The Croaking

The Croaking
Season 3, Episode 4

Airdate	November 7th 2014
Writter	Kevin Burke & Chris "Doc" Wyatt
Director	Michael Chang
Prev. and Next
Prev. Buried Secrets	Next In Dreams

The Croaking is the fourth episode of Season 3 and the 56th episode overall. It aired November 7th 2014.

"Boom goes the Dynamite."

Official Description[]

After getting in trouble for messing up the house while having fun, an upset Mikey flees and befriends a mutant frog in the woods, only to learn the frog's family have nefarious plans.

Plot Synopsis[]

Michelangelo is in the O'Neil farm house living room, watching an episode of Crognard the Barbarian with Ice Cream Kitty. However, in his guileless attempts to imitate some 'barbarian moves', Mikey ends up making a mess of the whole room. The rest of the gang show up, and are annoyed by the fact that, yet again, Mikey has made a mess of things while trying to have fun.

Apparently the rest of the turtles, Casey, and April are heading out for a while, and Raph instruct Mikey to have his mess cleaned up by the time they come back. As they head out, Raph refers to Mikey as a big screw-up. However, what the others, except for April, fail to realize is that this had a very negative impact on the young turtle. Fed up with his brothers' treatment towards him and being underappreciated, Mikey packs up a few of his belongings and runs away right after reassuring Ice Cream Kitty of his safety and that April would take care of her.

Out in the woods, Mikey starts to grumble, fueled by the lack of appreciation he gets and yearns to be among friends that can relate to him. Suddenly, he gets ambushed by a sizable mutant frog! The young turtle begins to fend off the attacks of his opponent, but the frog doesn't stop attacking until he is eventually knocked to the ground. After a quick introduction, including a display of one another's ninja-esque skills, Mikey and the frog quickly grow fond of each other.

As the two give little descriptions of themselves, Mikey wildly exaggerates about his usefulness in his former team, even going as far as to say that he was their leader, and also the best in tact 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 with him back to his home, which Mikey happily agrees to.

Back at the farmhouse, almost everyone was complaining about how Mikey skipped out on cleaning up his mess, except for April, who calls them out by saying that they never appreciate him, especially Raphael, who tries to argue against that statement but couldn't. Right then, Donatello brings his laptop into the room and shows the others a report about some local campsites being ravaged by creatures that, according to witnesses, look like lizard creatures with two legs. Sharing a mutual confidence that it is Mikey, the three turtles, Casey, and April decide to go investigate.

Meanwhile, Mikey and Napoleon reach the tree where the latter's home is situated on a platform way up high. Upon entering a makeshift elevator bounded by tree branches, Napoleon explains to Mikey that his team members begged him to be their leader, but Napoleon refused, not wanting to have such responsibility. Mikey lies that his team members always make fun of him for being leader, to which Napoleon can empathize. Then, the 'elevator' reaches the top of the tree and Mikey and Napoleon are greeted by a panoply of frogs which are Napoleon's team members. Napoleon's presence is immediately disapproved, and Mikey tells them that they shouldn't act so unwelcoming to the guy that they begged to be their leader. However, one of the frogs (Genghis) reveals that Napoleon nearly destroyed their sacred tree and that they'd do anything but make him their leader. As one of the frogs contemplates whether or not Mikey should be trusted, Attila (the leader of the frog clan) notices the pack that Mikey is carrying over his back and deduces that he has no home. Mikey tells him that he 'escaped' from a nearby residency (the O' Neil Farmhouse) where he and his brothers were staying with a couple of humans, even disclosing the whereabouts of the farmhouse. All of the frogs immediately react disgustedly, as they are enemies of humans. Mikey resumes talking and states that he can't go back, to which Attila agrees and, believing that Mikey is free from the humans' tyranny, tells him to live among them, mitigating the other frogs' skepticism. However, after Mikey and Napoleon leave, Attila deploys a squad of his frogs to 'rescue' the remaining Turtles from their apparent 'captors' (April and Casey), thinking that the two humans had kidnapped them and that Mikey alone had managed to escape!

The next day, Mikey and Napoleon engage in some mimicry of one another's abilities, such as hopping, Ninja flips, and catching flies. During the evening, April, the other turtles, and Casey return to the farmhouse from a tireless search for Mikey, only to find the farmhouse defaced, with the words 'Humans Beware' etched into the side of the house. Leo immediately wonders if Mikey could have been responsible for this, but Raph points out that Mikey would never do such a thing, even on his worst day. They also spot Amphibian footprints that continue for quite a distance. Before they can figure out what the footprints could mean, April senses an incoming attack and, sure enough, the Punk Frogs, lead by Genghis, jump down from some tree branches to "rescue" their mutant relatives. The frogs, turtles, and humans fight for a brief moment, but seeing that they're outnumbered, Leonardo orders a fallback to the farmhouse. Afterward, Genghis demands Casey and April to free Leo, Donnie, and Raph. Leo and Donnie explain that they were not kidnapped and are actually good friends of the humans. Genghis has a hard time believing this, but after the Turtles state that they're serious, he calls them Traitors and orders his frogs to attack. During the ensuing fight (taking place inside the farmhouse), the frogs manage to capture April and Casey with their tongues, and drag them off into the forest.

At the Frog's tree, Mikey is telling Napoleon about his team's battles (and victories) in New York, in addition to describing his brothers and saying that he is not the leader of his team, implying to Napoleon that he lied. However, Napoleon also confesses that he lied to Mikey about being the best in his group, though Mikey is forgiving. He then hears April's cries and runs back to the council platform just in time to find April and Casey being trapped and hung in cages bounded by tree branches. Mikey immediately demands their release, and the entire frog community is shocked when Mikey discloses that they're his friends. Attila the king of the frogs recalls the story that Mikey told them implying that the humans kidnapped him, but Mikey admits that he lied and exaggerated about that. Hearing this, the frogs imprison Mikey as well. Mikey demands Attila to give him an explanation as to why he dislikes humans. Attila explains that he was once a part of a peaceful family of frogs near a pond, but the humans encroached on their territory and bulldozed the land for coffee shops, malls, and gas stations. Fortunately, Rasputin The Mad Frog discovered the Mutagen Ooze after they were transformed by it (seen in the previous episode). Now, they plan on invading the humans' cities and making a revolution to stop their reign of terror once and for all!!

Unbeknownst to the Frogs, Leo, Raph, & Donnie are planning to stop the invasion and save Mikey, Casey, & April. However, a weak tree branch blows their cover, as Donnie accidentally breaks it and falls, landing in full view of the frogs. Once again, the turtles face the frogs in battle, but are fiercely outnumbered by their ranks. Napoleon attempts to rescue Mikey and the others, but Rasputin enters the scene to thwart his attempt. Napoleon defeats Rasputin with a single kick, and the frog is sent spiraling back into the hollow of the tree, accidentally knocking over a candle that starts to make the tree catch on fire. Napoleon frees Mikey who then saves Raph from Genghis before April notices fire. Napoleon warns the other frogs of the situation, as the tree comes down. All of the frogs, sans Attila, escape, but Casey knocks Attila into the tree's makeshift elevator. After Casey, April, and Attila have reached the forest floor, Attila expresses his surprise over humans saving him and April tells him that not all humans are evil and she'd like to think that on mutant frogs. The Frog King ponders on her words, before sadly paying attention to his burning home.

After the fire drowns out in the morning time, Attila gathers his frogs and explains that he might've misjudged some humans, as the turtles and humans smile at his change. He then has his frogs line up behind Napoleon that his kind heart is what makes him a great leader which is why he promotes him to General (much to Genghis' jealousy). Mikey then asks where they will go as Napoleon says that they will go to Louisiana to live with 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...

Debuts[]

Punk Frogs (mutated)
- Napoleon Bonafrog (mutated)
- Genghis Frog (mutated)
- Attila (mutated)
- Rasputin (mutated)
Speed Demon (pre mutated)

Transcript[]

The Croaking/Transcript

Quotes[]

"I'm a ninja, dawg!" - Michelangelo
"You mean frog". - Napoleon Bonafrog
"But what about your home? Where are you gonna live?" - Michelangelo
"Down south. We have, like, 20,000 cousins in Louisiana." - Napoleon Bonafrog
"Whoa what are you doing dude?"-Michelangelo
"Eh...hugging I think"-Raphael
"Its ...weird"-Michelangelo
"Yeah, lets never do that again"-Raphael
"I Love Pizza,Ice Cream,Kittens Made Of Ice Cream..." - Michelangelo

Production[]

Trivia[]

Napoleon Bonafrog is a reference to "Napoleon Dynamite" from the movie "Napoleon Dynamite".
- Napoleon wears Deb's fanny-pack from the movie.
- Soft music plays throughout the episode, which is most of the movie's soundtrack.
Attila the frog is a reference to the "Star Wars" character "Jabba the Hutt".
- Both Attila and Jabba both share an overweight look.
- Both are seen slurping through a curly straw from a clear glass sphere.
- Both sit on a throne and are leaders.
When Donnie was looking on his laptop about the campsites being trashed, the title of the article was "Invasion of the Punk Frogs" which was the original 1987 title for the episode.
- While Donnie was looking on the laptop about the Frogs, it shows a sketch of Michelangelo from the 2014 TMNT movie without his mask.