, a human raised by elves, goes to find his dad dressed up as an elf.
 *  - A part of the lyrics "A demon who will stuff you in a sack if you've been bad" is a reference to the infamous Christmas demon.
 *  - A part of Sugar's song in the lyrics "A reindeer gets promoted" is a reference to the classic Christmas tale and song. A prop of Rudolph is also seen as a decoration in the Boonchuy's float where in one prominent scene, it almost falls on Mr. Boonchuy when he states that he'll take the perfect photo or "die trying".
 *  - The last part of Sugar's song "An old man confronts his fear of karma and mortality" is a nod to the Charles Dickens Christmas tale of Ebenezer Scrooge and his journey of not being selfish to others.''
 *  - There is a TV movie poster for I Want a Hunky Lumberjack for Christmas on the Wallmark Channel, a parody of the real channel.
 *  - A home game console is shown when King Andrias after he controlled the drone that was attached to the robotic Santa Claus.
 * ROBLOX Adopt me - Sprig looks at a pet store and one of the pet cases has a poster saying "ADOPT ME" with the same dog that he's looking at. A hint to the hit game on ROBLOX.com.
 *  - During the Christmas themed end credits, Polly receives a NARF blaster.
 *  - The giant Robot Santa piloted by King Andrias to attack the Boonchuys and Plantars on Christmas may be an homage to the episode "X-mas Story" where an evil Santa Robot attacks a bunch of citizens on Christmas.
 * - The classic Beethoven Symphony No. 9 plays after the Santa-Bot and the Butterfly Drone are destroyed by the Boonchuy's firework-covered Christmas tree.
 *  - Dr. Jan remarks that Christmas is strongly associated with the interests of soda conglomerate companies, referencing the prominent marketing of the American soft drink company during the holiday season.
 *  - On the top of the Boonchuys' fridge while Mrs. Boonchuy is giving Mr. Boonchuy and Anne their Santa hats, there was a box that was labeled "La Kroy" named after a sparkling water beverage.
 *  - Domino in a Christmas picture looks like Gompers the goat from Gravity Falls.
 * Pets dressed up as two legged characters - Domino at the beginning of the episode is dressed up as Santa Claus, something most people do with their pets with costumes.
 *  - The "Monday Cat" from past episodes is a float in the parade.

Errors

 * Rebecca Sugar is not credited at the end of the episode, despite voicing herself here.
 * The flame that is embroidered on Anne's t-shirt is missing for a split second at the beginning of the episode when her mom puts a light green Santa hat on her daughter's head.
 * When everyone is baking cookies, Anne is wearing a ponytail. However, on the photo Mr. Boonchuy took, Anne has her casual hairstyle.
 * The pink stripe on Anne's socks is also missing on the photo.
 * The Drone Soldier's legs change from green to dark gray after it lands on the Santa float.
 * Mr. Boonchuy is wearing his normal clothes in the Christmas photo, despite being shown to be wearing his Christmas clothes when the picture was taken.