Adventure Time: Distant Lands (2020)
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Adventure Time: Distant Lands Review
Adventure Time: Distant Lands is an animated limited series comprising four 40-minute specials that aired in 2020 and 2021. It’s a solid series that served as a fine sequel to the original show.
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“I just come back for fun,
because it’s great being alive with you“
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The four specials here range in quality from just solid to downright terrific. BMO is the first one and it belongs to the former category. While it’s much better than most BMO outings from later seasons and it was visually artistic and gorgeous, it failed to compare to the best specials in this limited series. It’s a charming episode that is very cozy for sure, but in terms of storytelling and dialogue it left a lot to be desired.
Obsidian is a terrific special that served great fan service to the fans of the series. It is a romance story with Princess Bubblegum and Marceline and it worked because it depicted them as real human beings even though they are not obviously. Warts and all, their relationship felt very much real and how they were deepened both as a couple and individually made me wish that they were this richly written in the original show before.
Together Again is by far the best story of this batch. This is one of the most purely emotional stories that Adventure Time ever had and one of the deepest. It is set in the future and Finn is now all alone as Jake had died before him. In the world of the dead he journeys and is reunited with Jake. The scenes between the two were genuinely touching. The ending was super sweet. But this was also an episode that was wholly imaginative and meticulously crafted in animation and world building, proving to us that this show could have been greater had it had longer episodes.
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Wizard City is the weakest of the specials. It focuses on Peppermint Butler, a character that never appealed to me, so I quickly lost interest. It’s an interesting story in its school setting and it can get quite dark, but it lacked in memorable plot points and character moments.
Overall, Adventure Time: Distant Lands is a pretty good treat for Adventure Time fans. It has two fantastic stories that are among the best in the show’s history, though the other two are just serviceable. The longer format led to deeper and more ambitious storytelling in this instance.
Worst Special: Wizard City.
Best Special: Together Again.
