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score 10/10
There are three kinds of people in the world: People who love 'Adventure Time', people who haven't given it much though or aren't huge fans of it, and people that complain about the "good 'ol days" of Cartoon Network.
I've only gotten into the show quite recently, but I remember way back in 2010 seeing the advertisements of young Finn fighting the villainous Ice King and thinking "Huh, this looks different", and not thinking about it a second more.
As I got older, my tastes in television lied upon the characters, how well-written they were and complex and all that. When a friend told me that the characters of 'Adventure Time' were just what I was looking for, I was skeptical at first, but also curious.
An evening of learning about this "Mushroom War" and watching clips of a vampire girl singing about her true feelings towards an old friend, a rainbow unicorn telling her canine partner that she's pregnant, and a video game device pretending that its human, and I was convinced to give the show a fair shake.
I honestly don't think this show is given enough credit. In just eleven minutes 'Adventure Time' utilizes what its given to craft (most of the time) very fleshed out and clever narratives; I hear all the time how people say there's a lot of "pointless episodes" and only a couple "meaningful" ones, but I'm inclined to disagree.
'Adventure Time' doesn't need to sole narrative to be good; it's more of just a series of sub-plots revolving around different characters, more in recent seasons than early ones (which I'm inclined to say are pretty weak until season 3). And not only that, but there's almost not a single episode in this series that isn't referenced later on; it just keeps building and building a more fleshed-out world, and that's what the recent season 6 has been trying to do. The Land of Ooo doesn't revolve around Finn and Jake, and that's what I love about this show the most I think. Everybody is messed up, from the insanity-driven Magic Man to Princess Bubblegum and her incredibly grey morals and actions.
And the characters change throughout the series too; Finn has gone from a screaming, spastic 12-year-old to a surprisingly reserved but still passionate 16-year-old over the course of the series, and Marceline has gone from an anti-hero with a heart of steel to a girl that's a lot more comfortable about sharing her feelings, at least with her newly-acquired mortal friends. On top of that, the dialogue is also something special. A lot of the time, the show manages to have these characters act and converse with one another in such a way that it sounds like the voice actors are actually having a real conversation with each other, and that really goes a long way for me at least.
As far as the animation goes, I actually loved the simplistic character designs from the start, as I found them to be quite charming; plus it fits the show's overall "growing up" feel, like 'Calvin and Hobbes.' But as simple as they are, this show has a huge cast of character, almost as large as the Simpsons' probably, and each and every one of them looks different from another. That, and the background of this show are beautifully detailed if you ever find yourself looking at them.
This really is one of those shows that only comes around once in a lifetime. It's simple enough on the surface for a preteen audience, but also a little complex and even thought-provoking a lot of the time for the adults, with some subtle writing and character moments that all pile up into one mathematical show.
Give the entire series a watch; you don't know what you've been missing, or at least not seeing when writing it off as a simple mindless show.
LegendaryTater900 24 September 2014
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3092260/ |
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22-11-2019 05:56:20
