James Baxter the Horse
| "James Baxter the Horse" | |
|---|---|
| Adventure Time episode | |
James Baxter entertains a group of people. Every instance of the horse was guest-animated by British artist James Baxter.
|
|
| Episode no. | Season 5 Episode 19 |
| Directed by |
Adam Muto (supervising) Nick Jennings (art) |
| Written by | Pendleton Ward Somvilay Xayaphone |
| Story by |
Patrick McHale Kent Osborne Pendleton Ward |
| Production code | 1014-124 |
| Original air date | May 6, 2013 |
| Running time | 11 minutes |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
|
|
"James Baxter the Horse" is the nineteenth episode of the fifth season of the American animated television series Adventure Time. The episode was written and storyboarded by series creator Pendleton Ward and Somvilay Xayaphone, from a story by Patrick McHale, Kent Osborne, and Ward. It originally aired on Cartoon Network on May 6, 2013. The episode guest stars animator James Baxter as the titular horse.
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 stumble across a horse named James Baxter (voiced by Baxter the animator) who has the ability to make sad people feel better. While seeking to emulates James Baxter's style, Finn and Jake accidentally anger the spirit of a deceased being at a funeral and are nearly killed by it; however, James Baxter arrives at the last moment and cheers the spirit up.
The impetus for the episode stems from a guest lecture Baxter gave at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) when Ward was a student; during the discussion, someone had requested that he animate a horse on a beach ball, a concept which fixed itself into Ward's mind. The episode was viewed by 2.21 million viewers and received a 1.4 household rating. Oliver Sava of The A.V. Club wrote positively of the episode, arguing that it was a metacommentary on the nature of Adventure Time itself. Likewise Ryan Thomason of WatchPlayRead enjoyed the episode, both for its full embracing of silliness, and also for its darker ending.
The destruction of an egg causes BMO (voiced by Niki Yang) to start crying. Finn and Jake try to cheer it up, but only make matters worse. Only when James Baxter (voiced by James Baxter), a horse who neighs his name frequently while balancing on a beach ball, arrives on the scene does BMO feel any better. Inspired by the actions of James Baxter, Finn and Jake decide that they want to try to make people feel better. As such, they journey across the magical land of Ooo (wherein Finn and Jake live) and emulate Baxter's brand of humor by saying their names humorously just like James Baxter. However, after interrupting a funeral and accidentally frightening a young Candy Kingdom citizen, they realize that they merely making people feel worse.
...
Wikipedia