The Shut-In!

It premiered on October 17, 2020.

Synopsis

Anne and the Plantars protect themselves from the dangers of the annual Blue Moon by locking themselves in the house and entertaining each other with the scariest stories they can think of.^[7]

Plot

Anne, Sprig, and Polly go around Wartwood visiting various townsfolk in a Halloween-style outing asking for supplies for the annual Shut-In, a tradition where all the residents lock themselves in their homes to escape the dangers of the annual blue moon which, as legend says, turns frogs who gaze at it into monsters. After locking themselves in their house, Hop Pop tells the kids that the next step is to tell scary stories, adding that they must be true. Polly attempts to tell the first story describing the events of their escape from cannibal frogs, but they stop her and Anne decides to tell a story about a girl much like her.

Phone-Mo

In Anne's story, Anna (a stand-in for Anne) is a student at Saint Joe's School, a place that was "like [Anne's] School with her two best friends Twig and Molly (human stand-ins for Sprig and Polly). As they meet up in front of the school, their other two friends, Haddie and Broadie (human analogs for Maddie and Toadie) arrive informing them of a video that is said to be haunted. While Molly decides to watch the video with them, Anna and Twig resist peer pressure and move on. However, Anna decides to watch the video in private and sees that it is a cat-like creature playing around as it is being watched by a few kids. To Anna's surprise, the video has zero dislikes.

During lunch, Haddie tells Anna that Broadie has disappeared and believes the video is behind it, but Anna dismisses the possibility; as soon as Anna leaves, Haddie's phone suddenly turns on and it sucks Haddie inside. At her home, Anna gets a phone call from Twig informing her that Molly has also vanished. Anna admits to watching the video and looks back at it, where she sees the kids in the video are her missing friends. Anna tries to throw the phone away, but the creature manifests and transforms into a repulsive monster. Right before the beast can devour her, Anna states that it is not as cute as she thought and the monster recoils. Realizing its weakness is criticism, Anna then throws negative comments and dislikes at it, causing the monster to explode into boba and it releases everyone from the video.

Anna vows not to give into peer pressure anymore; Twig then enters and mentions a new hamburger place that has opened on the haunted side of town. The friends happily leave, unaware of the boba hatching into baby versions of the creature as soon as they leave.

The Plantars find the story terrifying and Polly attempts to have another go at telling a story. However, the story is about the mind-controlled townsfolk, which leads Hop Pop to tell the next story.

Dead End

In Hop Pop's story, a young Hop Pop would drive Bessie for fares and possessed a large head of hair that he was proud of. One day, he picks up a mysterious frog named Mr. Littlepot who has more than one stop to make, though Hop Pop insists he was willing to wait until the end for Littlepot to pay up. When they arrive at the first stop, the home of Old Man Hopkins who had come down with a case of red leg, Littlepot steps off goes inside the house and leaves after the sound of Hopkins collapsing can be heard. They then drove to the house of an old lady where Hop Pop spots a slaughter snake entering her home. Littlepot disappears as the noise of the woman screaming can be heard and reappears, demanding to be taken to their last stop; Plantar Farm. Hop Pop finally deduces Littlepot is death himself and begs for his life. However, Littlepot reveals he came for Hop Pop's hair, which he then slashes it and takes it for himself, much to Hop Pop's horror.

The kids do not find the story scary, though Hop Pop does warn Sprig that it could happen to him. Polly tries to tell another story, but since it is about Anne's first encounter with the Plantars, Sprig decides to tell the next story.

Skin Deep

Sprig and Ivy are playing Bugball together when the ball rolls neck-deep in the woods. As they go to retrieve it, Ivy tells Sprig the story of the Seamstress who skins frogs and takes them for her own. The young frogs stumble upon an abandoned cottage and deduce that their ball is inside. They find the ball, but the Seamstress catches them, and she is shown to be a hideous combination of frog skins. The kids fight the monster and rip off the skin, revealing her to be a glass frog. Ivy briefly empathizes with her, but the kids beat her up and burn the shack down and escape.

Anne, Hop Pop, and Polly are shocked at the story when they suddenly get a knock on the door. Sprig incautiously answers it and sees a hideous face. However, it turns out to be Ivy wearing a burlap mask as a prank she and Sprig pulled. Ivy then heads off, being careful not to look at the Blue Moon thanks to her mask. Afterwards, the family notices Polly is gone and she left a note saying she went off to look at the Blue Moon to get inspiration for a story. Everyone runs outside to find Polly staring at the Blue Moon, but she appears to be unaffected. Polly is sad she did not come up with a story, though the family assures her that looking at the Blue Moon was scary enough and she should be proud of that. As they head inside, however, Polly suddenly transforms into a werewolf-like beast. She happily runs inside to tell the family who react in terror as the Screen Fiend, Mr. Littlepot and the Seamstress appear laughing at the camera.

Cast

• Brenda Song as Anne Boonchuy, Anna
• Justin Felbinger as Sprig Plantar, Twig
• Bill Farmer as Hop Pop Plantar
• Amanda Leighton as Polly Plantar, Molly
• George Takei as Mr. Littlepot
• Jill Bartlett as Haddie
• Jack McBrayer as Broadie
• Katie Crown as Ivy Sundew
• Kaitlyn Robrock as Felicia Sundew
• John DiMaggio as Stumpy

Additional voices

• Zeno Robinson as Elderly student & Skateboarder
• Kaitlyn Robrock as Mr. Hopkins' Caretaker, & Elderly Farmer Woman
• Matt Braly as Seamstress, Red eyed frog & Gourd carver
• Katie Crown as Vending Machine Girl
• Connor Andrade as Knight helmet frog

Non-speaking cameo

• Wally Ribbiton

Title in other languages

Language	Title	Translation	Notes
Latin American Spanish	La noche del encierro	The night of the Shut-In
Bulgarian	Затвори порти!	The Shut-In!
German	Der Wegversteck-Tag	The hideout day
European Spanish	El encierro	The Shut-In
Italian	La chiusa!	The Shut-In!
Japanese	シャットイン	Shut-In
Dutch	Ingesloten!	Shut-In!
European Portuguese	A Clausura!	The Shut-In!
Polish	Rygiel!	The lock!
Thai	วันเก็บตัว!
Vietnamese	Ngày Ở Nhà	Stay at home day

Transcript

Gallery

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Trivia

• Viewership: This episode was watched by 0.28 million viewers on its premiere.^[3]
• This is the second of four 22-minute specials in the second season, and the third of the series.
• This is the only episode of the series to be non-canon.
  • Structure wise, this episode is a Halloween Special anthology.
• This episode is skipped in marathons on Disney XD due to its holiday themes, similar to "Froggy Little Christmas".
• This episode is the last one to air on Disney Channel Korea prior to its closure on October 1, 2021.
• This episode was later uploaded to YouTube on October 11, 2021,^[8] making this the fourth episode (following "Anne or Beast?"/"Best Fronds", "Prison Break" and "The Dinner"/"Battle of the Bands") to later be uploaded in full to YouTube.
  • This is the first full-length episode to be fully uploaded to YouTube.
  • However, the video has since been made private.
• The credits sequence resembles that of the first season, suggesting that the sequence is only for episodes that take place in Frog Valley.
  • However, the next aired episode, "Night Drivers"/"Return to Wartwood," uses the standard Season 2 credits sequence, thus proving the contrary.
  • This is the final alternate credits sequence to neither credit Haley Tju nor Keith David.
• The intro theme uses the opening sound from "Welcome to Amphibia" and the tune of the theme resembles that from the sneak peek at the 2018 San Diego Comic Con.
• This marks the second time George Takei guest stars in a Disney Channel show starring Brenda Song. Takei previously guest-starred in The Suite Life on Deck episode "Starship Tipton", the series on which Song starred as London Tipton.
• Bill Farmer has said that this, along with "A Night at the Inn" and "Children of the Spore", were his favorite episodes of the show.
• In 2023, Disney Television Animation ranked this episode as its third-most spooky episode on its Twitter page (behind The Owl House's "Hollow Mind" at number two and Gravity Falls' "Into the Bunker" at number one).^[9]
• Despite being a prominent kid character and appearing outside the stories, Ivy is not shown as a human counterpart in Anne's Phone-Mo story.
  • Instead, Toadie is shown in the story aged down to a middle-school aged child despite his Amphibia counterpart being an adult. This was most likely due to his short height.

Revelations and significant events

• This episode shows that Sprig and Ivy are a step further in their relationship, by showing Ivy kissing Sprig on his cheek, although it is unclear if this reflects canon events due to the episode's non-canonicity.
• Wally's birthday is shown taking place on "Shut-In".
• In the "Phone Mo" story, Hop Pop is referenced on Earth with a plush that has his likeness. A similar case occurred in "Reunion" with a dead frog looking like him.
• Broadie's phone has a charm that looks like Toadie, his amphibian inspiration.

Continuity

• Polly mentions "A Night at the Inn," "Children of the Spore" and Anne (from the series premiere "Anne or Beast?") as her scary stories.
• A rendition of the Amphibia Main Title Theme plays as Anna's ringtone.

Production notes

• The episode's production number indicates it was produced after "Night Drivers"/"Return to Wartwood", although it was aired before them. This makes it the first episode since "Dating Season"/"Anne Vs. Wild" where the airing number doesn't match with the production number, and is also the only special to do so.
  • Even before the episode aired, Matt Braly confirmed that the episode is non-canon. If the episode was canon though, he thinks that it would take place after the events of "Return to Wartwood".^[10]
  • Additionally, this episode is listed after "Night Drivers"/"Return to Wartwood" on Disney+.

Allusions

• YouTube - Anne's "Phone Mo" title has an ironic logo in the "O".
  • The app Anna uses to watch the video looks like YouTube.
  • She even comments "Wow, not a single dislike or negative comment. Weird..."
  • The like and dislike buttons are hearts (one whole and the other broken).
  • Anne pressing the dislike button over and over wouldn't be possible; this is probably a bug in the app, like the real app itself.
• TY Babies - Anna's flamingo and Gila monster plush look like TY Beanie Baby toys by the looks of the heart-shaped tagon their left leg and tail called "WHY?" on the tag.
• Kim Possible - Anna states the iconic quote of the titular character "What's the sitch?" after Twig calls her the second time. Kim's middle name incidentally is Anne.
• The Ring - The Screen Fiend emerging from the phone references Samara emerging from the television of the 2002 film.
• Gremlins - The Screen Fiend's spawn hatching from the boba pods might be a reference to the Gremlins hatching from the cocoon.
• Something Wicked This Way Comes - Mr. Littlepot's appearance is strikingly reminiscent of Mr. Dark, the main antagonist of the 1983 Disney film adaptation of Ray Bradbury's horror novel of the same name.
• Death (personification) - Mr. Littlepot's role is much like the image used to personify the concept of death, often referred to as the Grim Reaper. At one point, Hop Pop even calls him "Frog Reaper".
• "Shortenin' Bread" - The song that the old lady is heard singing "Mama's little tadpole loves shortbread, shortbread..." is based on the traditional blackface minstrel song, sometimes called "Mammy's Little Baby".
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - The Seamstress sewing frog skin might be a reference to the film's antagonist, Leatherface.
• The Wolf Man - Polly's transformation into a werewolf towards the end of the special is based on the classic horror film.
  • SCP-001 (When day break creepypasta) - Polly transforming after looking at the moon is what people say happened to some in the creepypasta story "S.C.P. 001- When day breaks".

References