"Death in Bloom" is the seventeenth episode of the
second season of the American
animated television series
An animated series is a set of Animation, animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can ...
''
Adventure Time
''Adventure Time'' is an American fantasy animated television series created by Pendleton Ward for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television. The series follows the adventures of a boy named Finn (Jeremy Shada) and ...
''. The episode was written and
storyboard
A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, i ...
ed by
Jesse Moynihan
Jesse Moynihan (born January 4, 1978) is an American artist, animator, composer and director. He is best known for being a writer and storyboard artist on the animated television series ''Adventure Time'' and as the creator of the graphic novel ' ...
and Cole Sanchez, from a story by Mark Banker,
Kent Osborne
Kent Matthew Osborne (born August 30, 1969) is an American screenwriter, actor, animator, producer, and director. He has worked for such animated television shows as ''SpongeBob SquarePants'', ''Camp Lazlo'', ''Phineas and Ferb'', ''The Marvelou ...
, Patrick McHale, and series creator
Pendleton Ward
Ward Taylor Pendleton Johnston (born September 23, 1982), known professionally as Pendleton Ward or simply Pen Ward, is an American animator, screenwriter, producer, director, and voice actor who has worked for Cartoon Network Studios, Freder ...
. It originally aired on
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...
on February 28, 2011. The episode guest stars
Miguel Ferrer
Miguel José Ferrer (February 7, 1955 – January 19, 2017) was an American actor. His breakthrough role was as Bob Morton in the 1987 film ''RoboCop''. Other film roles include Quigley in ''Blank Check'' (1994), Harbinger in ''Hot Shots! Part De ...
as Death; Ferrer would later reprise his role in the
fourth season episode "
Sons of Mars".
The series follows the adventures of
Finn (voiced by
Jeremy Shada
Jeremy Shada () is an American actor, musician and singer. He is best known for his work as the voice of Finn the Human from the American animated television series ''Adventure Time'' and Lance in '' Voltron: Legendary Defender''. He is also know ...
), a human boy, and his best friend and adoptive brother
Jake
Jake may refer to:
Name
* Jake (given name), including a list of persons and fictional characters with the name
* Katrin Jäke (born c. 1975), German swimmer
* Jake (gamer), American ''Overwatch'' player and coach
Animals
* Jake (rescue dog), a ...
(voiced by
John DiMaggio
John William DiMaggio (; born September 4, 1968) is an American actor. His various voice roles include Bender on ''Futurama'', Jake the Dog on ''Adventure Time'', Marcus Fenix in the '' Gears of War'' series, Dr. Drakken on '' Kim Possible'', ...
), a dog with magical powers to change shape and grow and shrink at will. In this episode, Finn and Jake make a trip to the Land of the Dead after killing Princess Bubblegum's (voiced by
Hynden Walch
Hynden Walch is an American actress. She is best known for voicing Starfire in the ''Teen Titans'' franchise and Princess Bubblegum in ''Adventure Time''. She also voiced Penny Sanchez in '' ChalkZone'', Amore and Lockette in the Nickelodeon ve ...
) plant when they were instructed to take care of it. After Jake's memory is wiped and Finn loses a musical duel against Death (voiced by Ferrer), the two are nearly killed until a lucky coincidence causes Death to spare them.
Originally, the episode was supposed to revolve around the duo trying to get the plant back, lest Princess Bubblegum turn into a man. In addition, the episode originally was supposed to feature a mysterious rabbit that guided Finn and Jake through the Underworld; this character was later cut. The episode was watched by 1.981 million people and received largely positive critical attention. Many critics applauded Ferrer's voice acting work, and Matt Fowler of
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
singled the episode out as an example of the comedic darkening of ''Adventure Time''.
Plot
While spending time with Finn and Jake, Princess Bubblegum realizes that she needs to leave for a science convention in the Veggie Village. She entrusts the two with guarding her Princess Plant. However, when she departs, Finn and Jake party too hard with the plant, killing it. They then decide on a way to journey into the Land of the Dead and to reclaim the flower's soul from Death himself. For an unspecified price, Peppermint Butler (voiced by
Steve Little) teaches the two how to get into the Underworld, and he instructs Finn and Jake also to tell Death that he said hello.
Once in the Land of the Death, Finn and Jake are nearly eaten by conscious skeletons, who crave flesh. While evading these monsters, Jake jumps into the "River of Forgetfulness" and loses his memory. Finn drags Jake all the way to Death's castle. Once inside, Death reveals that he will return the flower's soul if Finn can beat him in a musical showdown. Finn choose to play
jingle bells
"Jingle Bells" is one of the best-known and most commonly sung American songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont (1822–1893) and published under the title "The One Horse Open Sleigh" in September 1857. It has been claimed th ...
, whereas Death plays drums and sings
death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, feat ...
. Jake, the now-impartial judge due to his memory loss, rules that Death wins.
Because Finn and Jake lost the contest, Death decides to kill them. Before he dies, however, Finn tells Death that Peppermint Butler says hello; Death—revealed to be an acquaintance of Peppermint Butler—suddenly relents and tells the two that they can have "anything
hey
Hey or Hey! may refer to:
Music
* Hey (band), a Polish rock band
Albums
* ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014
* ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980
* ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title s ...
want." Death then returns Princess Plant's soul as well as Jake's memory before zapping Finn and Jake to the Candy Kingdom. Bubblegum returns, only to eat part of the plant, causing her hair to change. Peppermint Butler then asks for his payment: he wants both Finn and Jake's flesh, much to their horror.
Production
"Death in Bloom" was written and storyboarded by
Jesse Moynihan
Jesse Moynihan (born January 4, 1978) is an American artist, animator, composer and director. He is best known for being a writer and storyboard artist on the animated television series ''Adventure Time'' and as the creator of the graphic novel ' ...
and Cole Sanchez, from a story by Mark Banker,
Kent Osborne
Kent Matthew Osborne (born August 30, 1969) is an American screenwriter, actor, animator, producer, and director. He has worked for such animated television shows as ''SpongeBob SquarePants'', ''Camp Lazlo'', ''Phineas and Ferb'', ''The Marvelou ...
, Patrick McHale, and series creator
Pendleton Ward
Ward Taylor Pendleton Johnston (born September 23, 1982), known professionally as Pendleton Ward or simply Pen Ward, is an American animator, screenwriter, producer, director, and voice actor who has worked for Cartoon Network Studios, Freder ...
.
The episode was directed by
Larry Leichliter
Lawrence "Larry" Leichliter is an American animator and director who began his work in animation in 1975 with the made-for-TV ''Peanuts'' special ''You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown''. Throughout his career, he has worked on ''Peanuts'' animate ...
, with
Pat McHale
Patrick Nolen McHale (born November 17, 1983) is an American animator, screenwriter, songwriter, and director.
Known for his work in animation, he served as writer, creative director and storyboard artist for both the television series ''Adventur ...
and Sanchez serving as creative co-directors and
Nick Jennings serving as art director.
[ Both Ward and fellow series storyboard artist Tom Herpich helped Moynihan and Sanchez clean up their story.] One scene, in which Finn and Jake hide from the skeletons only to have Jake's flatulence alert them to their presence, was supposed to be storyboarded by Ward. However, he was extremely tired and offered Herpich $100—the amount Ward would have earned had he done it—to storyboard the scene instead.[
The episode features an extremely long pan showing much of the Land of the Dead, which was designed by Moynihan. In the episode's storyboard, the pan takes up 7 pages; regarding this length, Moynihan later noted on his personal website that initially he "wanted to really go over the top and make it like 15 pages but 7 pages felt right".] Moynihan's original pan was redesigned by background designer Dan "Ghostshrimp" James, who also did some of the other backgrounds for the episode. Other backgrounds were done by Chris Tsirgiotis, who, according to Moynihan, was doing his "best Ghostshrimp impression";[ Tsirgiotis himself later noted that, "Matching Ghostshrimp’s drawing style is pretty tricky. It looks simple at first glance, but it’s actually very sophisticated and nuanced."
The scene wherein Peppermint Butler teaches Finn and Jake to enter the land of the dead by crossing their eyes and staring at a corner was inspired by a story that Moynihan's father told him when he was younger. According to the artist, his father told him that if you "concentrate really hard enough", you would "walk into another dimension".] Moynihan recalled the story when he was storyboarding, and worked it into the episode.[ The climax featuring Death and Finn engaging in a musical competition was specifically written so as to not be "corny".][ According to Ward, scenes featuring contests were often avoided because they were "the easiest traps to fall into when you're writing an outline",] but in this case, the writers realized that a contest would work towards the story's strengths.[
In original drafts of the episode, Finn and Jake were guided through the Land of the Dead by a mysterious rabbit. While working on the episode, Sanchez continually felt that the rabbit was misplaced in the episode. Eventually, the writers and series staff began to agree with Sanchez, and when it came time to revise the episode, the rabbit was cut.][ The rabbit's role was later partially replaced by an ominous talking skull that tries to get Jake to drink from the "River of Forgetfulness". According to storyboard artist ]Rebecca Sugar
Rebecca Rea Sugar (born July 9, 1987) is an American animator and screenwriter. She is best known for being the creator of the Cartoon Network series ''Steven Universe'', making her the first non-binary person to independently create a series for ...
, a rough draft for the original ending featured Princess Bubblegum becoming a man without the Princess Plant. Moynihan later noted that the writers were being a "little reckless" when it was pitched, and Ward joked that he had to step in and be "quality control" to prevent the idea from making it into the final episode.[
Death was voiced by ]Miguel Ferrer
Miguel José Ferrer (February 7, 1955 – January 19, 2017) was an American actor. His breakthrough role was as Bob Morton in the 1987 film ''RoboCop''. Other film roles include Quigley in ''Blank Check'' (1994), Harbinger in ''Hot Shots! Part De ...
.[ Ferrer would later reprise his role in the fourth-season episode " Sons of Mars", and several subsequent episodes after that. Death's look was designed by Moynihan, who admitted on his personal website that he was somewhat intimidated with the task of redesigning such an iconic character. Moynihan deliberately avoided the stereotypical depiction of death with a robe and a sickle, instead choosing to experiment with both a "Japanese cosmic alien thing" and a " Jodorowsky/'' Holy Mountain'' inspired" design.] The latter design won out, although Moynihan later changed the character's head into a horse skull. The design for the character was then finalized by Phil Rynda, who was the series' lead character designer at the time.
Reception
"Death in Bloom" first aired on Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...
on February 28, 2011. The episode was viewed by 1.981 million viewers and scored a Nielsen rating
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rati ...
of 1.2/2 percent. This means it was seen by 1.2 percent of all households and 2 percent of all households watching television at the time of the episode's airing. The episode first saw physical release as part of the 2013 ''Fionna and Cake'' DVD, which included 16 episodes from the series' first three seasons. It was later re-released as part of the complete second season DVD in June 2013.
Tyler Foster of DVD Talk
DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman.
History
Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...
wrote highly of the episode, and highlighted it as a stand-out of the second season. He applauded the way in which the series reinvented the idea of the Underworld, noting that its presentation was "hilarious in and of itself".[ In addition, he was complimentary towards Ferrer's performance as Death; in a review of the ''Fionna and Cake'' DVD, Foster referred to the actor's work as "hilarious" in the episode,] and in a review of the second season, he wrote that "if 'Miguel Ferrer as Death' isn't a perfect four-word tease pitch for the show's genius, I don't know what is." Matt Fowler of IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
cited the episode as a season highlight, writing that the episode's best part is when "Finn has a 'death metal-off' with Death". He also noted that the episode is important to the series as a whole, as it is one of the many second season entries that marks a "darkening effect" upon the series; he specifically cited the scene wherein Peppermint Butler demands Finn and Jake's flesh as payment.[
]
Explanatory notes
References
External links
*
{{Portal bar, Animation, Television, Cartoon Network
2011 American television episodes
Adventure Time (season 2) episodes
Fiction about memory erasure and alteration
Television episodes about personifications of death
Television episodes about resurrection
Television episodes about the afterlife