This is the season Jake becomes a father. That might be the most important thing to remember. There is more continuity this season, which really started in earnest during season 3, but now it has gotten to the point where missing a couple of episodes can leave the viewer wondering what happened in a particular relationship. Yes, the episodes themselves are largely stand-alone, but the wealth of characters the show has now offers up a great wealth off relationships to draw from for the stories. There are still a number of adventures Finn and Jake embark on, but now “Adventure Time” has evolved into something more than just two brothers surviving a post-apocalyptic fantasy land.
Season 5 is not the place to start watching “Adventure Time” because it does draw heavily on the history of relationships the main characters have with the supporting cast. There’s Finn and his relationship with the Flame Princess which began last season.
And it is here that WordPress “ate” my review and I lost the next 5 paragraphs. What follows is a poor attempt at reconstructing the review.
Much of this season sees Finn realizing on an emotional level the consequences of his actions. This is a much more “adult” trait we see develop in this season. Are Finn and Jake growing up? Well, technically they are adults in the series, we don’t know what sort of development people have in this land or how long they live, so really they could be 4o years old but still a teenager in terms of their development.
I should probably bring up the guest stars that voice some characters, such as Emo Philips, Levar Burton, Weird Al Yankovic, Mark Hamill, M. Emmett Walsh. There are so many to bring up that I could just run a list and it would be boring. Suffice to say the guest vocal power is, pardon the pun, stellar.
Special features start off with animatics on most episodes. These are essentially storyboards timed with dialogue. They often run a minute or less, which is disappointing, as I would have liked to have seen some of the episodes with their full-length animatic, but it still offers an interesting look at the process. Then there is the 15 minute behind the scenes featurette looking at the history of the series from execution to mega-popularity. I wish it were a bit longer.
On Blu-ray the show looks (and sounds) fantastic. Despite being “simply” drawn there are a lot of details to make out. Many television shows benefit from being released on Blu-ray, and “Adventure Time” is another example of this being the case.
Season five may not be the best entry point to “Adventure Time” since it picks up from the ending of season four and is a strong indication of the show’s growth in continuity. That said, fans of “Adventure Time” will certainly want to pick this up. The series shows no slowing down with regards to quality.