Adventure Time: My Two Favorite People
DVD
Staring John Di Maggio, Jeremy Shada, Tom Kenny
Created by Pendleton Ward
Cartoon Network
Release date: September 27, 2011

I know a lot of people who are fans of Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time, and it seems to be one of the network’s most popular shows these days, but for whatever reason I never really gave it a shot. There was just something about the style of the show that kept me away for whatever reason. However, when the chance came to review the first DVD release of the show I took a shot, even only to see if the people recommending it to me were full of it. Having watched some of it now, I can understand why some people like it; I just don’t know if I’m as sold on it as they are.

Right off the bat, I will point out that the Adventure Time: My Two Favorite People DVD contains 12 random episodes from the series, and these episodes are not of the half hour variety. When the box says twelve episodes, it means twelve of the 11-minute shorts, so it’s basically 6 full episodes. And when I say random, I mean random. The 12 shorts collected here come from all points of the series, and don’t have any connection between them, which to be fair, kind of fits with the tone of the series, but will be sure to disappoint fans of the show. Those looking for a complete season set of the show will have to wait and hope that it comes out. Cartoon Network loves to release these partial season discs and only rarely releases complete season sets. If you’re a big fan of the show, you’ll have to decide if it’s worth your money. I would probably just wait for a full season, but that’s just me. The plus side is that this disc is pretty cheap, so it doesn’t feel like as much of a blatant cash grab. There’s enough here to recommend, but not enough to make it a must buy.

As for the show itself, I found it fairly entertaining. It wasn’t the funniest thing I’ve ever seen, but it has a charm all its own, and I can see why people like it. The show features a unique art style, with the characters in near constant motion. If anything the show has energy, and it is this energy that makes the show so enjoyable. It doesn’t hurt that the characters are fun to watch and each episode feels like its own little movie. It also doesn’t hurt to have one of the main charterers voiced by John Di Maggio, who has great comedic timing and is an experienced voice actor. The rest of the cast does an equally excellent job. I also enjoyed the music on the show more than I expected to.

Would I rush out and buy this? No, probably not. But I’m not an Adventure Time super fan. Watching this disc didn’t make me fall in love with the show, but like I said, I can understand why others enjoy it. There aren’t a lot of extras on the disc, just some character profiles, so that doesn’t add a lot of incentive to pick this up. If you absolutely HAVE to own every piece of Adventure Time merchandise, well then there’s not much I can do to sway you from buying this, but if you can hold off, I’d say wait for Cartoon Network to release a more comprehensive collection. I’m giving this one a 3 out of 5.