虫虫国王

〈虫虫国王〉（"King Worm"）是《探险活宝》第四季的第18集。在卡通频道2012年8月13日播出。本集以阿宝和老皮为主角。在这一集里，阿宝和老皮发现由虫虫国王困在自己的潜意识。最终，阿宝能够集中在他内心恐惧来躲避遐想，迫使虫虫国王逃离。
Ward's goal for the episode was "to weird it up" and play off of bizarre ideas and imagery. Ward latter revealed on his Twitter that many scenes were inspired by popular "YouTube Poops", which are idiosyncratic and often nonsensical mashups which have been uploaded on the video site YouTube; Ward explained that he enjoyed the concept of Poops and wanted to put them in the episode. While storyboarding the episode, Xayaphone exaggerated the elongation of Finn's ears; this was originally going to be revised, but Ward liked that the effect because it fit in with the concept of a dream world.
The episode features Erik Estrada, voicing the titular King Worm. He had originally voiced the character in the first season episode "Evicted!" Tom Kenny did the voice of Rainicorn. The episode was also embedded with references to future episodes. For instance, the large penguin monster, designed by Michael DeForge, later appeared in "Reign of Gunters". Similarly, "The Lich", the fourth season finale, had already been storyboarded by the time "King Worm" was entering into production. As a result, the crew was able to take the model of the alternate universe Finn—who is introduced at the end of "The Lich"—and add him as a mirror reflection in "King Worm".
At the end of "Evicted!", Finn and Jake encounter the King Worm, who puts them in a trance; the ending of "King Worm", however, seems to imply that Finn and Jake were stuck in a trance between the events of "Evicted!" and "King Worm", implying that the events between the two episodes occurred only in a dream. Ward said in the DVD commentary, however, that this idea bothered him, because he did not want to destroy the reality of the series. In the end, he noted that he wanted to preserve the status quo by making, "the real Finn where he is now … he isn't still dreaming." Adam Muto later noted on his Spring.me account that, were the events between "Evicted!" and "King Worm" to have existed only in a dream, then "there wouldn't be much point to" the series.
Reception.
“King Worm” first aired on Cartoon Network on August 13, 2012. According to Nielsen ratings, the episode ranked first in its timeslot among children aged 2–11 and 6–11, as well as in all boy demographics. The episode first saw physical release as part of the 2014 DVD, "The Suitor", which included 16 episodes from the series' first five seasons. It was later re-released as part of the complete fourth season DVD in October of 2014.
Oliver Sava of "The A.V. Club" awarded the episode a "C", largely criticizing the installment for its apparent randomness. He argued that "being in a dream allows the writers to do whatever they want without any explanation, meaning characters and environments change suddenly and constantly, leaving the viewer as confused as Finn." Sava felt that the only scenes with any pathos were to be found near the end of the episode, but even they were "still more focused on bizarre imagery than emotional depth", such as the sequence wherein Finn's fears manifest themselves by emerging from his navel. Sava did compliment the episode's designs, however, writing that "this episode puts the show’s off-kilter design sense on full display."
Nicole Klein of Geekadelphia, however, applauded the episode's exploration of Finn's psyche, noting that she was pleased with this episode and the fifth season episode "The Vault" because she "love any episode that involves going into Finn’s crazy subconsciousness".