The Croaking

“The Croaking”
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012 TV series) episode
Title screen
Season Code:	304
Episode:	56
Guest stars	Jon Heder, Maurice LaMarche
Original airdate	November 7, 2014
Written by	Kevin Burke & Chris Wyatt
Producers:	Vladimir Radev
	Brandon Auman
Directed by	Michael Chang
Voice Direction	Andrea Romano
Supervising Director	Ciro Nieli
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "Buried Secrets" "In Dreams"

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Season 3 October 3, 2014 - September 27,2015 List of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episodes

Episodes: Within the Woods A Foot Too Big Buried Secrets The Croaking In Dreams Race with the Demon Eyes of the Chimera Vision Quest Return to New York Serpent Hunt The Pig and The Rhino Battle for New York, Part 1 Battle for New York, Part 2 Casey Jones VS. The Underworld The Noxious Avenger Clash of the Mutanimals Meet Mondo Gecko The Deadly Venom Turtles in Time Tale of the Yokai Attack of the Mega Shredder! The Creeping Doom The Fourfold Trap Dinosaur Seen in Sewers! Annihilation: Earth! Part 1 Annihilation: Earth! Part 2 Season 1 – Season 2 - Season 3 - Season 4 - Season 5

"The Croaking" is the fourth episode of the third season of the 2012 TV series, and the fifty-sixth episode overall in the series. It first aired on November 7th, 2014.

Synopsis

An upset Michelangelo runs away from home and befriends a mutant frog in the woods. When he learns its frog clan plans to attack the human world, he has to figure out a way to stop them.

Characters

Major Characters

• April O'Neil (Mae Whitman)
• Casey Jones (Josh Peck)
• Donatello (Rob Paulsen)
• Leonardo (Seth Green)
• Michelangelo (Greg Cipes)
• Punk Frogs (debut)
  • Attila the Frog (Maurice LaMarche) (debut)
  • Frog Soldiers (Rob Paulsen, Josh Peck, Kevin Michael Richardson) (debut)
  • Genghis Frog (Kevin Michael Richardson) (debut)
  • Napoleon Bonafrog (Jon Heder) (debut)
  • Rasputin the Mad Frog (Maurice LaMarche) (debut)
• Raphael (Sean Astin)

Minor Characters

• Crognard The Barbarian
  • Crognard (Brian Bloom)
  • Wizardess (Mae Whitman)
• Ice Cream Kitty (Kevin Eastman)
• Speed Demon (cameo) (mutates)

Plot

Michelangelo is in the O'Neil farm house living room, watching Crognard the Barbarian with Ice Cream Kitty. However, in his vain attempts to try out some 'barbarian moves', he ends up trashing up the place. The rest of the gang show up, and are annoyed by the fact that yet again, Mikey has made a mess of things when trying to have fun.

Apparently the rest of the turtles, Casey and April are going out for awhile, and Raph instructs Mikey to clean up his mess by the time they come back, while commenting him a screw up ninja. However, what the others don't realize is that this had a very negative effect on the little turtle. Mikey runs away, right after reassuring Ice Cream Kitty of his safety and that April would take care of her.

In the woods, Mikey starts grumbling about how he feels that he isn't appreciated enough. Suddenly he gets ambushed by a huge, mutant frog. The young ninja starts to fend off the attacks, but the frog doesn't give up until finally he is defeated. After a quick introduction, and showing off each others skills, the two of them quickly become friends.

During the little descriptions about themselves, Mikey wildly exaggerates about his usefulness in the team, talking about how he is the leader of the team, and also the best in brains and fighting. The frog, introducing himself as Napoleon Bonafrog, similarly explains to Mikey that he is the best in his group. After getting to know each other better, Napoleon decides to bring Mikey to his home, which Mikey happily agrees with.

Back at the farmhouse, almost everyone is complaining about how Mikey skipped out on cleaning his mess, except for April as she points out that the others never seem to appreciate him, especially Raphael. That's when Donatello shows the group about a report from a local campsite about two-legged green creatures trashing the place and decide to go look for Mikey, believing it to be him.

Back at the council, Mikey meets the frog council, who distrusts him at first, and tells them that he 'escaped' from a human residency (the O' Neil Farmhouse) where he and his brothers were staying with a couple of humans. The reaction is immediate as all of the frog council members agree to let Mikey stay in their home, as they are also enemies with humans. What Mikey didn't know was that as soon as he and Napoleon left, the council decided to 'rescue' the remaining Turtles from Casey and April, thinking that the two humans had captured them and that Mikey alone had managed to escape.

Later, Mikey and Napoleon decide to exchange their skills such as hopping, Ninja flips, and eating flies. At night the guys still can't find Mikey but that doesn't matter when they graffiti on the house saying "Humans Beware". At first, they believe Mikey did this but Raph points out otherwise. They find Amphibian footprints that hops down to where Leonardo is. April senses danger, and soon enough the Punk Frogs lead by Genghis come to "rescue" their mutant relatives. They fight briefly but are outnumbered. Genghis tells Casey and April to free Leo, Donnie, and Raph. Leo and Donnie explain that they are not kidnapped and are friends with them. Genghis doesn't believe them but after they say they are serious. He calls them "traitors" and attacks the Turtles. They capture April and Casey.

At the Frog's tree Napoleon and Mikey are explaining the battles they had. Mikey hears April's cries and explains that they're his friends but Attila the king of the frogs recalls Mikey saying they kidnapped him, but Mikey says he lied and exaggerated. Hearing this the frogs imprison Mikey as well. Mikey pleads on that why is he doing this, Attila explains that he was once a squad of frogs at the pond but the humans bulldozed his home for malls, coffeeshops and gas stations. Fortunately Rasputin The Mad Frog discovered the Mutagen that transformed them. They plan on making a revolution to mutate the humans into frogs also

Unbeknownst to the Frogs, Leo, Raph & Donnie are planning to stop the invasion and save Mikey, Casey & April, but they blow their cover and are spotted and the two mutant clans attack. Napoleon tries rescue Mikey, April and Casey, but Rasputin prevents him from doing so. Napoleon defeats him with a single kick, but he accidentally knocks the candle down making the tree catch on fire. Napoleon frees and warns the others, in which everyone but Attila escapes. Casey knocks Attila to the elevator. Attila is surprised that humans saved him, as April tells him not all humans are evil and she liked to believe not all mutant frogs are evil. Her words causes him to reflect on his views before he pays attention to his burning home.

After the fire drowns out in the morning, Attila gathers his followers and explains that he has never been wrong but admits he might've misjudged some humans, which causes the Turtles and their human allies to smile. He later tells Napoleon that his kind heart is what makes him a great leader which is why he dubs him General (much to Genghis' jealousy). Mikey asks about his whereabouts but Napoleon says that they will go to Louisiana because of their relatives. They share a snack and depart. The Turtles return to their damaged home, unbeknownst to them the Mutagen that was spilled earlier is at the street and a car runs over it with disaster to come.

Trivia

• Both after trashing the living room, Mikey poses as Conan the Barbarian with Ice Cream Kitty hugging his leg.
• The article about the Punk Frogs says "Invasion of the Punk Frogs" as an homage to their first appearance in the 1987 TV series.

  • 

    Between the police sketches of the Punk Frogs there's a drawing of the 1987 TV series' Napoleon next to the new 3D series' Napoleon and a sketch of the Michelangelo from the 2014 film.
  • On the right side of the article there's an image of Carlos Chiang O'Brien Gambe being mistaken for a police sketch, which has happened in real life with an anchor from ABC.
• Attila The Frog is similar to Jabba the Hutt and Rugor Nass, the gungan's leader, from Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace respectively
  • Attila smokes a hookah just like Jabba the Hutt.
  • Napoleon being an outcast, his tendency to mess up and his clan disliking him makes him similar to Jar Jar Binks and how the gungan' clan viewed him. Both became high-ranking generals when they proved themselves to both their respective clans.
• Attila's character is based off of the famed actor Marlon Brando.
  • He speaks in a similar manner that Vito Corleone does in The Godfather while he also has a similar personality and a love for the family.
  • When the tree was burning down, he quotes Brando as Walter Kurtz in Apocalypse Now when he says "The horror... The horror."
• Napoleon is voiced by Jon Heder, better known for his iconic character Napoleon Dynamite.
  • Bonafrog's personality and mannerisms was inspired by Dynamite's.
  • In the sequence where he appears training with Michelangelo the music playing is calm and simple, resembling most of the soundtrack for the film Napoleon Dynamite.
  • The pink fanny pack he wears is a nod to Deb Bradshaw, who wore one in Napoleon Dynamite.
  • Some of Bonafrog's lines are similar to Dynamite's, for example, "Like Nunchuck skills or Bō Staff skills…" ("You know, like nunchaku skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills..."), also the frequent use of "Gosh!" and "Idiot" in his sentences is reminiscent from Dynamite.
• The four main Punk Frogs are parallels of the Turtles:
  • Attila being the leader (Leonardo)
  • Rasputin being the smart one (Donatello)
  • Genghis being the aggressive one (Raphael)
  • And Napoleon being the screw up that no one takes seriously (Michelangelo)
• Similarly, like the Turtles are all named for artists from the Italian Renaissance, the main Punk Frogs all share their name with historical tyrants:
  • Attila shares a name with Attila the Hun the leader of the Huns.
  • Genghis shares a name with the Mongolian warlord Genghis Khan.
  • Napoleon shares a name with the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.
  • Rasputin shares a name with Grigori Rasputin healer and advisor of the last Russian tsar, Nicolas II.
• According to the Channel 6 News' article, the Punk Frogs were first seen in July.
  • This is interesting, considering the previous episode closed with normal frogs exposed to Mutagen; if those same frogs in the final frame are intended to be the ones that mutate into Attila and his group, it implies some considerable time has passed between "Buried Secrets" and this episode; long enough for the Frogs to develop their own culture, learn English, pick up various aspects of different societies, etc.
  • While presumably still a frog, Rasputin found a canister of Mutagen at the base of the tree the Frogs call home. It's not made clear how long ago that was or how long the canister had been there before being discovered.

Quotes

Michelangelo: I'm a ninja, dog! Napoleon Bonafrog: You mean "frog."

Rasputin the Mad Frog: That turtle is a traitor! Napoleon Bonafrog: Your mom is a traitor!

Gallery

The Croaking/Gallery

Transcript

The Croaking/Transcript