Finn the Human (Adventure Time episode)

"Finn the Human" is the fifth season premiere of the American animated television series Adventure Time. The episode was written and storyboarded by Tom Herpich and Jesse Moynihan, from a story by Patrick McHale, Kent Osborne, and Pendleton Ward. It originally aired on Cartoon Network on November 12, 2012. The episode guest stars Ron Perlman as the Lich, Kumail Nanjiani as Prismo, Ming-Na as Farmworld Finn's mother, and Cloris Leachman as Farmworld Marceline.

The series follows the adventures of Finn (voiced by Jeremy Shada), a human boy, and his best friend and adoptive brother Jake (voiced by John DiMaggio), a dog with magical powers to change shape and grow and shrink at will. In this episode, Finn and Jake chase The Lich through a dimensional portal where they meet Prismo, a wish granter, who tells them that the Lich wished for the extinction of all life. This leads Finn to wish that the Lich had never existed. Finn is then transported to an alternate timeline, where he is a normal human living with his family and his dog, Jake, on a farm. In the alternate reality, Finn discovers a magical ice crown, which he attempts to use to repay his family's debt. After placing it on his head, he is magically imbued with power over ice and snow.

The story for "Finn the Human" is a continuation of the plot from the fourth season finale "The Lich"; the plot was continued on into the following episode, "Jake the Dog". "Finn the Human" was watched by 3.435 million viewers and received critical acclaim, with writers from The A.V. Club and IndieWire applauding the episode for being both an excellent season premiere, as well as a creative challenge, respectively.

Plot

In the fourth season finale "The Lich", Finn and Jake are tricked by the Lich—disguised as the hero Billy—into opening a portal to the multiverse by using the Enchiridion. After the Lich passes through, Finn and Jake give chase. They eventually reach a time room at the center of the multiverse that is inhabited by Prismo, a wish-granter. They arrive just in time to see the Lich vanish after making his wish for the extinction of all life. After a short conversation with Prismo, Finn wishes that the Lich had never existed and is promptly transported into the reality created by his wish.

The scene then shifts to the art style featured in the end of "The Lich". In this reality, Finn is a normal human living with his family and his dog, Jake, on a farm. Finn is called by his mother and told to sell his beloved mule Bartram to pay off the family's debt to the Destiny Gang. While going to town to the sell the creature, Finn and Jake fall down an opening in the earth and discover the long-dead skeleton of Simon Petrikov. An aged and decrepit Marceline—who never became a vampire—reveals herself and tells Finn that Simon gave his life stopping a mutagenic bomb from exploding by freezing it in ice. She tells them that she has been guarding Simon's body, and the ice crown, ever since his demise so that no one is ever harmed from the crown's power.

Finn manages to steal the crown, hoping to sell it instead of Bartram. In town, however, the Destiny Gang steal the crown as well as Bartram. Finn, furious, riles up the town, who begin to riot, as they are sick of being abused by the Destiny Gang. Finn goes to the Destiny Gang's mansion to confront their leader, Big Destiny. Once there, Big Destiny returns the crown, noting that it is the last possession that he will ever own. Finn looks out the window and sees that the gang is burning the city. Finn races to his home, taking Marceline with him. When he arrives at his house, the gang has already set it on fire with his parents and infant sibling trapped upstairs. Finn asks Marceline if the crown is magic and she tells him it is very dangerous magic. He then puts the crown on his head, and the power begins to flow through him.

Production

The episode guest starred Kumail Nanjiani (left) and Ming-Na Wen (right) among others.

"Finn the Human" was written and storyboarded by Jesse Moynihan and Tom Herpich, from a story by Patrick McHale, Kent Osborne, Pendleton Ward. The entry was directed by Larry Leichliter.^[2] The episode guest stars Ron Perlman as the Lich, Kumail Nanjiani as Prismo, Ming-Na Wen as Farmworld Finn's mother, and Cloris Leachman as Farmworld Marceline.^[3][4] Perlman had previously appeared in the fourth season finale "The Lich". Nanjiani and Leachman would appear in the following episode, "Jake the Dog".^[3]

The episode features new characters, the Destiny Gang, who were designed to not "really fit in the Adventure Time world".^[5] Moynihan, the designer of the characters, was worried that their appearance would be "a little bit jarring", but he was not dissuaded from trying it.^[5] Furthermore, Moynihan admitted that the characters were partially inspired by the Japanese manga series Fist of the North Star.^[5] Despite being officially boarded by Moynihan and Herpich, Cole Sanchez and Rebecca Sugar—the writers and storyboarders for the following episode—helped out with various scenes. For instance, the majority of the scenes with Prismo were created by Sanchez and Herpich, whereas "Finn going insane" was the product of Sugar.^[5]

Reception

"Finn the Human" first aired on Cartoon Network on November 12, 2012, along with "Jake the Dog". The episode was watched by 3.435 million viewers, and scored a 0.7 percent in the 18–49 demographic Nielsen household rating. Nielsen ratings are audience measurement systems that determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States, which means that the episode was seen by 0.7 percent of all 18- to 49-year-olds watching television at the time of the airing.^[6] The episode first saw physical release as part of the 2014 Finn the Human DVD, which included 16 episodes from the series' third, fourth, fifth, and sixth seasons.^[7]

Oliver Sava of The A.V. Club awarded the episode—along with "Jake the Dog"—an "A−".^[3] He noted that, together, both episodes come together to make "a dense première that evokes nearly all aspects of this series."^[3] He was appreciative of the fact that "Finn the Human" was "an action-packed, mythology-heavy chapter" and a "nice change of pace".^[3] Eric Kohn of IndieWire praised the episode—along with "Jake the Dog"—for being "irreverent and narratively engaging".^[8] He called the collective episodes "the ideal testament to animation's glorious pliability in an commercial arena otherwise defined by restrictions."^[8] Kohn felt that the show's exploration of "sad subtext"—such as the series' mysterious Mushroom War and the relationship between Marceline and the Ice King—and the characters' abilities to "deny the bad vibes their surrounding world invites" via "cheery songs and vibrant artwork" were some of the series strongest points.^[8] Finally, he praised the exploration of the multiverse and its impact on the show, noting that it was an "interesting creative challenge".^[8]

References