Adventure Time: The Complete Second Season
No more random episodes for us! It's time for a complete season for Adventure Time fans. It odd to think back that we're on Season 5 now, but the shows momentum hasn't stopped. Season 2 brings new memorable characters and lore to the Land of Ooo and our heroes Finn and Jake. Many regard this the last good season, I regard those people less and tell them to shut up. I do have to agree that the show is mighty fine with a classic two-parter and the Lord of Evil showing up this season. Hunson Abadeer, wait we don't learn his name until another season.
Immediate props to design department on the DVD. Love the design for how the cover transfroms the Ice King to the Nice king. Then we have a nice look at his inner head when we open up the case. Keep up the the close-up shot covers, just like the special The Simpsons DVD covers.
Season 2 starts off heavy and keeps up a dark pace even thought the dark Jesse Moynihan didn't storyboard all the episodes. The first episode has Finn summoning Marceline's dad from the Nightosphere. He's one bad dude, he tries to suck up all the souls in Ooo, only Finn's heroics and family counseling can save the day. This day saving lasts throughout the season with a terrifying two-parter where the accursed mind controlling ans super powerful "Lich" tries to destroy all of Ooo and the Candy Kingdom. Can Finn and Jake stop a body changing evil monster bent on Ooo's destruction, I did write there's more seasons so probably yes.
Characters ahoy, we have "the lich", Marceline's Dad, but who else? Welcome back, Tree Trunks in a story that introduces Jake's brother Jermaine that might never show up in the show again. Hey, Party G-d! Hello, Death you weird skull headed thing you. Psychic Tandem War Elephant where have you been? Let's not forget the possible only other human on Ooo Susan Strong! Each of them ready to be discovered by Finn and Jake and to fight or befriend or sometimes both.
There's too many amazing episodes to go over. You get 26 episodes, 11 mintues or so in length, but each can be so different and radically change what the show is about. One of my favorites for this season was "The Real You". In this episode storyboard by Adam Muto and Rebecca Sugar, Finn obtains the glasses of Nerdicon and become incredibly smart, but also so unhinged he almost destroys all of Ooo with a black hole. He does it all to impress Princess Bubblegum, young love. By the end we have Finn back to being dumb and using a four dimensional sword to stop the crisis he created for love.Episodes can radically be different like the DVD cover for this volume the "Nice King" where after shaving his beard many princesses of Ooo try and get with the Ice King unbeknownst to them that his true identity is an old jerk. They are very desperate though. In this episode we see how messed up the Ice King is, but how inventive the AT staff is with Ice King creating a entire new kingdom out of sand from the park.
Quality wise I'm noticing the DVD edition seems not to have the best quality. You might want to pay a little extra for the Blu-ray copy instead.
As I've mentioned in previous posts the people at Warner Home Video haves listened to fans and each episode has it's own commentary track. You'll also get Pen Ward talking to some of the crew briefly than showing them something horrible possibly as a silly bonus extra. Just like last time though, the DVD menus could be a bit more playful or fun and I know you could put in some more extras with disk space.
Get this if your an Adventure Time fan or want to see one of the best well written and animated cartoons of the last five years.
The DVD's were provided by the publisher for review
