…make us adults insanely jealous and pining for the days of old (the 80s)!
The first season of Adventure Time has reached an HD platform for the first time, and it couldn’t be better. No. Seriously. It literally couldn’t be better (no 4k arguments please). Before we get into the wonders that is the Blu-ray upgrade for the show, let’s talk about the show.
If you’re not familiar with the premise of Adventure Time, it’s pretty simple. Finn (human) and Jake (magical dog) go on random adventures to find glory and awesomeness. Yes, ‘awesomeness’. Each adventure takes the pair into a different, more dangerous quest than the last. From vampire princesses, ice kings, pie making tiny elephants, the adventures are never boring. The first season of the show really goes full force with introducing the oddball characters to the world, as well as the world itself, and does a great job establishing their personas. Each episode is very different than the next and the sky seems to be the limit with where the creators can go. Here are a few of my favorite episodes with explanations:
Trouble in Lumpy Space — One of my personal favorite characters is the Lumpy Space Princess. She’s a mix of a valley girl and every mean girl you would know from school. When Jake gets bit by said princess by accident, he begins to turn into a lumpy being. Finn has to find a solution and quick, if he doesn’t then he’ll lose Jake forever. The dialogue in this episode is absolute gold. Obnoxious, funny and everything that you would expect from the Lumpy Space Princess. It’s a bit disturbing as well.
Tree Trunks — If there is any character that I’m slightly (very) creeped out about in Adventure Time, it would have to be the pie making elephant, Tree Trunks. She is a mix of a sweet grandmother with a large case of depression (every grandmother?) and a sex-crazed lunatic. Oh, and she makes good apple pies according to Finn and Jake. When she goes on an adventure with Jake and Finn in search of a crystal apple, she finds herself in some trouble (no spoiler). The most disturbing part of the episode? When everyone dons make-up. Enjoy this one.
Business Time — While Finn and Jake are building their ultimate dock challenge, they happen upon some frozen business men that have washed up on the shore. Once unthawed, they hire the business men to improve their adventures, but soon find themselves on the other end of the budget sheet. This was my first Adventure Time episode when the show aired a couple of years ago. It’s hilarious, kind of disturbing and a perfect intro to the show.
Ricardio the Heart Guy — I can’t even begin to explain how nightmarish and beautiful this episode is, so you’ll just have to trust me and watch it. George Takei is the main character in this one, and plenty of gifs have been made from this episode. Again, disturbing, but entertaining.
Gut Grinder — It starts slow, but it really picks up. Jake and Finn run into several towns where the town folks think Jake is the ‘gut grinder’, a beast that steals and eats gold. Jake starts doubting himself, so Finn helps him by tracking down the gut grinder. Much like most of the episodes, very disturbing, but adventurous and entertaining.
Anyway, there are 26 episodes in total and every one of them has something to offer. The above are just some of my favorites from season one.
What I find particularly fascinating about this show is how it pushes the limits of cartoons. The creators really do a great job with bringing one of the most imaginative worlds to Cartoon Network. You literally never know what you’re going to get from episode to episode, which is great. Now, having said this, I really appreciate the fact that I can watch this show and be just as entertained as my kids. It’s a show that doesn’t push the limits so much that your kids shouldn’t watch it, but pushes them enough where they can include some adult themes in them (nothing bad, just a little older humor to enjoy).
Overall, the first season is a great introduction to the series. The show has a limitless amount of possibilities when it comes to content, mainly because the storytelling structure is so flexible. This reminds me of a lot of cartoons from the 80s, which is what kids are sorely missing these days. Anyway, it’s a great show and a fantastic first season.
As for the Blu-ray portion of this release, wowsers.
This is probably one of the better television blu-ray releases I’ve seen. I’m especially impressed because this is the first attempt at blu-ray from the Adventure Time folks. You will find zero imperfections in the video quality, no compression issues and no graininess or artifacts; in short, it’s perfect. While I know that cartoons certainly have an adventure over live action video when it comes to HD transfer (you can clean them up pretty well — see Disney’s Diamond Editions for examples), I think Adventure Time sets a new bar for how much love/effort is put into that transfer. I’ve seen multi-million budget television shows that don’t have this much care put into them when transferring it to Blu-ray, so again this is impressive.
So what can you visually expect? Well, if you’ve seen the show then you know how odd and colorful it can be, so expect plenty of good examples of how sharp blue, red, yellow, white and whatever color you can think of turns out to be in HD. Seriously, this is an stunning bit of eye candy that will proudly sit on your shelf of Blu-rays and stand out like Finn holding a sword up on a mountain top.
What? You want more? Okay, how about some kickass features to go along with it? Here’s haw you’re getting:
– Commentary
– Featurettes (Wacky)
– Animatics
– Music Video
– Finndemonium
– The Wand
The commentary on this release is quite good. You get a bit more insight and a lot of humor to go along with it. The featurettes are strange, but neat. The first is a ‘Behind the Scenes’, which features the creators and writer (and a whole bunch of other folk) doing some oddball stuff for the show. The second featurette is called ‘Behind the Behind the Scenes’ and… well… enjoy that one. The last is the a nice featurette on how the music is created in Adventure Time. It’s a bit strange, but welcome to the show. The music video is nice, though it only lasts about 2 minutes. The Finndemonium is a compilation of fans, fan art and Adventure Time clips set to a mix bit of music. It will potentially get stuck in your head all day, but the real gold is how the Adventure Time creators really appreciate their fans. You can’t get enough of that when you see it. Finally, The Wand, the last feature, is about a 3-minute short with Jake finding a wand underneath his butt while hanging out with Finn. Much like the entire series, there isn’t a lot of rhyme or reason, but it’s entertaining nonetheless.
All in all, a solid set of features to go with an amazing Blu-ray. Also, this has one of the coolest Blu-ray boxes. Enjoy that as well.