Adventure Time (S01E23)

Episode #023
'Rainy Day Daydream'
Season 1, Episode 23

It's a rainy day, so Finn and Jake can't go out for an adventure. Instead, Jake decides to use his imagination to invent a dungeon inside of their house, but there's a problem: it isn't just in his imagination. Everything he thinks becomes true, even though Finn can't see it. So they have to venture through the treehouse to get to Jake's imagination shut-off switch before it completely takes over.

Imagination is a powerful force and one that's prevalent throughout the show, though it's never presented quite like this. With only brief glimpses into what Jake can see, a majority of this episode has the appearance of how it looks when someone is playing make-believe, jumping and dodging around an empty house. Appearance-wise, this isn't a particularly enthralling looking episode, but with the way it functions, the animation is totally perfect. Creating actual tension and conflict out of nothing at all, this manages to be among the more exciting episodes of the first season, with a fun concept that's explored efficiently. It's fun, small-scale, and appreciates the power and adventure of having an imagination.