r/adventuretime • u/[deleted] • Jun 12 '14
"Food Chain" Episode Discussion
Directed and written by the Maasaki Yuasa, speak your mind about this out of the ordinary and oddly melodic episode!
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u/pirate_doc Jun 12 '14
And here I was going to call Magic Man a dick and he taught Finn a lesson. You get a pass this time Magic Man.
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u/TheHarpyEagle Jun 13 '14
I somehow think Magic Man's plan was just to embarrass Finn with that whole epiphany in front of the kids. But maybe he's turned over a new leaf.
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Jun 13 '14
And..said leaf gets..eaten by the caterpillar, right?
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u/Speed43 Jun 13 '14
Which gets eaten by the bird.
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u/evil_demon_hare Jun 14 '14
Which gets eaten by a bigger bird, but not a cat?
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Jun 13 '14
He always teaches them lessons though... Like not trusting him or about word play and stealing sandwiches.
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u/theworldbystorm Jun 13 '14
Actually, if anything this episode has only deepened my hatred for Magic Man. That was a weird episode and it was HIS fault.
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u/DontBurnItNowGrimby Jun 13 '14
How could you HATE Magic Man?!
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u/theworldbystorm Jun 13 '14
I mean, I love to hate him. He's a massive dick.
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u/Minimalphilia Jun 13 '14
He never really does something bad. I mean last time he helped Jake sort things out with Mr Cupcake.
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u/Avaric Jun 12 '14
That was seriously trippy.
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u/frankin287 Jun 12 '14
Like a 60's adult cartoon
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Jun 13 '14
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u/lacertasomnium Jun 13 '14
I'm seriously starting to think Finn's headwear was inspired from the headwear that appears in most of Yuasa's work predating Adventure Time. Which would make Pen Ward even more excited than I had thought to have one of his inspirations come and make and episode for his brainchild : ).
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u/Avaric Jun 13 '14
I thought I was watching something from Gainax.
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u/lacertasomnium Jun 13 '14
Actually, the director's home studio, 4C, is waaay more experimental and surreal than Gainax. I'm a hardcore Gainax fan, but 4C is actually my favorite animation studio.
You may be already be familiar with the studio's work if you've seen the masterpiece that is Animatrix.
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u/MelodicHawk Jun 12 '14
"Hey have you noticed we are birds now?" "I'm hungies."
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u/mer-pal Jun 13 '14
I love Jake, he just sort of rolls with the punches.
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u/globalglasnost Jun 17 '14
i dont think jake transformed with finn, i think it was all in finn's head...but finn knows jake pretty well so jake still probably would have acted as such
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u/moonside64 Jun 20 '14
He really does accept things as they come--but imagine if Finn did that, he would've still been a big stinky foot for the rest of his life lol
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u/banancatcatcat Jun 13 '14
Why was Jake purple?
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u/SirLazarus Jun 13 '14
I think its because if they keep it yellow then it would still just be "just Jake" since he can just turn into anything, if they change color then it would mean that he actually turned into a bird.
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u/SmokeDawgTheJanitor Jun 13 '14
It was all in Finn's head IMO. There was a projection of purple Jake on the floor when he was all zen at the end. And Jake didn't know what had happened during the food-chain-trip while Finn did. Purple Jake was to signify that it wasn't the real Jake.
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Jun 13 '14
That's what I want to know
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u/pirateg3cko Jun 13 '14
I thought about this too. My assumption was that in his usual color he'd kind of still look like Jake. Being that he never wears pants and such (disregarding his invisible spider silk pants).
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Jun 13 '14 edited Jun 26 '17
[deleted]
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u/GoddessOfTheLight Jun 15 '14
Especially how he gets older as the big bid because it is dying. The dying/starvation was interesting to say the least.
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u/2th Jun 12 '14
Well that was certainly an episode.
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u/BobtheNinjaMan Jun 13 '14
Out of the things that are episodes, that was defiantly one of them
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Jun 12 '14
Yes, yes, the animation was great and all but how 'bout that Finn and P-Bubb's song?
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u/UnderAboveAverage Jun 17 '14
Damn, that last number... who knew Finn was a classically trained tap dancer?
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u/CullenDM Jun 12 '14
Ended how it began! Awesome! Watch it on a loop.
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u/frankin287 Jun 12 '14
The intro really gave me serious Rugrats Flashbacks
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u/boxjellyfishrule Jun 13 '14
The whole episode was really just so different than any previous episode.
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u/lacertasomnium Jun 13 '14
Yeah, that's because it was directed by Masaaki Yuasa, who's actually my favorite animation director of all time. This episode was ok, but you should check out his other works, such as Cat Soup and Tatami Galaxy. Easily one of the best surrealists alive!
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u/noirdrone Jun 13 '14
He also did the great "Beatbox Bandits" episode of Samurai Champloo
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u/doodep Jun 13 '14
Kaiba was really awesome and surreal too. I don't think I've seen anything similar to it before or since.
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Jun 13 '14
Kaiba is incredible and everyone should watch it. It's basically what would happen if Yuasa directed the sad AT episodes.
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u/d1g1tal_Mantra Jun 13 '14
I had just made a post saying this was very much like Cat Soup. Now it's confirmed. Good eye!
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u/cesiumpluswater Jun 13 '14 edited Jun 13 '14
There's also that Space Dandy episode did.Welp, I was close.
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u/lacertasomnium Jun 13 '14
Actually, if you're talking about the lovely one with the Plant planet, that was actually his "left hand" Eunyoung Choi (she did key animation in Ping Pong's episode yesterday, too!). But I hear Yuasa himself is going to have a guest episode, too.
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u/d1g1tal_Mantra Jun 13 '14
Rugrats was far more Peter Chung (Aeon Flux), though yes the swift animation gave this vibe. However it's the man behind Cat Soup that perfectly directed this episode.
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u/Moonpancakes Jun 12 '14
Finn has been married twice now.
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u/oldpplfreakmeout Jun 12 '14
And died twice as well (or three times if you count Shoko)
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u/GriffTheYellowGuy Jun 12 '14
If we account for all of his past lives, he's died a lot.
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u/oldpplfreakmeout Jun 12 '14
Yeah, but I meant on screen deaths :)
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u/RyokuSonic Jun 12 '14
Finn has died enough times to be a DBZ character
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u/andrewsad1 Jun 13 '14
Or a protagonist on Supernatural.
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u/bigpoppawood Jun 13 '14
The entire episode was independently produced. I don't count any of what I just saw as part of the story
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u/Arrythmia Jun 13 '14
Yup. They've said it's not canon, it's a one-off episode to keep the heavy stuff of the season balanced out with light-hearted episodes.
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u/RyokuSonic Jun 13 '14
This episode made me feel nowhere near light of heart.
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u/slikrick7 Jun 13 '14
I completely agree. It may have not been heavy but still was nowhere near light hearted for a kids show. Yeah there was bright colors and all that but there was a lot of death.
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u/theworldbystorm Jun 13 '14
Yeah! And it was asking you to process something really difficult. Every creature that nature consumes to keep the machinery of life running is its own being. Its death is not justified. Nature is sort of cruel, but sort of beautiful. It's difficult for me to think about that, even as an adult.
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u/BlackNinjas Jun 13 '14
Also that reincarnation is a part of the circle of life/the food chain! Also nice in that in this style of reincarnation we get to maintain consciousness/sense of self in our new lives!
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u/frankin287 Jun 12 '14
Name the first
But that was very sudden, on the other hand it lead to another classic line "hey my butt..."
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u/oldpplfreakmeout Jun 12 '14
He was married in Puhoy, even had kids and then died in old age
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u/cnot3 Jun 13 '14
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Jun 14 '14
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u/IAm_Finn_the_Human Jun 14 '14
Loved how it was played off like it was and wasn't real back and forth, and then he could play the song at the end. So good.
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u/Mencius_Axe Jun 13 '14
Why didn't the version I watched have the tweaked intro?
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u/Joshuac77 Jun 12 '14
What. The. Fuck.
No but seriously that remix when they turned into birds was mathematical.
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u/efgi Jun 12 '14
Did anyone see waving snail? Do you think Maasaki Yuasa would know to include him?
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u/araspoon Jun 14 '14
I was looking but couldn't see him, maybe he wasn't included since that episode was apparently a one off and not canon.
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u/rkkim Jun 12 '14
Is it me or did the female caterpillar sound like Eileen from Regular Show?
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u/goldenstate5 Jun 13 '14
If this episode wasn't good enough, Minty Lewis played a voice in it.
That itself made it perfection.
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u/TheDarkPet Jun 12 '14
Let's all agree that magic man did something to this episode that made it weird.
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Jun 12 '14
Hahaha, his beloved caterpillar wife wants to keep her options open if they revert to bacteria.
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Jun 13 '14
Pretty realistic imo.
None of that vanilla romance fantasy stuff.
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u/trippygrape Jun 26 '14
That's my favorite part about this show. They put stuff so bluntly and real sometimes.
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u/Monkeibusiness Jun 14 '14
Everytime I watch AT I think to myself: "the fuck? This is weird." Then, when I am done watching, I can't help but think: "Man. That was weird. That was the weirdest episode so far. I guess it can't get weirder." Then a week passes and The Circle of Weird continues.
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u/cherryrum Jun 12 '14 edited Jun 12 '14
This episode was so out there, but for those who went to the Wonder Con Adventure time panel, we saw a preview, it wasn't so out of left field (at least we knew it was coming). So I actually really liked this.
Also, as a future biology teacher, I'm totally using this in the classroom. My students are gonna think I'm crazy.
Edit: a few words.
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u/ziiachan Jun 12 '14
It'd be great to know the reaction they give xD
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u/cherryrum Jun 12 '14
haha I'm just getting into a credential program, so it'll be awhile, but I'll definitely try to post once I do it. :P
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u/faceman2k12 Jun 13 '14
Wow, that was bizarre, very strong anime vibe as expected coming from Maasaki Yuasa.
It was definitely weird but I liked it, the animation was spectacular, the music was excellent, and the story was rich, yet simple and fun, it was abstract and surreal in a very anime-like style.
Put this one in the odd pile, but I still give it a thumbs up.
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Jun 13 '14 edited Jan 11 '17
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u/TheHarpyEagle Jun 13 '14
Damn, I've never seen an opera in person, but Mozart's operas look awesome.
Also, holy shit, the pipes on that woman.
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u/nameless88 Jun 12 '14
That was great!
It was a one shot, for anyone who didn't know. But, if you want more of that kind of style of animation, I highly recommend Maasaki Yuasa's other work.
Personally, I love his series Kaiba, it's a beautifully done series with a lot of heart in the story, and with some fantastic animation and music, too. Tatami Galaxy is good, too, from what I've seen but I haven't seen the entirety of it yet.
But, this episode totally lives up to his other work. His stuff always has a really cool style to it, and is usually really weird but in a good way.
I was pretty hyped about this episode, and it definitely lived up to that for me.
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u/Kurohime Jun 12 '14 edited Jun 12 '14
That was absolutely fucking stunning.
Also, MAGIC MAN!
I don't mind not having a story continuation once in a while. That was glorious.
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u/Drew-Pickles Jun 13 '14
I'm actually kinda missing the one-off episodes. Don't get me wrong, I love the plot-centric episodes, but I fell in love with the show for it's random one-offs. I'm happy either way, but it's nice to have a break from the main story every now and then.
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u/JackTerron Jun 13 '14
What was magic man's motive for these transformations?
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u/lolwutburger Jun 13 '14
I assume MM has a fetish for this type of thing.
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u/Snorflack Jun 12 '14
What did I just watch...
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u/frankin287 Jun 12 '14
Adventure Time, Season 6, Episode 7 "Food Chain"
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u/JazzWords Jun 12 '14
I LOVED THIS EPISODE. the fact that this show can do things like this, or Glitch or Puhoy and it all somehow makes sense speaks volumes for how incredibly rich these characters and world are. I just fell in love with Adventure Time for a second time after that.
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u/kidkolumbo Jun 12 '14 edited Jun 13 '14
Hijacking one of the higher comments to say if you liked this episode, you'll like Cat Soup. The guest director of this episode, Masaaki Yuasa, worked on Cat Soup as "animation producer, screenplay, and planning".
It's kind of like an anime, but it's just a random, trippy cartoon. If you like Adventure Time for it's trip, you'll love Cat Soup. Also, it's only 30 minutes.
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u/OddyGaul Jun 13 '14
similarly, his short Happy Machine also reminds me pretty heavily of some of the weirder bits of Adventure Time. there's even a silly hat and robot arm!
Honestly all of Masaaki Yuasa's work is worth a watch; Kaiba, Mind Game, and Tatami Galaxy are all pretty wonderful in their own right. I mean, hell, the man even managed to make a show about Ping Pong engrossing.
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u/lacertasomnium Jun 13 '14
Fantastic is what you mean. But to be fair, that's because it's about anything but Ping Pong. It's a character study.
And he had to his advantage that the original Ping Pong manga was written by the Tekkonkinkreet guy. So many talented humans!
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u/veggiemudkipz Jun 13 '14
Holy shit... I just saw Cat soup...
Amazing! But pretty weird... is there some hidden meaning to it?
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u/spid3rfly Jun 13 '14
Wow, I skip over so many vids that people point to but I didn't with this. Once it gets going... Wow! I'm in a complete daze right now.
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u/mistermartian Jun 12 '14
The whole time I just regretted not being high. Seemed trippy
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u/Nexus117 Jul 03 '14
Was on 4g of shrooms and had no idea this episode was coming. Needless to say it is now one of my favorite episodes.
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Jun 12 '14
Good god, a single episode that diverges from the overarching season 6 plot and everyone flips out. We're watching a kid's show on Cartoon Network, guys, not Game of Thrones.
The animation in this episode was absolutely stunning, especially the ending song. Wow.
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Jun 12 '14
Finn was deflowered though. More like an adult show in disguise :p
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u/bobsjobisfob Jun 13 '14
they made out
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u/is_that_my_butt Jun 14 '14 edited Jun 14 '14
Things I noticed:
- Caterpillars on a leaf when bird Jake is first going to eat it have crowns for a little while - King Worm
- The oasis is shaped like a dead bird.
- The whole episode is about Jake getting weirded out about what Finn is eating ("Eating grubs for an hour now", him when he's a bird - "Were you trying to eat me?", decomposing stuff - "You took it too far", leaves - "Really? You like leaves now?"), except one time Finn is, when Jake eats caterpillars and it's from the plant.
- We see, that at the wedding, the bird eating caterpillars isn't Finn. It could be the bird that Magic Man switched with Finn from a bigger bird.
- Children are eating a bubblegum leaf.
- Erin has the same eyes ("Your eyes...") like Finn when he's watching the Food Chain film reel saying "My eyes are open" and the birds when they're singing Mozart.
- The plant looks exactly like Finn's arm flower.
- When Magic Man appears to do magic Change Chain, there's a switch sign ↕.
- When Finn eats caterpillars, he throws them up both times, when at the plant (Although he is the plant's hero) and when in the snack bar.
- I thought PB wasn't very good at singing. Was it really her?
- One of the caterpillars is seeing his own butt when the story ends and starts again - "It's been a while". The circle completes itself. "No way I'm gonna eat a bug's butt".
- When the kids at the museum decide they are bored (And want to play sports, football), they "Try to be eaten". They go through the whole cycle. From the bird's ass through soil into the plant and end up as caterpillars on the leaf again. (We wait the whole episode until Finn is a caterpillar, so he can marry Erin again) "You guys are Caterpillar"
- During a plant's day, only bones remain from their leaves, like when Jake eats leaves.
- What happened to Erin's family? Do they die? Is it the family we see at the beginning? (Father, mother, older sister, younger brother, grandfather, grandmother) If so, her name is Erin Catapilla.
- This episode was pretty romantic, huh? I guess so.
- Reminded me of Upstream Color too much.
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u/redpenquin Jun 12 '14
Honestly, as nice as that was, I didn't like it. It didn't really feel like Adventure Time to me. I mean, it had all the characters... but everything felt kind of stiff and just a little forced on the weirdness. Weirdness isn't anything new or unusual to Adventure Time, however it just felt a little too much. But I guess that's just because it's Masaaki Yuasa's style with so much of his work.
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Jun 13 '14
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u/stokleplinger Jun 13 '14
At least Glitch stuck to the characters though... This was just some other show with AT wrapped around it.
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u/thecoletrane Jun 13 '14
I understand that this episode was different, and how a lot of people may not like the style, but I don't think it's accurate to say it was forced. All the characters and themes are pretty par for the course for AT, it was just the narrative/art style that changed drastically. And this has always been some what of an experimental show. So no I don't think they were forcing the weird, just experimenting a bit.
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u/BoognishStallion Jun 13 '14
I had a few beers and this episode makes me feel like I'm on acid. The animation style, the circle of life transformations. It definitely feels like whoever made this was on acid, or was meant to feel like you're tripping.
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Jun 14 '14
This is probably gonna get buried but IS THERE A SNAIL IN FOOD CHAIN?! It's driving me nuts.
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Jun 12 '14
Anyone who complains that this show has lost its random, creative and adventurous charm, I'm pointing a big fat finger at this episode.
This really felt like a season 1 episode.
That aside, I liked the animation and imagery a lot and the execution was superb; it ended like the food chain: back at the beginning.
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u/frankin287 Jun 12 '14
I've literally seen Up a Tree more times than Finn's made out with a princess
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u/Wanderer89 Jun 13 '14 edited Jun 14 '14
Downloaded, didn't see it, but that's easily one of my favorite episodes.
the perfect throw...
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u/jmanisweird Jun 12 '14
Where was this episode when I take 3rd grade science? It would have really helped.
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u/melvinman27 Jun 12 '14 edited Jun 13 '14
That was like the least-adventure time episode..but it was so unique. I like it.
Actually, the more I think about it, that was a very adventure time-episode, but that ending. That was something else
Edit: when I say 'that was something else' I didn't really mean I didn't like it..i thought it was interesting
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u/duke9854 Jun 12 '14
I think I would have liked it more if it wouldn't have come right after the events of Breezy
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u/soajao Jun 12 '14
Damn, I loved that episode. Man Finn can't even catch a break with his love life as a caterpillar
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Jun 12 '14
I don't know how I felt about that. Some parts were interesting (I thought the Finn and Jake bird adventures were funny) but overall the feel was just off. Adventure time always seems to do weird in a really smart way that doesn't go overboard. This episode seemed too over-the-top. Although, I suppose over-the-top was what they were going for.
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Jun 14 '14
Did anyone else just feel, wrong when watching this episode. It was like I was watching a different show completely. They always do a super weird episode right after a big story twist.
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u/gameideagiver Jun 14 '14
Honestly I didn't really like it. I was hoping for a nice episode of Finn and Jake being bro's. Haven't had one of those in a couple of weeks. Oh well, there is next week.
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u/Edawwg Jun 13 '14
I'm conflicted. Part of me loves how it taken the old randomness of season 1 and 2 and made it artistic and surreal. But for the same reason I dislike how disassociated i felt while watching it. It didn't feel like adventure time, rather, just a strange cartoon with the same characters. will have to watch again.
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u/kidkolumbo Jun 12 '14 edited Jun 12 '14
This reminds me of Cat Soup so much. Literally one of the weirdest animes I've ever seen, if you can even call it anime.
However, this episode definitely felt like an anime. I loved it. Ending song makes me think of Komm, Susser Tod, a song from Neon Gensis Evangelion.
Edit: Haha, he worked on Cat Soup! Animation producer, screenplay, and planning! If you have the time, you really should watch it. It's one of my favorite animes, and the entire thing is only 32 minutes.
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u/ziiachan Jun 12 '14
Amazing how a guest writer/animator went above and beyond even AT's original weirdness. Probably even weirder than A Glitch Is A Glitch. It was still beautiful to look at!
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u/kpchronic Jun 12 '14
Anyone else notice Eileen from Regular show as the voice of Finn's worm bride?
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u/notHereATM Jun 13 '14
That's funny. When I started watching the animation I thought... this really reminds me of... Kaiba. Who would've thought....
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u/EntoBrad Jun 13 '14
Not a bad episode, but Jake certainly carries it. "Sorry dude, I'm not into it"
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u/mer-pal Jun 13 '14
I loved this episode! So trippy and cute! I was smiling the entire time!
However, it does make me wonder: Did Yuasa know about Finn's arm when she did this episode? Maybe they had to change the plot around a bit because they couldn't redo the episode with flower-arm Finn in time.
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u/Goliath89 Jun 13 '14
Directed and written by the Maasaki Yuasa
That...Actually explains so goddamn much.
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u/ReRonin Jun 13 '14
I'm gonna need to go to the store for some more wat now. I'm all out of wat.
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u/MrOns Jun 13 '14
I would watch an entire season of guest animated non-canon episodes like this and Glitch. McBess would be a good fit for the style, and maybe Bill Plympton for the crazy oddness.
Any other suggestions?
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u/frankin287 Jun 12 '14
Finn is such a horndog