Review: Adventure Time “The Orb”

One weird dream sequence.

Spoilers Below:

On their way back from the islands, Finn, Jake, and BMO are going through their giant supply of bananas. BMO comments on a mysterious cloud that is following them, but Jake says to pay it no mind, and instead asks for a bedtime story. BMO starts to recite one, and the other two fall asleep. Joining them, BMO makes a bed out of cloth and says goodnight to them both. Right before going into sleep mode, the cloud evaporates and reveals a mysterious orb.

Jake dreams that he is back living with his parents, in some sort of strange talk show. He finds one of his other selves, and both are aware that they are dreaming. Finn dreams that he is flying in the sky, and weaving through the clouds. BMO dreams of a world inhabited solely by BMO copies. They are producing a play about Finn and Jake, and BMO sits in the audience. In the real world, the orb draws closer.

In Jake’s dream, his dad tells him and his clone to dig a hole in the floor. As they do so, a dark shadow casts over the hole. In Finn’s dream, the landscape becomes stormy, and one of the clouds sprouts an eye. He sees Bubblegum, and when he talks to her, she says flying is scientifically impossible. Finn finds that he can’t fly anymore, and the grass grabs onto his ankles. Bubblegum’s teeth fall out, and Finn screams. In BMO’s dream, the slapstick goes dry, and the audience becomes bored. A rendition of BMO comes on stage, but this BMO kicks around Finn and Jake. BMO is horrified and goes to speak to the producer. The producer turns out to be the mean version of BMO, and BMO cries out.

All of a sudden, the hole Jake was digging vanishes, and he’s separated from his father. He’s sucked dry by a vampire, and his parents laugh at him when he cries for help. As Finn tries to put Bubblegum’s teeth back, he is swallowed up by the grass. He emerges in an alternate dimension, with the eye cloud looking down upon him. He hears Jake crying for help from above, and wills himself to fly. He finds Jake, shriveled and weak, but then he hears BMO criticizing the performance.

They both stand on the stage and recover instantly. All three of them realize that they are sharing the same nightmare, and an abyss opens up beneath their feet. As they fall, the eye cloud hovers nearby them. Finn grabs a dress and a pair of bat wings and attached them to the cloud. The moment he does, the cloud sprouts limbs, and they stop falling.

Finn realizes that the cloud is actually a Nightmare Princess, who entered their dreams to communicate with them. She asks for all the bananas on the ship, and BMO agrees to trade them for something “pretty and/or cool”. They wake up, and the orb sucks up the remaining bananas. In return, the orb gives Finn some sort of concoction before floating away. Jake spots Ooo in the distance, but when BMO looks through the spyglass, the landscape is definitely not Ooo. Finn asks what’s there, and BMO replies, “a dream.”

Overview:

Nightmare Princess doesn’t seem to be hostile, but she is only able to appear in physical form in dreams. When she is in the real world, she is confined to the mysterious orb, and can only float around waiting for a sleeping passerby. Even if she wants something relatively tame, the bananas, she can only communicate with horrific imagery. From that alone, there’s already a gap in easy communication, so it is nice to see that Finn manages anyway.

The entire tone of the episode is nonsensical and vaguely nonlinear, perfect for a dream sequence. While the animation and craft are very well done, as a single episode, it does not seem to tell much of a story. Although it did not fit my tastes, it is at least worth a watch for the animation.