Plot: What’s it about?
Of all the time I spend in front of the television, one of my favorite shows is Seth MacFarlane’s Family Guy. Yes, it’s raunchy and irreverant but it’s also some of the funniest stuff on TV. That and I’m always a sucker for The Simpson’s as well. Case in point, what these two shows have proved is that cartoons aren’t just for kids on Saturday mornings. No, they’ve come a long way since the golden age of television and be in on the small screen or large, have given a new generation of creative folks an outlet to express their thoughts and feelings. And such is the case with Adventure Time, the story of a boy and his dog/brother (who can also grow large on a whim) and their, well, adventures. I knew nothing about this other than it’s my stepson’s favorite TV show. Ok, this I gotta see…
Unlike live action shows, Adventure Time follows the cartoon ‘code’ with each episode being independent of the other. We meet Finn (voiced by Jeremy Shada) and his adoptive dog/brother, Jake (voiced by Futurama’s John DiMaggio). As residents of the land of Ooo, they’re off on, you guessed it, adventures. They meet up with sugar-craving zombies, a wall of flesh, a pie-throwing robot and Gary the Mermaid just to name a few. Admittedly I was a bit lost, but if you sit back and accept it then it’s actually quite enjoyable. As with most good animation (well, written, the animation is actually pretty crude), it’s got a bit of adult content in there, but nothing to the extent that Family Guy doles out. I’m not quite sure if Adventure Time gained a loyal fan, but I do see what all the hoopla is about. So that’s good.
Video: How does it look?
Having never seen an episode of this until I popped the Blu-ray in the player, I had no idea as to what to expect. Some television shows look amazing, sometimes even better than when they air and others…not so much. That said, the 1.78:1 VC-1 HD image looked good, but it’s not without a few minor flaws. First off I’ll say that this one colorful experience, encompassing nearly every inch of the spectrum. Colors are bold, bright and vivid and look amazing on the TV. I did notice some banding and a bit of “movement” in a few of the darker scenes (mainly in the shadows) but aside from that there’s really nothing to complain about. I highly doubt that the target audience will even notice things like this, so just sit back and enjoy it – it’s on Blu-ray after all this time!
Audio: How does it sound?
What’s rather perplexing is the inclusion of a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack (I realize that the specs on the side of this page say Dolby Digital 5.1, that’s because I don’t even have an option set for a 2.0 mix). Granted I don’t think we need a 5.1 mix, but I’m sure that the soundtrack could have been a bit more robust. Still, we’re nit picking here as the limited range offers a fairly good array of sounds. Voices sound clear and natural, though with nothing else going on in the rear channels, it had somewhat of an empty feeling in places. Again, though, I doubt anyone will find much to crow about.
Supplements: What are the extras?
Again, having never seen an episode until this disc arrived, I really had no idea what to expect. We’re greeted with a quartet of audio commentaries by some various members of the crew. Each offers some insight into the respective episodes and I’m pretty much in awe of anything and everything George Takei says, so this was a win for me. We get a trio of featurettes, the most entertaining of the bunch is how the show was scored. The most robust of the supplements are the animatics, running at nearly an hour we find some animated storyboards with commentary on four episodes. Rounding out the extras, we get a music video (live action), a tribute to Finn and “The Wand”, an extra little feature.
