Title: Adventure Time (Season 1 and Season 2)
Starring: Jeremy Shada, John DiMaggio, Tom Kenny, Hynden Walch, Olivia Olson
First Season: Running time: 286 Minutes (26 Episodes), Rated TVPG
First Season Special Features: Commentaries with Cast and Crew, Animatics, Featurettes, Music Video, Finnedmonium, The Wand (short)
Second Season: Running time: 286 Minutes (26 Episodes), Rated TVPG
Second Season Special Features: 26 commentaries, The Crew of Adventure Time Interviewed by creator Pendleton Ward.
A boy named Finn and his brother, a magical dog named Jake are adventurers who perform heroic deeds for the many inhabitants of the land of Ooo. Jake and Finn are often thwarted by the pseudo-evil Ice King and perform fruitless tasks as ordered by Princess Bubblegum.
After the first three episodes, I was almost certain the writers of this show wrote their scripts in Mad Libs format. The plot lines are so wonderfully random, but you will either love it or hate it…
Jake’s girlfriend is the Korean speaking Princess Rainicorn (a rainbow unicorn) that is fitted with a translator on “old man” setting. Her parents Bob & Ethel (Henry Rollins and Laura Silverman) think Jake is a Rainicorn and attempt to eat his “servant” Finn because humans are a delicacy. A sociopathic heart named Ricardio (voiced by George Takei) wants to cut out Princess Bubblegum’s heart with broken bottles so he can make out with it. Marceline the Vampire Queen plays bass made from a battle-axe and sucks the color red (not blood) out of random things much to the delight of her victims. The Ice King’s only joy in life is to kidnap princesses and imprison them against their will in order to break them so they’ll eventually agree to marry him; which is pretty sick, but his plans are constantly foiled by Finn and Jake.
The Season 1 DVD only has 4 commentaries which include a couple of my favorite episodes: “Ricardio the Heart Guy” with George Takei (and cast) and we finally get an explanation of where the idea of the stray tighty whities come from. The “Tree Trunks” episode features commentary from the utterly charming Polly Lou Livingston. The disc also includes a music video with live actors dressed as characters and cosplay clips.
The Season 2 DVD has commentaries on each of the 26 episodes and an interview by creator Pendleton Ward.
The vibrant colors and simplicity of the animation are eye catching and the characters are adorable. The jokes are mostly of the fart variety, but laughter is imminent, mostly because it’s nonsensical fun.
Reviewed by: JM Willis
Total Rating: A
