‘Distant Lands’ Fizzles Out With “Wizard City” Trip
Adventure Time: Distant Lands- Wizard City Review
When HBO announced that the Adventure Time: Distant Lands mini-series would be ending with Wizard City, and not Together Again, fans were confused. Why the change of release schedule? Wouldn’t it make sense to save Finn and Jake’s biggest adventure ever for last?
As it turns out, there may be some ulterior motives to this. Last month, it was announced that the Adventure Time universe would continue with a “Fionna and Cake” series. In other words, while Together Again marks the distant finale to the series, it’s not the finale. Considering this, and the post-credits scene in Wizard City potentially setting us up for the future, it makes more sense why they swapped the two up.
But it still doesn’t change the fact that Wizard City was a weak ending to the “Distant Lands” miniseries.
Peppermint Butler’s New Beginning In Wizard City
Right before the series finale to Adventure Time, Peppermint Butler, PB’s loyal servant, got turned into a baby by Gumbald’s dum-dum juice. As a result, he’s had to re-learn everything about magic. And when he can’t do that in the Candy Kingdom, he heads to Wizard City to continue his training.
Only thirdly problems: firstly, he’s banned from Wizard City. Secondly, he’s got to start at the bottom with the quirky niece of Abracadaniel, Cadebra. Thirdly, some butt’s been causing major bad wiz biz on campus, and Peppermint Butler gets the blame and has to clear his name. Oh, and there’s this evil cult that wants to use the dark heart of an ancient wizard for evil.
The Owl House Beat Them To It
I’ll be honest and upfront about this: I think that Wizard City was the weakest of the four Distant Lands specials. While it was fun to see some more of Ooo, we lacked the emotional investment needed to enjoy Wizard City. In addition, there’s the fact that The Owl House already covered the magical school angle to an insane degree. In addition, the bad guy’s plan left me confused. Like, who was this dark wizard that they were supposed to be using? Why are we supposed to care about them? I honestly cared more about the fact that Peppermint Butler’s adult self was haunting his kid version and acting like an abusive parental figure to him.
In the end, the special ended with the same premise that a lot of stories in Adventure Time end on. Telling the abusive authority figures where to stick it, and have the youth forge their own path. In this case, Peppermint decides that he’s still gonna become a super-powerful wizard; just not like what he used to.
Like I said, not the best way to end this miniseries. Even if it was to lead into a new series, it still wasn’t a smart move, Warner Bros.
I Give Distant Lands- Wizard City a 2.5/5
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Hi,
Adam Muto himself explained that the actual reason Wizard City came last is because it was the last to be approved by CN. They were planning to retroactively insert it as the third special, however, due to the pandemic, production on Wizard City was held back so much that they had to give up and air it last (so that the 6 month hiatus after Obsidian wouldn’t become a 10 month hiatus).
It has no connection to the Fionna and Cake spinoff, which was only approved almost a year after Wizard City was written.
Yeah still a lame excuse