Adventure Time Reviews: Season 3 (Another Way/Ghost Princess)

The episode begins with Finn and Jake being treated by Clown Nurses because of their broken toes. Jake hired them and he loves them, but Finn hates them. He thinks they’re creepy and he doesn’t like the way they baby him. I agree with Finn. Since Jake refuses to get rid of them and the Clown Nurses refuse to leave him alone, Finn looks through the Enchiridion (hey, he still has it!) for another way to heal their broken toes. From the book he discovers that there is a cyclops whose tears can heal any injury. Finn wants to find the cyclops but the Clown Nurses tell him that their way of healing is the only way. Angered by this, Finn insists on doing things his way and leaves the Tree Fort, determined to find the cyclops.

After that… man, when Finn flips out, he really flips out. He runs into the reduntantly named Forest of Trees to find the cyclops and comes to a fork in the road and a tree stump with a sign over its head. The tree stump tells Finn that he needs to choose between the left path that will make all of his hair fall out forever or the right path that will make him smell horrible forever. Finn isn’t happy about being forced to choose and again insists on doing it “his way”. His way involves kicking the sign off the stump’s head and running through the thorn bushes between the two roads. Next, he comes to a river. A small bush tells him that there’s no way to cross it because the current is too fast, the water is acidic, the bridge is a trap, and there are electric eels in it. Finn still wants to do things his way, so he grabs the bush and runs through the river, swatting the water away with the bush. He doesn’t even make it halfway across before having to stop. The now destroyed bush tells him to go back, but Finn refuses, instead simply swimming across the river. Finn is afraid of the ocean but not of acidic rivers filled with electric eels. Kay then. Finn then meets a hairy little… thing named Pan with watermelons in a broken wagon. Finn uses one of the watermelon’s juices to rinse the acidic water off of himself. Pan asks Finn to help with him fix his wagon, one of his wheels got stuck in a tree and he needs Finn to get it down for him so he can bring the watermelons to his wife down the path. Finn, apparently having gone way overboard with doing things his way, smashes the wagon so that the watermelons tumble down the path and crush Pan’s wife, injuring her. Pan is distraught and Finn realizes that he’s gone way too far. He tries apologize to Pan, but understandably Pan isn’t feeling very forgiving. Pan tells Finn to go away, and Finn does, now feeling guilty.

He finds the cyclops – or to be more accurate, the cyclops finds him – but Finn is no longer interested in getting the cyclops’ tears. He just wants to go home, but the cyclops doesn’t believe him and attacks him. Finn punches the cyclops in the eye, causing it to start crying, then removes its head from its body and – wait what?! How does Finn just remove the head from the body like it’s nothing? And how is the head still living? And why am I still bothering to question this show’s logic? Anyway, Finn takes the head and runs back to the Tree Fort with it, using the cyclops’ tears to heal the people he hurt along the way. When he gets home he has the Clown Nurses look after the cyclop’s head and then asks Jake if he wants to be healed. Jake says no, he’d rather keep being pampered, and Finn accepts that everyone has their own way, to Jake’ surprise.

I think this entire episode can be summed up with this picture:

It’s sort of funny that in my last review I was saying how much I like it when Finn’s jerky side comes out, and here we have the episode where he’s at his jerkiest (so far). Finn is just awful in this episode. As I’ve mentioned, I’m totally fine with characters acting like jerks as long as it’s in character and written in a way that makes it clear that we’re supposed to think they’re jerks. Another Way takes things pretty far, but I don’t think it goes too far, and it’s good to push your boundaries, right?

As for Finn himself, he’s both in character and out of character in this episode. Wait, let me explain. Finn losing control of his temper and acting in violent and impulsive ways? That’s definitely in character, Finn has shown these flaws before, thought never quite to this extent. Finn hurting innocent people and thinking of no one but himself? That’s out of character. However, the episode knows it’s out of character. Finn isn’t acting like himself, he’s lost control of himself and is behaving terribly. Eventually he snaps back to reality, realizes that he was way out of line, and makes up for it. Works for me.

This episode is kind of a return to the Season 1 formula, even more so than the previous two episodes, since it’s really just about Finn going on a weird adventure and coming across weird things along the way, not much happens but at the same time it feels like a lot happened. It’s kind of nice going back to this, though I’m guessing this is going to be one of the last “Season 1 formula” episodes that we see. I liked it, it could get a tad annoying, but it was funny and I liked seeing them push the limits of just how jerky they can make their characters.

Rating: 7/10

We open with Finn and Jake roasting hot dogs over a campfire in the woods, when suddenly along comes Ghost Princess to haunt them. Finn politely asks Ghost Princess to stop, and she tells them that she’s doomed to haunt the mortal world until she discovers how she was killed, and then her soul will ascend to the Dead World. Unfortunately, as a ghost GP has no memory of her mortal life and therefore has no idea how she died.

Does this happen to everyone who dies in Ooo? First they come back as a ghost and can’t go anywhere else until they find out how they died, but can’t remember anything about their life which would make finding out all but impossible?! Because that sounds like the worst afterlife ever. Or is it only certain people that come back as ghosts? Or does it depend on how you died? Or am I trying way too hard to bring logic to a place where there was never meant to be any?

Moving on.

So, Finn and Jake offer to help GP and start by visiting her grave for some clues, but all her gravestone says is “Female”. After interrogating the ghost in the grave next to GP, they meet Clarence, another ghost who resides in the Cemetery. GP and Clarence hit it off right away, GP saying that she feels as though she knows Clarence already. GP and Clarence decide to go to a concert together while Finn and Jake search the neighboring cemetery, which according to Clarence is where bad ghosts hang out. Finn and Jake dig up the grave of “Some Donkus” and find half of a broken dagger in it, but the ghost doesn’t seem to be around. Eventually they meet up with GP and Clarence again, and GP tells them that she no longer wants to go to the Dead World and is happy to stay a ghost with Clarence in Ooo. Finn and Jake leave the graveyard, and Jake reveals that he looted a bunch of the graves, including Some Donkus’. Jake and Bender may have more than a voice actor in common. One of the items Jake stole was the broken dagger, on which something is engraved. All that remains on that piece is “rence”, and Finn connects it with “Clarence”. To be sure, he digs up GP’s grave and finds the other piece of the dagger, which reads “Cla”. This leaves no doubt that Clarence was GP’s murderer, so Finn and Jake find Clarence and GP to confront them about it.

Once told that Clarence was her murderer, GP suddenly remembers that she was once Warrior Princess, and that she and Clarence were lovers even though their kingdoms were at war. Clarence killed her in battle and immediately regretted it. Still a better love story than Twilight. (Actually, it sounds much better, I would totally read a book about Warrior Princess and Clarence.) Having remembered her death, GP forgives Clarence and starts to ascend to the Dead World, but Clarence can’t go with her because he still doesn’t know how he died. In frustration, Clarence says that “his life is like a fart”, and Jake recognizes the saying and realizes that he saw Clarence die. Apparently Clarence became extremely depressed after Warrior Princess’ death and did nothing but eat Softy Cheese (which as far as I can tell is like Cheese Whiz which is disgusting and if you like it you’re disgusting). He exploded after eating too much of it. I think it was suicide but who knows? It would be pretty dark if it was. As dark as death by Softy Cheese can be, anyway. So with Clarence’s death figured out, both he and GP are able to go to the Dead World together.

So, does anyone else think Warrior Princess and Clarence’s backstory sounds kind of epic? We only get the end of it, but we can gather that they were from warring kingdoms, fell in love but then went to war anyway, and then we see one of them killing the other and regretting it for the remainder of their life. Honestly that sounds like an awesome story and I would have loved to have seen how it all started.

While it was predictable that Clarence was the murderer, I definitely didn’t predict the way that it happened, let alone how Clarence himself died, so the episode did still manage to surprise me a bit. The “mystery” isn’t really the point anyway. I liked the blend of comedy and drama this episode had, and I liked GP and Clarence, though I guess we won’t be seeing them again. Good episode overall, not much more to say about it.

Rating: 7.5/10

 

SpongeBob Reviews: Season 8 (The Way of the Sponge/Bubble Troubles)

SpongeBob goes to visit Sandy and sees a… something in her Treedome. That thing is “Fuzzy Acorns”, Sandy’s Karate sensei who has come to test her abilities and see whether or not she is worthy of the “blacker” belt, which is apparently a rank above the black belt that she already has. What kind of animal is Fuzzy Acorns supposed to be? I can’t figure it out and I can’t find the information anywhere. Eh, it doesn’t matter I guess. SpongeBob wants to earn a belt too, so Fuzzy (who came up with such a cute name like that for a bad ass Karate master, Hagrid?) puts him through a series of tests, all of which SpongeBob fails. Unimpressed, Fuzzy schedules a fight between Sandy and SpongeBob to take place the next day. SpongeBob spends the rest of the day and night training, and the next day is too exhausted to fight. Sandy beats him easily, and Fuzzy tells SpongeBob he isn’t worthy of a Karate belt. To make matters worse, he takes Sandy’s black belt as well for wasting his time with an unworthy student. Dejected, SpongeBob leaves to go to work, and Sandy berates Fuzzy for being so mean to SpongeBob.  Fuzzy dismisses her words and says that he’s hungry. Sandy takes him to the Krusty Krab, hoping that he’ll be impressed with SpongeBob’s skills there. After watching SpongeBob prepare and serve food like some kind of ninja chef (I know it sounds silly but I really don’t know how else to describe it, also it is pretty silly), Fuzzy starts to think that he may have judged SpongeBob too quickly. He tries to attack SpongeBob to see him in action, and SpongeBob unknowingly defeats him through sheer luck. Fuzzy decides that SpongeBob does deserve a black belt after all, and that Sandy deserves her blacker belt.

For some reason Fuzzy’s (that name still sounds far too cute) voice really bothered me. Every time he opened his mouth to say something, it took me out of the episode. I think it’s because the voice didn’t seem to match how the character was designed or his personality, or maybe the voice actor just isn’t that good. Whatever it was, it was really distracting.  I don’t even dislike Fuzzy as a character, I actually think he’s one of the better one-time characters that we’ve seen post-movie, and perhaps pre-movie as well, but his voice was so off-putting. I’m probably the only one who feels this way, though.

Getting past his voice, I do think Fuzzy is a fairly good character. He’s not great, but he serves his purpose well. He’s dignified and imposing but can also get in some moments of humor that don’t feel forced. His arrogance and bullying nature make him hard to like as a person, but easy to like as a character since he’s supposed to be antagonistic (yes, there is a big difference between liking someone as a character and liking someone as a person). What I find kind of cool about Fuzzy is that he actually learns his lesson at the end of the episode and apologizes for his behavior. I can’t think of any other one-time antagonists on the show who have done this, usually they’re pretty one-note (though admittedly in an entertaining way) and don’t really learn anything in the end, Fuzzy actually has something resembling a character arc, and once again it doesn’t feel forced. Hm, the more I think about it, Fuzzy is a pretty great one-time character. I actually could see him appearing in more episodes, unlike most one-time characters. Too bad about that voice.

I also really loved Sandy in this episode. I will never understand why so many people in this fandom hate Sandy. Next to SpongeBob, I think she’s the most likable character on the show, as well as one of the best overall. This episode demonstrates why she’s so likable. She’s extremely kind and she believes in SpongeBob so much, despite all of his failures. She encourages him and stands up for him when Fuzzy treats him badly. I also like that she was hesitant to fight SpongeBob when she saw how exhausted SpongeBob was. I mean, it only lasts a second because she’s under pressure from Fuzzy (and it would disrupt the pace of the episode if they dwelled on this too much), but I liked that they slipped that line in. It shows that she cares about her friend’s well-being and values fair play.

SpongeBob was pretty good too, though there isn’t as much to say about him. You definitely feel for him when he’s denied his Karate belt and his tenacity is admirable, but besides that he’s just kind of there. Funny, since I think he is supposed to be the focus of the episode, but since Fuzzy is the one with the arc the focus shifts to him.

The humor is the weakest part of the episode, but it’s not even that weak. None of the jokes are really worth writing home about, but they are amusing and I got a giggle here and there. I especially liked that bit of meta humor where Sandy is monologue-ing her plan to bringing Fuzzy to the Krusty Krab and Fuzzy asks her who she’s talking to.

If it’s not clear yet, I loved this episode. I thought it was pretty fantastic. It’s entertaining, it’s well-paced, it’s a decent story with really good execution, and the character were great.

Rating: 8.5/10

That title card looks very much like a scene from Pre-hibernation Week.

The first three minutes of this episode are dull and drag for way too long. Plus there’s a weird part with a bonsai tree that makes me pretty certain Squidward is taking drugs. All you need to know is that SpongeBob and Patrick get bored of blowing regular bubbles and instead start blowing hot sauce bubbles. They go to visit Sandy and find her fixing the oxygen tank connected to her treedome. Apparently she’s running low on oxygen. SpongeBob blows some hot sauce bubbles at the tank and as we all know hot sauce is equivalent to acid in the world of cartoons, so the oxygen tank melts. Sandy only has a few minutes of oxygen left in her suit, so she must go to the surface in her submarine and replenish her air supply. SpongeBob opens the door of the submarine and water rushes in. Nice going, genius. The lack of oxygen is making Sandy woozy, so she tells SpongeBob that he has to drive the submarine to the surface for her. Um, have you seen SpongeBob drive? Actually, SpongeBob drives it quite well until Sandy, who is basically drunk from the lack of oxygen, grabs the wheel from SpongeBob and crashes the submarine into the Krusty Krab. Now the gang must find air for Sandy (who has removed her helmet and smashed it on the ground) before she dies. They give her some air bubbles and have Pearl, who technically is also an air-breather, share her air with Sandy. However, SpongeBob knows he has to get Sandy more air from the surface, so using an oxygen tank (seriously?) as a jetpack, he reaches the surface, blows a bubble full of air, and brings it back down to Sandy’s treedome.

The beginning of this episode really does drag for too long. It shouldn’t take three minutes to tell me that SpongeBob and Patrick are blowing hot sauce bubbles.

Things do start to pick up once they get to Sandy’s house, though. I was a little disappointed that the episode didn’t take place on the surface as I had expected it to, but it was amusing nonetheless. Weird, but amusing. The methods they found of giving Sandy air were actually pretty creative, and I liked how they acknowledged that Pearl is actually a mammal and needs to breathe air too. Kind of a random, trivial thing to like, I know, but I just like it when they acknowledge little facts like that. It makes me wonder what side Pearl would have been on if she’d been part of the land vs water debate in Pressure. Also, I kind of want to see an episode where Sandy and Pearl bond over being air-breathers now. What.

Seeing Sandy drunk from the lack of air was actually pretty funny and weirdly adorable (I don’t know I have a weird definition of adorable okay), and it’s rare that we see her in a vulnerable position like this, so it was kind of refreshing. I mean, I love my tough, bad ass, heroic Sandy, but I also like to see something different now and then, and Sandy in a vulnerable position is different. She spends so much time saving everyone else, it’s nice to see them return the favor for once.

Patrick was also really funny in this episode. It feels weird to say that since my last review included a rant on how Patrick isn’t as funny as he used to be and I definitely still stand by that rant. But… he was funny in this one. I hope this isn’t just a fluke.

The story-telling and pacing are a bit shaky, but I thought it was a fairly entertaining episode. It’s really strange, but also fun and an interesting idea for an episode.

Rating: 7/10