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Completing its run on the Disney Channel in May of 2022, Amphibia redefined the trope of fantasy escapism and framed the teen girl as a hero. Created by Matt Braly (previously known for his work on Gravity Falls), Amphibia follows Anne Boonchuy, a teenage girl who is whisked away to a world of talking frogs by a mysterious music box. In this new world, she is taken in by the Plantar family — ten-year-old Spring, his baby sister Polly, and their grandfather HopPop, who protect and care for her as she tries to find a way home. Anne is not the only human to be transported to this world. Her friends, Sasha and Marcy, are also missing in Amphibia.
While Anne quickly grows to love her newfound frog family and is enchanted by the magical world of Amphibia — the narrative makes it clear that she is not living in an escapist fantasy. Anne’s story is juxtaposed with those of Sasha and Marcy, who have different relationships with Amphibia. As Anne meets back up with her friends and learns about their journeys, she finds herself caught in the center of a prophecy — and must redefine what it means to be a hero in another world. Amphibia complicates the escapist fantasy trope by demonstrating how three different girls can have three different reactions to being trapped in another world and considers why teen girls might dream of escaping to faraway lands.
Breaking Down The Escapist Fantasy
A common trope of the fantasy genre is the character’s escape to another world. The escapism trope, also commonly referred to as Isekai (Japanese for ‘different world’) ((“Trapped In Another World” TVTropes.com )), usually focuses on a young protagonist looking for an escape from their world, either seeking to be free of expectations or the mundanity of everyday life. They can escape to a new, often magical or high-fantasy world that is different from their own. This escape can sometimes be intentional, with the protagonist actively taking a portal out of their world and into a new one, or it can be unintentional, with the character being randomly transported against their will.
The escapist fantasy world is particularly dominant among stories centered on teenage girls. Movies such as Labyrinth (1989) and Alice in Wonderland (1951) frame these stories around young girls who use fantasy and daydreaming to escape or even ignore reality. Their choice to enter or summon the fantasy world is intentional. These stories can often create a “chosen one” narrative, in which the girls are brought into the fantasy world to save it from a great threat. The girls in these narratives often delight in their escape, even if they didn’t choose it. They typically find themselves commanding mass amounts of power and respect and, at times, can be irresponsible with it. Though there are exceptions, these teen girls are often labeled as Mary Sues and are seen as having their dream fantasy fall into their lap easily.
Complicating The Escapist Fantasy
Amphibia challenges the escapist fantasy by telling the story through three different lenses. Anne, Sasha, and Marcy all feel differently about their stay in Amphibia, and by juxtaposing their feelings, they actively complicate and redefine the escapist fantasy trope.
Anne As The Average Girl
After being transported by the music box, Anne finds herself in the small farm town of Wartwood. There, the residents refer to her as a monster and do not easily take to her presence in the town, except for Spring, who quickly becomes Anne’s best friend and convinces HopPop to let her live in their basement. Anne’s transition into the Amphibian lifestyle is not a seamless one. Not only must she convince the townsfolk of her trustworthiness, but she must also work on the Plantar family farm to earn her keep. She, of course, being a teenager from LA, is not interested in the frogs’ way of life. She continually puts her desires first; she frequently lies her way out of farm work and is judgmental and dismissive of their culture. Anne even sometimes puts the Plantars in harm’s way by introducing a cat-like “kill-a-moth” to their home because it resembles her cat — despite the family’s warnings of its danger.
Unlike traditional fantasy escapism, Anne does not blend in with the world right away. She has to work past her selfishness and take responsibility to feel accepted by the town. Slowly, Anne learns to respect and enjoy the hardworking and down-to-Earth (or down-to-Amphibia) life. She frequently must own up to her mistakes and demonstrate her ability to learn. One of the ways Anne slowly integrates herself into the Plantars’ world is by introducing them to her human, teen girl culture. Anne also uses her love of K-Pop, dancing, and teen-drama television to show Wartwood her true identity: just an average teen girl.
Though teen girls’ interests are often depicted as inferior by media, they help Anne relate to the people around her. There is nothing inherently special about Anne when the story begins, but the combination of her flaws and fearlessness leads the town to ultimately love her for who she is.
Though Anne uses her time in Amphibia to become a better person and learn to put the needs of others before her wants, she never uses Amphibia as a replacement or supplement for her life on Earth. Instead, she shares her culture as a Thai-American girl with the people she meets to bring both worlds together. Unlike the traditional escapist fantasy trope, Anne never tries to live out an unattainable dream.
Sasha’s Desire For Control
Sasha is equally as unwilling to be in Amphibia as Anne is. While Anne lands in Wartwood among the frogs, Sasha is dropped by Toad Tower — where aggressive toads police and control the neighboring frog towns. They do not take as kindly to her appearance as the frogs do with Anne. Instead, they lock her up as a prisoner within the tower. However, Sasha reveals that she is the most cunning and deceptive of her friends. Considered the ringleader of her friends back on Earth, Sasha was known for bossing Anne and Marcy around.
While staying in Toad Tower, her constant manipulations of the guards eventually lead her to meet Grime, the toad army leader. She can easily annoy him by pointing out his weaknesses and uncovering the flaws within his army. Using her cunning personality and physical strength, Sasha soon becomes the new leader of the toad army. After locating Anne in Wartwood, Sasha leads a team of toads to the town. The two girls finally reunite after months apart and feel relief at the other’s presence. Though, Sasha’s intentions are not entirely genuine. She tells Anne that she and the toads have come to invite the townsfolk to a party (a celebration of their reunion); she has come to lead the toads in the act of political warfare.
While Sasha had been leading the toad army, Anne had been assisting Hop Pop in successfully running for mayor of Wartwood, thus toppling the current toad in charge (Mayor Toadstool) and threatening the grip of power the toads held over the frogs. Sasha, understanding the toads’ desperation to keep control of their underlings, leads them to Wartwood to assassinate Hop Pop and threaten Wartwood.
While she remains eager to find her friends and go home, Sasha’s insatiable need for control turns Amphibia into her escapist fantasy where she can manipulate and rule over others with little remorse. This is counteractive to Anne’s desire to not escape into a power fantasy but treat her new friends and family as equals. Despite being from two similar backgrounds, Anne and Sasha still manage to feel differently about their entrapment in Amphibia.
Marcy’s Intentional Escape
In season two, Anne finally reunites with Marcy in the city of Newtopia. During their reunion, Anne is greatly concerned for Marcy’s safety, as back on Earth, she was known for being clumsy and easily distracted. She views Marcy as childish and in need of protection. Though after going on several adventures with Marcy, Anne learns that her friend was able to thrive in Amphibia.
Taken in by King Andrias himself, Marcy quickly wins his favor by being an intelligent and kind companion. Throughout her stay, she takes expert notes on the lives of the newts and Amphibia’s language and history. Marcy easily adjusts to Amphibia because she is somewhat nerdy on Earth for her love of fantasy roleplaying games and movies. Her quirky charm, attention to detail, and high intelligence win her the respect of everyone in Newtopia. Her’s is the traditional escapist story. While Anne and Sasha are still eager for a way home, Marcy is not. She is living her escapist fantasy. In the season two finale, “True Colors,” it is revealed that Marcy found the music box after reading a legend about its magic powers and intentionally trapped herself and her friends in Amphibia. Her decision to escape was driven by her parent’s decision to move out of LA, thus forcing her away from her friends. Marcy also desired to share her passions with Anne and Sasha, who often ignored or belittled her interest in the fantasy genre.
While Marcy’s choice is reasonably viewed as selfish by Anne and Sasha, contextualized by her fear of starting over and losing the people she cares about, she is given great sympathy. The two girls never blame her for her feelings and even grow to recognize that their manipulation, infantilization, and disinterest in Marcy drove her to such drastic measures. However, Marcy is forced to pay the ultimate price for her selfishness. As the three girls open their portal home through the music box, King Andrias reveals that he was planning to betray Marcy — and he plans to invade Earth. Before she and Sasha can follow Anne into the portal to Earth, Andrias stabs her with a sword, ending her fantasy.
Though she survives her injuries, Andrias then sacrifices her to The Core, a digital conglomeration of Amphibia’s greatest rulers and intellectuals — which traps her within her mind and fantasy. The Core ultimately uses her fantasies and desires against her, making her complacent in its control.
Anne’s Time On Earth
In season three, Anne and the Plantars are transported to Earth. In this way, the Plantars find themselves in a similar position to Anne, stuck in an unfamiliar world that will not accept them. While Anne was escaping frog-eating monsters and gaining the trust of Wartwood, the Plantars instead are fleeing the government and relying on Anne as their only source of protection from both Amphibian and Earthly threats.
Unlike Sasha and Marcy, Anne’s time on Earth reveals that she was truly happy at home and would have never wanted to leave. She has a good relationship with her parents and enjoys the luxuries of being a normal teenager. She never once wanted to escape or change her real life. However, she also demonstrates tremendous personal growth. She shows great responsibility and selflessness by caring for and protecting the Plantars and treating her family with newfound love and appreciation. There is something to be said that only Anne, out of the group of girls, is the only one to gain passage home.
Of course, that’s not the only thing Anne gained. While at home on Earth, Anne discovers a set of mystical powers she had been granted through the music box — and the stones embedded within it. They give her immense strength, and the ability to fly and make her near-indestructible. She approaches these powers cautiously, not only concerned about what her parents or the government would think but wary about their potential for destruction. She only uses them in moments of great need, not even practicing or training with them.
While the traditional fantasy heroine might use her magical powers for fun or explore her capabilities, Anne never once does. She is a reluctant hero who accepts her responsibility without hesitation but never once abuses it.
The Choice To Return
Though Anne has ultimately completed her goal of getting back home, her time in Amphibia has truly changed her. After working to develop her portal back to Amphibia, rather than send the Plantars back without her, Anne chooses to accompany them. Knowing that Sasha and Marcy are still trapped and Amphibia is left in political ruin, Anne believes it is her responsibility to help restore order to this world. She loves the people there deeply, sees them as a second family, and refuses to abandon them in their time of need. Anne repeats the escapist fantasy, though this time she goes willingly. Her agenda is not personal; she doesn’t seek to gain power or adventure by choosing to return to Amphibia. She does it because it is the right thing to do.
While Anne Was Away
Upon her return, Anne again finds Sasha, though this time Sasha has decided to use her ability to control others to start a revolution. Having realized what her desire for power brought upon the people of Amphibia and her friends, Sasha sought to make things right by uniting the people of Amphibia and giving them the ability to fight back. Sasha’s talents for control and her keen eye grant her a unique ability to create a functioning team of unlikely heroes.
She can match up the frogs and toads so that their strengths play off each other and has worked to earn the respect of her army. She even attempts to pass leadership to Anne as a sign that she has been changed by Amphibia just as Anne has. Despite this, Anne rejects the role, and Sasha learns to humbly accept her leadership role through Anne’s forgiveness and support.
Being The Chosen One — And Not Wanting To Be
It’s not until the end of her journey that Anne learns of her destiny as the chosen one. She, Sasha, and Marcy are all the chosen ones. Via the wisdom of Mother Olm, Anne discovers that the music box (actually called the Calamity Box) chose the three girls as the prophesied warriors and defenders of Amphibia. The magical stones embedded within the box grant them each immense power to stop the oncoming destruction of both Earth and Amphibia by King Andrias and The Core.
In the final episodes, “All In” and “The Hardest Thing,” Anne uses her incredible gifts (alongside the help of her friends and family) to defeat Andrias and save Earth from an oncoming invasion, as well as save Marcy from The Core. However, their efforts are not enough to stop The Core from retaliating. Anne decides to make the ultimate sacrifice and encourages Sasha and Marcy to escape to freedom. While the three stones in the Calamity Box give each girl immense power, Anne decides that she will absorb the power from all three and sacrifice her life to stop The Core.
Her decision is framed through a flashback to her life on Earth prior to Amphibia, in which she has a conversation with her school principal after enacting a prank with Sasha and Marcy. The principal encourages Sasha and Marcy to use their gifts of manipulation and intelligence in more constructive ways but instead asks Anne to write an essay about who she wants to be in life. Anne reflects on this question throughout both episodes, ultimately deciding that all she wants is to be a good person.
Anne never wants to be a hero and never relishes in the supernatural abilities she is granted. Instead, she accepts her destiny humbly. Her choice to sacrifice her life juxtaposes her to Sasha and Marcy, who, though having good intentions, did not learn Anne’s lessons about selflessness. They used Amphibia as a fantasy, deriving power and control from it. Instead, Anne learned to love Amphibia and took great pride in how it helped her become a better person. It made her choice to sacrifice herself easy.
Redefining Heroism
Luckily, Anne’s story does not end there. After sacrificing herself, she meets the Guardian of the stones, who explains to Anne that she was chosen to protect Amphibia for her heart. Because she never used her powers selfishly and grew immensely as a person, the Guardian insists Anne become the new Guardian of the stones and live as a deity. Of course, Anne rejects, claiming to be no more than a teenage girl. The Guardian then grants her a second chance at life and passage back to Earth, hoping that living life to the fullest will potentially prepare Anne to be the new Guardian.
Though, this offer comes with a catch. Once Anne opens her portal home, she, Sasha, and Marcy can never return to Amphibia. This choice solidifies Anne’s place within the escapist narrative. Leaving Amphibia behind forever is not a choice she wants to make, but she knows she can’t stay in that world forever. Unlike Sasha and Marcy, Anne knew she was not in a fantasy and was always prepared to leave. Her final goodbye to the Plantars is a heart-wrenching moment, knowing that her decision to leave is ultimately another mature and selfless one.
On Being A Teen Girl In A Fantasy World
Anne, Sasha, and Marcy demonstrate how teen girls might use or react to their fantasies coming true. Though, in the end, Anne’s refusal to live in a fantasy is what ultimately makes her the hero of the story, Sasha and Marcy are also seen in a sympathetic light. Sasha learns to let go of her anger and need for control to help others, while Marcy learns to embrace change and discomfort. All the girls have talents, represented by the music box’s stones: strength, wit, and heart. Throughout their journey, their talents are used as challenges and temptations they must overcome to achieve their destinies.
The escapist fantasy does not need to focus on just one type of young girl. Teenage girls are complex people who have strengths and weaknesses that they must learn to live with to succeed. Amphibia demonstrates how a group of girls can improve themselves by ending up in a fantasy world, regardless of whether they want to be there. Anne primarily creates a revisionist version of the escapist fantasy by simply being a teenage girl. Her status as the chosen one never outshines her humility and kindness. When her story is combined with Sasha’s and Marcy’s, it shows that all of the girls are equals. Despite their mistakes in Amphibia, they all become good people. All teenage girls are capable of great things — and they don’t need to rely on a fantasy to prove themselves.
