Froggy Fantasy (Fireman Sam)

"Froggy Fantasy"
Just when you thought Norman Price being used as a plot device couldn't get any worse...
Series: Fireman Sam Part of Season: 10 Episode Number: 19 Air Date: 31 May 2016 Writer: Simon Nicholson Previous episode: "Float Your Boat" Next episode: "Dashing Through The Snow"

"Froggy Fantasy" is the 19th episode of the tenth season of Fireman Sam.

Summary

Sam is supervising a forest fire drill. It's the beginning of summer, and the forest is dry. Bronwyn stages a synchronised swimming spectacular.

Why It's Not a Froggy Fantasy

1. Norman Price is at his absolute worst in this episode, as he is just as bad, if not, worse, than in "Spy Games". He complains throughout the entire episode about not being the star of the swimming show, which is very annoying and it also makes him look like a ungrateful brat who wants be the boss of everything.
2. To furthermore show how unlikable Norman is in the episode, he even goes as far as to literally glue the swimming pool changing room door shut, causing James to get stuck in there.
   • In fact, the best example of how most people would feel about this scene is best shown on the look on everyone's face when Norman confesses that he purposely glued the door shut.
3. The episode is also a massive torture episode for James as he has to suffer through Norman's complaints and also him getting stuck in the changing rooms due to Norman gluing the door shut.
4. Elvis Cridlington is also beyond idiotic here, even more than he usually is, as he keeps losing control when he sneezes, he nearly crashes one of the engines in the beginning, he drops his sprinkler when doing a test fire and he accidentally presses the button in Tom's helicopter that releases the water, all of this happened because he was sneezing. It treats it as if you have absolutely no control when sneezing which isn't true at all, as you can still get a little bit of control even if you are sneezing or about to sneeze.
5. As usual, the animation is jagged and lazy.
6. As usual, it fails to teach kids fire safety properly in the rescue scene; instead of doing what the first five seasons did with having the rescue scenes give clear instructions about what to do in these situations, here the rescue scene doesn't teach anything.
7. It makes no sense why Trevor use a barbeque so close to an umbrella that could easily catch on fire, especially since he had experience with being a firefighter in the first four seasons.
   1. Also, instead of locking James, why didn't Norman just tell him if he could learn to swim like a frog?
8. The episode is rather stereotypical, as it's just another "swimming pool day" episode that is extremely similar to a Peppa Pig episode, which makes the episode feel less like a Fireman Sam episode and more like a parody (either a bad fanfic or a generic episode from the Peppa Pig fanon wiki) of Peppa Pig more than anything along with it's mean spirited nature and James getting tortured by Norman. Heck replace the Fireman Sam characters with Peppa Pig characters, then you have a episode of Peppa Pig right there!
9. Plot Hole: Why didn't Norman get caught locking James in the changing room by the guests? He could have been caught red handed.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Norman at least feels remorseful for what he did after the fire happens and he does apologise in the end too.
   • In addition, he also gets his comeuppance in the end by getting kicked out of the Froggy Fantasy and being forced to do fire lessons with Penny, which is a rare example of Norman Price actually receiving a bit of punishment as opposed to being let off with a warning by the team like he usually does. That was a nice change of pace.
2. The United States dub is more tolerable to listen to.
3. It has some considerably funny moments. There was one scene where Elvis lets off a sneeze, Station Officer Steele becoming an unfortunate victim before yelling "Cridlington!" - sprayed by the fire hose that Elvis dropped, and then the water bucket from Tom's helicopter rained on him, and in the end, falls backwards into the pool with Sam making a suggestion that Bronwyn has found that Steele is the froggy replacement for Norman.
   • And the fact Norman shouted. "I will save the Froggy Fantasy" while standing is hillarous.

Reception

The episode was panned by fans and critics alike and is considered to be the worst episode of Fireman Sam thanks to Norman being even more unlikable than he usually is and the scene where he purposely glues James' swimming pool changing room door shut. It currently sits at a 3.6/10 rating on IMDb.

Trivia

• Just like "Norman's Halloween Heist", this episode was written by Simon Nicholson, who also wrote "Fearless Freddie".

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