Adventure Time Distant Lands Blu-ray Review: An Everlasting Dream

Adventure Time: Distant Lands is finally out on home video to savor the end of an era in delightful quality. Fans of the series can look forward to both the Blu-ray and DVD versions of the series on March 8th, but how do these home releases deliver some of Adventure Time‘s most emotional moments? Extraordinarily well. From BMO’s adventures before joining up with Finn and Jake to the brothers being reunited, everything benefits from the increased quality of these visuals. 

Fans of the series are well aware that one of Adventure Time‘s biggest strengths is in the storyboarding and animation work. Any time the camera zooms out from one of the dreamlike landscapes, you’re in for something spectacular. BMO’s first adventure especially takes advantage of the 1080p Full HD Video. Lush greenscapes and the alien frontier are peppered with small details and pausing the specials became a regular occurrence during our time reviewing Distant Lands.

Another key element of not only these specials, but the series proper, is the sound design. Yes, there are amazing musical moments, but also tons of care put into these sound effects and vocal performances. It would be easy to point to Obsidian as the entry that best displays what DTS-HD Master Audio brings to the table. (For those wondering, “Woke Up” is still every bit as toe-tapping while harboring a scathing edge on re-watch.) Bubbline fandom has been a constant since the early days of the show, and the creative team sent PB and Marceline off into the sunset with style.

For viewers who might not have a great internet connection, or the stability of their online setup is murky at best, these Blu-ray releases offer a no-brainer solution, though people who have better speeds might not notice the differences as readily. There is also the matter of special features, which are not there in the same force that fans have seen on the big season releases in Adventure Time‘s run on Cartoon Network. If you loved having the creators just give their commentary over the breathtaking animation, then you’re going to be a little surprised. However, for those exclusions, the presence of a physical media release for this title alone makes Distant Lands worth checking out. In the modern media landscape, having the ability to have an entire series run including extra specials can be hard to come by, which is doubly true for titles that premiere on streaming platforms that may never get a physical release.

Really, Wizard City was regarded as a bit of an odd duck because of the release order for these specials on HBO Max. (It was placed at the end after Together Again, which seems like a clear final installment for this iteration of the franchise.) But, young Peppermint Butler wrestling with expectations as a mystery floats beneath the surface is very gratifying. An entry like this does something that all Adventure Time fans hold dear: build out the corners of this world outside the bombastic adventures of Finn and Jake. Cadebra is one of those winning inclusions that make you wish the show was still running so you could check in on the character after the stint at school.

Together Again serves as a powerful conclusion to Finn and Jake’s story to rival the work done in “Come Along With Me,” the series finale. This one really does a great job of displaying all the little things that make Adventure Time so great. Little lore drops in background details, returning characters, delightfully strange line reads from actors, and stunning animation combined with meditations on life’s purpose. It’s affecting stuff that feels more like a natural extension of the two main characters than a fan-service machine. (Although it does plenty of the latter for good measure!) 

As the new era of Adventure Time begins with Fiona and Cake, this collection is a must-have to pair with the original series. It provides important developments that help bring all the major players’ journeys to a stopping point. In the same breath, Distant Lands shows what Adventure Time can be with massive scope, inventive visuals, and more dynamite songs. If you’ve been with the show over the entire run, this is a no-brainer. Fans trying to enjoy some quality animation will find a lot to love here as well.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Adventure Time Distant Lands will be available for purchase on March 8th. You can order it on Amazon now.