Every ADVENTURE TIME Season 1 Episode Reviewed!

hey guys pie guy rules here and welcome to the very first part of every episode of adventure time reviewed adventure time is a show that forged a strong path for cartoon network in the 2010s and has firmly left its mark in television history but with all that aside how good was this show actually it went on for a few hundred episodes and changed a lot over the years was it good the entire time or did it dip in quality in places what episodes are the best and what are the worst and if you know anything about me i actually covered this show quite a bit on my channel when it was airing and after re-watching every single episode in preparation for this series i gotta say some of my opinions have changed and you might be wondering which ones well with this series i seek to answer all of these questions and more by reviewing every single episode one season at a time i will be using a very similar slide based format to the one i used in my spongebob review series with a few tweaks so i will be rating every episode of adventure time one of three ratings good time meh time and bad venture time these are four episodes that i enjoy and think are good episodes i think are bad and don't enjoy and episodes that fall somewhere within the middle gray area either they contain good and bad elements and balance out to a meh or it might just be something that i don't have strong feelings on either way and since i know there's some people that might be watching the series along for the first time here i will not be spoiling things that happen in future seasons i may make references to things that are going to reappear or certain elements that are foreshadowing but i am not going to heavily spoil anything that happens outside of season 1 in this video as far as how i'm going to be critiquing these episodes i do want to make it clear that i am not reviewing this from the perspective of someone who hasn't seen adventure time i am reviewing it from the perspective of someone who knows everything that happens in the series and knows what the series goes on to become in later seasons so take these reviews as being from someone in 2020 looking back at the show additionally i will be holding each episode to its own standards there are some episodes and seasons of adventure time that take itself more seriously than others so i won't be holding them to the standard of well it wasn't funny so it's bad and similarly there are episodes especially in season 1 where comedy is clearly the main focus and while a bad story is still a detriment to the episode not having much of a story is not really as big a deal when the episode's rich in comedy we're gonna get right into it here starting with episode one actually no we can't begin yet because i don't know which episode i should consider episode one we have a bit of a conundrum here because i could review the episodes in production number order in which case enchiridion would be number one and that does make sense right finn's journey would begin with him getting the book of heroes and season one would end with him meeting his hero billy however we would have some issues when it came to certain two-parters for instance did you know mortal folly and mortal recoil do not have production numbers next to each other which of course doesn't make any sense because the one episode leads directly into the next one so that's a reminder that just because this was the order that they were made in doesn't mean that it's the order that they should be viewed in so in this case i will be reviewing adventure time in airing order because that's the order that most of us experience the show and it's the order that avoids these weird gaps in two-parters there are some minor continuity errors that will pop up but we'll cross those roads when we get there oh and we're going to be going in official airing order because technically speaking there's two different airing orders whether you consider the sneak previews that cartoon network did of business time and evicted actual premiere dates or sneak peek unofficial premiere dates but okay enough wasting time let's get to the first episode of adventure time episode 1 slumber party panic finn must keep the candy citizens blissfully unaware of the invading zombie apocalypse my favorite part in this episode is the zombie rave fight seeing the really quick cuts of the candy citizens doing some pretty violent acts to the zombies set to upbeat rave music is pretty sweet oh and before i forget to mention it if you look in the upper left hand corner of the slide you will notice the big number that's the number episode in airing order but if you look under that there's the production code the first three numbers correspond to the season each season has a randomly assigned three-digit number season one has 692 and the other three digits there represent the number that it was made in production order so this would be the ninth episode of season one so this episode is actually a great one to start with because it contains many of the hallmarks of season one of adventure time it has finn's eyes bulging out several times revealing the whites of them pg jokes and elements like a character taking off their clothing or seven minutes in heaven it contains a random moment towards the end where when finn breaks the royal promise the gumball guardians freeze time and grab him and take him away to have him do a math problem and finally there's the anti-moral finn breaks the rules and goes against his royal promise a regular moral would probably be that keeping your promise is the most important thing but adventure time flips it on his head and has finn say that it is actually great to break your promises because then you get to do fun things as for the episode itself i like that finn has to fight this battle on two fronts it's not that he can just go and punch the zombies because he also has to keep the candy citizens blissfully unaware so he has to talk his way out of the problem and also fight his way out of the problem oh and fun fact even though starchy explodes earlier in the episode he's actually seen as the rave starts it's not that funny of an episode but there are certainly a few moments like blockado that made me laugh and as far as a first episode goes even though this wasn't produced with the intention of it being the first episode i think it's actually a pretty good introduction it shows us that finn is willing to go to great lengths to help people it establishes the candy kingdom pretty well giving introductions to a lot of important candy characters plus tree trunks and lady rainicorn and it establishes the relationship between finn and princess bubblegum there's a hint in there that he has a crush on her it also establishes that princess bubblegum is someone that is into pink and cuteness but is not a princess that just sits in her tower all day and is very willing to get down and dirty and do some science and this episode does give us a hint of foreshadowing that her character is very controlling and protective of her citizens and is willing to push boundaries like bring the dead back to life the only thing this episode doesn't do is introduce jake very well he's in the episode but you don't really get too much of his personality here it's a very fin centric episode but it's still a solid way to begin the series and a good time just as an episode i don't really find the fart joke at the end of the episode funny but it certainly is a way to end an episode episode 2 trouble and lumpy space finn must navigate the drama filled lumpy space to save jake from transforming into a lumpy person fun fact this is the only episode in the entire series to heavily feature lumpy space the location is used in a few places mostly to flash back to whatever lsp was up to but generally speaking no other story takes place primarily in lumpy space and that's kind of a shame because i think it's a really cool location my favorite part of the episode is the visuals of lumpy space those cool purple and blue colors in the background and the ditko dot-esque design at any rate this is lsp's first episode and it is all about her she's one of those characters that does not change basically at all over the course of the entire series despite most of the other characters around her changing this might lead to some issues down the road when her main joke gets a little bit worn out but as far as this episode goes since it's the first time we're seeing her her valley girl accent her being self-absorbed all the drama surrounding her and her lumps it's all pretty fresh and unique and interesting here and i particularly like the juxtaposition of the high stakes of jake potentially permanently being turned into a lumpy person mixed with lsp's world which is seemingly just one big dimension of drama and prom and teenage angst lsp says this is the weekly prom coming dance meaning it's definitely not a big deal but oh my god you guys it's definitely a big deal and arguably this is lsp's nicest appearance in the entire series she is genuinely trying to help finn and jake she takes them to her domain even though it might get her in trouble and she is trying to get jake the help he needs she just can't help that she gets distracted because it's just in her people's nature apparently so i would say this is a good time lsp's character is fresh and fun the adventure itself is a funny interesting mix of high stakes drama and high school drama and it's funny to see finn who is absolutely dedicated to saving jake have to deal with all the nonsense surrounding lsp who by the way if you don't know is voiced by series creator pendleton ward episode number three prisoners of love finn and jake must free the kidnapped princesses from the ice king's clutches so this episode is basically adapted from the pilot it has finn and jake's sledding a character hallucinating something random ice king kidnapping princesses it's not a direct remake but it definitely reuses elements from the pilot also fun fact the ice king has a tattoo of a penguin on his butt in this episode you can only see it in a few frames when he's naked and flying during his hallucination but it's there thank you for subscribing to ice king butt facts anyway my favorite part of this episode is actually the first few minutes i like the energetic snow sledding the creative ice kingdom creatures and of course the exchange between finn and jake in which finn repeatedly says the word sexy which even now 10 years later is still an odd word to hear repeatedly in a cartoon aimed at kids i quite like the episode right up until the ice king kidnaps finn and jake then i think it takes a pretty big nose dive so the ice king in this episode is a bit different from how he's usually portrayed it's not unusual for a character to act a little bit differently in their first appearance as the writers are still trying to hammer out what works best with the character and in this episode i think ice king is a little bit too competent for one like he's managed to kidnap and hold these princesses for weeks on end and he very easily subdued finn and jake additionally he seems to be a little bit extra murderous in this episode saying things like if wild berry princess doesn't play the piano he will kill her he seems a little bit less like the wacky cartoon character he would go on to become and a little bit more like a kind of uncomfortable realistic kidnapper it isn't as fun as episodes where ice king is able to kidnap princesses with some sort of really weird and wacky plot using magic or deception or something like that in this case he just is holding a bunch of women hostage and threatening to kill them also have noticed that he has lsp who's 16 so make of that what you will also i don't find the ice king funny in this episode although i will admit that that might just be down to modern interpretation after all tom kenny the voice actor for the ice king in the commentary mentions that he really likes the joke where the ice king takes out a bag of trail mix and slowly digs around in it and eats a few pieces i can definitely see how someone might think that's funny but i just find it boring and slow this episode is fast paced up until he kidnaps finn and jake and then from there on out it's basically just the characters trapped in a jail cell with not much interesting action going on i gotta be honest i think it is a bad venture time i simply don't like this version of the ice king i don't think he's funny or entertaining i'm not docking this episode because he's acting out of character but i am docking it because i don't like the character that he is here episode 4 tree trunks finn jake must protect tree trunks the fragile elephant on her first adventure so this episode is a classic escort mission tree trunks has no survival instincts or sense of awareness at all so finn and jake must babysit her through the woods with all of these dangerous creatures lurking about and actually taking tree trunks out of the equation for a second this is a simple but fun adventure thanks mostly to the design of the monsters every one scene in this episode is interesting and cool pendleton ward was inspired by dungeons and dragons and this episode definitely reads like a quest in dungeons and dragons or a level in a video game and i think that's really awesome tree trunks herself is a rather polarizing character her general obliviousness and self-absorbed nature not unlike lsp can be off-putting to some and there are definitely some episodes much later on that are a bit iffy but as far as this one goes i feel like tree trunks is perfectly suited for this role she is an oblivious character and she doesn't really understand the danger she's in the episode itself kind of zigzags on whether or not she should be out there with finn and jake on the one hand she almost gets herself killed several times wounding finn in the process on the other hand her unique problem-solving skills do help out with some monsters maybe the overall message is while tree trunks is definitely too delicate to be out here on her own she still has her own skills that she can contribute to the adventure also fun fact the ending where tree trunks is walking through the crystal dimension allegedly was not on the first broadcast of this episode and it's also not in the episode included on the dvd my two favorite people i have not been able to 100 confirm this but it does seem to be true and i do have a vague memory of that scene not being there but even with that very ending you have to admit the part where tree trunks explodes after eating the apple is very surprising even after watching the episode tons of times at this point i'm still kinda shocked at how they do this at the end of the episode it's still very unclear as to what her actual fate is if she's alive if she's transcended into some other form and the shock on finn and jake's face is definitely something that's relatable i feel like this is one of those random elements that works very very well even on re-watch lastly of course i have to talk about the origins of tree trunks and her character tree trunks is voiced by polly lou livingston who is an old family friend of pendleton wards holly lou along with pendleton wart's mother are on the commentary track for this episode and it's uncanny how much she speaks like tree trunks really heartwarming to see that pendleton ward created a role on his show for this sweet older woman who is friends with his family all in all this is a good time i love the design of the monsters i love the shocking ending and even though i don't love tree trunks i think she is fine for the purposes of this episode her oblivious stick does not get old here episode 5 the enchiridion pin and jake go through tests of strength and morality to obtain a mythical book of adventuring fun fact encyridian is actually a word and it does indeed mean a small manual or handbook so this episode was the first one to be produced and probably intended to be the first one to make it to air the animation is a little bit rougher than most other episodes and it also features finn getting a book that will be very important throughout the series much like the episode tree trunks enki radian feels like a d and d style adventure where finn and jake come across these challenges that they have to sometimes fight their way out of and other times talk their way out of and really the whole episode is just a series of these obstacles there's not really any greater meaning or purpose it's just finn's trying to get this book and in order to get it you've got to complete the tasks and for what it's worth it is both entertaining and also educates us a little bit more about finn and jake's characters this episode is the one where finn refuses to slay an ant because it is not evil and simply unaligned but he will kill anything that's evil and once again we see more of that crazy determination in how he takes down the giant and saves jake and for jake's part he's the one that realizes that the old ladies are just a trap designed to mess him up and gives finn a nice pep talk to snap him out of it and that's basically their dynamics in the show jake is a little more hands-off and more likely to dispense some sort of wisdom or philosophy onto finn and finn is the one that is highly motivated to get tasks done getting a little bit more character insight is always fun and in addition all of the creatures and monsters and tasks they come across are interesting and fun and usually each one of them has a funny moment as well my favorite of which is these stupid gnomes that seemingly kill all of these old ladies just because finn is doing anything the rapid succession with which they do this makes for excellent comedic timing and a runner-up is definitely when finn demands the giant gives him jake back and the giant's like but i killed him already so for all those reasons it is a good time my main critique of this episode would just be that the beginning part where they're all dancing and partying in the candy kingdom feels relatively unnecessary and the dialogue with princess bubblegum explaining what the enchiridion is probably could have been trimmed down or told in a more interesting way it feels like they spent a little bit too much time setting this story up when they could have spent more time actually on the adventure especially because the story itself isn't anything complex i understand they probably wanted to establish the candy kingdom because they thought this was the first episode but there's plenty of episodes this season that focus heavily on the candy kingdom and parties within the candy kingdom it's just unnecessary here though the moment where he saves princess bubblegum is pretty cool episode 6 the jiggler fit and jake find a strange creature they take in as a pet fun fact this is the first episode to have finn's auto-tuned singing voice his song baby is my favorite part of the episode by the way this episode's story is a little bit typical in that a lot of shows have done the story of characters taking a wild animal as a pet and then they try to nurse it back to health even though in this case it's finn and jake's fault that it wasn't in good health before ultimately realizing the need to return to the mother but uh oh it no longer has the mother's scent so you'll have to figure out a way around that just because this is a story that has been done in a lot of shows doesn't mean that it's necessarily bad here it does get the adventure time coat of paint by having it be the jiggler and not some regular animal but because the story has been done a number of times it just kind of seems inevitable that finn and jake are going to bring this thing back to the wild by the end of the episode it's a very obvious story trajectory and considering in season 1 this show does like to subvert expectations it's a little weird that they just kind of played this one straight i didn't feel like any of the jokes were big hits even though the episode was definitely trying to be funny jokes in the episode like finn trying to feed a drawing of jake to the jiggler finn poisoning the jiggler and also the jiggler's body getting spread out all across the tree house feel like things that definitely could have been played up for laughs and could have been a lot funnier than they were but i just didn't feel like they were pushed far enough the jiggler getting all mangled up kind of lies somewhere between trying to be funny and also trying to be dramatic and i just don't think it works as either i had to think a lot about the rating of this episode because i do not strongly hate it but i also don't really have much positive to say about it and while it is far from the worst episode in the series i actually do think it is a bad adventure time i could have done it if i wanted to it has a few cutesy moments where finn jake are bonding with the jiggler or having fun dancing but i just feel like the story of this episode is a little bit predictable and not really that interesting and the comedy isn't there either the jiggler as a character is a mildly interesting design but really failed to leave a mark on me episode 7 ricardio the heart guy finn believes princess bubblegum's new acquaintance is evil while jake thinks finn's just jealous i hate this episode oh wait no i misspoke i meant i heart this episode this is a stand out episode of adventure time you have the amazing guest star george decay and his amazing voice which is perfect for a creepy cartoon character there's some really big laughs here the exchange between princess bubblegum and finn about xanoits and plantoids is just comedy gold in my opinion finn shouting about how he's weird during the middle of the party is also pretty funny and i love jake's line about how yeah they'll let the ice king take his heart back because he doesn't want to see an old man die on princess bubblegum's carpet this episode also has just the absolute iconic moment of ricardio saying he's going to make out with princess bubblegum's heart with this bizarrely overly detailed close-up on his face it's like the perfect climax to the episode and on top of all of that i think this is a pretty great story especially for season one of adventure time they established early on that the ice king is a part of the story they set up that finn does like princess bubblegum and would be jealous of ricardio and jake has quite a few lines about basically not judging a book by its cover just because ricardio looks evil doesn't mean he is so the ending is surprising but also not something that just comes out of nowhere and as if all that wasn't enough this is the first episode to be about finn's romantic woes i honestly don't have a bad thing to say about the episode great comedy good story perfect use of guest star it's a good time oh and also there's a lot of really nice little touches that make for an amazing tone for this episode the background music is this really intense high-pitched instrument that's probably a theremin and sounds very similar to operatic music and also probably not coincidentally sounds similar to the star trek theme song there's also some stylistic lighting choices like how the episode takes place mostly at night there's a really cool 360 shot around the ice king i could just tell that the people who worked on this episode were really passionate about it it makes me want to rip out this episode's heart and make out with it but instead let's just move on episode 8 business time finn and jake give up on adventuring after hiring businessmen to do it for them so this was the first episode of adventure time to ever make it to air albeit during a sneak peek i have no idea why they picked this episode the episode in which our characters give up on adventuring and just kind of bum around it's not really a great introduction to either of the characters nor is it a great introduction to what they do maybe this and evicted were the first two episodes to be completely finished with post-production and therefore ready to air i have no idea and if you haven't figured it out yet i'm really not too keen on this episode the most interesting note about it is that it is bmo's first appearance but even then he doesn't speak this episode is pretty forgettable the businessmen don't get names or anything they're not really interesting characters they're basically just story props early in the episode there's this big doc gauntlet that finn and jake run but i just keep getting distracted by how bizarre the perspective is the doc is constantly like floating up and down on the screen it's supposed to be this big ambitious shot but it's probably one of the worst looking things in adventure time usually the show's really good about this sort of thing i didn't really dig any of the jokes in the episode i guess a major one is the fact that finn and jake become fat and engorged with ice cream and so fat in fact that they can build statues out of finn's fat but i was kinda grossed out by that and didn't really find it charming or funny the only thing i did find funny and in my opinion the best part of the episode is the very ending where jake shape-shifts away all of his fatness and finn realizes that he can't do that with a little the end card abruptly appearing on his head although i don't know that that was worth having finn's grotesque belly be out for like half the episode and as far as the story goes it's the characters quit adventuring kind of like how in the sneak peek first episode but not actually the first episode of teen titans has those characters totally give up on being the teen titans forever you know this change isn't gonna be permanent and trust me there's plenty of episodes later on where finn and jake bumming around the treehouse makes for interesting content but in this case they just sit around and play video games the plot of this episode is that the characters become bored and apathetic they just don't care and therefore i also don't care and then the businessmen take protecting everyone a little bit too far which is a storyline that you see a lot in fiction usually with robots where you tell them to protect people and the logical extreme of that is taking away all of their freedoms and locking them away and actually there's a mother of an episode later on down the line that is a much more interesting version of this story and as far as the solution to how to stop the businessmen having jake just grow really big while eating ice cream to blow up their machine that's not really a satisfying payoff i get that they wanted to use the ice cream as a plot device but jake can just transform he didn't actually need the ice cream at all yeah i think this is a bad venture time much like the jiggler it's certainly not the worst episode of the show but i just don't feel like this one has anything going for it apathetic characters not much of interest going on minimal laughs well at least they accurately portrayed business episode nine my two favorite people hey a lady rainicorn focused episode that's about as rare as um something that's rare anyway did you know that most of the contacts in jake's phone at the end of this episode actually show up as characters later on in the series a few of them are from a certain group that jake used to belong to and the rest of them participate in a certain game tournament that jake is a part of you gotta love that there really is no detail too small for the writers to randomly bring up again many seasons and years later makes the world of adventure time feel cohesive as far as the episode goes i think it has a pretty solid first half it's cool to get to know lady rainicorn a little more especially considering this is one of the very rare episodes in which english speakers can understand her for all of her other appearances you either have to just know korean or look it up later or be content not knowing what she's saying other things i like about the first half of the episode are the shark and science cat that finn and jake randomly fight jake on his bicycle is pretty smoothly animated there's a fire lake that they sit beside and that looks pretty sweet i also like the underwater battle it's probably my favorite part seeing finn and jake and lady rainicorn have to battle all of these weird little creatures underwater while running out of breath it's just a fun short little action sequence where the episode starts to fall apart for me is the second half ultimately this is yet another cliche type episode where jake introduces finn and lady to each other but then gets jealous with how much time they're spending together and we just see jake moping and moping and moping jake calling up an old friend that finn is supposed to apparently be jealous of it just didn't really do it for me tiffany's okay i guess but finn and jake are brothers why would finn be jealous of jake hanging out with some kid and naturally this is all just solved by lady and jake talking it out it's just kind of anticlimactic i feel like it could have been bigger maybe the ending could have had some sort of big fantasy action set piece in there or the stakes could have been raised in some way by jake breaking up with lady rainicorn and then having to win her back as far as jokes go there aren't a ton i like from this episode but all the settings on ladies voice changer are pretty funny and i love how casual finn is about the fact that he's just wearing a bunch of cursed rings now all in all the episode is just okay it's a meh time number 10 memories of boom boom mountain finn tries to help everyone on the mountain no matter how complicated their needs are and boy are they complicated fun fact thomas f wilson plays the head marauder he was in that really famous role as patrick's fake dad and i'm with stupid from spongebob also biff from back to the future and him calling finn a chicken is actually a reference to that series so this is a relatively simple episode the story is basically finn just trying to come up with creative solutions to appease both the mountain and the group of marauders there isn't really much variety in location or in subject matter and i wouldn't say this episode is really funny there's a few good lines like jake saying that finn still cries when he poops and the head marauder realizing that that mountain can talk but it's not a very funny episode however i feel like this episode makes up for its lack of comedy and lack of complex story by giving us a backstory for finn seeing why finn is so determined to save and help everyone all the time and this episode also introduces us to finn and jake's parents i feel like that added element of tying finn's backstory in with him trying to solve everyone's problems is what elevates this episode up also i'm a sucker for that crazy rube goldberg at the end it doesn't make a ton of sense and it's really weird how finn chose to solve some of these problems but it sure is fun to watch i also appreciate the really random ending the fact that the regular story of the episode was completely wrapped up in an unambiguous way and then the really random thing happened mixed with the fact that that random thing happens just instantaneously makes it one of those fun random elements that i quite enjoyed while not a great episode i would say it's a good time it really goes to show that even if the story and comedy are just okay character insight can make up for some of those lackluster elements number 11 wizard finn and jake get more than they bargained for after signing up to get magic powers before i talk about the episode itself there is something very significant about the airing of this episode that i need to talk about this was the first episode of adventure time to premiere by itself meaning it was the only new episode that week the other 11 minutes in the half hour chunk was a different episode of adventure time that had already aired and not a brand new one this is significant because up until this point in cartoon history generally speaking 11 minute cartoons were shown always in chunks of two i don't know if adventure time was the first cartoon to do this but to my memory it was definitely one of the first and one of the most prominent why is this significant at all well i actually think this was a big reason why adventure time caught on as well as it did see they produced 26 episodes in the first season which would have been 13 half hours if you air a new one each week you have enough content for a little over three months but if you air them as new 11-minute chunks every week that means that you have enough content for over half a year consistency is very important with anything youtubers who put out consistent content every week or every day are generally more successful than those of us who don't people get used to tuning in every week for a show even if a show has had a bunch of bad episodes that they don't like they'll still probably tune in next week just out of habit and the beauty about adventure time is that the first few seasons at least there wasn't really that many major gaps in airing season two premiered not too long after season one had ended so the show consistently having new episodes basically year round meant that it was always on and always airing new episodes there was always something new and exciting to look forward to in the world of adventure time anyway wizard is a good time episode 12. no no i'm only kidding let me actually get to the episode here so this one is a fun episode it's always neat seeing characters get bizarre magical abilities in the world of adventure time where literally anything is a power including shooting mayonnaise this is the classic be careful what you wish for slash great power comes at a great cost type of story but what's fun about it is that it's so obvious that the skeleton man at the beginning of the episode is trying to trap finn and jake and bufo tries to explain the responsibility that fiddle have to take on but finn just completely ignores these warning signs and there's some decent jokes in here both in the trials that finn and jake have to do which include things like balancing on a chair or touching a bowl of grapes and in the powers themselves like when finn summons a shadow horse that he's not allowed to touch or do anything with there's also jake's rather disturbing advice at the beginning of the episode that the skeleton guy is unattractive therefore he's desperate therefore you should haggle with him that is just so messed up that it's funny and i like the ending i like that finn finally has to face responsibility for ignoring the warning signs and the giant meteorite headed towards the building feels like a very big threat one of the more serious ones the characters have faced up until this point and of course it's really neat seeing finn's transformation sequence with all his powers anyway this is a good time and it's great that the story goes full circle episode 12 evicted finn and jake get kicked out of their home by marceline the vampire queen this is the other episode that got the sneak peek before officially airing and unlike business time i think that this one does a much better job at selling the show there's some funny jokes like jake singing his scream song and marceline claiming that no one makes her let go of jake the story itself is simple but effective and leads to the characters going through a bunch of really wacky and weird situations that show off just how strange and interesting the world of ooo can be it also has the house hunting song sung by pendleton ward and despite basically just describing what happens on screen somehow the song just adds a lot to the episode and is just so very adventure time and on top of all of that we are introduced to what would become a fan favorite character marceline the vampire queen she's mysterious she's creepy she's cool and she's kind of a trickster as far as things i don't like about the episode well there's the fact that we see tree trunks despite the fact that she exploded a few episodes ago although i guess technically if you go by sneak peek date this episode would be like episode two in which case tree trunks hasn't exploded yet yeah it's not a flaw of the episode it's just a weird thing that i always notice and always just kind of bugs me a little but of course that's chalked up to the fact that it didn't air in the same order that the production code is this was actually production code episode 3 and it kind of shows i'd say that the art and animation are a little bit cruder in places but honestly if anything most of the crudeness just kind of adds to the charm of the episode like that weird face finn makes when he thinks that jake is dead one thing that's kind of distracting is that in this episode the snail is a part of the background that keeps looping over and over again and fit in jake walk so you see the same snail multiple times and it just completely ruins the illusion of the looping effect and makes me think of hannah barbera oh wait a minute i haven't even talked about the snail at all the waving snail appears in every episode of the show every so often it appears depicted as a painting or something but that's incredibly incredibly rare it's always neat when you're watching an episode and you just so happen to spot it sometimes it's obvious sometimes it's not i'm also not a big fan of king worm here i know the worms appeared earlier in the episode but the whole king worm bit at the end is just not really funny and trying a little bit too hard to be random all the complaints are pretty minor though overall this is a good time and i really like how marceline is just messing with our heroes the fake out with jake was actually pretty well done i mean they probably wouldn't kill off jake this early in the show or anything but he definitely looks pretty messed up in the episode and i didn't really feel cheated when they revealed that he was alive number 13 city of thieves finn tries to cling to his purity while navigating the city that corrupts everyone hey so remember how i said that it was very rare for the snail to not be physically in the episode and only be represented by like a picture or something you probably should because i said it in the last review anyway this is one of those examples the snail is really cleverly hidden in this episode i honestly don't know how people found this one it's only visible for like a few frames but after jake molds his stomach a little bit the hag pops up the scare fit in jake and right then and there on jake's stomach is the outline of the snail waving i really like the setup of this episode that there is a city in which everyone steals all the time and no one can escape with their purity intact everyone that enters the city eventually stoops to the level of stealing it's just one of those setups that's chock full of potential especially when you have a character like finn who wants to be the purest hero of them all the concept of the city also lends itself to a lot of really cool animated gags of just rapid succession random characters popping on screen to steal something from another character it's such a fun and fast-paced sequence and i love just how many instances of thievery they shove into this episode there's also a hag in this episode that basically does nothing she simply exists to set up the premise of the city of thieves and then pop up again to taunt finn and jake i suppose she is a red herring to throw us off the true villain of the episode but other than that she really doesn't do much and on that note the real villain of the episode is ridiculously amazing i feel like it should be obvious that penny is a thief herself it is the kind of twist that this show does often but for some reason maybe it's just because penny really does seem like a sweet innocent girl or maybe it's because she really isn't given that much focus but it completely caught me off card that penny is the villain i'm sure it did back when i originally watched the episode all those years ago and when i sat down to re-watch it for the first time in years i have to say i was once again fooled i didn't remember she was the villain and you guys know me i'm always looking out for this sort of thing and beyond that i think this episode is pretty clever using physical dirt to represent a character who has given in to thievery note that penny is dirty from the outset of the episode jake gets dirty after he steals the boots and finn is dirty after he steals the chest i really like that detail also this is one of those episodes that's pretty interesting to watch after you've seen the whole show because yeah jake really smooth move there blaming the city for your thievery you've definitely never stolen before and will never steal again and actually on the topic of jake giving into thievery i kind of wonder if in this episode anyway it's supposed to just be a reference to john dimaggio's other most famous role bender from futurama who has a penchant for petty larceny really the only thing i think is off about this episode is that in the very first shot with finn walking on stilts the lip syncing on both finn and jake's lines are completely off it's a little hard to notice because the characters are moving across the screen pretty fast not a big deal though it's a good time i quite enjoy the story of this episode and it's really interesting to see finn turn to the dark side and become a vigilante in order to save himself and penny plus the very last joke at the end is great even though hbo max ruins it because there's a few seconds missing from the ending of this episode but oh well a glitch is a glitch i suppose episode 14 the witch's garden jake gets his powers removed by a witch and grows increasingly lazy okay so you know the beginning of the episode where finn jake are just chasing a frog with a crown it's really just a non-sequitur lead into what the actual story of the episode is and the frog doesn't appear again but for some reason six years later the writers of adventure time decided to do an entire series of shorts about finn jake chasing this dang frog down i have no idea why they did this i feel like the people behind this show challenged themselves to pick the most random minor thing from season one to make into an entire series of shorts with that out of the way oh boy this episode is short something initially when i watched this episode for review i was actually pretty down on it i thought that jake just giving up on adventuring so easily was pretty lame that jake's subconscious was just so random and pointless and that the witch maybe didn't deserve the treatment that jake gave her when they were trespassing in her garden and it did look like they were stealing but this is exactly why i watch episodes multiple times before i make the review because i did a complete 180 on this one first of all it is totally within jake's character to just give up on adventuring after losing his powers he's not really that motivated of a guy outside of just following along with what finn does and you really do get the feeling that the only reason he does participate on these adventures is because it's just so easy for him with his powers if he actually had to work as hard as finn does to slay monsters he probably wouldn't do it plus he does come out of retirement to save finn secondly i don't know what i was thinking about with this witch she is just awful and nasty and petty and makes jake do embarrassing things for no real reason yes she gets everything she deserves and also jake's subconscious yes it's random but honestly it just kind of fits with the weirdness of this episode in general and is actually pretty funny which brings me to what the highlight of this episode really is basically all of the jokes this is one of the funniest episodes jake's body being transformed into this weird chubby man baby thing where he attempts to run in a really pathetic fashion also the witch protesting that she's never been married plus jake just on the nose saying that he's lazy but prideful there's so many moments in this that are just laugh out loud funny plus the river of garbage is a really interesting set piece that's well designed not to mention the creepy skeleton mermaid of the river that wants to mate with finn and jake oh and i suppose this episode does start off the whole where do jake's powers come from storyline there's not really any answers here other than maybe jake got his powers from a puddle but the episode certainly raises the question but uh you're gonna have to wait a while for that answer this is a good time i really did change my mind about this episode over the course of watching it and when i wasn't as bothered by some of the weird things in this episode i was really able to enjoy the really good comedy in here episode 15. what is life neptur a robot created by finn using the ice king's magic must choose who his real father is fun fact neptur is voiced by andy milinakos who is certainly an interesting guy another fun fact is that this is the first named appearance of gunter so that's neat obviously it's also the first appearance of neptur who is a character that believe it or not will reoccur quite a bit throughout the series what is life is an episode that i don't think is bad but just doesn't hold my attention it is a little off-putting to see the normally very virtuous finn ultimately just not really care about neptune outside of his ability to throw pies at jake finn created a living thing and yet he's just so obsessed with the prank that he really doesn't seem to care about nepture at all and the ice king's not wrong finn and jake do metaphorically just fart all over nepter throughout the entire series but mostly i just don't think this episode stands out all that much my favorite part is seeing the design of the ice king's minions like the ice creature with the fleshy guts or the isopede they're cool designs as far as comedy goes i thought the sequence of finn reading the book was pretty funny but it's kind of lukewarm other than that ultimately i just don't think this episode has a strong identity yes it is neptur's first appearance but i also don't really think nepture is a great character i don't think he's bad but i don't really find him as endearing as and if finn doesn't care about neptr then why should i really finn infiltrating the ice king's lair was kind of interesting but all of the imagination zone stuff especially the ending and just didn't really resonate with me the lightning striking nepture to bring him to life is okay i guess adventure time's done weirder things certainly but it doesn't really feel that rewarding i just kind of feel like the episode is random and not cohesive first it's about building a robot to prank jake then it's about finding a lightning bolt then it's about neptr having to choose who his real father is it's not like these are bad conflicts but they just don't come together in a really satisfying way in my opinion so with all that said i think it's a meh time episode 16 ocean of fear jake tries to help finn overcome his fear of the ocean this is the only episode that was storyboarded by jg quintel you know the guy who made regular show cartoon network's other big show at the time however there is one episode much later down the line where he is involved in a pretty interesting way also if you're wondering who pat mchale the author of the quotes that bookend this episode is he was the creative director for seasons one and two of the show so i would imagine he was very influential in shaping early adventure time and he even continued to be a consultant on the show up until midway through season 5 when he left to go make his own mini-series over the garden wall as for why his quotes are even in this episode i have to imagine the people on the crew probably thought it would be funny to throw their co-worker in the episode in a really random way but i do think these quotes with the rather ominous narration make the episode feel more interesting and grandiose like it's a bigger story than just a regular episode because it has a prologue and epilogue i do quite like both the story and comedic aspects of it i like that they introduced a weakness for finn and even more than that i love the fact that they didn't resolve it he is not cured of his fear of the ocean in this episode rather he learns that he can still be the greatest hero in all of ooo despite his fear of the ocean and that just because it is something he is afraid of doesn't mean it's going to stop him from being a hero as he finds a way to work around his fear in order to save jake with all that being said it's still a pretty goofy episode this message is delivered by three wise men who are spirits that emerge from a limo that live inside of finn's stomach along with the fear feaster who's some sort of spirit thing that feeds on people's fears it's pretty out there but it works it's a nice way to have that random moment in the episode and yet make it still tie into what the episode is about and i think it is pretty neat that despite the fact that we learned something about finn it's still an episode with a lot of comedy in it finn is so afraid of the ocean that he will freak out and lose control of himself hurting jake in the process it's very looney tunes in that way but it very much fits for finn's character he is someone who is determined to do what needs to be done except in this case instead of saving someone it's him getting away from the ocean and this is also the episode i point to when i say that i think the exaggerated crazy faces and eyes on adventure time characters really works and i'm sad that they don't really do it after season one the face that finn makes when water touches him the face that he makes when he's stuck in his sleeping bag in the ocean jake's mangled up face these are funny faces and no funny faces are not all the episode has to offer but they're so exaggerated and crazy especially when finn's face is usually incredibly plain looking it makes for a really nice juxtaposition surprise but it's cool that season one has its own specific identity and quirks that no other season has also i don't know where else to bring this up but somehow jake has transported the treehouse to the ocean while finn was sleeping and it just all breaks up and floats away and jake nor finn are really that bothered or upset by this also if you didn't know the fear feaster is played by mark hamill who also played the dark magician in the enchiridion and the narrator of this episode is played by clancy brown who will go on to play the cat in dungeon obviously this one's a good time one other little thing is when finn knocks himself out to go underwater it's actually a beautifully animated and wonderfully ambient sequence a beautiful little touch to the episode that didn't need to be there but i'm so glad it is episode 17 when wedding bells thaw the ice king is suspiciously engaged and wants to celebrate with finn and jake fun fact jake and the ice king are now married i guess they really hit it off after their first kiss in ricardo the heart guy right off the bat i'm gonna say i don't like the montage in this episode when finn and jake take ice king out for their main lorette party we don't get to hear what they're saying although it's kind of obvious if you look at their lips and the song that's playing over the montage is instrumental what i find weird about it is that it isn't like a rapid fire montage it's basically what could have just been regular scenes of the show but with no dialogue and music playing over it if they had put a song with lyrics like the ice king singing about his fun mantleret party or something or they made the clips shorter and faster and more varied as to what the characters are doing this could have been a great montage but instead i think it kind of sucks the montage in evicted is a great example of something that has a good song over it and a lot of really fast-paced moments as far as the wedding goes i actually enjoy that part of the episode fit and jake trying to outsmart the ice king while he's desperately trying to marry a brainwashed princess sure i think it works there are a few pretty decent jokes like how finn makes a certain face when he hears music and i love the joke the ice king is okay with marriage because he believes it to be something that allows him to capture a princess and let her live inside of him adventure time is messed up sometimes but it made me laugh but overall i guess you could say i'm not really that hot on this episode it's a meh time there are some jokes to like here and the story isn't awful but it really doesn't make the most out of either of its premises the main lorette party could have been way funnier and didn't deserve to have such a lackluster montage and the wedding part while good really could have been an entire episode on its own episode 18 dungeon frank attempts to do a classic dungeon crawl without jack by his side seeing that the show was loosely based off of things like dungeons and dragons of course they were going to have a dungeon episode or rather the show would have a handful of dungeon episodes which makes the title a bit annoying but hey i guess they couldn't have predicted they would get almost 300 episodes the creativity of adventure time is out in full force with this one as soon as finn enters the dungeon he is bombarded with all sorts of crazy creatures and traps and doors and homages to classic fantasy creatures including that demon cat who has an approximate knowledge of everything which is an incredibly fun adventure time twist on the all-seeing monster and he's voiced by clancy brown now that's what i call a dungeness crab anyway back on the crazy creatures i also love the perfect shining angel that turns out to be a hideous demon that tries to cook and eat finn and jake one of the funniest moments is the fact that the xylophone background music is actually being played by her what i love though is that all of this fun dungeon crawling is tied together by a theme it's not just here's an episode where the characters run through a dungeon it's an episode about how finn and jake are a team and they really do work better together jake has impressive powers but is kind of lazy and easily distracted finn is determined to do what needs to be done jake's always there to provide the parachute after finn dives in head first also princess bubblegum is all-powerful and you best not forget that there's some decent jokes in here like finn attempting to do keyhand but just mangling his hand up in the process and all of the things that the demon cat gets almost right it's a good time and despite the fact that the episode explicitly points out that it's 11 minutes long this one feels like it goes by in an instant because it's so entertaining episode 19 the duke after finn accidentally disfigures princess bubblegum he's conflicted about letting the duke of nuts take the blame fun fact marceline has a very and i mean very brief appearance at the meeting of royalty at the end of the episode she is on the very edge of the screen as it zooms in i'm talking like 10 frames maximum it's pretty nuts how quickly they shove her in there anyway here's the weird thing about this episode it's basically an inverse of ricardio the heart guy think about it jake and princess bubblegum think the duke is an evil guy where they thought ricardio was an innocent guy and finn thinks that the duke of nuts isn't so bad and again finn turns out to be correct but i don't think it's anywhere near as good a twist as it is in ricardio since you don't really see the duke of nuts until later in the episode and we don't really have any impression of him we just know that princess bubblegum doesn't like him and jake adopts the opinion that he's bad just because he doesn't really want finn to have to face responsibility also the duke himself is much less entertaining and interesting than ricardo because he's just a nice person his big quirk being that he must eat pudding because of his deficiency which is a much less interesting misunderstanding that feels completely out of left field princess bubblegum felt a little bit out of character and surely as the show goes on we see a little bit more of her dark side but the normally calm cool and collected princess bubblegum seems to go absolutely bonkers maybe it's a side effect of the potion and it's supposed to be funny but it just felt out of character and weird and her whole spiel about never speaking to the person who did this to her ever again it felt incredibly forced no one would ever naturally speak in this manner it is only done to create such a unique situation where finn feels like he has to lie in order to stay in princess bubblegum's life a conflict born not out of clever writing but rather feels unnaturally shoehorned in in order to make this plot work i'm also not a fan of the bit towards the end where finn tries to prove to princess bubblegum that disfiguring her was a good thing by putting on a really pathetic play with jake and the duke of nuts we see princess bubblegum roll her eyes knowing that she isn't fooled in the slightest it's supposed to be funny just how bad at acting finn and jake are but instead the sequence just comes off as frustrating because it just goes over the line in terms of how bad the acting is so it feels like a waiting game for our characters to catch up to where we're at in understanding that princess bubblegum isn't fooled there's no tension in the scene because we know she isn't and the middle of the episode is just kind of them wandering around the kingdom of nuts which has a pretty great color scheme and design but otherwise the middle of the episode really didn't impress me either i just feel like there isn't really much in here that stands out it's a bad adventure time i don't wash my hands after using the bathroom this episode's definitely the duke alright 20. freak city magic man transforms fan into a big foot fun fact gork is played by michael dorn i feel like this episode is iconic after all magic man would go on to become a very important character plus seeing him turn that bird inside out is not something you can easily forget it is definitely a great introduction to the character plus finn is randomly transformed into a foot by a guy pretending to be a homeless man simply because finn chose to help if there's one thing this episode is not it's forgettable and yeah i like the song in it even if it perhaps goes on a little bit too long and there's a few decent jokes like jake only saving the babies for some reason and then there's jake's behavior in this episode jake is downright awful here yes he is unmotivated and one to give into laziness but in this episode he is just despicable if you compare it to the witch's garden which is an episode where jake gets cursed yes he is lazy in that one but he snaps out of it to help finn he is usually very sensitive to finn's needs and cares about him a lot in this episode though he's just constantly trying to talk finn into accepting his new life as a foot he doesn't care that finn wants to seek out magic man and at one point jake even taunts him saying that he's not gonna do anything about it because he's depressed finn asks him what his deal was and why he wasn't helping finn and just encouraging him to live the rest of his life as a barely mobile foot jake's response is that he's always wanted to be a foot even though finn correctly points out that jake can transform into one at any time jake tells him that finn will understand when he's older what is the implication there is it something creepy because remember finn is his adoptive brother if jake has interesting feelings towards finn being a foot that's really bizarre honestly jake's behavior drags this thing down to a meh time i know they try to justify it with a dumb joke but it really doesn't land for me especially with the part about jake poking fun at finn being depressed over the situation it really feels like way over the line you could probably argue that jake is trying to taunt finn into getting his confidence back and being motivated but that doesn't really line up with the way it's portrayed 21. donnie finn and jake teach a grass over how not to be a total jerk oh boy this episode let's start out with the good first of all finally finally has actual lines and isn't just a video game system and even though he really doesn't play much role in the story at all it was still neat to see him get a line or two in there another thing i liked about the episode were the why wolves it's clever word play and i like how helpful they are with their explanation before reverting right back into being a wolf monster but yeah the rest of the episode is super balls donnie is a jerk character he is supposed to be a jerk however his antics don't feel funny they just feel like things that actual humans that i know that are jerky people would say he's not so over the top he makes me laugh he's just kind of a realistic jerk and i don't like listening to him in the same way i don't like listening to the actual jerks that exist in my life you gotta be very careful in making a character who is supposed to be obnoxious he should be obnoxious to the characters in the show not obnoxious to the audience as well but oh man is donnie obnoxious he's a bully he's a hypocrite he's a loudmouth but then as soon as finn finds out that donnie being a bully is apparently a good thing for the ecosystem that's when donnie has changed into a super friendly and polite guy because apparently jake was able to do that in the short time that finn was gone and the conclusion of this episode is that finn and jake bully donny into being a jerk because apparently that's the only thing that can defeat the why wolves never mind the fact that only a few episodes ago in memories of boom boom mountain finn was so determined to help everyone that he would go to any lengths to do it in this situation though finn is apparently a weakling coward who can't even take on a couple of wolves and has quickly determined that the only way to protect the house people is that donny must give up his life of being a calm and reasonable person something that donny doesn't want to do at first and it's awful to see our heroes just bullying this guy back into it i know it's supposed to be like an anti-moral in season one but i hate these kind of stories some forced reason why a jerk character must remain a jerk character or else the balance of the world is off and what about the people of the city so apparently in order to not get eaten by wolves they are just doomed to being bullied by this grass ogre forever like there's no medium ground anywhere there's nothing that can be done the creatures have to be bullied donny has to act like an awful person and i guess that's just the way things go yeah there's a reason why this dingus only gets very very small non-speaking cameos from here on out no one wants to see him again it's a bad adventure time wait for my distant land special it's 40 minutes of me laughing at you episode 22 henchmen finn must do marceline's evil bidding though the tasks may not be what they seem man there sure are a lot of episodes in season 1 with our main characters arguing over who is good and who is evil henchmen is a really sweet episode i really enjoy marceline and finn's friendship in evicted she definitely was messing with them there too but maybe in a little bit more of a mean-spirited way in this episode though the way she messes with finn is pretty harmless she makes it look as if she's doing something evil but of course she really isn't even when you know that marceline means no real harm and everything she's having finn doing is just a big mislead the episode is still enjoyable to watch and the reason for this is that the journey is fun even if you know that marceline is just messing with finn seeing just how she makes finn uncomfortable and how she messes with him is just as enjoyable as that twist and i always really appreciate when episodes don't rely 100 percent on their twist to be enjoyable another thing i like is that the episode raises the stakes at the end literally as in marceline messing with finn is rather harmless and finn realizes this but the episode isn't over yet and the rest of it is about how she was too convincing in fooling jake it takes an episode where none of our characters were ever really in any danger and suddenly adds a little bit of excitement and danger into the mix jake of course is not a bad guy but from his perspective marceline needs to be taken out and he certainly does wound her plus finn and jake have to fight over this it was a really solid way to end what is ultimately a fairly sweet episode about the relationship between marceline and finn and there's a few really funny jokes in here like how the bow tie man who for some reason is named eberhardt and i only know that because of the credits thinks that finn and marceline are married because finn does everything that she says also finn's deep pondering about whether marceline is good or evil is interrupted by marceline mentioning that that guy's bow tie looked like a bra this is a good time it builds upon marceline's character established in evicted and makes her more soft and lighthearted than she was there while continuing jake's deep fear of vampires also this is the introduction of marceline's base axe she had a prototype version in evicted episode 23 rainy day daydream forced to stay indoors by a knife storm the boys must deal with jake's overactive imagination fun fact this episode along with a few that followed it aired with commercials in the middle of the episode rainy day daydream premiered immediately before the series premiere of regular show and cartoon network didn't want people switching away during the commercial breaks so instead they inserted a commercial in the middle of an 11 minute episode and then didn't have any between adventure time and regular show i couldn't find any documentation of when in the episode the commercial aired but i do know this happened because it was posted on frederator the company that makes adventure times blog if i had to take a guess i would probably say it happened somewhere around the characters finding the imaginary riddle master but yeah that's a terrible practice and i'm glad cartoon network ditched it these episodes were made to be seen all at once and putting a big break in the middle of it really ruins the pace of stories that didn't have those brakes initially built into them and here's a bonus fun fact for you even though this one has production code 2 it was not the second episode produced it actually came rather late in the production cycle but replaced the episode brothers in insomnia after that episode got scrapped and this is yet another reason why i went with airing order because production order can be screwy like that anyway this is a really fun episode as long as you don't think too hard about it pun intended it's an episode where rule of funny overrides everything else how is it that jake's imagination is this strong that he can make the floor lava and why does this never come up in any other episode maybe it has something to do with the knife storm not really sure also it's very odd that finn doesn't have an imagination and in fact looks down on people for having an imagination but it's funny that's the thing it's funny and this makes for a good story even if the reasons for why this is all happening and what the boundaries of jake's imaginary powers are aren't well defined it's still a really fun and enjoyable adventure and episode it's a good time the knife storm is an incredibly cool concept there's a lot of really great jokes like jake accidentally imagining his mom naked and this nervous giggle when finn is annoyed that jake imagined a riddle master but also couldn't think of a riddle there's always the fear with these kind of episodes that they wouldn't be very visually interesting because most of what is happening is being described to us and only jake can see plus it all takes place in the treehouse but it does use a variety of locations within the treehouse and even though we can't see what's happening through the use of sound design and exaggerated motions that fit and jake are doing while they're fighting these invisible creatures i don't find this episode visually uninteresting or boring in any way episode 24 what have you done princess bubblegum gets finn and jake to hold the ice king prisoner without telling them why fun fact princess bubblegum was dressed as a plague doctor in this episode also she speaks german near the end this is one of those episodes that's very solid on both the comedy and story fronts i love seeing fit and jake have to face the moral quandary of if they should keep the ice king in prison or let him go after all they can only go on what princess bubblegum told them which was that the ice king did nothing and they usually trust princess bubblegum on things like this but it still doesn't sit right with them as heroes to lock up someone who hasn't done anything wrong as far as they know granted if you take into account all the other times he's kidnapped princesses he probably does deserve to be in jail but the episode chooses to not really think about that and i also really appreciate that the wording the ice king did nothing is actually correct when stories try to do this sort of thing where a character says something and then it's later on revealed that it wasn't literally exactly 100 what they meant it can oftentimes feel cheap and misleading an example of a cheat on this is if princess bubblegum had come back and said finn and jake i meant he did nothing wrong right now at five o'clock pm but he's in jail because at four o'clock he did this thing that's an example of it feeling forced and stretched and not clever at all but in this case princess bubblegum is correct he did nothing he did nothing to help the candy people whom he accidentally hurt and the episode continues the moral quandary with the fact that even though they need to get the whales of the ice king to free the candy people finn doesn't feel comfortable just beating on the ice king when he only very tangentially did something wrong that he didn't intend to happen adventure time grappling with content that goes a little bit beyond surface level laughs and silly cartoon stuff is a major component of the show that we'll only see more of from here on out and i love that even though this episode has a really good story it doesn't sacrifice the comedy there's some really funny moments like when the ice king tries to make the point that finn and jake are the real monsters but instead he keeps breaking the mirror he's trying to use as a prop and starchy feeling too healthy is another really great gag it's a good time this episode also plants the seed in the ice king's head that finn and jake are his friends which is something that we'll see him focus on in later episodes episode 25 his hero finn's hero billy convinces the boys to try helping people non-violently fun fact for some reason this episode is sometimes called finn meets his hero his hero is a much better title because it has a double meaning in that billy is finn's hero but by the end of the episode finn becomes billy's hero this episode was supposed to be the last one of season one with production code number 26 and it being a story that makes a lot more sense for the end of the season it also contains billy who is a legendary hero and will become important later on and it also gives a minor cameo to the lich who is one of the most important characters in the entire series that being said this isn't explicitly a season finale it's just something that would feel more fitting as episode 26 especially compared to what we actually get this episode really has a little bit of everything a great guest star in lou ferrigno who makes billy feel like this larger than life character there's some great jokes like the magic nails which transform lsp into this monstrous cyborg it has a phenomenal quote from jake which is one of the most quotable things from the series and genuinely wise and helpful advice and it has our heroes question everything they stand for and going through a journey to rediscover why it's important of course there's that disconnect from the show and the real world where in any other show the message would definitely be non-violence is good in fact this show would later atop that message in a few other episodes but seeing as adventure time season 1 likes to subvert morals and considering non-violence makes absolutely no sense in a fantasy setting like this where there's all sorts of monsters and bad guys and magic and people that are in peril constantly finn and jake violently beating up the bad guys is really the only way to keep people safe this is a good time it's one of the more iconic episodes from season one for a very good reason also the episode kind of means something on a bigger scale finn represents a young idealistic person that wants to change the world and billy is an older jaded person who's seen a lot of stuff and is convinced that nothing he can do will help anymore because bad things are always going to happen anyway so even though non-violence might not be the moral of the episode the episode definitely has a moral and that is to not give up even though things might seem hard or hopeless episode 26 gut grinder finn and jake are in pursuit of the monstrous gut grinder but jake might just be chasing his own tail fun fact jake wears groucho glasses as a disguise the show calls them grucho glasses i suppose because they're not sure at this point whether or not they're going to reference real world things in adventure time but they are based off of the real-life groucho marx glasses which are based off of the comedian and his famous large nose eyebrows and mustache this episode feels a bit off to me and i think it's because of its repetitive nature finn and jake show up at a town they accuse jake of being the gut grinder he proves he's not the gut grinder and then they move on to the next town and do the same thing i also think the twist kinda sucks it is interesting watching the episode trying to determine whether or not jake really is the gut grinder especially because he has stolen unconsciously before but finding out that it's the mayor of the third town's wife who sewed together a suit that looked like jake because she thinks jake is hot in order to steal gold because she likes buying things it just doesn't really make any sense and i don't think it's supposed to which is fine for a dump comedy ending but doesn't exactly make for a satisfying payoff if she thinks jake is hot why would she want to be trying to frame him for stealing gold the gut grinder also doesn't seem to move like a person in a costume also why would the soft people hiding their gold under teacups protect it from the gut grinder if the gut grinder is just this lady and not some monster i feel like she'd be able to see through that i also find the joke with the spiky people trying to hug finn and jake to be a really low hanging fruit joke i didn't find it funny or surprising my favorite part of the episode is seeing all of the different townspeople designs we get spiky people fluffy people some kind of microchip type people and their cities are designed to reflect that and there's other things i like about the episode as well having finn bring jake back from his weird hypnotized state by playing the viola the ambiguity as to whether or not jake really is the gut grinder up until the end and the really weird creepy old man that's also in the jail cell with jake is pretty funny and i do like the twist that jake is not necessarily the gut grinder but is very easily persuaded when he's pet so he believes himself to be the gut grinder this episode's a meh time it's just kind of uninteresting and that was every episode of adventure time season one reviewed so for the bottom five there were five bad adventure time episodes so obviously that's what's going to fill up this list at number five there's the jiggler the jiggler himself is mildly amusing and the episode's not horrendously bad by any means at number four there's business time another episode that i don't hate but i just don't really find any redeeming qualities in number three is prisoners of love i don't like the ice king at all in this episode but i do enjoy the sledding and the first few minutes of it at number two there's the duke if you know one thing about me it's that i'm not a big fan of shows repeating themselves especially if they're going to do a much less interesting version of that premise with princess bubblegum having incredibly forced dialogue just to make the story make any sort of sense and at number one of course we have donnie this one's just a thoroughly awful episode through and through not only does it have very very few redeeming qualities but it is actively frustrating and contradictory to how the characters act in other episodes and now for the top five at number five i went with ocean of fear i feel like this episode stands out in a very memorable way thanks to the performance of mark hamill as the fear feaster as well as the goofy comedy elements of it it feels like an important episode because we're learning about finn's greatest fear at number four there is his hero for very similar reasons as number five good story really funny and feels like something bigger than just a regular episode because we get to meet finn's inspiration at number three we have dungeon it's the sort of fast-paced high-energy episode that i could watch over and over again there's so much creativity in the monsters and dungeon design and of course it highlights finn jake's flaws and strengths and uses their bet as the glue to hold this episode together thematically at number two we have city of thieves i love the concept i love the symbolism i love the twist villain it just works really well as an adventure time episode and at number one it's ricardo the heart guy i think this is the iconic episode of season one that has a story that you genuinely don't know which way it's going to go with an interesting twist and where ricardio even came from it has some of the biggest laughs of the season in my opinion and on top of all of that it has that incredibly memorable moment with a close-up on ricardo's face ricardo the heart guy represents all of the best things about adventure time season one and speaking of those things let's move into a bit of an analysis on some of the key themes and ideas present in season 1 of adventure time so starting out with the comedy side of things you see a lot of risque jokes in this season things that aren't necessarily inappropriate but kind of hint at inappropriateness or feature words that are kind of like on the borderline between being appropriate for kids and maybe not being appropriate for kids this sort of thing is what gave the show a pg rating and that pg rating gives them a lot more flexibility than something like a y7 pg generally means that something is meant to be watched with adults present so that they can explain anything that may be a little inappropriate or borderline or a new concept that a kid hasn't been exposed to yet cartoons aimed at kids have a long-running history of sneaking in innuendo and dirty jokes but adventure times seem to revel in it and bring it back in a time where it wasn't quite as popular it's not like the season is particularly raunchy but there is just enough of it to give it a little bit of an edge honestly as an adult i can't really say i find most of these examples funny as much as they are just kind of shocking and interesting with what they can and can't get away with and i do think it was something that helped the show get attention in the early days on the other side of the coin there are quite a few jokes that i would describe as immature fart jokes talking about finn peeing as pants songs about babies pooping their diapers it's generally not really my style but i will say i don't think the season is excessive in it these sort of jokes only show up once or twice every few episodes memories of boom boom mountain is probably the most explicit in its toilet humor but it actually ties it in with the story of the episode and it portrays the boom boom in a relatively abstract way and i mean come on i laughed when jake said finn still cries when he poops so i wouldn't say it hurts the season but i don't really think it helped the season do anything great there's also finn's eyes bulging which is something that is only in season one and very very rarely outside of it i talked about this quite a bit in ocean of fear so i'll keep it very short i think it's funny to see finn's face go from incredibly plain to incredibly detailed but i guess certain members of the crew didn't feel the same way now let's look at some of these story tropes that pop up over and over again you see this debate on whether characters are good or evil and i feel like this comes from the d d inspiration a big thing in dungeons and dragons is a character's alignment in what combination of good evil chaotic and lawful they are and the three major times it appears we end up with a character who's evil ricardio a character who's good the duke of nuts and marceline who is kinda somewhere in between and while the general talk about alignment works for the adventure setting i think that this premise does overstay its welcome especially with the duke a really big recurring concept in season one is the concept of the anti-moral a moral in a cartoon is basically there to teach the audience a lesson don't steal do your homework don't punch your little sister etc etc an anti-moral is basically presenting what would traditionally be immoral and then flipping it on its head in slumber party panic the moral should have been don't break your promises or bad things will happen but instead finn interprets this as break your promises and you'll get to do a bunch of cool things most of the episodes this season have an anti-moral and a lot of times it's not even the core focus of the episode it's just a line that jake or someone will say that tells people that being an idiot all the time is a good thing or unattractive people are desperate now anti-morals can be a little tricky because depending on how they're done and what the audience is they can actively be reinforcing bad things for people to do but it can also be used to satirize typical morals and instead present a moral that isn't necessarily bad but is maybe more of an uncomfortable truth like sometimes your acts of kindness will be met with nothing but hostility for really no reason at all also anti-morals can be incredibly funny and i feel like adventure time's pg rating and slightly older demographic that it's aiming for allows it to get away with a lot more of these anti-morals because the target audience generally should know that these are joke morals and not to be followed and in general i think that it works really well for the first season and provides a lot of big laughs and interesting story turns but of course there's always exceptions to that and the episode donnie shows exactly why it's tricky to pull off the moral of that episode is basically some people are jerks and they deserve to be jerks for the rest of their lives and that their jerkiness is somehow helpful to everyone else the problem with that is that it's frustrating because it doesn't seem like this is something the characters have to do it seems like an arbitrary forced anti-moral tacked on to an already kind of annoying episode but on the whole in this season i'd say they work decently well and they are mixed in of course with a handful of actual genuine moral episodes and this is something that is mostly only present in season one as the show goes on it tries to take itself more seriously and in part more actual wisdom on the audience and if you're trying to do that it can definitely be muddling if you try to also include sarcastic anti-morals and lastly i want to talk about another thing that is heavily present in season one by design and that is the random bizarre moments that happen usually towards the end of the episode i'm talking about things like the ice king passing out and seeing the cosmic owl the three wise men who show up at the end of ocean of fear and the dolphin at the end of boom boom mountain in the original adventure time short penn the original finn meets abraham lincoln on mars and cartoon network when they picked up adventure time particularly loved that random weird aspect of it and so they requested that the people who make adventure time put as many of these abe lincoln moments into the show as possible but after really looking at all the examples in which this happens i have to say that generally i'm okay with it because of the way that they usually do it evicted is the main example of me not liking this trope where the worms just really feel like they were added on at the end of the episode just to be as weird and esoteric as possible they show up earlier in the episode shore and of course they have their own episode later on down the line but just as far as evicted goes it just seems so strange and off-putting to have our main characters be brainwashed at the end of the episode by this villain that has nothing to do with anything else so yeah there you go i actually think most of the elements that are heavily present in season 1 work quite well but is that enough to make it a good season of adventure time well let's take a look at the numbers so as you can plainly see there are 16 good times five met times and five adventure times but here's where it gets tricky because when i rate this season it will set my standard for the rest of this review series there's a part of me that wants to call this a good season after all it has a majority of good episodes very few flat out bad episodes and i think it achieves its goal of being a lighthearted comedy series set in an adventurous world but then on the other hand this is certainly not the peak of adventure time there are other seasons that successfully achieve more comedy than this season does and while getting better with its stories and even a bit dramatic at times i guess what it all boils down to is do i want to rate this as a season of television or do i want to rate this as a season of adventure time and of course if i go with the latter then that begs the question what even is adventure time a goofy comedy show an action show a romance kid's cartoon teenager cartoon cartoon for the whole family for that very reason i am going to call this a good season i came very close to just giving this a may but i said at the start that i was going to judge episodes on their own standards a silly episode focused on comedy should not be harshly judged just because it isn't trying to go for some level of complexity or deeper themes it's not my favorite season or one that i go back to very often but when i did do this revisit and deep dived into the episodes i was actually pleasantly surprised it's certainly not the show that i think of when i think of adventure time but as its own thing season one of adventure time is a fun ride and of course now that i've done this i opened myself up to future seasons where i could potentially like those seasons more but give it a worse rating than season 1 of adventure time just because it doesn't succeed as well at what it's trying to do well anyway enough rambling from me if you made it this far in the video thank you very much please please please give it a like and a comment and subscribe if you haven't i've been kind of stuck at the same subscriber count for a very long time and i would really appreciate getting somewhere close to a hundred thousand thank you guys very much and speaking of thank yous i would like to thank so many people firstly i'd like to thank andy who drew the pythons for this video there's a link down in the description to his work and his commissions are open i'd also like to thank carl the artist for doing the other pythons that pop up sporadically in this video i'd also like to thank my friends monsters review toon runes shadow streak nicktendo and kuro again for putting up with my long adventure time rambles during this whole process as well as chugga conroy for encouraging me to keep going with this project and i would like to thank the crew of adventure time and distant lands for making such an interesting interesting show that is a lot of fun to talk about and with that i will see you in season two hi guy rules out annoying vanity plate

Channel: PIEGUYRULZ

Views: 27,807

Rating: 4.9506555 out of 5

Keywords: Review, Cartoon, Cartoons, Nicktoons, CN, nick, pie, pieguy, pieguyrulz, Adventure, Time, SpongeBob, SquarePants, Rant, cartoon, Patrick, Squidward, every, episode, of, reviewed, analysis, Finn, Jake, obsidian adventure time, princess bubblegum, Jake the Dog, Finn the Human, Rated, Rating, Donny, His Hero, BMO, Distant Lands, adventure time distant lands, Marceline

Id: NQ4qGhfdgws

Length: 83min 10sec (4990 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 19 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/littlewillie610]

I wonder if his thoughts on any of the season 6 episodes have softened now that he has revisited the show.

[u/Stuped1811]

I got so caught up with Obsidian I forgot this was out! Thanks for the headsup!