Adventure Time - Season 5 Episode 26 - Recap - Wizards Only, Fools

Adventure Time - Season 5 Episode 26 - Recap - Wizards Only, Fools

This late-season episode of Cartoon Network's wacky post-apocalyptic fantasy comedy action cartoon Adventure Time starts with Princess Bubblegum tending to her fluffy baked subject Starchy, who is sick. Starchy refuses PB's medicine, demanding only magic be used to cure him. The princess is, of course, a skeptic, so she mocks the poor lil guy. eventually, she agrees to go to Wizard City and find a cold spell to heal him.

Finn and Jake accompany the Princess, all in disguise as wizards. PB got Ice King to tell her how to get in. The team sees what the wizard police do to fake wizards, then when buying a spell, they get caught! During the escape, they encounter their old amateur wizard pal Abracadaniel and a few other wizards from previous episodes (they still get arrested though). The scenes in wizard jail are pretty fun, doing G-rated parody of some prison movies tropes. Eventually, they use the cold spell to escape (taking the timid Abracadaniel with them). Back at Candy Castle, Abracadaniel begins a spell for Starchy. But, it's just a distraction. PB stabs Starchy with the needle of medicine and the episode ends.

This was a really well-animated, fun episode, but I feel like the creative team played it safe; magic was clearly a metaphor for anti-science religious conservatism, which isn't exactly a topic for an all-ages cartoon show. It's understandable to avoid getting too deep into it, but it's still disappointing. I've heard rumors that season 5 still has another 25 (!) episodes to go, ending with a TV movie (!!), so check back here for recaps, though next week's episode hasn't been announced. In the mean time, here's a preview of this episode!