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"Up a Tree" is the fourth episode in the fifth season of Adventure Time. It's the one hundred and eighth episode overall.

Synopsis[]

Finn goes on a bizarre adventure up a giant tree to retrieve a throwing disk he and Jake were playing with.

Plot[]

The episode starts off with Lady Rainicorn walking in the Grass Lands towards Finn and Jake. As they are walking, Lady Rainicorn comments that the wind and weather are perfect, taking the beautiful day in. After a few paces, Jake sets down a picnic blanket, which Lady Rainicorn (now noticeably pregnant with Jake's puppies) rests on. Finn then digs through the picnic basket, bringing out food as both Finn and Jake exchange ooh's and aah's. As they start to take things out of the basket, Finn finds a Frisbee, which he refers to as a "throwing-and-catching disc." He and Jake interact as if he were a regular boy with his regular dog. When Finn does his "perfect throw," the wind carries it to the top of a tall tree. Jake offers to grab the disc for Finn, but he refuses and tries to get it himself.

Finn tries to climb up the tree with his bare hands but fails and meets a porcupine. It offers for Finn to sit on him, telling him the shock would cause him to jump up to the top. Finn refuses and the porcupine does it by force. Although the porcupine's plan failed, Finn takes out the needles stuck in him and uses them to climb up the tree. He gets tired and rests on a branch. A squirrel then offers him an apple to energize Finn. Finn refuses, but the squirrel stuffs in the apple by force. The apple was apparently cursed and shrinks Finn.

Finn continues to climb up the tree with the porcupine needles, but they eventually break, so he takes another break. Jake stretches up to him and notices that Finn has shrunk. He tells him that he's going to walk Lady Rainicorn home. After Jake leaves, Finn encounters the squirrel again and follows him into the tree after being ignored. He then hears the whispers of the animals. He sneaks in to see the animals discussing how to get rid of him and a large pile of objects with his Frisbee on top. In shock, Finn shouts, revealing himself. The animals then knock him out and put him in a jail cell in the tree.

Finn wakes up in the cell with the squirrel guarding the cage. The squirrel talks about the good and bad of living in the tree and living with the rules. He then says that he wishes to fly away but the other animals say he is not a flying squirrel, and that he would run away if only he had "a buddy to break out with." Finn easily escapes through the cell bars and teams up with the squirrel to escape. The squirrel lowers Finn to his Frisbee as the animals chase them out of the tree and onto a limb. Finn throws the disc planning to ride on it, but it flies upward again. As the animals catch up, he pushes the squirrel off the branch and jumps on his back. As they are falling it is revealed that he is a regular squirrel and cannot fly. Just before they reach the ground, the Frisbee flies underneath them, catching them. On the disc, they ride across the Grasslands, past Lady's house, where Jake is making food for Lady. Finn calls out Jake's name, and he watches Finn and the squirrel riding on the Frisbee. Jake says that it's a "perfect throw" as the Frisbee flies into the sunset.

Characters[]

Major characters[]

Minor characters[]

Locations[]

Trivia[]

Episode connections[]

  • Lady Rainicorn's baby bump can be seen, just as it was in "Five More Short Graybles." Her pregnancy was first revealed in "Lady & Peebles."
  • The way Finn screams when the porcupine jumps on him is the same way he screams in the episode "Burning Low."
  • Finn was interacting with the Snail, as seen when he waved back as he flew through the air. Finn had previously interacted with the snail in "The Lich."
    • At the same time, it is confirmed that Snail is no longer possessed by the Lich, as shown in "The Lich."

Cultural references[]

  • The animals' chant, "In the tree, part of the tree," is a possible reference to the Pirates of the Caribbean series, in which the Flying Dutchman crew chant "Part of the crew, part of the ship."
  • When Finn eats a cursed apple to shrink him, it is remeniscent to Alice in Wonderland's 'Drink Me' Potion and the episode of Gravity Falls, Little Dipper. Although the latter was released at a similar time, and is unlikely to have any correlation with this episode.
  • Near the end of the episode, Jake is seen stirring a bowl of pickles and ice cream at Lady's house. This is likely a reference to the fact that women sometimes develop cravings for unusual foods during their pregnancies.
  • Finn and Jake throwing a Frisbee to each other is a reference to how modern dogs and their masters play with each other.
  • Finn refers to the Frisbee as a "throwing-and-catching-disc" because "Frisbee" is a proprietary name registered to the Wham-O toy company and cannot be broadcast without the company's permission.
    • It is also somewhat similar to a scene in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode, "Sandcastles in the Sand" where instead of calling a it a frisbe, SpongeBob and Patrick call it a "small plastic disc that you throw/toss."
  • In the ending, Finn and the Squirrel are flying on a Frisbee when Finn waves to the Snail. Then in the next scene, Finn sees Jake in Lady's house and yells, "Hey, there's Jake. Jake!" and waves. This may be a reference to the film The NeverEnding Story. When Bastian is flying on Falkor he yells "Atreyu, Artax!" and waves to Atreyu who's riding his horse in the field.
  • An episode of Garfield and Friends and The Garfield Show shares the same title as this episode.
  • An episode of Animaniacs shares the same title as this episode. Coincidentally, Jim Cummings lent his voice to both cartoons.
  • An episode of Robotboy shares the same title as this episode.

Storyline analysis[]

  • Finn never grows back to normal size in the episode, but in the next episode, "All the Little People," he is back to normal. This must mean the curse was temporary or that he found a cure somehow. The Adventure Time: Fionna & Cake episode "Cake the Cat" would later introduce magic enlarging strawberries, which the eponymous Cake would eat to undo the effects of a cursed apple, which may suggest retroactively the means by which Finn returned to normal.

Production notes[]

  • The title card was made by Michelle Xin, Martin Ansolabehere, and Nick Jennings.[1]
  • This is another episode that has been leaked before its intended airdate.
  • In the long preview for this episode, the opening segment of the song "Invincible," created by the music production company, Two Steps From Hell, was used in the first 13 seconds of the preview. The introduction of such a piece marks a break in the background song style used for almost all of the past episode previews.

Errors[]

  • When Jake and Lady Rainicorn left the area where they were having a picnic, they left the basket. However, in the next shot, when Finn is climbing the tree, it disappears, though it can be implied that one of them remembered the basket and got it while they were off-camera.
  • The size of the porcupine needles changed when Finn shrunk.
  • When the animals start chanting, the porcupine and a squirrel change places.
  • When Finn and the Squirrel jumped onto the disc, they did not spin with it, which could indicate the disc was not spinning. This is physically impossible for a throwing disc to fly without spinning.
  • Finn's hat appears to be bigger in some scenes.
  • In some parts when Finn gets shrunk, the needles seem to shrink with him.

Videos[]

Gallery[]

See Full Storyboard


Official art[]

Screenshots[]

References[]

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