I do hate writer's block...anyway, Welcome back to the Randomizer!
So while trundling on the Internet, I have come across a few
statuses and pictures of a popular show called 'Adventure Time'.
I didn't follow it at first because it looked weird and
perhaps not my kind of thing. But just today (Tuesday) I decided to give the
show a proper watch and see what I make of it.
(few viewings later....)
Nice! I l And I mean that. I actually enjoyed this show.
It's funny and surreal.
So for this week, I was thinking about sharing Adventure
Time with you lot and see my opinion on this. Bear in mind I've have only
watched the first six episodes and that's what I'm going on to ease you into
this.
What time is it?
8 o'clock. Now go clean your rooms. You really thought I was
going to say Adventure Time, didn't you? You really think I'd do an awful joke
like that?
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Ok first a little history.
The series is the brain-child of Pendleton Ward, and originally
made as a pilot part of the Random Cartoons line-up on Cartoon Network in 2008.
The short pilot itself manage to go viral (spread across the Internet for those
who don't know) and eventually, the series was picked up a couple years later
and turned into a full series in 2010. It's still being shown in its fifth
season and has acquired quite a cult following over the years.
Pendleton Ward + BEARD!
The show itself is set in the Land of Ooo, and follows the
adventures (duh) of Finn the Human (voiced by Jeremy Shada), a boy who goes off
on different adventures in tow with his best friend, Jake the Dog (voiced by
Bender).
Their friend circle includes the Princess Bubblegum (voiced by Hynden
Walch) who rules over the Candy Kingdom. She is a really quirky character with
a knack for science and creating candy zombies. No I'm not joking, that's
actually what happens in the first episode. She must be a big fan of the
Walking Dead (and Mibs, if you're reading this, no I haven't watched it yet. I'm
just being a lazy bastard.) Another friend is the Lumpy Space Princess, who is
a Princess (duh) of Lumpy Space (double duh). She has a special power that when
she bites other creatures and turns them into 'Lumpers'. As long as they don't
sparkle it's fine with me.
Later we're introduced to their one of their arch-enemies, the
Ice King. He has a bit of a...history with women. He wants to have a wife.
Reasonable, so how does he go about this? Steal random princesses and forces
them to marry them, with Princess Bubblegum apparently being a main target.
Huh, no wonder Bowser keeps stealing Princess Peach. Maybe all this time he was
looking for an engagement ring, and is a very lonely, sexually confused
creature......But I digress.
Turtles have feelings too
So those are just a few characters that appear in the first
few episodes that I'll talk about. They are actually pretty enjoyable to watch
in their bizarre ways, which I'll go into when I do the actual episodes
themselves, which is right now!
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1st Episode: Slumber Party Panic
In the first ever episode (not counting the pilot), Finn and
Princess Bubblegum are in the graveyard, hoping to bring some of the dead candy
folk back to life. Weird but ok. Unfortunately, the Princess's formula
backfires and turns the candy folk into zombies, who try to attack the kingdom.
She gets Finn to 'royal promise' that he won't tell anyone of their mistake,
and goes to sort out a new formula.
They arrange a slumber party to protect everyone because
they will explode from fear of the zombies, but it only goes so far and Jake
the dog is bugging Finn to spill the beans. But Finn gets some good ideas: He
gets Jake to play 7 minutes of heaven (sex) in the cupboard, and gets the
citizens to play "hit the piñata" when they're actually hitting the
zombies. The plan actually works, and
Finn is victorious. But he accidently speaks about the zombies and breaks the
royal promise.
This results in the kingdom freezing and him and the
Princess being attacked by the Guardians of the Revolution.....oops sorry,
still in Persepolis mode. The Guardians of the Royal Promise. There we go! They
are given a trial by mathematics and are given an equation to figure out, but
one of the guardians changes it to 2+2. Because fuck maths. Finn gets it right
and the royal promise is reversed, unfreezing the kingdom and bringing peace to
the land, as well as squeezing one of the candy people to fart.
As first episodes go, this was pretty enjoyable. The visuals
are good, going quite creative but keeping the designs quite simple so they
don't grate on the audience. I'm not particularly fond of the look of the candy
zombies, but it's a general nitpick in honesty.
The humour is really good, and actually made me properly
burst out laughing at times. Some of the surreal natures come from the Princess
saying she used to date Mr. Creampuff, and perhaps even a little adult when
Finn says to one of the characters called Tree-Trunks to get her buns in here.
Obviously she's carrying buns with her, but sometimes you can't help but think,
ooh hello.
And the actual thinking process Finn has of defending the
citizens is quite believable. The way it turns out is very clever and makes for
good animation. I just enjoyed the plot development as he thinks of joining the
candy people together into a game of hitting the piñata and defeating the
zombies in that manner, without the need to reveal the truth. Quite simply a
great delight to watch.
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Episode 2: Trouble in Lumpy Space
At a literal bouncing tea-party, the Lumpy Space Princess or
LSP accidentally bites Jake on the leg and subsequently starts a process of
turning him into a Lumper (like werewolf rules as LSP puts it). The only way to
get an antidote is to travel all the way to Lumpy Space, and use it by sunset
otherwise Jake will stay lumpy forever.
When the trio go to Lumpy Space, they see it is a cloud
living world with people easily floating around. However the trio get into a
few obstacles, like LSP not being allowed to drive and having an awkward moment
with her ex and best friend. Getting past those, they make it to the source of
the antidote, Make-Out Point. A trio of Lumpers have it in the shape of a ball
and pass it at first, but LSP is rude to them so they change their minds. Finn
takes it well.......actually, no. He yells at LSP for screwing up, but LSP
yells back saying she is trying and she considers him more a friend than the
ones she has in Lumpy World. Oh, and Jake is finally turned into a Lumper. Boo.
The trio with the antidote hearing Finn's directionless
fury, and pass it on. But he has to get to the Promcoming, which involves
jumping onto a lower cloud, and if he does that he plummets into the Lumpy
Abyss. I think that would be going into my handy-work custard. Full of lumps
but still tasty. So Finn comes up with another plan, have the trio bite him so
he has a chance to go down. They bite him by force and he jumps down
successfully. But he turns into a Lumper himself before trying to make Jake sit
on the antidote. Jake does sit on it and changes back. Hurrah!
He tries to make Finn sit on it, but he runs away and gets
knocked out by another Lumper, landing on the ball and turning back to normal. He
apologises to LSP for yelling at her, and she accepts if he dances with her.
And everyone lives happily ever after, at least until the next episode.
This was a pretty good episode following Slumber Party
Panic. The visuals are impressive to behold, more so when the group enter into
Lumpy Space, and the character designs are nice, especially with Lumpy Space
Princess and her family.
I admit I do like Lumpy Space Princess. She's just a whiny
little girl, but she does have her own limits and means well in trying to help,
even though she probably doesn't really think it through. I think it's more
with the voice (by Pendleton Ward himself) as she slurs nearly on every word
and bitches endlessly over something or nothing. Just the delivery is perfect,
the design is good, she is a pretty well-rounded funny character.
Lastly, the plot is quite fun to watch as it unfolds. Seeing
a new world entirely, the introduction of the bonkers Lumpers and the end
result of seeing both Finn and Jake as Lumpers; It is thoroughly fun to watch.
Moving on!
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Episode 3: Prisoners of Love
Finn and Jake are surfing in the Ice Kingdom, encountering Ice
Giants, snow monsters and penguins when they finally crash and end up running
into the very lonely Ice King. He berates them for violating the Ice world law
of trespassing, but they just ignore him. He sends a group of snow monsters to
get them, but Finn and Jake just defeat them easily, so he traps them in
encased ice and takes them back to his little kingdom.
There it's revealed that he has captured six princesses (including
LSP) and wants to marry to one, imprisoning six so he knows he made the right
choice. Well, at least he's ethical. Sort of. He doesn't approve of going into
marriage quickly, though he is happy with keeping the Princesses prisoner. Finn
tries to get them out with his flute, but that breaks due to him using it
already on 'the lock to that sad orge's heart'. Bummer.
But the princesses are unhappy and not having fun, which
concerns the Ice King. So he tries to make some fun stuff with music. While he
goes to get more fun stuff, Finn formulates another plan: pretend to have so
much fun so the Ice King will come join them in the cell. The plan works and
Finn tries to explain that kidnapping princesses is not the way to go, but of
course he doesn't listen and gets knocked out.
He gets into a dream sequence, thinking about why nobody
likes him. Suddenly a heart-shaped owl appears and says basically, he's a
sociopath. But he just floats talking to himself and wakes up to find he's
being tickled by his penguins. ......yea that doesn't sound wrong at all! After
escaping the kingdom on Jake's back, one of the princesses aptly named Slime
Princess flirts with Finn a little remembering how he said he would marry them
to the person of their choosing. Finn is a little shocked and asks Jake for
help. Jake does help. By saying Finn still pisses his pants, all the time. It
works and Finn is definitely embarrassed.
Prisoners of Love is a little off for me, though still good
in a way. I suppose because it's just an easy-going episode. Not much happening
and it's an easy plot to do. There are some nice moments, like when Finn is
tending to the Princesses asking individually if they're all ok and simply
punching Ice King in the beard to knock him into the bars. Jake gets a few good
moments, but he is underplayed for most of the episode and Finn has to rely on
his wits again to get everyone out. Which isn't bad, but I suppose you could
always see a mile off what's going to happen.
Speaking of which, The Ice King is an interesting character
however and we do see he is quite insane, but also quite lonely. The voice (done
by Tom Kenny) is manic, with a tinge of sadness as well and it does match the
personality of the character as well to a point. He does make an effort to try and
make the Princesses happy but it backfires badly on him because he did capture
them in the first place. Like the second episode, he is the main focus of the
comedy, and he is good. You do get some genuine laughs from his reactions and
replies to Finn most of the time.
Overall, the episode is good and does make for some really
good moments and character development, but not one I would immediately turn to
if I wanted to keep watching Adventure Time. Though it is interesting to note
they actually worked in a gay joke as well, which seeing the Ice King's
reaction to is pure genius. It's like the Cow and Chicken gay joke with carpet
munchers. It's so subtle, you have to be over 16 to understand it. Or if you
have lesbian parents. Give or take either way.
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Episode 4: Tree-Trunks
Finn and Jake are chopping up apples with their swords near
Tree-Trunks's caravan, as she calls them for apple pie. The first one, sadly
for Tree-Trunks, a fly sits on it so she has to chuck it. But luckily she has a
second pie ready in the oven, and Finn and Jake gobble it up in quick
succession (I should take them on in a fish and chips contest). They say it's
the best one ever, but Tree-Trunks says its not the best, saying she wishes to
have a crystal gem apple. Finn and Jake convince her to search for it in the
dark jungle and she eventually says yes, the two coming along in tow.
While in the forest, things don't really go well.
Tree-Trunks is.....kinda stupid when it comes to dangers. Maybe it's a tad
harsh, but after an experience with a flesh monster, she is not very
understanding of what happens. Finn and Jake continuously defend her, Finn
slowly becoming more annoyed and angry even though he says she's too super cute
to get mad at. When he's fighting a tentacle creature, Tree-Trunks helps
by.....seducing it. I'm not joking, she really does that. Finn eventually
defeats it, with her help and Jake's. But the stress is too much and he yells
at her, saying she's not an adventurer and if she dies to make all her friends
feel terrible because they couldn't do that. Tree Trunks is hurt and leaves.
Finn does feel horrible afterwards only wanting her to be
safe, and Jake says it's what happens when you care too much. They hear her
yell and come to see what's up, seeing that she's found the Crystal Gem Apple!
Finn apologises and Tree-Trunks accepts, if he allows her to kiss his cheek
(which he reluctantly does). But one final battle comes: A crystal guardian
that copies everyone of their moves. It sees Tree-Trunks dancing to herself and
copies her, but still manages to fend off Finn and Jake. But Finn has another
idea: seduce it Tree-Trunks style. And it works!
Jake passes Tree-Trunks to the apple and she finally takes a
bit of the crystal apple....and promptly explodes, with impromptu burping. The
last shot is just her walking along in a crystal area, laughing to herself.
This was an odd episode. I liked some of the animation in
this, with some of the creatures in the dark jungle being quite nicely creative
and stable so they don't jar onscreen. And the forest itself is visually nice,
with cool contrasts to the sunny garden just before they go into the forest and
the crystal tree in all its shiny glory. If it was shiny.
Tree-Trunks.....is an odd one. She has a nice design and
nice voice to match. But her personality is something to be desired. It's a bit
of nitpicking since she is a good source for the plot for being old and quite
mad. I've seen this sort of thing before in other shows where the hero gets
pissy at the daft person for being a bit of a load, but granted Tree-Trunks
does try to help and does promise to stay out of the way in end. So I'm not
gonna pick on her too much. She is quite cute though I have to say, but she better
not come seducing me. Please?
The ending was quite odd too. The way she just randomly
explodes after taking a chunk out of the crystal apple just passes by unexpectedly
and then appearing in her own crystal paradise or whatever it was. Maybe that's
the surreal nature of the world, but the exploding part in the first episode
sounded as if it made sense. This.....this was just: oh dear, I've exploded,
bye bye, ha ha ha ha.
Moving on!
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Episode 5: The Enchiridion
At a...dance in the Candy Castle, Finn and Jake are dancing
away. But one of the candy citizens accidently knocks into a tower that
Princess Bubblegum is in and breaks it down. Finn saves her and she thanks him,
calling him a hero. She gets a idea in her and has him follow into a secret
entrance. But not before she gets the rest of the people to turn away, because
it's a secret entrance. Obviously. She
gives him a globe that shows an image of the book called 'The Enchiridion', a
book only for heroes who are righteous.
RIGHTEOUS!! (guitar riff).
Anyway, he
has to find it at the top of a mountain where it's guarded by a manly minotaur.
Finn jumps out of the window, getting saved by Jake in the process and off they
go. What time is it? 9'o clock........oh ok adventure time! There happy?
Anyway at the bottom of Mt. Cragdor, they run into the
gatekeeper who explains the usual details that you usually find if something of
ultimate power is protected by all sorts of creatures. Finn and Jake get
through the door, using the gatekeeper because he has the key on his head,
though Finn says he looked cute stuffed in the lock. Gatekeeper goes on to say
that there are many trials ahead. Isn't that just the way?
After Jake smugly figures out the location of the book with
his nose, Finn hears screaming in the forest, and they come across three little
wizards trapped in a lava pool. Finn does save them, but soon discovers that
the trio are in fact dicks, because they like destroying old ladies. And if you
thought of that in a different manner, I can give you the number of a
therapist. Finn runs away and Jake berates the trio for killing old ladies and
that they should thank him. The gnomes try killing him and promptly get chucked
in the lava pool again. Finn and Jake talk, and Jake explains that it's all
essentially a test to check on Finn's heroic nature, because what would old
ladies be doing in the middle of a forest. Finn gains a bit of confidence back
and when Jake gets captured by a giant, he stops him by stealing a dollar from
his wallet and kicking him in the stomach, throwing Jake up. Finn carries him
up to the castle, and gives the dollar back. Jake says that's righteous.
Going into the castle, Finn's final test comes against the
Grim Reaper. It's not called the Grim Reaper, but it looks like him and I'm
being lazy. He gives him a very evil monster to defeat and a little ant that's
neutral. Finn refuses the latter and just kicks the reaper in the crotch,
forcing him to dissaperate.
The Gatekeeper appears to congratulate him, dressed in a
devil costume pyjamas. But Finn quickly punches him in the stomach and quickly
apologises in quick succession. The minotaur comes up and takes them over to a picnic
table, showing the actual book to Finn, calling him the most righteous hero
he's ever seen. Finn has a read and finds a chapter called "How to kiss a
princess". The Princess quickly appears in a viewing globe asking what his
found, but Finn just keeps quiet.
This episode did get more and more funnier as it went on. It
starts off pretty quiet, but slowly develops with the surrealist nature, like
the Gatekeeper at the end in his cute devil pyjamas and the Manly Minotaur
showing off his muscles, which also have arms with muscles attached. That part
was a little freaky, but other than that, everything else was very funny.
The plot was pretty good. It's your usual quest search for
the book of awesomeness, Holy Grail, TV remote etc, but with some pretty
interesting twists in. I'm not overly fond of the illusional tests like with
the gnomes, but it does break the conventions of saving someone who it turns
out they're a complete douche. It's a learning curve for someone who is trying
to do heroic deeds. Yeah, I suppose it's being fair to kids who won't be used
to death and such, but I suppose some realism would be nice and maybe better.
For Finn in particular, it's develops a good deal of
character development for him and gives him a bit of moral compass, learning
what is right and wrong in an unforced manner. And he is rewarded for his
righteousness (guitar riff) with the Enchiridion. This is something I will go
into at the end of this blog. Right now we have one more episode to go into.
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Episode 6: The Jiggler
Finn and Jake are walking back from a fiery castle carrying a
family of watermelons, pineapples and a line of sausages while singing with a
vocalder in the former's throat. Apparently he swallowed a computer. While
walking back home, a little black and white creature follows them and knocks
into Jake. The little thing can whistle as well, attracted to the duo's
whistling. Finn and Jake make the decision to take it back home with them.
Back at the ranch, things go well. Finn teaches him how to
use a toothbrush and Jake puts on some music for him to dance to. But then things
go bad. The next day, The Jiggler is pretty much zapped and ill, throwing up
purple sick from his holes. The boys realise eventually that since they've
taken him out of his natural environment, he won't survive for long. Finn
doesn't want to at first, thinking they can take better care, but decides
otherwise when the Jiggler practically wraps himself everywhere in their house.
The Jiggler kisses the floor literally to show them his mother and they make
tracks to find her.
Back at the family of watermelon's house, they find a hole
leading down to the mother's house. They pass Jiggler on, but the mother
doesn't take him back because his smell is not recognisable to her. So Jake
tells him to throw him into the juice surrounding her and it works! The mother
takes him back. Finn says he'll never kidnap again, Jake agreeing saying the
experience was a nightmare. Yea, I'm inclined to agree.
This was a good episode and quite funny to watch. The
plot....it's obviously been done before, or at least I've seen it before.
Person finds creature, takes it out of its normal environment, creature is depressed,
person feels bad, eventually puts it back and learns that creatures don't
belong with them or anywhere human made. Unless it's a cat or a dog, then it's
ok. I suppose the difference is that the Jiggler goes completely overboard for
both Finn and Jake to handle, spreading its body all over the place.
The visuals are a little bit interesting, like the mother's
reaction of going berserk when it sees it own child and doesn't recognise it at
all, and the Jiggler wrapping itself around the house. And it's funny to see
Jake making sure the Jiggler didn't eat a drawing of him, and how Finn and Jake
try to help it stop being ill in the morning.
But overall there wasn't really much to this episode, at
least for the moment. It's not the most memory filling of episodes and not the
one I fully enjoyed the most. It might open up a new mythology and ways of how
this world works for future episodes or seasons, but other than that it's
harmless fun. It might be nice to see the Jiggler back in a future episode or
season, but I don't think it will happen because it wasn't the best episode to
see, in my mind.
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And that's pretty much all I have to say for this week.
Adventure Time is good fun to watch and superbly surreal,
kind of like Monty Python's Flying Circus in a way. Some of the actions done
and twisted logic are plain enjoyable silliness at its finest, and there are
some genuine nice moments to take away from it. There are some bits I don't
like, with some of the complete randomness that can either freak me out or just
plain silly, but that's just my opinion.
The characters are quite likeable and great to watch as
well, the voices helping especially with that. You can easily recognise
Bender's voice in Jake, Finn doesn't grate on you because he is actually voiced
by a young kid, and the others like Hyden Welch and Pendleton Ward are a joy to
listen to. As well as that, the plots can be thoroughly entertaining and quite
clever at times, how Finn manages to overcome his challenges against the
zombies and the Ice King.
What I am coming to like about Adventure Time is how the
morals are presented to us. The show distorts the formula somehow, but doesn't
force us to know what is bad and what is good. What I mean is that some kid's
programmes tend to give us lessons all around in different episodes and the
main characters learn to do good and just move on from that. Adventure Time
does it kind of different, in a way that is both funny and maybe natural, not as
forced as other shows can do.
For example in Tree-Trunks, Finn tries to keep Tree-Trunks
protected and she accidently keeps getting in the way. When he finally snaps,
he feels horrible afterwards and Jake points out simply that he cares too much.
There's no explaining that he SHOULD apologise, he immediately does it off the
bat when he sees her again, saying he only cared for her safety. Tree Trunks
accepts the apology and promises to stay out of the way the next time another
battle happens. It's just a feeling I had that I liked, there's no forcing the
issue of you should apologise and do this and that. I wonder if more kid shows
could do that, not forcing the issue. We know what the lesson is, we don't need
it spoon-fed to us over and over.
I would definitely give this series a go. Hopefully you will
join the ranks of Adventure Time fans, like me, because I have nothing better
to do with my life :P.
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Thanks for reading this week. Next fortnight....who fucking
knows haha J.
Hopefully I can go on for a little bit longer!
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