Development On February 23, 2018,
Amphibia was greenlit by Disney Channel alongside
The Owl House with an order of 20 episodes. The series was created and executive-produced by
Matt Braly, previously a storyboard artist on
Gravity Falls and later a director on both
Gravity Falls and
Big City Greens. According to his Twitter account, he had been working on the series for almost two years before being greenlit, though he began to conceive the project while work on
Gravity Falls began to conclude. At the time, it was to be called
Amphibiland, and was initially planned to take place in the middle of the forest rather than in a town. Also, the character Sprig was planned to be different, namely being anxious, and later mischievous. On May 15, 2019, Disney Channel renewed
Amphibia for a second season of 20 episodes ahead of its premiere. On June 23, 2020, the show was renewed for a third season of 18 episodes ahead of its second-season premiere. He further clarified in the AMA that he had "structured the story for 3 [seasons] currently", implying that the third season would serve as the final season of the show. Later on March 16, 2022, storyboard artist Alex Swanson confirmed on
Twitter that season 3 was set to be the show's last.
Writing The show was based on Braly's childhood trips to
Bangkok,
Thailand. The series' tone was inspired by films by
Aardman Animations and
Studio Ghibli, Braly was also inspired by video games such as
The Legend of Zelda and
Chrono Trigger when creating the series. On Twitter, Braly wrote that the show was also inspired by him watching an episode of
Pepper Ann followed by an episode of
Dragon Ball Z during his childhood.
Pepper Ann's themes and character designs also inspired the show. According to Braly, one of the reasons he created the series was because he wanted a show whose lead character had a similar arc to
Gravity Falls character Pacifica Northwest, as he felt that "to have this character change so drastically was so rewarding, and that's why [he] knew [he] wanted [his] own show to have some of that element as well". Similarly, Anne, Sasha, and Marcy were originally fifteen years old because they wanted the series to have a high school-like feel, but were aged down in order to appeal to the series' target demographic; due to this, the trio often realizes actions more akin to high school students, such as driving and having part-time jobs. The series marks the first animated show to have a
Thai-American lead. According to Braly, Anne was loosely inspired by his grandmother. Braly also implemented themes involving social classes and environmental awareness into the series, with Anne interacting with frogs of several different social backgrounds and learning to "appreciate the natural world around her". Three of the series' four writers are women, which Braly felt was necessary due to the show centering on a teenage girl. In April 2019, it was reported that Justin Felbinger would voice Sprig Plantar in the series. However, Kermit himself (whom Vogel performed since 2017) was credited for the role in promotional material; Kermit previously appeared in two promotional web videos for the series, as well as in a
D23 Expo panel promoting both the series and
Big City Greens. Voice actress
Anika Noni Rose, best known for starring as
Tiana in
The Princess and the Frog, was cast in the recurring guest role of Dr. Jan, a museum curator and conspiracy theorist. According to Braly, Song ad-libbed several jokes during the recording. During the
COVID-19 pandemic, cast members had to remotely record their lines from their homes, after which they sent their lines to the series' editors.
Animation Rough Draft Korea,
Sunmin Image Pictures, and
Saerom each provide animation. Braly chose those animation studios due to them still working with
hand-drawn animation, a style Braly favored for the series. The animators spend three to four months working on pre-production, with an episode taking about nine months to complete. The series' visuals were inspired by
Jim Henson's 1982 film
The Dark Crystal and the
1977 animated adaptation of
The Hobbit. According to Braly, storyboarding for an episode begins after its script is finished. By that point, the producers had started storyboarding the season 2 finale, while other episodes were only partially completed.
Music T. J. Hill composed the score for the series. During production on the series, Leslie Wolfhard, wife of storyboard artist Steve Wolfhard, pitched to the producers a song, which they ended up using in the season 1 episode "Taking Charge". On July 23, 2020, Hill created a
SoundCloud playlist featuring 10 tracks from the first season's score. A song titled "Welcome to Amphibia", performed by Celica Gray Westbook, was originally intended to serve as the series' theme song. According to Braly, "Welcome to Amphibia" was written due to orders from Disney, but he eventually convinced the studio to use an instrumental theme instead, as he felt it didn't fit with the show or its main character. A third version of the opening, with lyrics by writer Dan Siegel, was written for the second "Theme Song Takeover" video. On April 23, 2021, an
extended play album, titled
Amphibia: Battle of the Bands, was released. The album features the songs "Heartstomper", written by T.J. Hill and performed by Akana, and "No Big Deal", written by Adam Gubman and performed by Song, Akana, and Tju, as well as instrumental covers of both songs by Hill, Todd McClintock and Adam Gubman, respectively. Season three featured a Christmas special with a song titled "Our Special Time of Year", which was written by
Rebecca Sugar of
Steven Universe fame; Braly previously served as a writer and storyboard artist in the
Steven Universe episode "Lars and the Cool Kids". The third-season episode, "
All In", features the song "
As If It's Your Last" by South Korean girl group,
Blackpink.
Marketing On July 19, 2018, during the
Star vs. the Forces of Evil and
Big City Greens panel at
San Diego Comic-Con, Disney released an early version of the intro for the series. They also gave away a limited-edition plush toy of Sprig Plantar. On April 26, 2019, Disney FanFest released a music video for a vocal version of the opening theme titled ″Welcome to Amphibia″ performed by Celica Gray Westbrook and a two-minute clip during a livestream. It was originally planned to be used as the show's theme song. On May 14, 2019, Disney Channel released the trailer, with Disney Channel releasing the final version of the intro 3 days later.
Amphibia also included shorts and a point and click game named
Amphibia: Locust Pocus. The shorts began with
Teen Girl in a Frog World and premiered on September 3, 2019. ==Reception==