Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

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

"The Astral Beast cometh!"

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown February 27, 2014

Before diving into the Blu-ray releases of Adventure Time and The Venture Bros' latest seasons, let me try to put one prevailing criticism to bed. I'm sure you've heard it. It goes something like this... usually in a high-pitched whine: I can't stand *insert modern animated series title*. It isn't funny. The animation is terrible. The jokes are stupid. The episodes don't make any sense. It's all random references strung together with ridiculous characters. Cartoon Network needs to get back on track and produce quality shows! Sound familiar? I promise you fans of Adventure Time and The Venture Bros. -- each one successful enough to not only survive but to thrive -- have heard it countless times before, typically from a loud but irritable minority that's eager to complain without ever having properly sampled the goods. Inevitably, some series devotees stand proud and mount spirited defenses when attacked; others simply bite their tongues, knowing full well no argument, no matter how impassioned, will convert the unconverted. But here's the thing: dig into any cartoon junkie's Top Five and the same criticism can be leveled at almost any animated show. Old or new, well-known classic or obscure oddity. Adventure Time and Venture Bros. are no more random than a show about four underage, shuriken-slinging, skateboarding reptiles with a taste for pizza and a penchant for '80s slang; no more out there than SpongeBob SquarePants and its pineapple under the sea, Transformers and its clunky, chunky robots, Scooby-Doo and its talking, crime-solving dog, Looney Tunes and its anthropomorphic antics or Tom and Jerry and its mouse-house mayhem.

When did we all lose our minds, grow old and crotchety, and forget we're dealing with cartoons? If one isn't for you, find another. If everything Cartoon Network releases gets under your skin, maybe it isn't the style, the humor, the writing, the show or the channel you're on. Maybe you're just getting too old for cartoons, or at least cartoons that aren't fueled by childhood nostalgia. Or maybe, juuuust maybe, you aren't the target audience. Maybe the fact that Adventure Time and Venture Bros. have healthy audiences annoys you to no end, and for no good reason other than it means you're not a card-carrying member of a particular club. After all, if there's one thing the internet hates, it's someone who find joy in something someone else doesn't. Me? I'm a fan of both. I'll take Adventure Time and Venture Bros. over a variety of other animated series, some with sizeable fanbases. But I'm also not afraid to say, "You know what? I just don't get such-n-such series. It's not for me. But I'm happy you love it. Moving on." So give cool, calm and collected a try. Scratch Adventure Time and Venture Bros. off your stress list. Or here's a thought: actually take the time to try each show. Watch more than a single episode. See what all the fuss is about. You might be surprised how quickly they grow on you...

"I'm gonna go manhandle those guyses banandles!"

It's one crazy adventure after another in Cartoon Network's Emmy-nominated series and #1 hit comedy. Follow the post-apocalyptic adventures of Finn (voiced by Jeremy Shada), a human boy with a funny hat, and his friend Jake (John DiMaggio), a magic and mischievous 28-year-old dog. They're out to have the most fun possible, and they sure do find it exploring the Land of Ooo.

Adventure Time's third season offers a quick, nerve-soothing fix on a 26-episode scale. It's easy to blow through the entire season in one or two sittings if you don't keep your eye on the time, or manage to hold your soda long enough to avoid too many trips to the bathroom. At just 12 or 13 minutes a pop, Finn and Jake's mini-sodic travels through Ooo are blazingly fast and funny, and rarely overstay their welcome. Yes, the series remains something of an acquired taste, with a few characters brushing a bit too close to grating. But God love 'em, they're as lovable and memorable a band of magical misfits as the show is a pre-Adult Swim standout. There's an unspoken economy to creator Pendleton Ward's rapidfire imagination; an economy that's perhaps more apparent in Season Three than any before it. Assembling crackerjack references by the hundreds, Ward deals in bursts of color and comedy so precisely devised yet so widely targeted that the seeming aimlessness and flakiness of the episodes proves to be anything but. Most eccentric animation would have fallen head over heels in love with its own simple style and silliness long before now, but Adventure Time roams the unhinged, candy-coated nooks and crannies of Ward's wibbly-wobbly visuals without fear or worry. There's real craftmanship here -- both in terms of animation and writing -- with Ward's greatest triumph being that he makes it all look and feel so effortless.

Episodes include:

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

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

Adventure Time's third season and The Venture Bros.' fifth season Blu-ray releases feature reliably and commendably encoded 1080p/VC-1 video presentations that share similar strengths and weaknesses. And fortunately, the good far outweighs the not so good. Both excel in color, contrast and clarity, with bright, punchy palettes, vibrant primaries, inky black levels and crisp-to-a-fault line art. Hardly a scene goes by that wouldn't make its creators proud, and each BD edition blows its DVD counterpart out of the water in terms of power, proficiency and raw visual oomph. What few issues there are trace back to each series' animated source. Adventure Time exhibits slight, intermittent aliasing and some softness. Again, though, the animation, not the encode, appears to be the culprit, and fans will have no problem shrugging off most every eyesore. All told, the show's high definition presentation delivers.

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

Adventure Time falls short in the audio department. While The Venture Bros. earns a TrueHD lossless 5.1 surround track, Adventure Time's latest season, much like the previous two, is presented with a lowly 192kbps Dolby Digital stereo mix. The results aren't all that terrible; just terribly average. Dialogue and the series' fantastical soundscape never sound all that crowded, and each element is given decent support. Of course, LFE output and rear speaker presence would have been greatly appreciated, meaning The Complete Third Season isn't all it could be. Is it a deal breaker? Absolutely not. Shrug your shoulders, let out a little sigh, and get on with the deliriously infectious 26-episode delight that is Adventure Time's latest.

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

• Audio Commentaries: Twenty-six audio commentaries are available; one for each third season episode. Creator Pendleton Ward and a semi-revolving door of team members (among them co-executive producer Adam Muto, story head Kent Osborne, writer/storyboard artist Cole Sanchez, writer/animator Somvillay Xayaphone, writer/storyboard artist Bert Youn, writer/animator Rebecca Sugar, storyboard artist Jesse Moynihan and character/storyboard artist Tom Herpich) detail just about every aspect of the production, from story development to animation to voice performances. They inevitably run out of things to discuss from time to time, but the tracks remain funny and engaging regardless, without too many dry stretches. Commentaries include:
  
  
  • Conquest of Cuteness: Ward, Osborne, Sanchez, Xayaphone, Sugar, Moynihan, Herpich
  • Morituri Te Salutamus: Ward, Osborne, Sanchez, Xayaphone, Sugar, Moynihan, Herpich
  • Memory of a Memory: Ward, Osborne, Sanchez, Xayaphone, Sugar, Moynihan, Herpich
  • Hitman: Ward, Osborne, Sanchez, Xayaphone, Sugar, Moynihan, Herpich
  • Too Young: Ward, Osborne, Sanchez, Xayaphone, Sugar, Moynihan, Herpich
  • The Monster: Ward, Osborne, Sanchez, Xayaphone, Sugar, Moynihan, Herpich
  • Still: Ward, Osborne, Sanchez, Xayaphone, Sugar, Moynihan, Herpich
  • Wizard Battle: Ward, Osborne, Sanchez, Xayaphone, Sugar, Moynihan, Herpich
  • Fionna and Cake: Ward, Osborne, Sugar, Muto, Moynihan, Herpich
  • What Was Missing: Ward, Osborne, Sugar, Muto, Moynihan, Herpich
  • Apple Thief: Ward, Osborne, Sanchez, Youn, Sugar, Herpich
  • The Creeps: Ward, Osborne, Sanchez, Sugar, Moynihan, Herpich
  • From Bad to Worse: Ward, Osborne, Sanchez, Sugar, Herpich
  • Beautopia: Ward, Osborne, Sugar, Muto, Moynihan, Herpich
  • No One Can Hear You: Ward, Osborne, Sugar, Muto, Moynihan, Herpich
  • Jake vs. Me-Mow: Ward, Osborne, Sugar, Muto, Moynihan, Herpich
  • Thank You: Ward, Osborne, Sugar, Xayaphone, Muto, Moynihan, Herpich
  • New Frontier: Ward, Osborne, Sugar, Xayaphone, Youn, Moynihan, Herpich
  • Holly Jolly Secrets, Part 1: Ward, Osborne, Sugar, Xayaphone, Muto, Moynihan, Herpich
  • Holly Jolly Secrets, Part 2: Ward, Osborne, Sugar, Xayaphone, Muto, Moynihan, Herpich
  • Marceline's Closet: Ward, Osborne, Sugar, Xayaphone, Muto, Moynihan, Herpich
  • Paper Pete: Ward, Osborne, Sugar, Xayaphone, Muto, Moynihan, Herpich
  • Another Way: Ward, Osborne, Sugar, Xayaphone, Muto, Moynihan, Herpich
  • Ghost Princess: Ward, Osborne, Sugar, Muto, Moynihan, Herpich
  • Dad's Dungeon: Ward, Osborne, Sugar, Xayaphone, Muto, Moynihan, Herpich
  • Incendium: Ward, Osborne, Sugar, Muto, Moynihan, Herpich
• How an Idea Becomes Adventure Time (HD, 8 minutes): "Why does man create? Um... 'cause we can't have babies?" Ward, storyboard artist/supervising producer Adam Muto and Osborne chat about the show, their fans and the warm-fuzzies of animating, piecing together the series and hearing from parents at Comic-Con.
• Alternate Intro by Screen Novelties (HD, 1 minute): A stop-motion LEGO version of the series intro.

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

Fans will find The Venture Bros.' fifth season and Adventure Time's third season Blu-ray releases are well worth picking up. Are they perfect? Nah, but then neither is either series. The shows' latest seasons are funny, though, and those who've been with the Ventures or Jake and Finn from the beginning will have a blast with each crew's newest adventures. Adventure Time: The Complete Third Season is a bit of a problematic release. Its video presentation is striking and its supplemental package is a great deal of fun (with 26 audio commentaries!), but its audio options amount to a lossy Dolby Digital stereo track. Is The Complete Third Season still good enough to add to your collection, though? You bet.