Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

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

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more!

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown June 5, 2013

Animator Pendleton Ward -- he of The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack obscur-o-fame -- is a prince of animated chaos, capable of fashioning the utterly inane and random into a side-splitting jolt of pop culture hilarity. In 2010, with a mere scrunch of his brow, a flick of his pen and a dash of his divisive genius, Ward gave us Adventure Time, an acquired taste to be sure, but a tart, sugary delight to all those addicted to the sweet, savory, salty zest of its masterfully managed madness. The series, now five seasons strong, has drawn its share of praise and criticism, both as extreme as one might imagine. Some loathe Adventure Time, chastising its simplistic animation and seemingly nonsensical stories and characters. Others adore every passing season more than the last, flocking to each new episode as if it were the epitome of Event TV. Personally, I can't get enough, and the fact that not one but two seasons of the show are being released on Blu-ray is cause for nothing but celebration in my little corner of happiness.

Raise thine sword, brave hero! Raise it thus, and uphold thine oath!

It's one crazy adventure after another for human boy, Finn, and his best friend, Jake, a 28-year old dog with magical powers. They're out to have the most fun possible and they sure do find it exploring the Land of Ooo! Whether it's saving Princess Bubblegum (Hynden Walch), battling zombie candy, taunting the Ice King (Tom Kenny) or rocking out with Marceline the Vampire Queen (Olivia Olson), with Finn & Jake it's always time for another adventure.

Experience dictates that any attempt to sell Adventure Time to the uninitiated is a fool's errand, as it's next to impossible to describe, much less convey, the joy -- or irritation -- that awaits. Ward's animation is almost childishly simple, yes, but it's fueled by such uncontainable, absurdist energy that the method to its flip-book madness quickly becomes apparent. And his stories and characters are nonsensical... but only on their surface. As more and more episodes whip by with feverish intensity, Ward's humor, reference base and intended audience becomes all too clear. Adventure Time isn't meant to sway the masses; it's meant to appeal to purveyors of bizarre, cult-driven animation, fantasy junkies, and niche geeks of all stripes.

Still, it takes a few episodes for the series to really start to sink its teeth into your brain. Mild amusement is something of a prerequisite, though. No one will go from pure hatred to unadulterated fandom here. Additional episodes will push those who enjoy the show's early episodes into deeper enjoyment, while those who wrinkle their nose early on will only develop a deep resentment toward Ward and everything that flushes out of his stream-of-consciousness imagination. So give it a spin and see where you land. If you're already a fan, nabbing both seasons on Blu-ray is a no-brainer. If you've yet to sample Ward's hit show, there's no time like the present.

Adventure Time: The Complete Second Season includes 26 episodes:

1. It Came from the Nightosphere
2. The Eyes
3. Loyalty to the King
4. Blood Under the Skin
5. Storytelling
6. Slow Love
7. Power Animal
8. Crystals Have Power
9. The Other Tarts
10. To Cut a Woman's Hair
11. The Chamber of Frozen Blades
12. Her Parents
13. The Pods
14. The Silent King
15. The Real You
16. Guardians of Sunshine
17. Death in Bloom
18. Susan Strong
19. Mystery Train
20. Go with Me
21. Belly of the Beast
22. The Limit
23. Video Mistakes
24. Mortal Folly
25. Mortal Recoil
26. Heat Signature

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

Even with 26 eleven-minute episodes housed on each single-disc release, both The Complete First Season and Complete Second Season of Adventure Time features an excellent 1080p/VC-1 encoded video presentation that boasts a stunning array of colors, inky blacks, exacting clarity and eye-gouging vibrance. All that scalpel-point precision comes at a bit of a cost, of course. Ward's finest lines are prone to aliasing and/or slight pixelation, minor banding occasionally haunts darker backgrounds, and additional (but equally negligible) anomalies make brief appearances. However, absolutely none of it spoils the proceedings in the least, or really proves to be much of a distraction at all. Each season's image is so clean, so bright, so crisp and so colorful that the imperfections that do creep in hardly matter, particularly when those imperfections are, by and large, a product of the animation and digital source, not either season's encode. In fact, compared to the DCU animated original movie releases, the aforementioned issues are less prevalent and obvious. I can't imagine Adventure Time looking any better than it does in its dual-release Blu-ray debut. Fans will be thrilled.

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

The biggest downside to each season's Blu-ray release is its 192kbps Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo mix. Oh, to have Adventure Time in lossless 5.1 surround. Each track is serviceable, with clear, intelligible voices, clean effects and lively music, but each one also lacks much-needed LFE oomph and rear-speaker frivolity. A disappointment to be sure, but not the deal-breaker casual fans or fringe newcomers might claim.

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

• Full Season Audio Commentary (306 minutes): In a fit of inspired brilliance, creator Pendleton Ward and his storyboard artists piled in his house and recorded a running commentary of all 26 second season episodes. That's right. All 26 second season episodes. Woo! And it's a fantastic listen too, or it will be for uber-fans of the show. Also, as Ward explains at the outset: "I ended up chopping some of the commentary out. Then, cause there were gaps, I filled 'em up with short songs and ukulele melodies. So sometimes you'll hear the commentary dip out, then a short song might play... and then the commentary will cut back in with everybody laughing. Heh. But I promise the cut audio seems way juicier than it really was. I just had to snippity snap it all out you know. I know y'all are hip. Y'all understand. Thank you!"
• The Crew of Adventure Time Interview (HD, 6 minutes): Ward interviews his creative team.

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

Even with relatively limited supplemental packages and lossy Dolby Digital stereo mixes, you can't go wrong with the first two seasons of Adventure Time. With strong video presentations and all your favorite first and second season episodes, there's really nothing to consider. Unless, that is, you've never given the series a try, in which case a rental is in order. Fans will want to add both seasons to their carts post haste, though. Shortcomings be damned.