Review: American Dad “Touch the Sun: A Chimborazo Adventure”

Overview

The family’s dream of climbing Mount Everest turns into a nightmare when Stan tries to save a buck and takes them to a different, much cheaper mountain.

Our Take

I’ve never understood the problem with people wanting to save money. In this day and age where prices for everything are up, portions are smaller, and we have 25 streaming services that we need to subscribe to just to follow one sports league, I’m with Stan’s mission in wanting to save on cash but still treat his family. Maybe I’m not the type to try and install a kitchen stove by myself and would rather pay the little extra to get a professional installer, but I can still appreciate Stan’s reasoning of wanting to cut corners to make ends meet.

This week’s episode of American Dad was a bunch of fun with a great story from Zack Rosenblatt that featured a good pace coupled with funny dialogue . That said, I think the real MVP of this week’s episode has to be director Joe Daniello and the jaw-dropping background details showcasing Chimborazo. Everything from the luscious jungles to the grounded but still silly character designs of the creatures were just *mwah* chef’s kiss. The Klaus X Esmeralda was pretty cute, if not a bit short, but how they showed up during the climax and devastated a bunch of Pixar producers made up for the quick setup that probably wasn’t a HUGE investment in terms of a true love story.

I’m actually a bit MORE miffed about the slide-show fight scene. Personally, I would’ve liked to have seen the principle cast of American Dad get the shit kicked out of them because how often do we get to see that? In any event, to not get a true smash grab was a bit of a letdown, but overall still a fun week.