“The Cat Who Tipped the Box” Review

Original Airdate: November 13, 2025

Written & Storyboarded by: Jackie Files, Jacob Winkler, Graham Falk & Iggy Craig

Another week, another Fionna and Cake, another opportunity to bitch and moan for a little bit! It’s been interesting to see the wildly differing viewpoints about this season so far from all sides of the spectrum. I’ve seen plenty of people really get into the shipping elements and dynamics of characters, some who have complained about the pacing and the frustration of the weekly release schedule, as well as some very blatantly misogynistic takes about how Adventure Time went from a story about a boy and his dog to a woman in her 30’s having period cramps. It’s probably the most divided I’ve seen the fandom since the Muto seasons started, and as I’ve made obvious in the past few weeks, I can kind of see why. Part of me wonders how much of this is because of the altered release schedule, but I think even in the early days of watching the original series and being more drawn to the episodes that would be lore heavy, I would still have an appreciation for any episodes that did focus more on being laidback and less heady. Granted, that was at a time where we basically assumed AT had an unlimited number of episodes, where now we’re limited to 10 every few years. So if an episode doesn’t hit, it’s much more noticeable this time around. Yet, I’m still inclined to believe that it does go beyond just taking a while to get going and the actual execution of tackling the more grounded elements.

In the aforementioned interview, Muto states:

It’s fun seeing these soft, round, cartoony characters dealing with real adult problems… That juxtaposition is part of what makes it work.

A departure from the initial series for sure, and not necessarily a wholly unwelcomed one, but the main problem I have with that statement is that I’m not really clearly seeing the juxtaposition. Most of these characters are not explicitly cartoony. Some scenes that really started to unravel the specific issue I’ve been having with this world involved Phelix and Fionna’s relationship, entirely complemented by somewhat generic relationship banter. I’ve batted this idea around a few times as of recent, but the dialogue in these episodes is feeling particularly uninspired. I think the entire series is kind of in this stalemate where they want to deal with real world issues and treat them with a level of dramatic integrity (i.e. the phone call with Hunter) but not treat it so heavily that it feels too detached from the source material. While I agree that Adventure Time doesn’t need to devolve into Euphoria levels of character drama, I think the dedication to having more of a focus on characters with grounded goals and feelings is missing one key element: fun. I don’t feel like I’m having fun watching some of these characters and relationships play out, which was never really something that factored into the original series.

AT could handle the mundane in really imaginative ways; Root Beer Guy is a story about a candy person dissatisfied with his day-to-day life, played out as an old melodrama that never takes the plight of the main character too seriously. Characters that have unmeasurable power, like Kee-Oth, are basically just regular dudes that need to do yoga to manage their stress like anyone else. A demon from the Nightosphere has anxiety about his IBS acting up on camping trips. The juxtaposition was always that these weird, crazy characters have innately human attributes to them, and that’s what made them particularly quirky. Here, we have human characters that, well, act predominantly human. I wish there was more of an emphasis on these characters being odd, because outside of Fionna and Cake themselves, they just feel kind of lifeless as is. Gary and Marshall have somewhat devolved from their captivating exploration last season to just sort of being a cutesy couple stripped of their individually contrasting personalities. Hunter’s whole character has a level of self-seriousness that makes him feel like a real bore whenever he’s on screen. And Phelix is probably the worst offender thus far – I think his role in Fionna’s life adds layers to how she continues to chase after things that aren’t necessarily good for her, but Lord is he bland. I think you could make the argument that the grounded elements themselves are the issue, but I’m not really convinced its the world itself. Honestly, one show I keep getting reminded of when watching Fionna and Cake is Bee and Puppycat, which was coincidentally created by Natasha Allegri, who developed the concept of Fionna and Cake way back in 2011. Bee and Puppycat‘s world operates in a way that’s really similar to Fionna and Cake – it’s a pretty normal scape with the focus being a girl in her 20’s (sort of) dealing with adult issues, along with her magical cat and a sprinkle of otherworldly elements incorporated. What makes Bee and Puppycat so great, to me, is that nobody actually talks or interacts like a real human. The dialogue is so awkward and clunky that it does almost feel more like a spiritual successor to Adventure Time than Fionna and Cake does on some level. It’s proof to me that I think you can do grounded and still make it quite fun, but I find that anytime there is an extended amount of focus on the human characters, it is so particularly lacking in the zest that AT is so known for that it almost feels like a different franchise entirely.

I feel bad taking a section every week to talk about what isn’t working for me with this season thus far, but it feels additionally dishonest if I only go into this forcing myself to praise the good elements and not talk about the parts that I find severely lacking. As I’ve been seeing more and more lately, I don’t think I’m alone in that camp either. Granted, there is that hyperbolic attitude I mentioned in the first paragraph that really doesn’t gel with me either. Do I think season two has effectively ruined the legacy of the franchise for me? Not at all, I just don’t find it particularly engaging. I think most of the people who are saying this really haven’t been fans or even viewers of the series for years, because there are key elements that are working for me. Once again, the special opening sequence looks gorgeous. The lush woodland backgrounds look so rich, complemented by designs that I immediately recognized as works from Tom Herpich. It’s quite a sad and morbid exploration of HW’s early years as well, having to bury her foster parents and being forced to travel on her own as a result. The trope of “dead parents” is obviously done to death at this point in animated fiction, but since we’re drawing specifically from fairy tales as a reference point for this season, I think it’s all-the-more fitting. HW is finally moving more into the spotlight after a while of stagnating in her current state, and I’m excited to see her play more of a vital role in this season. Her changes in design were really fun to see, especially with how Fionna reacts to her more petite transformations.

This one is mostly about Fionna again, and while I have issues with mostly everything else in these segments, I do quite like Fionna herself. I think she has been very charming throughout most of the season, once again aided so thoroughly by how Madeleine Martin portrays her. I think the dialogue Fionna is given probably suffers from the same issues that other characters have, but Martin has such a unique, bubbly voice that it’s hard not to be enamored by her performance. Once again, I like watching her kind of struggle to be heroic because of her own flaws and desires taking the forefront. Her being kind of a bitch to Fennel was quite funny, as I once again enjoy the elements of her that make her a bit more of a selfish character. Another show that I think does the “struggling in your 20’s” genre quite well is Girls, which seems to somewhat play into the blueprint for this series. Fionna and Cake‘s not as extreme as Girls, nor do I think it should be, but anytime they really play more into the “girl loser” bits of Fionna’s personality instead of focusing on the sort of washed out niceness of nearly every other character in this world, it reminds me of what makes that show so great. It’s what helps Fionna to feel a bit more complex than the rest of her posse, and I almost wish they would push it a bit further to be honest! But seeing as she’s practically homeless now, I’d say we’re not that far off.

As much as I have doubled down on the human elements being banal, I was kind of surprised to see how surreal the Cake parts ended up being. So, in this world, sitcoms are comprised of miniature people whose sole purpose seems to be to perform for a live studio audience. I still have no idea why they insist on hammering in Cheers week after week, but it’s kind of hilarious that it’s escalated to this level of outlandishness. It’s nice to see that there are levels of absurdity in this world that don’t make it so explicitly ruralized, and it’s something that everyone just seems to accept with full sincerity. Granted, I think the whole twist is kind of dumb, but it’s at the very least AT levels of dumb, and I can get behind that. Cake continues to be my favorite of this bunch, and once again I am enjoying the exploration of her trying to find her own place in this world. It’s kind of sad honestly that she’s been downgraded to just a form of entertainment for the townspeople around her – it makes the scene with the little girl in the first episode feel so much more impactful. But can you blame them? Cake transforming into a huge scorpion was rad as fuck, we’re all part of the problem.

The Ooo segments are bite-sized in this episode, but as usual, are quite good. It’s such a massive bummer to see the Enchiridion destroyed again for a wish that doesn’t even come into fruition. Prismo’s kind of a dick here for not supporting Finn after the boy risked his life for him years prior, all to hide it from his roommate who nobody even likes in the cosmic world! I do like how he has his own little musical motif whenever he shows up now; it first popped up in Prismo the Wishmaster when he introduces himself, and played in the previous episode when we first see him. Also, glad to see his pickles are getting praised by interdimensional podcasters,.

Simon’s portion with the Ice Thing is probably my favorite section of this episode – last season ended without any kind of meaningful interaction between the two, which appears intentional now. Simon isn’t quite ready to confront his demons and probably hasn’t visited Ice Thing in quite sometime. Honestly, it seems like nobody has, which is quite sad. Come Along With Me seemed to imply there was an effort on Marceline’s part to stay in contact with him, and it might be happening behind the scenes still, but I also kind of imagine that they just kind of stopped seeing him over the years as she got closer to Simon. He seems crazier than ever, so it’s not a total shock that it may prove to be bewildering to spend an extended amount of time with him. I’m glad that he at least has Turtle Princess, but it did bum me out how this is clearly not the Ice King that we knew and loved. It was nice to see Simon have maybe a slight bit of fondness or sympathy for him, similar to his connection to Candy Queen last season. I’m excited to see what exactly will come from using the Demonic Wishing Eye, after it’s been utilized in such a minimal format over the course of the series. Does this means Simon’s gonna lose a piece of his soul? Dude can’t win. Once again, Hynden Walch kills it in the booth, with PB delivering an entirely warranted demand for Huntress Wizard to comply as Finn withers away. They’ve really been doing a great job with showing her at wit’s end, once again resorting to using magic to try to save her friend. It’s been a little disappointing up to this point how Marceline is just kind of there to float around and make poor, quippy relationship jokes from time to time. I don’t really think it would make sense to leave her out entirely, but to just have her there and not really contribute a ton is a bit of a drag.

Some other stuff I liked in this one: backgrounds look great! The human world certainly has its monotonous elements, but having a large variety of vibrant, beautiful backgrounds helps to break up some of the uniformity of the cityscapes. A few cameos I noticed were Lizard Princess as “Liz,” the director of Cheers, Breakfast Princess’s human counterpart in the mark, as well as the bear from Billy’s song, Hambo, and a sea lard appearing as toys in the carnival. We get teased to Ice Queen’s role in this season, which I’m looking forward to see unfold. It seems like they may not even know each other? The only board identifiers I noticed this time around were the man in the record store, another clear touch of Graham Falk posing. Adam Muto did also note in the article linked above that because of the current pipeline to produce an episode of F&C, board artist touches are far less noticeable this time around, which is a shame. But yeah, that’s mostly it. I’m still not sold by this season and it does get more difficult week-by-week to not be able to break through the sense of disinterest that I’m feeling. With the midway point happening next week, I can only assume that HW is going to have a more consistent role from this episode on, which may spark a new light for me. But I am also noticing that I’ve been saying that literally every week since we’ve started, and while I want to have a degree of patience for what’s ahead, I think it is safe to say for me personally that this season did not start in a particularly strong way. Loved Huntress Wizard’s opening, the Ooo stuff has consistently sucked me in, and while I like Fionna and Cake, their segments have weighed down this season heavily for me. I’m still eager to see where this is all heading and what lies ahead. But in some regards, I think it’s fair now to let some feelings of disappointment be expressed.

Udo Jung, who has been with the series since Distant Lands, spearheaded the special section for this week’s episode. It’s nice to see him get such an opportunity to direct his own segment, as his background work throughout the past few years has been beautiful and make me really want an Art of Fionna and Cake book to come out at some point! You can check out Jung’s portfolio here.

Favorite line: “She’s like, if a shrub was a person.”