Adventure Time: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Adventure Time: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Wait... it gets even better?

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown August 12, 2015

When Pendleton Ward announced Adventure Time was about to drop a double-stuffed 52-episode season on fans, the cynic inside my brain bristled. It's the end of all things! More of a good thing often doesn't amount to good things. So how is it that the series' fifth season -- which threatens to burst at the britches -- not only good but better than every season before it? Vision, dear friends. Vision. For all its random shenaniganning (yep, just made that a word), for all its flights of surreal, id-born fancy, for all its simplistic visuals and bizarre characters, Adventure Time doubles down on everything that matters. More crucially, it expands its mythos, delves into its heroes and villains' origins (not to mention the post-apocalyptic history of the Land of Ooo), raises the stakes in surprising ways, intensifies the laughs, and makes almost every new storyline more compelling than the last. I couldn't stop cracking up... but I also couldn't stop marveling at the subtle refinements that have been made to the plot and characters, or at the sadness and sometimes heart-wrenching pathos that seem to be making bolder and bolder appearances from episode to episode. Ward and his most beloved creation aren't growing stale. Adventure Time is more infectious than ever.

Are you a Jake fan? Great! Because Season Five has a ridiculous amount of momentous Jake moments!! Like when he became Jake the Dad. That time he tracked down Jake Jr.'s kidnapper (sort of). Who can forget the masterpiece that is his Most Delicious Sandwich?! And he shares these moments with his best bro Finn and friends in a total of 52 episodes, all for you! Currently in its sixth season on Cartoon Network and already gearing up for a highly anticipated seventh, the series is the #1 rated show among boys 6-11 and is the second highest rated show among boys 6-14 and kids 6-14, according to Nielsen Media Research. As Cartoon Network's #1 show, it has been lauded by critics, received multiple industry awards and has emerged as a fan-favorite brand for fans of all ages since its April 2010 debut.

Labeling the series "experimental" no longer does Adventure Time justice. Ward is beyond experimenting. He's weaving entire worlds, nurturing an ever-embiggening cast of unforgettable characters, exploring crazy new ideas, enriching all that's come before and laying original groundwork for all that's to come, and still concocting an endless array of interesting paths to follow. He's all but carved out his own genre, inspiring and influencing his contemporaries and the next generation of animators eager to follow in his footsteps. And he's done so without patting himself on the back, and perhaps, in some ways, without realizing the full extent of what it is he's created. The series revels in stream of conscious hilarity, pop culture references six layers deep, and an understanding of story structure most showrunners would kill to bring to their writers' rooms. For all its seemingly random, nonsensical, leftfield tangents, Adventure Time rarely, if ever, drifts off course. The more insignificant a subplot appears, the more important it soon reveals itself to be. A happy string of accidents? Luck? Hardly. The series may strike newcomers as haphazard slapdashery, but it's anything but. Watch long enough, pore over enough episodes, and the genius -- no hyperbole required -- of the inner-workings of Ward's hit becomes stunningly clear.

The Blu-ray release of Adventure Time: The Complete Fifth Season features 52 episodes (each one approximately 11 minutes in length) spread across two BD-50 discs:

1. Finn the Human
2. Jake the Dog
3. Five More Short Graybles
4. Up a Tree
5. All the Little People
6. Jake the Dad
7. Davey
8. Mystery Dungeon
9. All Your Fault
10. Little Dude
11. Bad Little Boy
12. Vault of Bones
13. The Great Bird Man
14. Simon and Marcy
15. A Glitch Is a Glitch
16. Puhoy
17. BMO Lost
18. Princess Potluck
19. James Baxter the Horse
20. Shh!
21. The Suitor
22. The Party's Over, Isla de Señorita
23. One Last Job
24. Another Five More Short Graybles
25. Candy Streets
26. Wizards Only, Fools
27. Jake Suit
28. Be More
29. Sky Witch
30. Frost & Fire
31. Too Old
32. Earth & Water
33. Time Sandwich
34. The Vault
35. Love Games
36. Dungeon Train
37. The Box Prince
38. Red Starved
39. We Fixed a Truck
40. Play Date
41. The Pit
42. James
43. Root Beer Guy
44. Apple Wedding
45. Blade of Grass
46. Rattleballs
47. The Red Throne
48. Betty
49. Bad Timing
50. Lemonhope (1)
51. Lemonhope (2)
52. Billy's Bucket List

Adventure Time: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Blu-ray release of Adventure Time: The Complete Fifth Season features a solid 1080p/VC-1 encoded video presentation comparable to its high definition predecessors. There are a few necessary disclaimers -- the animation isn't always razor sharp, faint pixilation occasionally haunts the line art, and a hint of aliasing creeps into the proceedings -- but most, if not all, of these issues track back to the original animation source. (And are extremely difficult to detect when an episode is in motion.) Otherwise, there's little to complain about. Colors are bright and bountiful, primaries leap off the screen, black levels are inky, and contrast is consistently vibrant and satisfying. Detail delivers too, and the animation looks every bit as good as it should. Moreover, artifacting, banding and other unsightlies are either nowhere to be found or in very small supply, meaning Warner's latest Adventure Time offering doesn't disappoint.

Adventure Time: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Another season of Adventure Time, another decent but unremarkable 320kbps Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track. There's nothing wrong with the mix, mind you. There just isn't anything to get excited about. Voices are clean and clear. Effects are playful and nicely prioritized. And music is as full and engaging as it could be. I'd still love to experience the series' reality-skewing adventures with LFE support and rear speaker activity, but until Ward upgrades the show's sound design, that isn't an option.

Adventure Time: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Unlike previous seasons of Adventure Time, The Complete Fifth Season doesn't include a single audio commentaries with creator Pendleton Ward or the veritable parade of guests he's trotted out on Blu-rays past. However, the 2-disc set isn't completely devoid of special features. On deck are:

• Adventure Time Forever (HD, 16 minutes): The team behind Adventure Time reveals all... that they can in a little over fifteen minutes. Not great, but it's something!
• Animatic Clips (HD, 45 minutes): Both discs offer a lengthy collection of animated storyboard animatics.

Adventure Time: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Adventure Time's fifth season? The best to date, even at a double-sized 52-episodes. The Blu-ray edition's video presentation? Strong. Its lossy stereo mix? It gets the job done, just as previous season tracks have. And special features? That's really the only disappointment here. Earlier seasons of Adventure Time included audio commentaries with Ward and his team, and for every episode. The Complete Fifth Season offers a quick featurette and some animatics. Welcome, but not nearly as extensive, funny or insightful. Still, don't let that stop you from adding more Jake and Finn to your Blu-ray collection. The fifth season is well worth the cost of admission.