This show has one of the largest following of fans that I’ve seen in years…
The ongoing adventures of Finn the human boy and Jake the dog in the Land of OOO are told on Adventure Time! Their quests include fighting enemies, having fun, and saving the many, many princesses throughout the land. Their friends like Lumpy Space Princess, Marceline, Princess Bubblegum, and BMO always keep life interesting. So what time is it?! It’s Adventure Time!
Creator Pen Ward along with the rest of the crew, have done an excellent job with the show the 3rd season. They keep the show interesting and elevate the fun with every episode. The voice cast is Jeremy Shada as Finn the human and John DiMaggio as Jake the dog. Other voices include Hynden Walch, Niki Yang, Tom Kenny, Olivia Olson, Martin Olson, Polly Lou Livingston, Jessica DiCicco, and even Penn Ward as Lumpy Space Princess. This season has also had its share of guest stars including the talents of Neil Patrick Harris, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Keith David, and Madeline Martin. As the show progresses, the world always gets bigger and bigger. It’s one of the genius parts of the show that Ward thought of ahead of time. He made sure not to confine the world to a specific size and they can create new characters as well as princesses to save. This show has one of the largest following of fans that I’ve seen in years. They definitely try to see how far they can push out the subtle jokes for adults and still keep their target audience.
Also worth mentioning is that like the previous two seasons on Blu-ray, the collectible slipcover represents an important character. For the third season, it is BMO, their multi-use electronic friend. There are even arms inside of the case that can be put on the slipcover, making it look even more like the character. It adds a nice little touch to this already very cool release.
Like the other Blu-ray releases of Adventure Time, the transfer is an excellent 1080p VC-1. The cartoon is always incredibly colorful and vibrant. That’s just how the Land of OOO looks unless it’s a dark area. I feel like watching the cartoon in HD is the best way to see it because the bright colors are a part of the charm. The lines are clean and clear for the most part but there is a small issue that I have noticed at times. Intermittently the lines in the animation would become soft and almost blurry. I checked it on two different TVs and it looks like it’s in the original animation and not the transfer. It’s a very minor issue but I can imagine that a lot of people might miss the softness unless it is pointed out or they are looking for it.
The audio mix is, again, in the Dolby Digital 2.0 at 192kbps. This did surprise me a little bit that this time around they still went with an older encode rather than HD audio. That aside, the audio does sound very good. The treble is high and clear because the show is very heavy with dialogue as well as sound effects. The LFE channel is heavy enough that the mix should be printed as Dolby Digital 2.1. I think that when authoring the the show going forward, they should consider at least a 5.1 mix. There are a lot of sounds in the show and the extra channels would give the release that little something extra it deserves. I might be mistaken but the show is broadcast in a 5.1 mix so I don’t understand why not add that track to the release.
The biggest part of the bonus features is the commentary for each episode. That’s 26 individual commentaries on one disc and they are incredibly funny. It is a nice treat to get the crew’s take on each episode and get an understanding what they were thinking when coming up with the stores.
Bonus Features:
-26 Audio Commentaries:
Episode List:
1. Conquest of Cuteness
2. Morituri Te Salutamus
3. Memory of a Memory
4. Hitman
5. Too Young
6. The Monster
7. Still
8. Wizard Battle
9. Fionna and Cake
10. What Was Missing
11. Apple Thief
12. The Creeps
13. From Bad to Worse
14. Beautopia
15. No One Can Hear You
16. Jake vs. Me-Mow
17. Thank You
18. New Frontier
19. Holly Jolly Secrets, Part 1
20. Holly Jolly Secrets, Part 2
21. Marceline’s Closet
22. Paper Pete
23. Another Way
24. Ghost Princess
25. Dad’s Dungeon
26. Incendium
-How an Idea Becomes Adventure Time: Creator Penn Ward, supervising producer/storyboard artist Adam Muto, and Head of Story Kent Osborne talk about how they created the show not only for kids but also the adults that have to watch the show with their kids. They appreciate hearing feedback from parents at Comic Cons and that they enjoy the tone of the show.
-Alternate Intro by Screen Novelties: The exact opening but built with LEGOs. It looks very cool and it would be a good change to use from time to time.
Disc Details
1 50GB Blu-ray Disc
Slipcover
Edition Ratings
TV-PG
Region Code
A
Video Resolution
1080p VC-1
Audio Tracks
English Dolby Digital 2.0 192kbps
Subtitles
English SDH
The third season of Adventure Time has more fun, laughs, and of course more princesses than the season before. To keep in line with the previous releases, the slipcover is a fan favorite of one of the characters from the show. I think BMO was the perfect choice for this season, especially because of its size and shape. The Blu-ray looks vibrant and very clean. It’s what’s to be expected from a cartoon as new as this show. Even though the sound isn’t in HD, it does still have a very strong presence. The crew has taken the time out to commentate each episode for some funny info and the alternate intro is timely due to the popularity of LEGOs at the moment. It’s a well done release as a whole and its very cool of Cartoon Network to to keep the packaging matching up with the previous releases. I can recommend this release with ease for fans new and old alike.
