"Wax Museum" is the second segment of the fifth episode of the second season of Amphibia, and the forty-ninth episode overall.
It premiered on August 8, 2020, alongside "Swamp and Sensibility".
Synopsis
The family visits a mysterious roadside oddities museum where every treasure comes with a price.
Plot
Transcript
| For a full transcript of "Wax Museum", click here. |
Cast
Main Cast
- Brenda Song as Anne Boonchuy
- Justin Felbinger as Sprig Plantar
- Bill Farmer as Hop Pop Plantar
- Amanda Leighton as Polly Plantar
- Alex Hirsch as Curator Ponds, Frog Soos
Title in other languages
| Language | Title | Translation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
 European Spanish
|
Muceo de cera | Wax Museum | |
 Dutch
|
Wassen museum | Wax Museum | |
 Vietnamese
|
Bảo Tàng Sáp | Wax Museum |
Trivia
- This is the first episode to use the stock crying sound effect most notably used for Baby Kate on Arthur, which can be heard by the polliwog with a flower hat who gets frightened by Anne.
- This episode pays homage to the Disney Channel series Gravity Falls, featuring Alex Hirsch as a guest actor.[1]
- In the tradition of Gravity Falls' use of cryptograms, there are two cryptograms deciphered in the episode, one on the clown frog painting's top left corner that says "There is a Soos in every dimension" and another near the closet door's downright corner that said "Dipcifica 4 lyfe".
- In the scene with Frog Soos and Curator Ponds, Frog Soos breaks the fourth wall saying "Say Mr. Ponds, do you get the feeling that we exist simultaneously in multiple parallel universes, completely unaware of the other's very existence?"
- This could also hint to the Gravity Falls lore, in which the character, Ford Pines traveled and discovered the existence of multiple dimensions other than his. This likely means that the series takes place in an alternate universe from Gravity Falls, or, at the very least, the world of Amphibia itself.
- The Curator eats canned meat, which is what Stan ate and mentioned throughout Gravity Falls.
Continuity
- Sprig's action figures from "Flood, Sweat & Tears" and "Handy Anne" appear in this episode.
- Hop Pop sleeps with his eyes open, just like he did in "Best Fronds".
- However, in other episodes, like "A Night at the Inn", he can be seen sleeping with his eyes closed.
Allusions
- House of Wax - The wax sculptures from the Curiosity Hut being actual living beings encased in wax is an homage to the House of Wax horror movies (1933, 1953 and 2005) wherein the story revolves around a mad sculptor kidnapping people and transforming them into wax sculptures. The Curator trying to turn Anne into a wax statue mirrors the movies' climax where the female-lead is nearly turned into a statue herself.
- Air Bud - Air Bug, the Bugball-playing praying mantis, is a parody of the film's basketball-playing golden retriever.
- Saturn Devouring His Son - One of the pictures inside the hut is similar to the painting.
- Gravity Falls - Several references and homages are made to the series.
- The "Curiosity Hut" is based on the Mystery Shack.
- Curator Ponds and Frog Soos are based on the characters Stan Pines and Soos Ramirez.
- The surname "Ponds" is even a reference to Stan's last name "Pines".
- Bill Cipher can be seen on the carpet of the Curiosity Hut.
- The "living wax figures" concept and Polly melting them references the plot of the Gravity Falls episode "Headhunters".
- The "Fromes" serve as the Amphibia versions of gnomes. One of the fromes says "Shmebulock" as he's freed, a reference to the gnome of the same name in the series.
- The clown painting in the back room references Stan's love of clown paintings that was established in the episode "The Hand That Rocks the Mabel".
- The concept art of the Curiosity Hut is designed like the Mystery Shack.
- The Curator references "I'm not going back to frog prison" when attacking Sprig is what happened to Stan in Gravity Falls throughout his life.
- Anne getting covered in wax is what happened to Dipper in "Into the Bunker" and "Northwest Mansion Mystery", except in said episodes, he froze his clone, the Shape-Shifter, and was turned to wood by Archibald Corduroy (a.k.a the Ghost of Northwest Manor).
- Loch Ness Monster - The 1934 hoax photograph of the fabled Loch Ness Monster is framed in the Curiosity Hut.
- Sony Portable CD player - Anne finds a CD player called "SKIP MAN" in the Curiosity Hut and the Curator said it costs a million coppers, which is a reference to the popular Discman.
Gallery
Click here to view the gallery.