Wizard aired on May 10, 2013, becoming the first episode of Adventure Time to air without a new accompanying episode. It was storyboarded by Pete Browngardt, Adam Muto, and Bert Youn. This is Pete Browngardt's first and only board for the series; Adam Muto had previously co-boarded Slumber Party Panic and Trouble in Lumpy Space with Elizabeth Ito, as well as Prisoners of Love with Pen Ward and the Enchiridion with Patrick McHale and Pen Ward. Bert Youn had previously boarded Tree Trunks, Ricardio the Heart Guy, and Memories of Boom Boom Mountain, all with Sean Jimenez.
It's time to talk about Adventure Time's status quo. Eleven episodes into the show, we as viewers can now tell whether episodes are breaking the mold or following the typical style.
The structure of a "typical" episode would be Finn and Jake go on an adventure, make some kind of strategic error, correct their mistake, and then move on, possibly having learned something and possibly not. Retroactively designating episodes as "typical episodes," I would include Tree Trunks, the Jiggler, Business Time, and Memories of Boom Boom Mountain. This, too, is a typical episode.
It's important, however, to talk about not just what a typical episode is composed of, but what a typical episode means. A typical episode is an episode of a show that operates by the most default narrative mode available and doesn't attempt to subvert it in any way. For example, on the show Doctor Who, the default mode is the Doctor engaging with a sci-fi premise in an exciting way that puts himself and his companion in peril, so a typical episode would be something like 42, in which a spaceship is in danger because it's being attacked by possessed crew members and the Doctor and his companion are stuck on it.
A "typical episode" is not a label intended as an insult. They're necessary for any show to function. Typical episodes are also perfectly able to do unique things, as long as they work within a very rigid framework.
In Wizard, the most unusual aspect - which is fairly unique for the first season - is the extraordinarily high gag density. Adventure Time has established itself as a show more willing to be humorous in an ambient way than an overt way (see the post on Slumber Party Panic). Wizard, however, is packed to the gills with gags. There are all the wizard powers, the haggling sequence, the rock coming to life - all of these are very rapid throwaway jokes.
I'd like to offer my usual disclaimer that it's impossible to attribute specific aspects of episodes to specific authors without explicit knowledge, but I'd also like to speculate that this has to do with the fact that this is the only episode storyboarded by Pete Browngardt, later known as the creator of Uncle Grandpa, one of the most ludicrously gag-heavy TV shows ever.
Next time: Evicted!
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