Hop Pop Plantar

“
Ever since then, I swore I'd never let my family down again. That I'd do anything to protect them.
”Hopediah "Hop Pop" Plantar is a major character of Amphibia. He is the traditional and over-protective grandfather of Sprig and Polly, and the guardian and adopted grandfather of Anne Boonchuy, until she finally returned back to her home.
== Appearance ==
=== Body ===
Hop Pop is an elderly anthropomorphic frog of small stature. He has mostly reddish-orange skin with a light underbelly.
His casual frog-like body structure consists of slightly reddish-orange eyes with black pupils, a dark green tongue, four short limbs with four-fingered hands, and two-toed feet and white tufts of hair on the sides of his head.
=== Clothing ===
As his everyday clothing, he wears a grayish-green waistcoat with a buttoned yellow shirt and light blue ascot, grayish-brown trousers, and light brown socks resembling spats that slightly cover his feet.
On Earth when in disguise, Hop Pop wears a trench coat, a fedora, red glasses, a fake nose and a pair of slip on shoes.
During the episode "Froggy Little Christmas", Hop Pop wears antlers, a Santa outfit, Santa boots and a beard.
== Personality ==
Hop Pop is described as a traditional frog and over-protective of his grandchildren. He also tends to have a high sense of paranoia whenever he feels something is bound to go chaotically wrong. As seen in cases such as "Best Fronds", when he woke up from his nap in his study, he feared that Anne might've eaten Sprig, Polly, and practically the entire town, although he does care about his grandchildren and support them.
He also seems to mistrust the other Amphibians, saying that they are small-minded and paranoid, an ironic statement since he seems to be like that as well. He is also shown to be very dishonest.
== Background ==
=== Early life ===
Hopediah Plantar was born sometime in 1961 to Hop Poppity Pop Plantar and an unknown woman, as part of the Plantar family. Growing up, Hop Pop began to have many adventures outside of his native Wartwood Swamp, traveling to many places in Amphibia. On one of his trips, Hop Pop attended an auction where a snail named Bessie was being auctioned off, and won. He then took Bessie with him and saved her from the nefarious Jim Snapes. On another of his trips, both he and Bessie became trapped in the wild snow, and Hop Pop was about to succumb, until he suddenly heard Bessie singing, which gave him the strength to carry on. Hop Pop's longtime dream was always of becoming an actor, pursuing the same dream for the next years and never got a part.
=== Adulthood ===
At some point, Hop Pop became a farmer like most members of his family, and inherited the Plantar stand from his father Hop Poppity. Hop Pop also started a family, having a son, and later, two grandchildren, Sprig and Polly Plantar. While on one of his trips, two herons attacked Wartwood, killing his son and daughter-in-law, while Sprig and Polly survived by hiding. Hop Pop was left in charge of both of them, being overprotective of them. It is unknown what happened to his wife, but since she is never mentioned in the series, she's most likely deceased.
=== Meeting Anne Boonchuy ===
One day, while shopping, Hop Pop leaves Polly in charge of the cart, given Sprig's irresponsibility, but shortly after Hop Pop leaves them alone, they overhear Wally talking to a crowd about a "beast" he saw in the woods, and Sprig decides to sneak into the woods to hunt the beast, bribing Polly with candy to let him go. When Hop Pop returns from his shopping and doesn't see Sprig anywhere, Polly tells him that he went to hunt the beast, so Hop Pop runs off to find him. When he and the crowd of citizens find Sprig with the "beast", who is a human girl named Anne Boonchuy, the crowd manages to capture her and Hop Pop congratulates Sprig for getting her, not knowing that Sprig and Anne had actually become friends. Suddenly, a Green mantis appears to attack everyone, but it apparently escapes when it sees a formation made by the citizens, but soon a big Red mantis appears, being the real reason for the escape of the green mantis. Sprig and Anne manage to defeat the red mantis, but the crowd still wants to run Anne out of town, however, Sprig intercedes and says that Anne is not a monster but someone who needs help, and to the dismay of the whole town, Hop Pop decides to take care of Anne.
When Sprig feels guilty for seemingly bringing trouble back to the family, Hop Pop tells him that standing up to the angry mob to defend Anne was the bravest and most responsible thing he has ever done. Anne asks for a map to get out of Wartwood, but Hop Pop tells her that it won't be possible because the valley is surrounded by impenetrable mountains at that time of year so she must wait a few months, and since she has nowhere else to go, Hop Pop agrees to let her stay with them in the basement of the farm.
=== Living with the human ===
During the first few days living with Anne, Hop Pop is very suspicious about her, mainly because of his lack of knowledge about Anne's species, fearing that she might wreak havoc in Wartwood Swamp, and fearing what the people of Wartwood might do to Anne. For these reasons, Hop Pop forbids Anne and Sprig to go swimming in the lake when they plan to do it, but Anne and Sprig end up sneaking out of Hop Pop anyway.
Hop Pop and Anne's relationship during the first few days is not the best, given their different habits, and after an argument between the two, Hop Pop threatens to throw Anne out of the farm if she does not improve her relationship with him. After this, Anne mockingly plays Hop Pop, but in doing so, she ends up breaking his old familiar cane, so together with Sprig and Polly they try to replace the broken cane with a new one to prevent Hop Pop from kicking Anne off the farm, but after going to Leopold Loggle, they discover that the cane is made of a rare and dangerous wood from the Doom Tree, so they search for it; When they find it, they discover that the tree is actually a walking stick insect, which chases them to Loggles, where the tree is defeated thanks to some termites and they end up getting the wood, but due to the damage, Loggle keeps the wood to compensate for the damage. The boys tell the truth to Hop Pop, who although angry about the broken staff, tells him that he never planned to send her away, and only spoke to her that way to show her more respect, admitting that he was also hard on her, since she reminded him of when he was younger.
== Relationships ==
=== Sprig Plantar ===
Hop Pop is overprotective of his grandson and considers him to not be responsible enough, an opinion that drives Sprig to prove him wrong. He and Sprig go fishing every year as shown in the episode "Family Fishing Trip".
=== Polly Plantar ===
Hop Pop is overprotective of his granddaughter, though he still thinks she's much more responsible than Sprig. He does, however, prevent her from going out on her own because she's not old enough yet while letting Sprig and Anne do dangerous things there.
=== Anne Boonchuy ===
Hop Pop initially saw Anne as more of a thing rather than a person upon first meeting. As a matter of fact, Hop Pop borderline disliked her due to her reckless nature, but as time went on however, he began to appreciate her presence and admitted to her that she reminded him of a younger version of himself. The two truly started to bond during the events in "Stakeout". Since then, Hop Pop has accepted her as a surrogate granddaughter of sorts; opting to give her advice whenever she needs it or, more precisely, when it suits her. He in turn has grown to listen to her in return such as when he needed advice on dancing in "Hop Pop and Lock". Much like his own grandchildren, he is unsure of what to do with himself once Anne leaves Amphibia. In "After the Rain", Hop Pop feels really guilty about lying to Anne about hiding the music box, which got worse when she found out and ran away. Through Sprig and Polly's encouragement, Hop Pop went looking for Anne in order to explain and apologize to her. After finding her, Hop Pop attempts to explain to Anne his reasons for lying to her, but got interrupted when they hear Sprig and Polly in trouble. Hop Pop convinced Anne to work together with him in order to save Sprig and Polly, which she agreed. Once Sprig and Polly are safe, Hop Pop explained to Anne, who decided to leave his family for good, his reasons for hiding the box was because of what happened to Sprig and Polly’s parents. Hop Pop tells Anne that he vowed to not let his family down again, even hiding the box and lying to her about it.
However, Hop Pop realized that he was wrong as he tells Anne that she's his family too, then breaks down. Hop Pop apologized to Anne, who changed her mind about leaving and understands his intentions, for lying to her as she not only comforts him, but also forgives him. However, Hop Pop still feels that he has to make things right with Anne because he realized that his actions really caused a strain in their relationship. Hop Pop is trying to make it up to Anne and even asked what he had to do in order to make that happen. However, hearing that Anne doesn't know and needs time, Hop Pop not only understands her confusion but also tells her to take all the time she needs, which she appreciates. Also, Hop Pop apologizes to Anne for putting a lot pressure on her as she accepts his apology and they both admit that there still some issue that need fixing before they can fully put what happen between behind them.
Afterwards, both are shown to have gotten over the Calamity Box conflict with Anne helping him adjust to Earth in Season 3.
In "The Hardest Thing", when hearing that the girls can't return to Amphibia after using what power remains of the stones in the Calamity Box to get back home, Hop Pop is the first one to realize that this means that this is the last time he'll see Anne. He shares a sweet goodbye with Anne, telling her that he was happy to have a granddaughter like her and offers her a home cooked meal and her old room back in case she ever does return. When the statue of Anne is unveiled nine months later, Hop Pop can be seen looking at the statue sadly, showing that he still misses her and when Sprig and Ivy run off to a new adventure, he looks at the statue again with a smile and pride in his eyes for his adoptive granddaughter.
=== Sasha Waybright ===
Hop Pop generally seems to have a negative relationship with Sasha mutually due to her aiding Grime in trying to kill him in "Reunion". He appears somewhat scared of her to the point of trying to forget about her in "Marcy at the Gates". Even when Sasha claimed to have reformed, he still didn't trust her or hold a very high opinion of her during episodes like "The Third Temple" and "The Dinner" to the point where he continues to taunt her over her actions in the latter (much to her anger). However, they put their differences aside in "True Colors" after realizing King Andrias is the bigger threat and work together to defeat him. When seeing Sasha leading the underground resistance in Wartwood, he doesn't appear to hold a grudge against her anymore and is respectful of her as a leader.
=== Marcy Wu ===
Hop Pop instantly got along well with Marcy when they met due to her interest and praise about farm culture. The two generally are shown to share a positive relationship with Marcy being the most interested among the kids in farming and even nerd out about seeds together in "Friend or Frobo?" and Hop Pop even sometimes considering Marcy an honorary granddaughter much like Anne though he does get annoyed by her mistaking him for a corpse in "Maddie & Marcy". However, their relationship is strained a bit in "True Colors" when it is revealed she intentionally planned on getting herself, Anne, and Sasha trapped in Amphibia, but she does try to make it up by aiding him and the rest of the group in fighting off Andrias' forces and helps him, Anne, Sprig, and Polly escape. He is shown to be horrified and saddened at Marcy's possible death when she is stabbed by King Andrias' sword.
=== Captain Grime ===
The two share a hostile relationship toward one another due to Grime attempting to kill him in "Reunion" for the frog uprisings he inspired. This continues even when Grime claims to have reformed (only a manipulation tactic to get to Newtopia) where Hop Pop tells an insensitive joke about toads in "The Dinner" (though Grime claims to find the joke funny presumably to maintain his cover) and proceeding to insensitively bring up the destruction of Toad Tower when trying to guess what Sasha's drawing is. The two do put aside their differences in "True Colors" when they find out Andrias' true nature and fight off his robots together.
=== Sylvia Sundew ===
Hop Pop has had a history with Sylvia Sundew. Supposedly, the two of them were very close. While their initial separation is not explored, the fact that the two of them, now single, still love one another shows that their bond has been unbreakable. As seen in "Hop Pop and Lock", Hop Pop was concerned that she would turn him down due to his eccentric tastes and habits, but fortunately, she loves him for being a "weird one" as he danced with her. By "Family Fishing Trip", the two of them have officially become a couple.
=== Sadie Croaker ===
Hop Pop has a great deal of respect for Sadie Croaker, due to her being around longer. Out of all the people of Wartwood, Hop Pop tries to please her the most as she knew his family and believes that he retains the same moral code that his father and grandfather held. This is tested in "Plantar's Last Stand" where Hop Pop tried to lie his way through selling phony drinks. He ultimately realized that he could not betray Sadie's trust and admitted that he was lying, which Sadie appreciated.
=== Leopold Loggle ===
Hop Pop is shown to share a stable friendship with Loggle and is shown to value his opinions on the best kind of glue in "Family Shrub" though he accidentally gets Loggle glued to his back and drags him into the hidden rooms in the house against his will. He and Loggle team up with Sprig and Wally to form a jug band in "Battle of the Bands".
=== Mayor Toadstool ===
Initially, Hop Pop seemed to have a low opinion of the mayor due to his being responsible for raising the rent on the stand (causing him to go out of business initially) and later on embezzling the town's paid taxes in "Toad Tax". He would even prove to be his biggest opponent and run against him for mayor in "Hop-Popular" even when Toadstool tried to bribe him into losing the wrestling match. Hop Pop seems to have put his grudge with the mayor aside by the time of "Toad to Redemption" and helps him look bad in front of Jacinda at his request.
=== King Andrias ===
Hop Pop started off thinking highly of the king, even feeling nervous about looking good in front of him when preparing to meet him. However, this all changed when he found out Andrias' true nature and has seen him as an enemy since then especially after he nearly killed his grandchildren.
=== Mr. Boonchuy ===
After his grandchildren and him failed to help out the Boonchuys in bringing their family cat to the vet, he apologized to Mr. Boonchuy but the latter told him that there's no need to afterall he and his family took good care of his daughter when she was stuck in Amphibia.
== Powers and abilities ==
* Agriculture: Hop Pop is a professional farmer with ample experience from running the farm around his house and also selling the produce at the town market.
* Zoology: Hop Pop is an expert in the indigenous fauna of Amphibia as he knows the behavior and physiology of every species he so far encountered.
* Sound Mimicry: As shown in "Adventures in Catsitting", Hop Pop is skilled at mimicking the sound of a fire alarm that's very convincing to humans. His grandchildren also share this ability.
* Great Stamina: As shown in "Fight at the Museum", Hop Pop is able to outrun the two security guards at the museum, even though he is 68 years old.
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== Behind the Scenes ==
=== Early Development ===
In "Amphibiland", Hop Pop was originally going to sport much different clothing, a rounder head, and smaller eyes than his final design.
=== Name and Basis ===
Hop Pop’s name references the fact that he’s the "poppa" of Sprig and Polly and the fact that frogs are known for hopping. His appearance also suggests that. His full name is Hopediah Plantar and Hop Pop is his nickname. The name Hopediah is a portmanteau of the verb "to hop" and the suffix "iah", which translated from Hebrew would be a diminutive of the name of the Abrahamic religions's God. Several other names, such as Obadiah, Jeremiah, Jedediah, Melchiah are formed from this suffix and are very popular among traditionalist farming communities in the United States. As such, Hop Pop's full name matches his farming background quite well. His last name, "Plantar" is the Latin term for the sole of the foot.
=== Voice ===
Hop Pop is voiced by Bill Farmer, known best for the voice of Goofy. His voice is high-pitched with a slight southern accent, a common stereotype for farm characters.
=== Debut ===
Hop Pop made his debut in the series premiere, "Anne or Beast?".
Category:Frogs