Why add all these new faces to a story that is essentially a portrait of companionship?īut the longer I watched, the more I wondered if the introduction of other creatures wasn’t an elegant way to acknowledge and explore Frog and Toad’s singular love for each other. At worst, it is antithetical to Lobel’s books. At best, I initially thought, this change distracts from our protagonists. There are many voices, many personas, even the odd song here and there. In comparison, the TV show feels, well, loud. Part of the beauty of Lobel’s original books is their intent, quiet focus on Frog and Toad as a duo. Snail is charmingly blasé about the incongruity of their slowness in contrast to their job delivering mail. Mink plays a banjo and sings about the ice-cream flavors he sells. In the new show, Mink, Mouse, Robin, and Snail are all characters with their own personalities. Lobel’s version has the odd bird or mouse that does little other than carry dialogue. But Frog recognizes him right away, crying, “Good heavens! … That thing is Toad!” After Toad washes up, the two return to the store for new cones: a happily ever after if ever there was one.Īpple TV+’s adaptation retains all of the vignette’s important elements, but it features the notable addition of a whole cast of woodland friends. The tension in the exceedingly short story is that Frog won’t recognize Toad, that he’ll run away in fear after all this trouble his friend has gone to. His new mask makes him look like a monster, causing other creatures to flee and warn Frog of the “thing with horns” (ice-cream cones). Toad volunteers to go get it, but as he walks back with two cones of chocolate ice cream, the heat causes them to melt onto his head, covering his face and attracting debris such as leaves and sticks. On a hot summer day, Frog and Toad sit by the pond and wish for ice cream. In Lobel’s original, the story is simple.

The second episode of Apple TV+’s new kids’ series Frog and Toad adapts a lovely vignette titled “Ice Cream” from Arnold Lobel’s book Frog and Toad All Year.

Frog and Toad All Year by Arnold Lobel