Adventure Time: The Complete Fourth Season continues the adventures (no pun intended) of Finn the Human and his loyal friend, Jake the Dog in the crazy land of Ooo.  This season could potentially be the most prominent season to date as a lot of deep and epic stuff happens (I don't use the word "epic" in a light sense and so that says a lot).  Some examples of what to expect in this season includes:  Finn finally getting himself a girlfriend,  Finn battling a hypnotizing character known as King Worm, Jake finding out some life changing news that involves Lady Rainicorn, Lumpy Space Princess trying to write a book on attracting people, Finn turning into a dreaded Hugwolf, Finn and Jake trying to escape from the Nightosphere, and we also learn a deep and dark secret that involves the Ice King and the vampire queen known as Marceline.  All that and much, much more in this exciting season of Adventure Time.  (Click "Read More" to read the full review).


The storytelling in this season has grown to be much deeper and more mature than all of the past seasons and making the show more mature was a great move as it made for some of the strongest and best episodes that Adventure Time has to offer as it added more depth to the show.  You do still get light hearted comedic episodes and even those type of episodes have grown much stronger in this season.  I do like how the styles do not clash with each other as they actually blended together very well to where it doesn't become too mature to where the show forgets it's roots, neither does it become too light hearted to where it becomes too childish.  It is very nice to see the seeds that were planted in prior season are growing in this season, they are growing fast too and that can only mean that the writing in the next season should be even better.

The comedy in this season is pretty darn funny as it is charming and clever to where it is very hard to dislike.  Not every joke was smart as there you will get a dumb joke here and there but do not worry as most of them were still pretty funny.  There were some jokes that were a bit awkward and unfunny but they won't ruin your viewing.  Comedy style in this show is a mixture of slapstick and spoken word and they all went together very well.  The action in this series is pretty entertaining and work on more than one level.  The action goes well with the comedy but it also goes well with the drama and does enhance the drama to where it makes for some very intense moments. 


Some of the episode themes in this season are surprisingly dark, especially since we have an episode that's essentially about Finn and Jake trying to break out of hell and I was surprised a little with what they got away with in a show marked as a "kids show"...  And I love it.  While surprised, I am also very glad as it is done in a way where both children and grown ups could equally enjoy.  Another great thing (that I have mentioned in every single Adventure Time season review so far) is that all of the episodes are in uncut form and so you get all the stuff that was cut from the television broadcast version and it feels good to see the episodes in their pure unadulterated form.

Characters in this show have grown in multiple ways, for one we them aging (actually, they age every season) and we also see them maturing and that's good to see as you do want to see some characters in television shows grow up.  Another thing that has grown about the characters is that they have added more to their backstory and it gives the characters more depth to them and makes them even more interesting than what they were before.  Other than that, you'll find a good majority of the characters to be charming and likable and that's including some of the bad guys.  There were some villains in this season that were very scary and menacing and I did really enjoy them.  I wasn't a fan of all the characters as I found some minor characters such as King Worm and Goliad to be a bit too weak for my liking but I wouldn't say that they were terrible characters overall, just not my personal favorites.


Artwork in this show is really basic but is also incredibly awesome as it has some really great character designs and also some great designs for the backgrounds and locations.  The animation in this series is very good as it was all very smooth, consistent, and also really fun to look at and especially during the action packed scenes.  I did like what they did with the facial animation in this season as while simple, it is also good at showing the emotions of the characters in both a serious and exaggerated manor.

The voice acting in this series is pretty good as all of the voices do match up with all of the characters and the acting itself was also very good.  There were some episodes that had some very strong acting and that did make for some intense viewing.  The music in this series is very cool as it uses a mixture of folk rock and electronic styled songs and they went along with the episodes perfectly.  This season also includes some very, very, veerrrryyy catchy tunes like "Bacon Pancakes" and "These Lumps" and they are so catchy that they will never leave your head.


Special features section includes a documentary titled "Distant Bands: The Music of Adventure Time" and it was about the music found in the series.  The documentary was entertaining and had some nice insight from the crew about what went on into the making of some of the music.  Each episode also has its own commentary track from the cast and crew and the commentary was decent as it had some nice information about what went on behind the scenes and what was the inspiration behind the episodes.  The commentary did have some awkward moments and did make some commentary tracks hard to listen to.

Overall this is an incredibly great season and has got to be...  No, it is the strongest Adventure Time release that is currently out.  I strongly recommend that you go out and pick this baby up and give it a nice good watch.  Do not worry if you haven't seen the show before either, this isn't the kind of show you need to watch from the beginning to get.  A very strong release.

Title: Adventure Time - The Complete Fourth Season
Animation/Production Studio: Frederator Studios, Cartoon Network Studios
Genre: Animation, Action, Adventure, Comedy, Children, Drama
Running Time: 286 minutes (26 Episodes)
Distributor: Madman Entertainment
Rating: PG (Mild crude humor, Animated violence)
Price: $34.95
Recommended: Yes