On Monday, September 3rd at 6pm ET/PT, fans all around the world will witness the end of an era as Cartoon Network premieres the series finale of Adventure Time. This extended episode is guaranteed to make you feel all the feels, with good jubies and bad jubies alike, but while the multiple Emmy award-winning series may be coming to a close, you can relive the show's final seasons on DVD the very next day. That's right, Adventure Time: The Final Seasons DVD is all packaged up and ready to arrive on store shelves (and your home shelves) on Tuesday, September 4th, once you've pulled yourselves together after the finale, "Come Along with Me."
Lucky me, I had a chance to check out the massive DVD collection which has 54 episodes, including the series finale, on four discs, along with a modest collection of special features. "The Final Seasons" encompasses Season 8 (starting with "Broke His Crown") through the tenth and final season, including the eight-part "Islands" and "Elements" arcs, and some of the best installments in the entire series. I'll be saving a spoiler-free review of the series finale for last because dedicated fans deserve the chance to enjoy the series finale in its entirety for themselves, but I'll be sharing my general impressions and reactions; feel free to skip it completely until after the finale's airing next Monday.
As a bonus, the finale's original soundtrack will also be available on the 4th, though you can pre-order it through iTunes, Google Play, and Amazon Music starting on the 1st; and if vinyl's more your speed, Mondo will take pre-orders for a special edition LP. The soundtrack features over 20 tracks from the action-packed final episode, including a cover of Main Title by special finale voice guest star, Willow Smith; original music by show composer, Tim Kiefer; an all-new song by Rebecca Sugar (creator, Steven Universe) and the full-length version of Island Song (Come Along With Me) by Ashley Eriksson.
Episodes
Cartoon Network's Adventure Time DVD box sets/seasonal collections have been some of the purest forms of delight these past eight years. Back when the Pendleton Ward creation was regularly airing in a more traditional schedule, it was a little easier to keep track of the completely insane episodes full of half-explained mythology and lots and lots of non-sequiturs. During the last few seasons, however, starting with the "Stakes" arc, the episodes started to arrive in more of a scattershot fashion scheduled around multi-part specials. So if you feel like you missed something along the way, it might be because the plot is non-sequential (and often nonsensical) or it might be because you actually missed the random airings of certain episodes. Either way, Adventure Time: The Final Seasons is a perfect way to get caught up on the last three seasons, all leading up to the epic series finale.
With three seasons, 54 episodes, and two eight-part arcs to enjoy, you'll find plenty of favorites along the way for all sorts of reasons. Like "Beyond the Grotto" and its exploration of Lady Rainicorn's backstory, or Fionna and Cake's adventures in "Five Short Tables", Jake's multiple coming-of-age tales all packed into "Daddy-Daughter Card Wars", and the two-part "Preboot/Reboot" episodes that leads into the fantastic and fan-favorite "Islands" arc. Then of course there's "Orb", the all-important episode that ties the "Islands" arc to that of the eight-part "Elements" storyline, which may just be the most "coherent" bit of mythology we get in the series. (For me personally, I also love the absolutely bizarre weirdness of Tree Trunks' family tree in "High Strangeness" and an other-worldly ghost story in "The First Investigation."
Of course, these episodes are all leading to the ultimate end of the show at the close of its 10th and final season. So while Adventure Time holds onto its often-imitated brand of humor, storytelling, and art style in these later seasons, the story does start to coalesce a bit more here. Finn and Jake's adventures move ever so slightly from the chaotic and spontaneous and become a little more direct, the complicated relationship between Simon Petrikov/Ice King and Betty becomes more intense, Princess Bubblegum starts to come into her own in more ways than one, and the clash between the opposing forces within the Candy Kingdom(s) becomes unavoidable. The series finale aims to resolve that one way or another ... but we're not there just yet!
Bonus Features
If it's just the Bonus Features you're interested in with this DVD collection, it might still be worth the cost if only for the retrospective with the cast and crew that appears within it. Oddly enough, neither Ward nor Executive Producer Fred Seibert appear here, but Adam Muto, Rebecca Sugar, Ian Jones-Quartey and other notable names from Adventure Time's historic run are here to reflect on their experiences and talk about how it's changed their entire careers. But other than this 10-minute featurette, dubbed "Adventure Time Yearbook", the other bonuses are pretty basic.
"Animatics" - As you might expect, these are curated episodes that play with the animated storyboards from earlier in each episode's production. The episodes include "Normal Man", "Five Short Tables", "Wheels", "Winter Light", "Hero Heart", "Abstract", "Bonnibel Bubblegum", and "Temple of Mars".
"Character Art Gallery" - Rather than a simple gallery of finished character stills you can click through, this bonus feature is more of a slideshow of the artists' work meant for the animators, complete with notes, hilarious descriptions of the character in the margins, and rare insight into the production process from script to screen and doodles to finished drawings.
"Song Demos" - A collection of four songs demo'd before their final versions appeared in each episode. The songs include: "Flower Song", "Hot Dog Song", "Neptr Flame P Rap" and "Evolution."
"Adventure Time Yearbook" - In addition to the previously mentioned names, writer Julia Pott, head of story Kent Osborne, writer Ashly Burch, and composer Casey Basichis look back on their time at Adventure Time in a really touching retrospective.
Here's your last chance to stop reading before our spoiler-free series finale review.
Series Finale
After eight years, 10 seasons, and nearly 300 episodes, Adventure Time comes to a close in the fittingly titled extended episode, "Come Along with Me." I'd say take my advice and avoid any news or spoilers about the episode until after you've had a chance to see it, but since you're here, you must be curious.
As a longtime Adventure Time fan, I can say that its finale was perfectly handled and is both in keeping with the style the show has become known for while also delivering a satisfying conclusion to the mythology that's been a driving force behind the fandom. Equally well-handled in "Come Along with Me" is the attention to detail, connecting the events of this final episode to specific story points seen--or in some cases missed if you blinked at all--throughout the series. And while not every main character gets the same level of resolution to their story in this finale, just about everyone you've ever seen will get a moment to shine in this final, epic tale.
"Come Along with Me" is the kind of finale you always hope for with animated series. It doesn't try to over-explain events or drop a load of exposition on the viewers, because that's just not Adventure Time's style. Instead, it's as predictably unpredictable as ever, but somehow the chaotic storytelling is still satisfying here. I'm usually the type of viewer who likes to have hard answers for every question ever asked and every riddle ever posed, and a nice bow tying up loose plot points. Adventure Time does have some of those for the major arcs in the mythos, but its emotional closure is more satisfying than anything else. There are moments that will make you gasp, those that will make you stand up and cheer, and while you'll laugh of course, there's at least one powerful moment that should have your eyes brimming with tears if not all-out bawling.
"Come Along with Me" is expertly crafted and worth watching again and again in years to come, which is just what you'd expect from Adventure Time.
Be sure to tune in to Cartoon Network Monday, September 3rd at 6pm for the finale, and then pick it up on the Final Seasons DVD on the 4th!
