Come Along with Me (Adventure Time)
"Come Along with Me" was watched by 920,000 viewers during its premiere, and was universally acclaimed by critics, who praised its emotional weight, scale, writing, animation, and message, as well as the conclusion of the show's storylines, themes, and character arcs; most called it a perfect ending to the series.
1,000 years after the events of Adventure Time, a cat-like being named Shermy and his best friend Beth (a distant descendant of Jake and Lady Rainicorn) find a rusty mechanical arm and seek out the King of Ooo (an older BMO) to learn about its origins.
Upon waking, Bubblegum and Gumbald agree to end the conflict; however, Aunt Lolly trips him and he douses himself in his "Dum-Dum Solution," reverting into Punchy and revealing his true intention to betray her.
BMO, Bubblegum, Marceline, and Jake then discover that GOLB's essence is vulnerable to music and convince all the residents of Ooo to sing in harmony with them to weaken it.
Some time later, the Music Hole sings the show's ending theme to Finn and Jake while a montage plays of various characters' lives after the Gum War.
[2] The special was written and storyboarded by Tom Herpich, Steve Wolfhard, Seo Kim, Somvilay Xayaphone, Hanna K. Nyström, Aleks Sennwald, and Sam Alden, and Graham Falk.
The story was developed by Herpich, Wolfhard, Ashly Burch, showrunner Adam Muto, head writer Kent Osborne, Jack Pendarvis, Julia Pott, and series creator Pendleton Ward.
[2] In an interview with TV Guide, Muto explained that the show's writers used many of the episodes preceding the finale to conclude minor character story arcs "so we wouldn't have to cram too much in at the very end here.
[15][16] Voice recording for the episode ended on January 31, 2017 as confirmed by a number of cast members, including Maria Bamford and Andy Milonakis.
[19] Former storyboard artist Rebecca Sugar returned to compose the song "Time Adventure", which BMO sings to Jake in order to calm him.
[20] Sugar said of the song: I wanted to write about how even if something ends, it continues to exist in the past, nothing ever really goes away, you only feel like it does because our mind has to process information one moment at a time in order for us to function as humans.
I would be so happy to come to work and brainstorm with him and sit down and draw on paper and pitch these stories with Post-its tacked up to the wall, just like they did in the 1930s with the stick and the song and the dance, the most traditional way of doing cartoons.
[7] Eric Thurm of Polygon wrote, "By focusing on this payoff—years of communicating that what's important isn't the adventure itself, but the people you're with and the feeling it gives you—Adventure Time put itself in a position to open up the future of Ooo to all of those other moods, other tones, other perspectives..."[25] Daniel Schindel of IGN gave the episode a 10 out of 10, saying "[it] easily ranks with the best of Adventure Time's episodes, but more importantly, it acts as a perfect capper for the series.
"[26] Darren Franich of Entertainment Weekly gave the episode an A rating and the series overall an A+, titling his review "One of the greatest TV shows ever had a soulful, mind-expanding conclusion".
[27] Eric Kohn of IndieWire gave "Come Along with Me" a B+ rating, calling it "a 45-minute assemblage of showdowns and confrontations designed to bring together every facet of its fantastical universe [that] salutes the best and worst of the Adventure Time journey".
[8] Kohn praised Bubblegum and Marceline's relationship, writing: "It's unfortunate that Adventure Time has to play catch-up with these characters so late in the game, but it nevertheless illustrates the extent to which the show has pushed beyond the conservative boundaries of mainstream entertainment".
[29] Trumbore applauded the open-ended nature of the ending and its emotional value, concluding: "'Come Along with Me' is expertly crafted and worth watching again and again in years to come, which is just what you’d expect from Adventure Time".
