Growing up in the 2000s and being fascinated by children's stories, Frog and Toad was always one of my most memorable childhood classics. The series was simple in its dialog and narrative, but made up for it with wonderful illustrations and engaging characters. Naturally, a show based on this book series was inevitable and the trailer made it look so much fun. So you can only imagine how crushed I felt when I actually watched the show and was met with utter disappointment. From the terrible writing to the lackluster animation, this show felt more like an endurance test on my patience.
Based on the books by the late Arnold Lobel, the show was developed by Rob Hogee with Lobel's children, Adam and Adrianne, serving as executive producers. The show follows the daily lives of our titular amphibians as they enjoy each other's company in the woods. This show should've had no trouble making me fall in love with it. Not only does it have the original author's children involved in production, it's also a short form series with each episode being 11 minutes long. Unfortunately, the problems arise from the word go. To put it bluntly, these episodes are S-L-O-W! The stories of Frog waking Toad up for Spring, Toad planting a guarding and Toad and Frog climbing a mountain all feel needlessly stretched out to 11 minutes. Most of the runtime of these episodes is dedicated to the characters standing around and talking; or worst, saying a slight variation of the same line! In the first episode, they go on and on about how good the cookies taste and what they can do to hide them. Again, it's show, don't tell, not tell, don't show! The woods also doesn't feel lived in or anthropomorphic enough with some animals walking on 4s and others standing up right? Which is it?! Not helping is the show is criminally unfunny with weak slapstick, lousy puns, and eye roll worthy visual gags. I'm not asking for the Moon or anything like that, but having good pacing and solid humor should NOT be too much to ask.
This show doesn't do a good job making the characters likable, which is especially frustrating as these should be some of the easiest characters to write. Our titular duo, Frog and Toad, are nothing but incompetent and insipid ingrates that are so slow, they make snails look like roadrunners. Frog is more of an annoying pest that never thinks before he acts and Toad is a vacuous loser who's never heard of the word patience. These 2 feel like flanderizations of beloved characters who, despite their differences in personality, are very good friends who work off each other and have great chemistry. As is, these lily hoppers might as well get lost in the swamp. Nobody else leave a lasting impression. Not Robin, not Mink, not Gopher, not Snail, NOBODY!
The best I can say about this show is the voice acting is really good. Nat Faxon and Kevin Michael Richardson sound exactly how I imagined Frog and Toad would sound when reading the books. Faxon makes Frog sound like an eccentric, yet kind and understanding friend. Richardson's natural baratone voice perfectly suits Toad's laid back, soft spoken and generous voice. Selene Luna sounded pretty chipper as Robin. Tom Kenny did really solid work as Mink, even given him a nice singing voice. I also thought Cole Escola, Aparna Nancherla and Ron Funches did good work as Gopher, Snail and Racoon respectively. Despite the lackluster material, the actors certainly brought their A game to the project.
Visually, the show looks like the book illustrations come to life...until the characters start moving, then it just looks like awkward paper cut outs. Titmouse provided the animation and it's honestly not their best work. On one hand, the character designs look like they leaped (no pun intend) off the pages of the books. Frog and Toad maintain their anthropomorphic design with webbed feet, divided eyes and bumpy worts. The backgrounds are also beautifully crafted, having a storybook like feel to them, yet feeling so immersive. The actual animation, though, is really stiff. Like the characters have very restricted movements when they walk, talk, or make funny faces. It's as if they are forbidden from going off-model and take full advantage of being in animation in order to stay true to the original book illustrations. This is especially true when it comes to Toad making silly faces to make the seeds grow. It feels like they're holding back and it doesn't look nearly as silly. Design-wise, this show looks like the books come to life; but when the characters actually come to life, it doesn't look right.
BLAH! This cartoon was a snooze fest! Frog and Toad is an unremarkably boring cartoon with terrible writing, incompetent characters, non-existent humor, and weak animation. I'll give it credit that the voice acting is good and it's well designed, but that's nowhere near enough to give it a recommendation. If you grew up with the books like yours truly, spare yourself the disappointment and watch Winnie The Pooh or Little Bear instead. I never asked for the Moon, but a good cartoon should NOT be such a tall order -.-
