08 - Taking Charge

Writing

“Sometimes you write an episode to serve a greater narrative need, sometimes you write to satisfy a pet peeve!  in this case, Taking Charge was conceived because it made me INSANE that Anne’s phone has lasted as long as it has without running out of power.  From there we reverse engineered the story into a “whodunit” where the family became addicted to binge-watching TV - a concept that should NOT exist at all in Amphibia.  This was such a fun episode to write because it let the characters just bounce off each other in organic ways.  Even I forget while watching this one that it all started from a very simple desire to explain Anne’s phone.  Kudos to Jack Ferraiolo, who wrote this one with me, for making this episode an absolute blast.”

Storyboards

Once again Jenn Strickland and Steve Wolfhard outdid themselves with the boarding of this episode.  From how lovingly stupid Jenn made “Suspicion Island (the fake show the family binges),” or how ridiculous the family looks when they begin to suspect one another of foul play - this is a storyboard firing on all cylinders.  I will never grow tired of these wonderful expressions courtesy of Steve:

Another point of interest is how much we abused Hop Pop in this episode.  The part where he gets electrocuted is INTENSE:

Aw, what the heck - here’s the whole sequence: 

Music 

What’s this?  A music section?!  This episode is unique in that it has Sprig singing a song on his fiddle as the family quests along.  This song was actually written by Leslie Wolfhard, Steve’s wife!  She came to us with such an adorable tune that we just had to incorporate it into the episode.  You can download and listen to the demo track she sent us here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1329IFNherOCPKaJentUMKMw5XEx629rT/view?usp=sharing

Demo lyrics:

My family distrusts each other

on a dangerous mission,

like the nearly-naked humans on the island of suspicion,

Peruvia, Felicia, and Randy so hot!

Beguiling, hostiling, we’re all suspicious isling! 

Character & Prop Design

The idea for the Zap-apede to have + and - shaped pupils came directly from Steve.  Creature designer extraordinaire, Brandon Wu took the concept and ran with it.  Character deisign by Brandon Wu and Andy Gonsalves. Props by Andy Gonsalves. Color styling by Carol Wyatt and Daniaelle Simonson:

But the craziest part of this episode's design process was having to design Suspicion Island.  And the craziest part of this craziness is that 10 fake episodes of the show were designed as thumbnails.  All so that Anne could scroll by them in an instant.  Props to Andy and Jenn for building what looks like some kind of story progression to these images.  It feels like a real show:

  Background Design

BG wise, the team got to stretch their legs with a location that feels nothing like our normal setting.  They leaned into a nice “The Hobbit” misty mountains vibe and I’m super happy with the results.  BGs by Ian Worrel, Daniaelle Simonson, Phillip Vose, Sunjae Lee, Joey McCormick, Elle Michalka, Jules Itzkof:

That’s it for “Taking Charge!” See you next time!

- Matt Braly

07 - The Domino Effect

Writing

“I was lucky enough to come into Amphibia and work with Matt and Jack pretty early on in the show. It can be intimidating writing characters for the first time but Anne, Sprig, Hop Pop, everyone was so fleshed out, even at that stage, so it felt more like fun than work. Plus the added perk of being able to do a story about Anne having a pet, meant I could pull on my own experiences as well, which made for a great episode that I'm really proud to have worked on. 10/10, would help out again.” 

- writer, Jeff Trammell

Jeff was a very talented writer we were lucky to work with briefly in the very early days of season 1.  He went on to become head writer of the wonderful show, Craig of the Creek at Cartoon Network! 

When we decided to use this premise much later, it was retooled in production by Gloria Shen, who added some amazing touches like Hop Pop’s monologue about “Charlie Big Bottom.”    

Storyboards

Kat Marusik and Kyler Spears did fantastic work wringing every ounce of cuteness out of this board as possible.  This was an important episode because it was one of our first stories (apart from Best Fronds) dealing with the issue of Anne missing home.  It was a delicate thing to balance as we never wanted the situation to seem too sad.  To that end I think Kat and Kyler did a great job keeping things light and fun regardless of the heavy topic. Here’s Domino 2′s intro boarded lovingly by Kyler Spears:

Character & Prop Design

This is a special episode to me because Domino 2 is based on my own cat, also named Domino:

Joe Sparrow and the team did an AMAZING job translating this long, furry baby into the world of Amphibia.  Not only that but the monstrous moth version of Domino 2 strikes a wonderful balance of creepy and cool:

This episode also has some of my favorite special poses:

Props by Andy Gonsalves and color styling by Daniaelle Simonson, Ian Worrel, and Carol Wyatt!

Background Design

BG design wise, it was fun for the team to “infest” Anne’s room with Domino 2′s cobwebs.  We also get some nice looks at Anne’s nook here.  BGs by Ian Worrel, Phillip Vose, Joey McCormick, Jules Itzkof, Elle Michalka, and Daniaelle Simponson.

 Next up is “Taking Charge!”  Thanks and take care of yourself!

- Matt Braly

06 - Stakeout

Writing

“Stakeout was difficult to write because it deals with all four main characters and, at this point in the writing, we were still trying to figure out who they all were. In fact, the part of Sprig had not been cast yet, so we didn’t know what he sounded like and, as a character, he still felt very generic. Through writing this episode, and exploring his obsession with forcing Anne and Hop Pop to get along – specifically, just how far he’s willing to go, simply to avoid the discomfort of a family squabble –we finally began to see some of Sprig’s quirks rise to the surface. For example: Sprig can go a little mad at times. This was further developed, later at board. At the pitch, seeing the moment when Sprig leaps out of his bedroom window, backwards, was a real, aha moment for me in terms of Sprig’s character. I remember thinking how cool it was that Sprig could move in that way, and also— oh yeah, he’s totally lost it.     

In the writers room, everyone was excited about this episode because it goes to an insanely fun place, with teapots for heads and fighting off corn monsters with power ups. But what drew me to this story was seeing Anne and Hop Pop try to relate to one another for the first time. It was just as important to me, as it was for Sprig, that they eventually find some common ground and get along. For a long while, their story arc wasn’t working, but once I landed on the idea of them complaining in similar ways (Anne with: “where I’m from” and Hop Pop with: “back in my day”), both stuck living in the past, rather than focusing on what they have in the present, things finally clicked and fell in place.” 

- Staff writer, Michele Cavin

Storyboards

Frog dang where do I even START with this episode’s boards. This is the first episode boarded by Jenn Strickland and Steve Wolfhard, two board artists who I deeply admire and geek-out over regularly.  The only thing more impressive than their individual abilities is how well they compliment each other.  Jenn has such a natural talent for coming up with hilarious expressions, amazing posing and dynamic staging while Steve is a master of charm, gentle comedy, and what I like to call “lumpy perfection.”  We are so lucky to have had them on this episode - they brought out such wonderful things in the characters.  Here’s the intro to the episode, boarded by Steve: 

And here’s some exciting action by Jenn:

 Character & Prop Design

This week’s show-stopper in terms of character design has to be the color styling of Anne’s “galaxy hair” by Daniaelle Simonson:

I got some questions after the episode aired as to whether or not her hair was created with CG - amazingly it is not.  You’ll be shocked to learn that the looping texture in Anne’s hair was created completely with practical effects.  Daniaelle had this amazing idea to film iridescent cellophane rotating on a turntable and run that footage through a kaleidoscope filter on her phone.  She even built a rig at home so that she could easily film the material:

Afterwards, it was added to Anne’s hair via After Effects. I couldn’t believe it when I finally saw it!

The corn beast in this episode and “Tea-Pop” were both designed by the talented Brandon Wu.  Props by Andy Gonsalves and color styling by Daniaelle Simonson, Ian Worrel, and Carol Wyatt: 

 Background Design

The big challenge for this episode was figuring out how the world would look like during Anne and Hop Pop’s “trip.”  Elle Michalka, one of our painters, settled on something really nice: trippy but with a restrained palette.  This made the cuts back and forth between the real world and the trip very easy to track.  Bgs by Ian Worrel, Elle Michalka, Sun Jae Lee, Jules Itzkoff, Joey McCormick, Amanda Winterstein, Daniaelle Simonson, and Phillip Vose.  

Fun fact: the garden wall from this episode is the same as the one featured in the ending credits.

  That does it for “Stakeout,” see you next week!

- Matt Braly

05 - Hop Luck

Writing

“Hop Luck was a script that Matt and I wrote when Amphibia was still in development. The story originally had the title Passing the Ladle, and was told from Sprig’s POV. Later, when we moved the script from development to production, we realized it would be better to tell it from Anne’s POV, so we could show her becoming a more integral part of the Plantar family. 

When we wrote the first version of it, Matt and I had only been working together for a relatively short time. TVA had decided to move development to a new office space, so Matt and I were forced to share a smallish office. Neither of us minded, and in fact, I think it was instrumental in forging the strong creative relationship we share today. At one point in the process, we were literally passing the keyboard back and forth. We were having fun, trying to surprise each other and make each other laugh. (For example, Matt’s pretty ambivalent about pineapple pizza, but he wrote the bit in part because he knew my opinion on it was… less ambivalent. I can’t help it. I’m from New Haven.)

 I love this story – the character moments, the jokes, the killer tomato plant – but this script will always be special to me because it represents when I went from thinking my creative relationship with Matt was going to work, to knowing for certain it would.”

- Story Editor & Coproducer, Jack Ferraiolo

Storyboards

This episode was storyboarded by Kyler Spears and Kat Marusik.  It was their first board on the show and they did an amazing job together.  A little fun fact about this episode is that the first couple of pages were used as our storyboard test.  Since this episode was boarded after our board team was assembled, it’s almost as if Kyler and Kat provided the official “answer” to the test!  The following is an excerpt of two of the episode’s most memorable moments: the pizza joke and the introduction of Maddie Flour.

   Character & Prop Design

There are some lovely special poses in this episode done by Joe Sparrow.  I love when we can push Anne’s face in cartoony ways even though she’s the least stretchy of the main characters.  Them being frogs and all.  Maddie as a character is someone who existed all the way back in development but I really like how she turned out in the actual series.  Her clothespin hair tie is especially cute to me.  Colors by Daniaelle Simonson and Carol Wyatt.  Props by Andy Gonsalves.  

Background Design

There’s some really nice work here by Amanda Winterstein and Phillip Vose in Maddie’s bakery.  The flour is caked on in a really appealing way and I love all the little details in the background.  A bread baked in the shape of a spider is muah *chef’s kiss*!

I also want to draw special attention to the painting of the tomato plant’s throat.  Phillip Vose has such a dynamic process where he’ll often rough out his composition in color - and then go back and tie down the b/w bg before sitting down and painting it for real.  For him, the process of bg design and paint are often combined.

Rough:

Final:

That’s all for now!  See you next week for one of my favorite season 1 episodes: “Stakeout!”

- Matt Braly

04 - Flood, Sweat, and Tears

Writing

“Having lived with many roommates over the years, I was super excited to work on this episode. Most of Anne and Sprig's quirks were directly inspired my personal experiences. I'm especially sensitive to heat and noises when I'm trying to sleep, and on the flipside, I can be a klutz and I (allegedly) snore. The crew worked together to come up with Amphibia-specific versions of these points of conflict. Sprig being a cold-blooded frog vs. Anne being a warm-blooded human meant the room temp would definitely be a big issue. I also wanted to include some version of toenail clipping; but since frogs don't have nails, we came up with "web crusties." Seeing how the artists rendered everything with was so fun and impressive! This is the first time we see Sprig's room, and it fits him perfectly--the hammock bed, the terrariums, the hanging model dragonflies. Not to mention how they brought "web crusties" to life...gives me the heebie-jeebies just thinking about them! ”

- Staff writer, Gloria Shen 

Storyboards

This episode was one of the very first episodes boarded and was significant because it was one of the first stories that just always “worked.” I remember distinctly that the very first rough board pitch was like a breath of fresh air - these characters had such successful chemistry and their conflict for the episode felt so natural.  It meant we had arrived in a way - that we could always at least point to this episode if we were having trouble in the future.   

I credit this success in part to the amazing team of board artists we had for this episode: Cheyenne Curtis and Drew Applegate.  Both are such natural comedians and knew how to push and pull the characters in fun ways that never broke them.  The following montage was boarded by Cheyenne and has a delightful escalation of tension between Anne and Sprig as they get on each other’s nerves. This episode also features strong revisions by Janine Chang: 

Drew is a master of hilariously extreme expressions. I especially like some of the faces Hop Pop makes during his rant about having a roommate. Check out this side by side comparison of board panel to final picture:

Character & Prop Design

The scary Lampreys were designed by Joe Sparrow, who always gave us fun color options with his rough sketches.  We ultimately wanted them to feel part of the murk so we leaned towards earth tones.  Props by Andy Gonsalves. Color by Daniaelle Simonson and Carol Wyatt.  

Background Design

The real challenge of this episode was the flooded basement.  Ian Worrel and his team did an amazing job making it feel murky, disgusting, and somehow producible.  Work by Ian Worrel, Sun Jae Lee, Phillip Vose, Amanda Winterstein, and Elle Michalka.

That does it for “Flood, Sweat, and Tears.”  Fun fact - this episode used to called “Flooding the Basement” until we were kindly informed by Standards and Practices that the phrase referred to a naughty thing.  The things you learn in production. 

- Matt Braly

03 - Cane Crazy

Writing

"Cane Crazy was one of the first episodes to start expanding the town of Wartwood beyond the Plantars. Leopold Loggle the woodsmith was created to steer Anne to the Doomtree, but we wanted him - and all our side characters - to feel like real people with their own lives, personalities, and quirks. Loggle's confusing cadence was originally a one-off joke, but Matt liked it as part of his character and gave me permission to go totally wild explaining it - which is how he got his blacksmithing metal-pipe-through-windpipe origin story. You can see Loggle starting to reach his final form in this earlier draft."

- Staff writer, Adam Colás

Storyboards

This episode was boarded by Hannah Ayoubi and Derek Kirk Kim (who also directed the episode).  Revisions were done by Kim Roberson, Steve Wolfhard, Silver Paul, and Nate Maurer.  This was an important episode in terms of finding out how the characters would behave around each other during the status quo. It was also important to track how comfortable Hop Pop and Polly were with Anne up until now.  Sprig obviously was won over by her very early on but the other two needed a little bit of convincing.  It’s nice to see Polly somewhat enjoying Anne’s companionship by the end, given that she wanted to kill her in just the previous episode.

Here’s a particular highlight, boarded by Hannah Ayoubi, which introduces the character Leopold Loggle.  I dig that he’s an axolotl because up until this point we’ve only seen frogs.

There was also a fun bit of action here at the end that was boarded by Derek Kirk Kim and Steve Wolfhard.  I remember having everyone listen to “Yakety Sax” while they boarded to help make sure the chase felt fun.

Character & Prop Design

Design highlights in this episode were definitely Loggle and the stickbug. Board artist Steve Wolfhard had this hilarious idea that underneath his tough bark, the stickbug was cute and soft.  I also love the click-y pen that Sprig is obsessed with. It's also worth noting that this is the first episode to feature painted portraits like the one of Hop Pop with his cane. Since photography hasn't been invented in Amphibia yet, we developed a short hand for the kinds of photorealistic paintings they'd have hanging around. Designs by Brandon Wu and Andy Gonsalves with colors by Daniaelle Simonson and Carol Wyatt.  

Background Design

Loggle’s shop was designed by Sun Jae Lee and is full of character.  Creepy marionettes and other oddities litter the room.  If you look closely at the exterior, you can see that the building is in the shape of Loggle’s own head.  Some great work was also done on the Doomtree by painter Elle Michalka to make it feel uncomfortable and dangerous. The yellow coloring almost shouts “yield!” 

That’s all for “Cane Crazy!”  Tune in next week for an in depth look at “Flood, Sweat, and Tears!”  Alright, goodbye!

- Matt Braly

02 - Best Fronds

Writing

“Here’s an interesting bit of trivia: “Best Fronds” is actually an adjusted version of Amphibia’s original pilot.  After establishing that Anne was stuck in this crazy new world with “Anne or Beast,” it was up to “Best Fronds” to establish the core relationship between Anne and Sprig.  Not only that but it teases some pretty cool things to come at the end.  I especially like how naturally Sprig and Anne grow closer in this episode, culminating in a pretty big disagreement.”

- Matt Braly

Amphibia is script driven, meaning that much of a story’s DNA and structure are figured out before the storyboard launch.  Here’s an excerpt of a pivotal scene from Best Fronds:

Storyboards

This episode was boarded by Hannah Ayoubi and Aaron Austin.  Revisions were done by Janine Chang.  The script of this story has always felt a little serious so I’m so grateful that Hannah and Aaron were able to add so much comedy and charm at the storyboard stage.  Director Derek Kirk Kim has always been passionate about this story and added some real magic at the end with Sprig falling into Anne’s arms as he nods off.

The first half was boarded by Hannah and really explored the chemistry between our leads.  She was able to make Anne feel very sympathetic as she laments missing her home: 

The second was boarded by Aaron Austin, who birthed one of the episode’s best moments - when Sprig explains why most other kids don’t get him:

It’s worth noting that the whole concept of “friend punch” was authored by Aaron.  It was not in the script.  

Character Design

The water snake in this episode was designed by Brandon Wu. He brought a naturalistic feel to the monster that actually makes it feel scarier. Anne’s swimsuit was specifically designed to feel athletic and cool. Artwork by Joe Sparrow, Erik Elizarrez, Brandon Wu, Andy Gonsalves, Daniaelle Simonson, and Carol Wyatt:

Background Design

It was important to us that the human world feel relatively drab compared to Amphibia.  It helps to convey that Anne has never felt more alive in her new environment.  Artwork by Ian Worrel, Daniaelle Simonson, Joey McCormick, Sun Jae Lee, Elle Michalka, and Amanda Winterstein.

That should do it for “Best Fronds!” Next up is “Cane Crazy!” Thanks and have a good one. 

Storyboard panel by Derek Kirk Kim

01 - Anne or Beast

Writing

“Matt had the brilliant idea to start "Anne or Beast” from Sprig’s point of view, then switch mid-episode to Anne’s. It was ambitious and a bit risky, but essential to establishing the world and characters the way he wanted. He had complete faith that the audience wouldn’t be thrown off by it, and he was absolutely right. It's also funny watching that first episode and getting a glimpse of the Plantars pre-Anne, knowing that they’re missing a vital part of their family and don’t even know it yet.”

- Story Editor/Co-producer Jack Ferraiolo 

Storyboards

This episode was boarded by Bert Youn, Yonaton Tal, and Kyler Spears.  Revisions were done by Nate Maurer.  It was one of the first episodes boarded so we were still finding our voice.  Even so, you can feel the world and characters coming to life. The sequence where Anne and Sprig meet for the first time will always be one of my favorites:

 Character Design

This episode was key in terms of introducing our core cast as well as some of the creatures that inhabit Amphibia. The shape language of Amphibia's characters is deliberately soft and volumetric. The creatures and monsters however are intentionally jagged and horrifying. Artwork by Joe Sparrow, Erik Elizarrez, Daniaelle Simonson, and Carol Wyatt:

Background Design

Art director Ian Worrel and his team of did an amazing job establishing the intial look and feel of Amphibia with this episode.  The forest has the perfect blend of wonderment and intimidation while the town feels simultaneously exotic and incredibly cozy.  Artwork by Ian Worrel, Phillip Vose, Jules Itzkoff, and Amanda Winterstein.

That’s all folks!  See you next week with “Best Fronds!”

 - Matt Braly