The episode, the first to be boarded entirely by Moynihan himself, was partly based on a scrapped Adventure Time television movie that was going to air in the middle of the fifth season.

Once the duo attack, Princess Bubblegum is able to temporarily trap them in a force field, but Root Beer Guy sacrifices his life to get it up and running.

Finn and Jake abruptly leave the scene, forcing Colonel Candy Corn (voiced by Keith Ferguson) and Princess Bubblegum to hold Darren and Maja at bay.

After the battle, Finn frees the Ancient Psychic Tandem War Elephant from servitude; this causes him to have an existential crisis as he wanders all of Ooo.

[4] The origins of "Something Big" date back to a scrapped Adventure Time television movie that was going to air in the middle of the fifth season.

However, trouble soon began to set in, and the crew decided to scrap the project; Moynihan, reluctant to see his work abandoned, suggested that the series cannibalize parts of the movie's storyboard to make individual episodes.

[2] The death of Root Beer Guy was inserted into the episode by Moynihan on behest of Pendarvis, who voiced the character in the eponymous season five episode; Pendarvis reasoned that, because Root Beer Guy had been promoted to head of the banana guards, but had failed to improve them, his death would rationalize why the guard was still so incompetent.

[9] A later online review of the episode courtesy of Entertainment Weekly argued that "Something Big" was evidence that "Adventure Time might be the greatest show on television right now.

[11] He also applauded the Ancient Psychic Tandem War Elephant's personality crisis, noting that it made a convincing argument for existentialism.