Adventure Time: season 2

DVD Wholesale Quick Overview:

As a 33 year-old woman with no children, I can say that I am a huge, shameless fan of Adventure Time.

Love the packaging on the DVD itself. And, of course, the show is a treasure: complex, original, funny, and warm.

I think one element that draws me to the show is that Jake and Finn genuinely love each other as bros and best buds. I feel like there’s so many shows and movies (animated/live action, made for kids/adults, etc), where the characters are just MEAN to each other. You’re seeing bullies and cruelty and it’s played up for laughs. The bro-love between the main heroes is refreshing.

I’m also a big fan of media that bends gender norms. Strong female characters like Princess Bubblegum (loves science!) and Marcelene (hardcore vampire queen!) are a treat. Not only are the strong female characters, they are just strong characters…female.

-Katie W.

Let me just start off by saying Adventure Time! is an amazing show; and it is great that CN is releasing full seasons instead of little volumes. You can read any one of the other glowing reviews presented to see how great the actual show is. This review will focus on the extras, which I have mixed feelings about.

Crew Interview:
The first extra is an ‘Interview’ of the cast done by Pendleton Ward. This extra is basically a waste of time; it features members of the cast watching a video that we never get to see. There are very few questions even asked to the crew, definitely less than five. The only thing this extra is good for is putting a face to the names of the crew.

Commentaries:
All 26 episodes are accompanied by an audio commentary track done by Pendleton Ward and a bunch of the storyboard artists. I love audio commentary, so I was really glad to see that each episode had commentary for this season, verses the first season where only a select few had commentary. Unfortunately, there is one big flaw with the commentary and that is that it is self-censored.

Pen holds up a note at the beginning explaining that there are some section that are cut-out and replaced with music, so that everything stays appropriate. This gets very annoying, very fast. Someone will be telling a story but you can’t really follow it because huge chunks are cut-out and replaces with ukulele music. Then when it cuts back to the audio commentary there is usually a ton on laughing and people saying “orange juice.” “Orange Juice”, by the way, is the code word they decided to use to indicate that the subject it not appropriate.

I get that they are trying to make it so that the commentary will be accessible for all ages, but it feels like being left out of a joke. It’s like when you leave the room to pee, come back to everyone laughing, and nobody will tell you why. I don’t think that there should be rampant swearing in the commentary, but they went to far on the conservative side. Anything about the boarders being depressed is tip-toed around; saying brand names is avoided(eg. stopping themselves from saying “Google it”); and there almost seems to be a hesitation to mentioning other CN shows. So, they are trying to watch what they say, which ruins a lot of the natural charm of audio commentaries. I’ve listened to the commentaries done for “The Venture Brothers,” another CN show (although it is in Adult Swim), and there are very few edits. Maybe like 3 times in all the four seasons, and they mention brand names and other shows that influences them all the time. I don’t get why the people on Adventure Time! wouldn’t be able to do the same.

I can understand why people gave up listening to the commentary after a few episodes; I stuck it out for all 26 and do think that they get a bit better. The music gets less annoying the further into the season you get, as it starts getting goofier and more experimental. There are some nice little pieces of info to be found in the episodes, but nothing Ooo shattering. The main appeal is hearing how much the artist really love working on the show and with each other. I also applaud them for doing the commentaries in one afternoon, it adds a great sense of continuity.

So the ‘Interview’ was a complete fail and the commentaries did not live up to what I had hoped. If they were uncensored they would be so much better. It would have also been nice to have some additional commentary done by the voice actors or Pen’s mom, like in season one, just to mix it up a bit. Still, even with the flaws of the extras, the core presentation of the show is worth the 5-stars. I just hope that they can be more open for the Season 3 release!

– Stephen

Adventure Time Season 2 is just a great as Season 1. There are some really great episodes on here with some great guest star voices. The episodes and guest stars are as follows:

1 – It Came from the Nightosphere (Martin Olson guest voices Marceline’s Dad.)
2 – The Eyes (The horse is an homage to the Shetland pony drawn by cartoonist Kate Beaton who created the “Hark! A Vagrant!” comics.)
3 – Loyalty to the King
4 – Blood Under the Skin (Peter Stormare guest voices Sir Slicer.)
5 – Storytelling (Tom Herpich guest voices Mr. Fox and Sam Marin guest voices the Teenage Bear.)
6 – Slow Love (Biz Markie guest voices Snorlock.)
7 – Power Animal (Paul Reubens guest voices the Evil Gnome.)
8 – Crystals Have Power
9 – The Other Tarts (Stephen Root guest voices the Royal Tart Toter.)
10 – To Cut a Woman’s Hair (Thurop Van Orman, the creator of The Misadventures of Flapjack and the voice of Flapjack guest voices a balding tree witch.)
11 – The Chamber of Frozen Blades
12 – Her Parents (Henry Rollins and Laura Silverman guest voice Lady Rainicorn’s parents.)
13 – The Pods
14 – The Silent King (Michael J. Anderson guest voices Gummy and the Royal Goblin Chief of Staff.)
15 – The Real You
16 – Guardians of Sunshine
17 – Death in Bloom (Miguel Ferrer guest voices Death.)
18 – Susan Strong (Jackie Buscarino guest voices Susan Strong.)
19 – Mystery Train
20 – Go with Me
21 – Belly of the Beast (Andy Samberg guest voices Party Pat.)
22 – The Limit
23 – Video Makers
24 – Mortal Folly (Part 1) (Ron Perlman guest voices The Lich.)
25 – Mortal Recoil (Part 2) (Kevin Michael Richardson guest voices the Lich-possessed Princess Bubblegum and Isabella Acres guest voices the young Princess Bubblegum.)
26 – Heat Signature (Brian Baumgartner Toby Huss and Kate Micucci guest voice Marcheline’s ghost friends.)

Personally, I loved all the episodes in this seasons so I was really excited to see that the entire season was released on DVD and Blue-ray. If you’re a fan of Adventure Time, I’d highly recommend this.

-O.

DVD Wholesale Main Features:

Actors: Jeremy Shada, John DiMaggio, Hyden Walch, Tom Kenny
Directors: Larry Leichliter
Format: Animated, Color, NTSC
Language: English
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number of discs: 2
Studio: Cartoon Network
DVD Release Date: June 4, 2013
Run Time: 286 minutes