Adventure Time: Season 1 - Region 1 DVD

That blend of grownup, self-aware humor and childlike silliness can be difficult to balance, but Adventure Time frequently succeeds, thanks in part to the epic sprawl of its universe, which provides a sizable canvas that preserves the tone of the series while maintaining a never-ending supply of weird and wonderful encounters. It is unquestionably an acquired taste, but it's also a sweetly offbeat series and an awful lot of fun. The two-disc set includes a healthy selection of extras, most notably commentary tracks on four episodes, including "Tree Trunks," which features some amusing anecdotes from Ward's mother and family friend Polly Lou Livingston, who also provide voices in the episode. The three featurettes are a mixed bag: A Behind-the-Scenes Featurette is a surreal barrage of sight gags filmed in the Adventure Time production offices by Ward with his phone, while the Behind the Scenes of the Behind the Scenes gets even sillier. A 10-minute talk with the show's music editors takes an equally left-of-center approach, though the nearly hour-long collection of animatics and a two-minute episode called "The Wand" are fairly straightforward. The only true letdown is the lack of a Blu-ray presentation, which would accurately preserve the show's HD broadcast quality. --Paul Gaita