The series drew inspiration from a variety of sources, including the fantasyrole-playing gameDungeons & Dragons and video games. It was produced using hand-drawn animation; action and dialogue forepisodes were decided bystoryboard artists based on rough outlines. Because each episode took roughly eight to nine months to complete, multiple episodes were worked on concurrently. The cast members recorded their lines in group recordings, and the series regularly employed guest actors for minor and recurring characters. Each episode runs for about eleven minutes; pairs of episodes are often telecast to fill half-hour program slots.
Adventure Time follows the adventures of a boy namedFinn the Human (voiced byJeremy Shada), and his best friend and adoptive brotherJake the Dog (John DiMaggio), who has magical powers to change shape and size at will.Pendleton Ward, the series' creator, describes Finn as a "fiery little kid with strong morals".[8] Jake, on the other hand, is based on Tripper Harrison,Bill Murray's character inMeatballs. This means that while Jake is somewhat carefree, he will "sit [Finn] down and give him some decent advice if he really needs it".[8] Finn and Jake live in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo, which was ravaged by a cataclysmic event known as the "Mushroom War", anuclear war that destroyed civilization a thousand years before the series' events. Throughout the series, Finn and Jake interact with major characters, includingPrincess Bubblegum (Hynden Walch), the sovereign of the Candy Kingdom and a sentient piece ofgum; theIce King (Tom Kenny), a menacing but largely misunderstood ice wizard;Marceline the Vampire Queen (Olivia Olson), a thousand-year-old vampire androck music enthusiast;Lumpy Space Princess (Pendleton Ward), a melodramatic and immature princess made out of "lumps";BMO (Niki Yang), a sentient video game console-shapedrobot that lives with Finn and Jake; andFlame Princess (Jessica DiCicco), a flameelemental and ruler of the Fire Kingdom.[9]: 346 [10][11]
According to series creator Pendleton Ward, the show's style was influenced by his time attending theCalifornia Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and his experiences working as a writer andstoryboard artist onThe Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, a series that ran on Cartoon Network from 2008 until 2010. In an interview withAnimation World Network, Ward said he strove to combineAdventure Time's subversive humor with "beautiful" moments, usingHayao Miyazaki's filmMy Neighbor Totoro as inspiration for the latter.[8] Ward has also namedHome Movies andDr. Katz, Professional Therapist as influences, largely because both shows are "relaxing" and feature "conversational dialogue that feels natural [and is neither] over the top [nor] cartoony and shrill".[12]
The series traces its origins to a seven-minute, stand-alone animatedshort film of the same name (this short was later identified as the show's pilotpost facto). Produced byFrederator Studios, the short was created by Ward almost entirely by himself, and its production concluded in early 2006.[13] It was first broadcast onNicktoons Network on January 11, 2007,[13][14]: 24 and was re-broadcast as part of Frederator's anthology showRandom! Cartoons on December 7, 2008.[15][16] After its initial release, the video became aviral hit on the Internet.[8][14]: 25 Frederator then pitched anAdventure Time series to Nicktoons Network, which rejected it five times.[17][18] When Nicktoons' rights to commission a full series expired, Frederator pitched it to other channels.[14]: 32 One of the studios that Frederator approached was Cartoon Network, which was interested in producing a full series, but would commit to a deal only if Ward could prove the pilot "wasn't a one-hit wonder".[17]Rob Sorcher, the chief content officer at Cartoon Network, was influential in getting the network to take a chance on the show; he recognized the series as "something that felt really indie ... comic book-y [and] new".[14]: 32
Cartoon Network asked Ward to submit a sample script for their consideration, but Frederator convinced him to rough out a storyboard instead, as "a board would give a better sense of what was on Pen's mind", according to Frederator's vice president Eric Homan.[17] Ward and his college friendsPatrick McHale andAdam Muto (who both would go on to take significant roles in the series' production) began developing ideas, all the while concentrating on "keep[ing] the good things about the original short [while also] improv[ing] on" them.[17][14]: 83 The group's first product was a rough storyboard featuring Finn and Princess Bubblegum going on a spaghetti-supper date.[17] Cartoon Network was not happy with this story, and so Ward, McHale, and Muto created a storyboard for the episode "The Enchiridion!", an attempt to emulate the style of the original Nicktoons short. This tactic proved successful, and in September 2008, Cartoon Network approved a first season, which was produced byCartoon Network Studios. "The Enchiridion!" was the first episode to enter into production.[17][19][20][21]
Ward and his production team began storyboarding episodes and writing plot outlines, but Cartoon Network was still concerned about the direction of the new series. McHale later recalled that during the pitch of an episode titled "Brothers in Insomnia" (which, for various reasons, was scrapped) the room was filled with executives from Cartoon Network. The pitch went well, but the production staff was soon inundated with questions about the stylistic nature of the series. Around this time, Cartoon Network paused the production of the show in an attempt to resolve these creative issues.[22]: 114 A number of writers and animators were let go, and in their place, Cartoon Network management hired three veteran animators who had worked onSpongeBob SquarePants: Derek Drymon (who served as executive producer for the first season ofAdventure Time), Merriwether Williams (who served as head story editor for the show's first and second seasons), andNick Jennings (who became the series' long-serving art director).[22]: 114 [14]: 35 Drymon, in particular, played a key role at this time, ensuring that both Cartoon Network and the show's production crew were on the same creative page.[22]: 114 Thurop Van Orman, the creator ofThe Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, was also hired to guide Ward and his staff for the first two seasons.[14]: 40 The storyboard for "Prisoners of Love" assuaged many of the fears some Cartoon Network executives had expressed.[23]
As production for season one progressed, more artists were brought on board.Dan "Ghostshrimp" Bandit, a freelance illustrator who had also written and storyboarded onFlapjack, was hired as the show's lead background designer; Ward told him to create background art that set the show "in a 'Ghostshrimp World'".[8][24] Ghostshrimp designed major locations, including Finn and Jake's home, the Candy Kingdom, and the Ice Kingdom.[24] The position of lead character designer was given to Phil Rynda, who held this role for two and a half seasons. The show's lead production crew (which included Ward and McHale) was initially hesitant to bring him on board, but they were soon convinced by directorLarry Leichliter, who assured them Rynda was talented and could draw in a variety of styles.[14]: 47 With the producers satisfied, Rynda quickly began designing characters that were simple but still fell in line with "Pen's natural aesthetic".[14]: 83 Around this time, Rynda and McHale began drafting artistic guidelines for the show, so that its animation style would always be somewhat consistent.[14]: 48 With many of the lead production roles filled, Ward turned his attention to choosing storyboard artists for the first season. He assembled a team made up largely of "younger, inexperienced people", many of whom he discovered on the Internet.[14]: 41 Many of these individuals had backgrounds inindie comics, and Ward has called them "really smart, smartypants people" who were responsible for inserting more idiosyncratic and spiritual ideas into the series.[25]
For the show's first four and a half seasons, Ward served as the showrunner. In an interview withRolling Stone, he said he had stepped down from this role sometime during thefifth season. As a naturally introverted person, he found interacting with and directing people every day to be exhausting. After Ward resigned from the post, Adam Muto became the showrunner. Until late 2014, Ward continued to work on the series as a storyboard artist and storyline writer.[26] After November 2014, he stopped regularly contributing to episode outlines, but still looked over stories, provided occasional input, and continued to storyboard for the series on a limited basis.[26][27][28]
Production
Writing and storyboarding
The crew ofAdventure Time at the 74th AnnualPeabody Awards in 2014. From left to right:Kent Osborne,Tom Herpich,Pendleton Ward,Patrick McHale, Betty Ward,Jack Pendarvis, Rob Sorcher, Curtis LeLash andAdam Muto.A storyboard panel drawn byAdam Muto for the episode "What Was Missing" showing action, dialogue, and sound effects.Adventure Time is a storyboard-driven series, meaning that the storyboard artists are also writers, allowing them to draft the dialogue and the action how they see fit.
Ward—a self-professed fan ofambivalent emotions, such as feeling "happy and scared at the same time"—has called the show a "dark comedy".[29] He has also cited the fantasyrole-playing gameDungeons & Dragons—of which many of the show's writers are devotees—as an inspiration for the show.[30][31] In the United States, the series is ratedTV-PG;[32] Ward said he never wanted to push the boundaries of the PG rating, noting in an interview withArt of the Title that he "never really even thought about the rating ... we don't like stuff that's overly gross. We like cute stuff and nice things".[33] Ward intended the show's world to have a coherent physical logic, and although magic exists in the story, the show's writers tried to create an internal consistency in the characters' interactions with the world.[8][34]
In an interview withThe A.V. Club, Ward said the show's writing process usually began with the writers telling each other what they had done the previous week to find something humorous to build on. He also said, "A lot of the time, if we're really stuck, we'll start saying everything that comes to our mind, which is usually the worst stuff, and then someone else will think that's terrible but it'll give him a better idea and the ball just starts rolling like that".[31] Because of the busy schedule of writing and coordinating a television series, the writers did not have time to playDungeons and Dragons, but they still wrote stories they would "want to be playing D&D with".[31] Sometimes, the writers and storyboard artists convened and played writing games.[35] One game that was often used is calledexquisite corpse, which one writer starts a story on a sheet of paper, and another writer tries to finish it.[35][36] However, while a few episodes (such as the fifth-season episode "Puhoy" and thesixth-season episode "Jake the Brick") have been generated using this game,[14]: 258, 260–61 Ward has said that "the ideas are usually terrible".[36] Former storyboard artist and creative directorCole Sanchez said episode scripts are either created by expanding the good ideas produced by these writing games, or are based on an idea proposed by a storyboard artist in the hope it can be developed into an episode.[35]
After the writers pitched stories, the ideas were compiled onto a two-or-three-page outline that contained "the important beats".[37] The episodes were then passed to storyboard artists (often called "boarders"). While many cartoons are based on script pitches to network executives, Cartoon Network allowedAdventure Time to "build their own teams organically" and communicate using storyboards andanimatics.[10] Rob Sorcher said this novel approach was sanctioned because the company was dealing with "primarily visual people", and that by using storyboards, the writers and artists could learn and grow "by actually doing the work".[10] The storyboard artists generally worked on an episode in pairs, independent from other storyboarders, which, according to freelance writer David Perlmutter in his bookAmerica Toons In, countered creativeennui and prevented episodes from being "alike in either content or tone".[9]: 346 The storyboard artists were given a week to "thumbnail" (roughly sketch out) a storyboard and fill in the details complete with action, dialogue, and humor.[33][37] The series' showrunner and his creative directors then reviewed the storyboard and made notes. The artists were then given another week to implement the notes and to clean up the episode.[33] Storyboard writing and revising usually took up to a month.[38]
Following the writing revisions, voice actors would record their parts for the episodes and an animatic would be compiled to reduce the running time to the necessary 11 minutes. Specialized artists then created prop, character, and background designs.[38][39] According to Rynda, most of this pre-production was done inPhotoshop.[40] While the episodes' design and coloring was done atCartoon Network Studios inBurbank, California, the actual animation was handled inSouth Korea by eitherRough Draft Korea orSaerom Animation.[39][14]: 348-49 Animating an episode often took between three and five months.[38][39] The animation was hand-drawn on paper, which was then digitally composited and painted withdigital ink and paint.[41][42] Executive producerFred Seibert compared the show's animation style to that ofFelix the Cat and variousMax Fleischer cartoons, but said its world was equally inspired by "the world of videogames [sic]".[30][34]
While the episodes were being handled in South Korea, the production crew in the U.S. worked on retakes,music scoring, andsound design.[38] Upon being completed, the animation was sent back to the U.S., at which point the production crew inspected it, looking for mistakes in the animation or "things that didn't animate the way [the staff] intended".[39] These problems were then fixed in Korea and the animation was finalized.[39] From story outlining to broadcast, it took between eight and nine months for each episode to be created; because of this, multiple episodes were worked on concurrently.[31][38][39]
While a great majority of the series' episodes were animated by Korean animation studios,Adventure Time occasionally featured guest animators and directors. For instance, thesecond-season episode "Guardians of Sunshine" was partly rendered in 3D to emulate the style of a video game.[41] The fifth-season episode "A Glitch is a Glitch" was written and directed by Irish filmmaker and writerDavid OReilly and features his distinctive 3D animation.[43] AnimatorJames Baxter animated select scenes and characters in both the fifth-season episode "James Baxter the Horse" as well as theeighth-season episode "Horse & Ball".[14]: 299 [44] The sixth-season episode "Food Chain" was written, storyboarded, and directed by Japaneseanime directorMasaaki Yuasa, and animated entirely by Yuasa's studioScience SARU.[45][46] Another sixth-season episode, "Water Park Prank", featuresFlash animation by David Ferguson.[47] Thestop-motion episode "Bad Jubies", directed byKirsten Lepore, aired near the middle of the show'sseventh season.[48][49] Finally, Alex and Lindsay Small-Butera, noted for their web seriesBaman Piderman, contributed animation to the eighth-season episode "Beyond the Grotto" and the ninth-season episode "Ketchup".[50][51]
Voice cast
Jeremy Shada (left) andJohn DiMaggio (right) star in the series, voicing Finn and Jake, respectively.
The series' voice actors includeJeremy Shada (Finn the Human),John DiMaggio (Jake the Dog),Tom Kenny (Ice King),Hynden Walch (Princess Bubblegum), andOlivia Olson (Marceline the Vampire Queen). Ward voices Lumpy Space Princess and several minor characters. Former storyboard artistNiki Yang voices the sentient video game console BMO in English, as well as Jake's girlfriendLady Rainicorn in Korean. Polly Lou Livingston, a friend of Ward's mother Bettie Ward, voices the small elephantTree Trunks.[9]: 346 [52]
The show’s cast members recorded their lines together at group recording sessions rather than individually, with the aim of recording natural-sounding dialogue.[53] Walch described these group recordings as akin to "doing a play reading—a really, really out there play".[54] The series regularly employed guest actors for minor and recurring characters,[55] and crew members cast people with whom they were interested in working. For instance, in a panel, Muto andKent Osborne said theAdventure Time crew often sought out actors who had had roles in the television programsStar Trek: The Next Generation andThe Office to play various supporting or background characters.[56]
Title sequence and music
Orchestral rendition of "Come Along with Me", the series' credits theme, inMultiVersus.
When Ward was developing the series' title sequences, the rough draft version consisted of quick shots and vignettes that were "just sort of crazy [and] nonsensical", which alluded to the show's theme of quirky adventures.[33] These drafts included "the characters ... just punching random ghosts and monsters, jumping through anything and everything [and] there were a bunch of atomic bombs at the end of it".[33] Ward later called this version "really silly".[33] He sent the draft to Cartoon Network; they did not like it and wanted something more graphical like the introduction toThe Brady Bunch. Inspired by the title sequences ofThe Simpsons andPee-wee's Playhouse, Ward developed a new title sequence featuring a panning sweep of the Land of Ooo while a synthesizer note rose slowly until the main theme was played. Ward's draft for this idea was handed to layout animators, who then finalized the timing for the sequence. From there, the sequence evolved; while Ward added "silly character stuff", Patrick McHale focused his attention on the Ice King's shot and gave him a "high school [year]book" smile. The crew also struggled to get the shadows in the shot featuring Marceline correct.[33] After the panning sweep, the sequence cuts to the theme song, which plays while shots of Finn and Jake adventuring are shown. For this part of the sequence, Ward was inspired by the "simple" aspects of the introduction to the 2007 comedy filmSuperbad. When the theme mentions "Jake the Dog" and "Finn the Human", the characters' names are displayed next to their heads, with a solid color in the background.[33] The sequence was finalized immediately before the series aired.[33]
The show's eponymous theme song is sung by Ward, accompanied by aukulele. It is first heard in the pilot episode; in that version, Ward is accompanied by an acoustic guitar. For the version used in the series, Ward sang in a higher register to match the ukulele's range.[33] The theme song's final version was originally supposed to be atemporary one. Ward said, "I recorded the lyrics for the opening title in the animatics room where we have this little crummy microphone just so that we could add it to the titles and submit it to the network. Later, we tried re-recording it and I didn't like it ... I only liked the temp one!"[33] Because the series' finalized theme song was originally recorded as a temp track, ambient noises can be heard throughout. For instance, the sound of Derek Drymon typing can be heard while Jake is walking through the Ice Kingdom. According to Ward, much of the series' music has similar "hiss and grit" because one of the show's original composers, Casey James Basichis, "lives in a pirate ship he's built inside of an apartment [and] you can hear floorboards squeak and lots of other weird sounds".[33] As the show progressed, Basichis's friend Tim Kiefer joined the show as an additional composer.[57] The two eventually worked together on its music.[58]
The show's title sequence and theme song have stayed mostly consistent throughout its run, with seven exceptions. During the episodes featuringFionna Campbell andCake the Cat (viz.season three's "Fionna and Cake", season five's "Bad Little Boy", season six's "The Prince Who Wanted Everything", season eight's "Five Short Tables", andseason nine's "Fionna and Cake and Fionna") the series features a different intro sequence that mirrors the original, with the major exception that all the characters aregender-bent, and the theme is sung by former storyboard revisionistNatasha Allegri.[59] Likewise, the intro to the series' three miniseries are each unique: the introduction to the Marceline-centricStakes (2015) places most of the emphasis on Marceline, and the theme song is sung by Olson;[60] the introduction toIslands (2017) adopts a nautical theme, highlights the principal characters in the miniseries, and is sung by Shada;[61] and the intro toElements (2017) features imagery reflecting the four primary elements in theAdventure Time universe (fire, ice, slime, and candy) and is sung by Hynden Walch.[62] The introductions to the guest-animated episodes "A Glitch Is a Glitch" and "Food Chain" are each unique, featuring animation courtesy of OReilly and Yuasa, respectively.[63][64] Finally, the series finale, "Come Along With Me", features an introduction offering viewers a glimpse of future Ooo, 1,000 years after Finn and Jake. This intro features the new characters Shermy and Beth and is sung by the latter (voiced byWillow Smith).[65]
The series regularly features songs and musical numbers. Many of the cast members—including Shada, Kenny, and Olson—sing their characters' songs.[54][66][67] Characters often express their emotions in song; examples of this include Marceline's song "I'm Just Your Problem" (from season three's "What Was Missing") and Finn's "All Gummed Up Inside" (from season three's "Incendium").[68][69] While the series' background music is composed by Basichis and Kiefer, the songs sung by characters are often written by the storyboard artists.[70][71] And while it is a general rarity, the show also occasionally refers topopular music.[72] Early during the show's run, Frederator, Seibert's production company, occasionally uploaded demos and full versions of songs sung by the characters to their official website,[73] and when the production crew set up a seriesTumblr account, this tradition of publishing demos and full versions of songs to the public was revived.[74] On November 20, 2015, the label Spacelab9 released a limited-edition 12"LP featuring many of Marceline's songs,[75] followed by a38-song series soundtrack in October 2016.[76]
Setting and mythology
The show is set in the fictional Land of Ooo, in a post-apocalyptic future about a thousand years after anuclear holocaust called the "Great Mushroom War".[14]: 78 According to Ward, the show takes place "after the bombs have fallen and magic has come back into the world".[77] Before the series was fully developed, Ward intended the Land of Ooo to simply be "magical". After the production of the episode "Business Time", in which an iceberg containing reanimated businessmen floats to the surface of a lake, the show became explicitly post-apocalyptic; Ward said the production crew "just ran with it".[29] Ward later described the setting as "candyland on the surface and dark underneath",[10] noting he had never intended the Mushroom War and the post-apocalyptic elements to be "hit over the head in the show".[78] He limited it to "cars buried underground in the background [and other elements that do not] raise any eyebrows".[78] Ward has said the series' post-apocalyptic elements were influenced by the 1979 filmMad Max.[29] Kenny called the way the elements are worked into the plot "very fill-in-the-blanks", and DiMaggio said, "it's been obvious the Land of Ooo has some issues".[78]
The series has acanonicalmythology—or, an overarching plot and backstory—that is expanded upon in various episodes.[79][80] This mythology mainly involves the nature of the Mushroom War, the origin of the series' principal antagonist the Lich, and the backstories of several of the series' principal and recurring characters.[79][80][81] Ward once noted that the details behind the Mushroom War and the series' dark mythology form "a story worth telling", but he also felt the show would be better off if the show "dance[d] around how heavy the back-history of Ooo is".[82]
After the September 2011 episode "What Was Missing" hinted at romantic subtext between Marceline and Bubblegum, fans began to "ship" the two, referring to the pairing as "Bubbline".[83][84] Some reviewers also discussed the possible relationship, with Kjerstin Johnson ofBitch magazine expressing hope that that show's "queer cartoon subtext" would turn into "a queer cartoon subplot".[85][86] Eventually, Bubblegum and Marceline's relationship was confirmed in the series finale, "Come Along With Me", which also featured the two characters kissing.[87][88] While Bubblegum seems to have dated a male character named Mr. Cream Puff,[89] her exact sexuality, unlike Marceline's,[90] has not been confirmed. As such, reviewers have argued that she is either bisexual,[91] non-binary,[92] queer,[92] lesbian,[93] or a combination of some of the latter, as both live in a world where "sexuality is somewhat fluid."[94]
Much of the series' LGBTQ+ representation was the result of storyboard artistRebecca Sugar, who soon after joining the production crew "became more aware of what we're really saying by excluding [LGBTQ] characters" from children's TV—a situation which felt "more and more dire" to her.[95] She thus began working hard to put "LGBTQIA characters in G-rated content" in the years to follow.[95] Zeroing in on the relationship between Marceline and Bubblegum, Sugar tried to foster their relationship.[96][97] In a March 2021Vanity Fair interview, Sugar said that she was encouraged by the "creative team to put their own life experiences into the character of Marceline," but when this led to a "romantic storyline between Marceline and Princess Bubblegum",Cartoon Network executives intervened. This moment led Sugar and the rest of the show's team to see the limit of what they could accomplish, in terms of representation.[98] The writers initially responded to this roadblock by working queer themes into episodes as subtext to avoid controversy or network censorship, but later episodes would openly expand on these themes, bringing them to the forefront of the series' plot.[22]: 43-51 [90][99]
During the last seasons ofAdventure Time, there was discussion at Cartoon Network about concluding the series.Olivia Olson, who provided the voice of Marceline, said that since this discussion wore on for a while, "the ending of the show was getting stretched and stretched and stretched".[100] Chief content officerRob Sorcher told theLos Angeles Times of the network's decision to end the series, saying:
Adventure Time was playing less and less on Cartoon Network, yet we were moving towards a large volume of episodes. And I really began thinking "[The end] can't come quickly as a sudden company decision, it needs to be a conversation over a period of time." And it did also strike me that if we don't wind this up soon, we're going to have a generation of fans graduate through the [television] demo [graphic that Cartoon Network targets] and we won't have completed a thought for them.[100]
According to Osborne, Cartoon Network provided the writers with "an opportunity to spend a lot of time thinking about the finale" before production ended.[101] In an interview withTV 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."[104] This allowed the finale itself to be "less dense" by simply "hitting the big [beats] and then finding vignettes for all the characters ... so we could get snapshots of where they could end up."[104] According to Pendarvis, storyline writing for the series ended in mid-November 2016,[105] with the last storyline meeting held on November 21.[106] A tweet by Osborne revealed that the series' final script was pitched to storyboarders, with Alden and Nyström in attendance, on November 28.[107][108][109] This episode was then pitched to the show's producers during the third week of December 2016.[110][111] Voice recording for the episode ended on January 31, 2017, as confirmed by a number of cast members, includingMaria Bamford andAndy Milonakis. The series finale aired on September 3, 2018 to universal acclaim.[112][113][114][115]
EachAdventure Time episode is about eleven minutes in length; pairs of episodes are often telecast in order to fill a half-hour program time slot.[116] Before the official debut of the first season, Cartoon Network aired both "Business Time" and "Evicted!" on March 11 and 18, respectively, advertising these showings as "previews" of the series-to-come.[117][118] The show officially debuted with "Slumber Party Panic" on April 5, 2010.[119]
During the latter part of its run, the show began to experiment with theminiseries format. The first of these wasStakes (2015), which aired during the show's seventh season. The following miniseries,Islands (2017) aired as part of the eighth season. The third and final miniseries,Elements (2017), aired during the show's ninth season.[120][121][122]
The show'sseventh season was originally intended to comprise 39 episodes, ranging from "Bonnie & Neddy" to "Reboot". However, when it came time to upload the season onto streaming sites like CartoonNetwork.com,Cartoon Network chose to end the season with the episode "The Thin Yellow Line", for a total of 26 episodes. This new episode count for the season was cemented by the release of the complete seventh seasonDVD on July 18, 2017, which included episodes "Bonnie & Neddy" through "The Thin Yellow Line".[22]: 159 As such, the episode and season number sequence is accordingly changed, as follows:
For its first six seasons, episodes regularly aired once a week. Starting in November 2014, the show began to air new episodes via "bombs", or weeks in which new episodes debuted every day.[128] This change in airing style disrupted the viewing patterns of some fans, as Dave Trumbore ofCollider explained: "Back when [the show] was regularly airing in a more traditional schedule, it was a little easier to keep track of the completely insane episodes full of half-explained mythology and lots and lots of non-sequiturs. During the last few seasons, however, [when] the episodes started to arrive in more of a scattershot fashion scheduled around multi-part specials [it became easier to miss] the random airings of certain episodes".[129]
The series' initial run concluded in 2018, after the airing of its tenth season.[130] Reruns have aired onBoomerang andAdult Swim.[131][132]
Ratings
Upon its debut,Adventure Time was a ratings success for Cartoon Network. In March 2013, it was reported that the show averaged roughly 2 to 3 million viewers an episode.[15] According to a 2012 report byNielsen, the show consistently ranked first in its time slot among boys aged 2–14.[10] The show premiered on April 5, 2010, and was watched by 2.5 million viewers.[133] The pilot episode was a ratings success. According to a press release by Cartoon Network, the episode's time slot saw triple-digit percentage increases from the previous year. The program was viewed by 1.661 million children aged 2–11, which marked a 110% increase from the previous year's figures. It was watched by 837,000 children aged 9–14, a 239% increase from the previous year's figures.[134]
Between the second and sixth seasons, the show's ratings continued to grow; the second-season premiere was watched by 2.001 million viewers, the third-season premiere by 2.686 million, the fourth-season premiere by 2.655 million, the fifth-season premiere by 3.435 million, and the sixth-season premiere by 3.321 million.[135][136][137][138][139] The show's seventh-season opener took a substantial ratings tumble, being watched by only 1.07 million viewers.[140] Likewise, the eighth-, ninth-, and tenth-season premieres were watched by only 1.13, 0.71, and 0.77 million viewers, respectively.[141][142][143] The series finale, "Come Along with Me", was viewed by 0.92 million viewers and scored a 0.25Nielsen rating in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic, which means the episode was seen by 0.25 percent of all individuals aged 18 to 49 years old who were watching television at the time of the episode's airing.[144]
Home media and streaming service
On September 27, 2011, Cartoon Network released theregion 1 DVDMy Two Favorite People, which features a selection of twelve episodes from the series' first two seasons.[145][146] Following this, several other region-1 compilation DVDs have been released, including:It Came from the Nightosphere (2012),Jake vs. Me-Mow (2012),Fionna and Cake (2013),Jake the Dad (2013),The Suitor (2014),Princess Day (2014),Adventure Time and Friends (2014),Finn the Human (2014),Frost & Fire (2015),The Enchiridion (2015),Stakes (2016),Card Wars (2016), andIslands (2017). All of the seasons have been released on DVD, and the first six have been released domestically onBlu-ray.[145][147] A box set containing the entire series was released on DVD on April 30, 2019.[148]
On March 30, 2013, the first season ofAdventure Time was made available on theNetflix Instant Watch service for online streaming; the second season was made available on March 30, 2014.[149][150] Both seasons were removed from Netflix on March 30, 2015.[151] The series was made available for streaming viaHulu on May 1, 2015.[152]
"Adventure Time makes me wish I were a kid again, just so I could grow up to be as awesome as the kids who are currently watchingAdventure Time will be".
Adventure Time has received universal acclaim from critics.The A.V. Club reviewer Zack Handlen called it "a terrific show [that] fits beautifully in that gray area between kid and adult entertainment in a way that manages to satisfy both a desire for sophisticated (i.e., weird) writing and plain old silliness".[164]
The show has been praised for its resemblance to cartoons of the past. In an article for theLos Angeles Times, television critic Robert Lloyd compared the series to "the sort of cartoons they made when cartoons themselves were young and delighted in bringing all things to rubbery life".[119] Robert Mclaughlin ofDen of Geek expressed a similar sentiment when he wrote thatAdventure Time "is the first cartoon in a long time that is pure imagination".[165] He complimented the show for "its non-reliance on continually referencing pop culture".[165] Eric Kohn ofIndieWire said the show "represents the progress of [cartoon] medium" in the current decade.[166]
A number of reviews have positively compared the series and its creators to other culturally significant works and individuals, respectively. In 2013,Entertainment Weekly reviewer Darren Franich called the series "a hybrid sci-fi/fantasy/horror/musical/fairy tale, with echoes ofCalvin and Hobbes, Hayao Miyazaki,Final Fantasy,Richard Linklater,Where the Wild Things Are, and the music video you made with your high school garage band".[167] Emily Nussbaum ofThe New Yorker praisedAdventure Time's unique approach to emotion, humor, and philosophy by likening it to "World of Warcraft as recapped byCarl Jung".[168] Zack Handlen ofThe A.V. Club concluded that the show was "basically what would happen if you asked a bunch of 12-year-olds to make a cartoon, only it's the best possible version of that, like if all the 12-year-olds were super geniuses and some of them wereStan Lee andJack Kirby and theMarx Brothers".[164]
Adventure Time's willingness to explore dark, depressing, and complex issues has received praise. Kohn applauded the fact that the show "toys with an incredibly sad subtext".[166] NovelistLev Grossman, in an interview withNPR, praised the backstory of the Ice King and the exploration of his condition in the third-season episode "Holly Jolly Secrets", the fourth-season episode "I Remember You", and the fifth-season episode "Simon & Marcy", noting that his origin is "psychologically plausible".[169] Grossman praised the way the series was able to tackle issues ofmental illness, saying: "It's very affecting. My dad has been going through havingAlzheimer's, and he's forgotten so much about who he used to be. And I look at him and think this cartoon is about my father dying".[169] Critics have suggested that the show has grown and matured as it has aged. In a review of season four, for instance, Mike LeChevallier ofSlant magazine complimented the show for "growing up" with its characters.[170] He concluded that the series has "strikingly few faults" and awarded the fourth season three-and-a-half stars out of four.[170]
The series has been included on a number of best-of lists.Entertainment Weekly awarded it second place in its 2012 list of the "10 Best Cartoon Network Shows"[171] and ranked it number 20 (out of 25) in a list of the "Greatest Animated TV Series".[163][172] Similarly,The A.V. Club, in a non-ranked run-down of the "best animated series ever", called the series "one of the most distinctive cartoons currently on the air".[173]
The show has also received some minor criticism from reviewers. LeChevallier, in an otherwise largely positive review of the third season forSlant magazine, wrote that "the short-form format leaves some emotional substance to be desired", and that this was inevitable for a series with such short episodes.[174] The independent cartoon scholar and critic David Perlmutter, who otherwise applauded the show's voice acting and its ability to surpass its source material, argued that the show's vacillation between high and low comedy epitomizes the fact that Cartoon Network is "unsure of what direction to pursue". He noted that "while some of [Adventure Time's] episodes work well, others [are] simply confusing".[9]: 346 The newspaperMetro cited the show's frightening situations, occasional adult themes, and use ofinnuendo as reasons why parents might not want their young children watching it.[175]
Heidi MacDonald ofSlate argued that the scouting of indie comic creators employed byAdventure Time (as well as several other Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon series) has led to an "animation gold rush" in which major studios are actively seeking under-the-radar talent for their shows, with her article surmising that "your favorite brilliant indie cartoonist is probably storyboarding forAdventure Time".[185] MacDonald also pointed out thatAdventure Time has influenced the tone of modern comics, noting:
If anything, walking around [comic] shows likeSPX, I've noticed something of anAdventure Time track among many of the small press comics now coming out: Where once young cartoonists overwhelmingly produced gloomy masculine self-absorption and misanthropy in the tradition ofDaniel Clowes orChris Ware, these days many booths feature fantasy epics with colorful characters and invented worlds heavy on the talking animals. It shouldn't be surprising that up-and-coming cartoonists are absorbing theAdventure Time aesthetic. A 20-year-old making comics now could have been watching the show since she was 15, after all.[185]
In an interview withPaste magazine, Sugar explained that working onAdventure Time and connecting with indie and underground comic artists who worked on the show (like Ward, McHale and Muto) was a creative game-changer, as they told her to do what she would do when drawing comics and to not hold anything back. She argued that many of the recent developments in animation were inspired by what the show was able to do by being "very artist-driven" and allowing independent comic artists to have a major say in the direction of episodes.[90]
Academic interest
Adventure Time has attracted academic interest for its presentation of gender andgender roles. Emma A. Jane, an academic from theUniversity of New South Wales inSydney, Australia, wrote that while the two main characters are male and many episodes involve them engaging in violent acts to save princesses, "Finn and Jake are [nevertheless] part of an expansive ensemble cast of characters who are anything but stereotypical and who populate a program which subverts many traditional gender-related paradigms".[186] She said the show features "roughly equal numbers of female and male characters in a protagonist, antagonist, and minor roles"; includes characters with no fixed gender; uses "gendered 'design elements'" such as eyelashes and hair to illustrate character traits rather than gender; equally distributes traits regardless of gender; privileges found, adoptive families orextended families; frames gender in ways that suggest it isfluid, and features elements ofqueer andtransgender subtext.[186] Carolyn Leslie, writing inScreen, agrees, saying, "despite having two male leads,Adventure Time is particularly strong when it comes to questioning and challenging gender stereotypes".[187] She cited Princess Bubblegum, BMO, and Fionna and Cake as examples of characters who refuse to be readily categorized and genderized.[187]
The first non-fiction book to scholarly study the series wasAdventure Time and Philosophy (2015), edited by Nicolas Michaud. Published byOpen Court Publishing Company, this work considersAdventure Time from a variety of angles, using the show as a way to explore different philosophical angles and ideas.[188] In July 2020, independent scholar Paul A. Thomas released a book entitledExploring the Land of Ooo that documented the show's production history; an expanded and updated version of the book was released in 2023 by theUniversity Press of Mississippi.[22]
Fandom
Adventure Time fanscosplaying as Princess Bubblegum (left) and Lumpy Space Princess (right).
Since its debut,Adventure Time has developed a strong following among children, teenagers, and adults; according toA.V. Club critic Noel Murray, fans are drawn toAdventure Time because of "the show's silly humor, imaginative stories, and richly populated world".[31] While the show is often described as having acult following,[26][189] Eric Kohn ofIndieWire said that the series has "started to look like one of the biggest television phenomenons of the decade".[190] According to Alex Heigl ofPeople magazine, "The show'sfandom is especially Internet-savvy as well, with huge communities onReddit,Imgur andTumblr, who swapGIFs, fan art and theories with fervent regularity".[191] In 2016, a study byThe New York Times of the 50 TV shows with the mostFacebook Likes found thatAdventure Time "is the most popular show among the young in our data—just over two-thirds of 'likes' come from viewers [aged] 18–24".[192]
The show is a popular presence atfan conventions, such asSan Diego Comic-Con.[190] Reporter Emma-Lee Moss said, "This year's [2014] Comic-Con schedule reflectedAdventure Time's growing success, with several screenings [as well as] a dramatic reading with the show's voice talent".[193] The show is also popular withcosplayers, who areperformance artists that wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent characters from any given series. Moss wrote, "Looking into the crowd, it was clear that [Finn's] distinctive blue shirt and white hat were being mirrored by hundreds of Cosplayers, male and female".[193] In an interview, Olivia Olson (who voices the character Marceline) said, "Literally, anywhere you look, anywhere in your range, you're going to see at least two people dressed up like Finn. It's crazy".[194]
On October 23, 2019, Cartoon Network announced that four hour-long specials—collectively titledAdventure Time: Distant Lands—would air onHBO Max. The specials aired in 2020 and 2021. On August 17, 2021, it was announced that a second spin-off,Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake, focusing on the gender-swappedFionna and Cake characters, had been ordered by HBO Max.[195] On June 12, 2024, it was revealed that two additional spin-offs, entitledAdventure Time: Side Quests andAdventure Time: Heyo BMO, had also been greenlit by Cartoon Network Studios.[196]
Comic books
Ryan North (third from the left) along with otherAdventure Time comics crew in 2015
On November 19, 2011,KaBoom! Studios announced plans for anAdventure Time comic book series written by independent webcomic creatorRyan North, who wrote the seriesDinosaur Comics.[197][198] The series launched on February 8, 2012, with art by Shelli Paroline and Braden Lamb.[199][200] In October 2014, it was revealed that North had left the comic series after three years. His duties were assumed byChristopher Hastings, the creator ofThe Adventures of Dr. McNinja.[201] This comic book line ended in April 2018 with its seventy-fifth issue, which North returned to co-write.[202]
In 2025,Oni Press launched a new monthlyAdventure Time series.[203] On October 1, 2025, theAdventure Time: Bubbline College Special one-shot comic book was released, written by Caroline Cash.[204]
After the success of the original 2012 comic book line, several spin-off mini-series were launched. Some of the comic series are as follows:
OtherAdventure Time-themed books have also been released.The Adventure Time Encyclopaedia, published on July 22, 2013, was written by comedianMartin Olson, father of Olivia Olson and the voice of recurring character Hunson Abadeer.[237] This was followed byAdventure Time: The Enchiridion & Marcy's Super Secret Scrapbook!!!, which was released on October 6, 2015. Written by Martin and Olivia Olson, it is presented as a combination of theEnchiridion and Marceline's secret diary.[238] An officialArt of ... book, titledThe Art of Ooo was published on October 14, 2014. It contains interviews with cast and crew members and opens with an introduction by filmmakerGuillermo del Toro.[14] Two volumes with collections of the show'stitle cards have also been released,[239][240] as has a cookbook with recipes inspired by the show,[241] and a series of prose novels published under the header "Epic Tales fromAdventure Time" (which includesThe Untamed Scoundrel,Queen of Rogues,The Lonesome Outlaw, andThe Virtue of Ardor, all of which were published under thepseudonym "T. T. MacDangereuse").[242][243][244][245]
Various other minor video games have also been released. Several, includingLegends of Ooo,Fionna Fights,Beemo – Adventure Time, andSki Safari: Adventure Time, have been released on theiOS App Store.[256] A game titledFinn & Jake's Quest was released on April 11, 2014, onSteam.[257] Cartoon Network also released a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game titledAdventure Time: Battle Party on Cartoon Network's official site, on June 23, 2014.[258] In April 2015, two downloadable content packs forLittleBigPlanet 3 on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 were released; one containedAdventure Time costumes, while the other contained a level kit with decorations, stickers, music, objects, a background, and a bonus Fionna costume.[259] Avirtual reality (VR) game entitledAdventure Time: Magic Man's Head Games was also released toOculus Rift,HTC Vive, andPlayStation VR.[260] A second VR game, entitledAdventure Time: I See Ooo, was released on September 29, 2016.[261] In that same month,Adventure Time characters were added to theLego Dimensions game.[262][263] Finn and Jake became playable characters in the video gameCartoon Network: Battle Crashers which was released for the Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One on November 8, 2016 and the Nintendo Switch on October 31, 2017.[264][265] Finn, Jake, Banana Guard, and Marceline are playable characters in theplatform fighterMultiVersus.[266][267]
Film
In February 2015, it was reported that a theatricalAdventure Time film was being developed byCartoon Network Studios,Frederator Films,Vertigo Entertainment, andWarner Animation Group. According to reports, the film would be executive-produced and written by Pendleton Ward, and produced byRoy Lee andChris McKay.[268][269] In October 2015, series producer Adam Muto confirmed that series creator Pendleton Ward was "working on the premise" for the film, but that there was "nothing official to announce yet".[270] On July 22, 2018, Muto noted that "an [Adventure Time] movie was never officially announced".[271] On August 31, 2018, Muto said the finale of the show would not affect a potential movie, nor would the finale lead directly into a film. He also noted that "all the lore and stuff would not work for a first time viewer", suggesting that the film would have to hold well on its own to be successful.[272]
However, on June 12, 2024, during theAnnecy Animation Festival, it was announced that anAdventure Time movie was in development, with Rebecca Sugar, Adam Muto, and Patrick McHale all involved in the project.[196]
Other appearances
This is adynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help byediting the page to add missing items, with references toreliable sources.
A variety of officially licensed merchandise—including action figures, role-playing toys, bedding, dishware, and various other products—have been released.[273] Since the dramatic increase in popularity of the series, many graphic T-shirts have been officially licensed through popular clothing retailers.[274][275][276] Pendleton Ward hosted T-shirt designing contests on the websites of both We Love Fine andThreadless.[276][277] Other shirts can be purchased directly from Cartoon Network's store.[278] Acollectible card game calledCard Wars, inspired by the fourth-season episode of the same name, has been released.[279] On March 11, 2016, it was announced byLego viaLego Ideas that an officialAdventure Time Lego set from an idea by site user, aBetterMonkey, had met voting qualifications and was approved to be produced in cooperation with Cartoon Network.[280][281] The set was released in January 2017.[282]
On July 21, 2013,Taiwan High Speed Rail and theTaiwan branch of Cartoon Network worked together on a project called "Cartoon Express" (歡樂卡通列車). The entire train was covered with characters from various Cartoon Network shows (includingThe Amazing World of Gumball,The Powerpuff Girls,Ben 10, andRegular Show), and the two sides of the train is painted with Finn and Jake respectively.[283][284][285] Throughout the project, there were over 1,400 runs of the train and over 1.3 million passengers were transported. Near the end, the Taiwan High Speed Rail also sold postcards as souvenirs for sale since August 23, 2014, and the project eventually ended on September 9, 2014.[286][287] In addition, Cartoon Network established awaterpark namedCartoon Network Amazone inChonburi, Thailand; it opened on October 3, 2014.[288] Promoting the waterpark,Thai Smile painted Finn, Jake, Princess Bubblegum and Marceline on the planes.[289]
"Leela and the Genestalk", an episode from theseventh season of the animatedComedy Central programFuturama, features a cameo of Finn and Jake, with DiMaggio (who voicesBender inFuturama) reprising his role as Jake for the appearance.[290] Similarly, thetwenty-eighth season premiere of theFox seriesThe Simpsons, entitled "Monty Burns' Fleeing Circus", includes a couch gag that parodies the title sequence toAdventure Time, complete with Pendleton Ward himself singing a spoof of theAdventure Time theme song. According toAl Jean, the executive producer ofThe Simpsons, "[The couch gag] was the brain child of Mike Anderson, our supervising director ... It's a really beautiful, elaborate crossover".[291]
In the 2016 horror filmBetter Watch Out, the two boys in the film, Luke the antagonist and his friend Garrett, are fans of the series, and after subduing Luke's babysitter and using drugs and alcohol, the two boys playFuck, Marry, Kill using Princess Bubblegum and Marceline as options.[294][295]
Notes
^Larry Leichliter served as director until the fifth-season episode "Bad Little Boy". After this episode, the term was phased out in favor of "supervising director",[4] and the following have served in this role:Nate Cash (season 5),Adam Muto (seasons 5–9), Elizabeth Ito (seasons 5–9),Kent Osborne (season 6), Andres Salaff (seasons 6–8),Cole Sanchez (seasons 6, 8–10), and Diana Lafyatis (season 10). Guest directors for the series have included:David OReilly ("A Glitch Is a Glitch"),Masaaki Yuasa ("Food Chain"), David Ferguson ("Water Park Prank"), andKristen Lepore ("Bad Jubies"). Since the first season, the show has also had an art director;Nick Jennings (seasons 1–6) and Sandra Lee (seasons 6–10).
^282 regular, plus one special. Ten shorts (i.e., mini-episodes roughly two minutes in length) were also produced.
^In its first season, the series was often billed asAdventure Time with Finn & Jake[6] because the producers were unsure at the time whether they could secure the rights to the simpler titleAdventure Time.[7]
^There were 12 issues in total planned, but the project was cancelled after the release of the sixth issue.[219][220] Note that while the plot to these comics are billed as being "season 11", no one from the originalAdventure Time production crew was involved, making them non-canonical with respect to the television series.[221]
References
^Whalen, Andrew (January 26, 2017)."'Adventure Time: Islands' Review: Most Futures Are Dark In New Season 8 Episodes, Life".iDigitalTimes. Archived fromthe original on February 25, 2017. RetrievedJanuary 30, 2017.Adventure Time: Islands stands as the full fruition ofAdventure Time's slow embrace of science fiction ... At firstAdventure Time was post-apocalyptic: a far-flung fantasy future in which magic has returned ... butIslands opens a new phase in the series' science fiction storytelling by confronting the human race head-on.
^Webb, Charles (April 28, 2011)."It's 'Adventure Time' With Series Creator Pendleton Ward".MTV News. Archived fromthe original on February 25, 2017.They're all really smart, smartypants people. They're coming up with some really bizarre ideas, which I like. I think it's putting the show on a higher level than it was first season.
^abPerlmutter, David (2014).America Toons In. Jefferson, NC:McFarland & Company. p. 346.ISBN978-1-4766-1488-5.Drawn from different sources Ward citedDungeons and Dragons and video games as his main sources, while Seibert compared the animation style to that of Max Fleischer.
^Basichis, Casey James (2012). "'Adventure Time Music With Time + Casey' [Featurette]".Adventure Time: The Complete First Season (Interview). Los Angeles: Cartoon Network.
^Sugar, Rebecca (September 28, 2011)."I'm Just Your Problem – Demo Track".Tumblr.Archived from the original on March 4, 2016.It might seem like this episode is about friendship, but I wanted it to be about honesty! Marceline almost gets the door open because she drops her guard and tells the truth for a second while she sings this song.
^Sugar, Rebecca (February 14, 2012)."All Gummed Up Inside".Tumblr.Archived from the original on April 13, 2016.I was really trying to get at that feeling ... that everybody's felt at some point, right?
^Sava, Oliver (March 25, 2013)."Adventure Time: "Simon And Marcy"".The A.V. Club.Archived from the original on February 20, 2014.Adventure Time [delivers] an episode that fleshes out the mythology of this world while diving deeper into the tragic relationship of the titular pair.
^Sanchez, Cole and Diana Lafyatis (supervising directors); Sandra Lee (art director); Tom Herpich, et al. (storyboard artists) (September 3, 2018). "Come Along with Me".Adventure Time. Season 10. Episode13–16.Cartoon Network.
^DeMarco, Jason [Clarknova] (January 30, 2019)."Nope! That's real".Archived from the original on February 6, 2019. RetrievedFebruary 5, 2019 – viaAsk.fm.
^Trujillo, Josh (May 17, 2016).Adventure Time Original Graphic Novel Vol. 7: Four Castles. Los Angeles: KaBoom! Studios.ISBN978-1-60886-797-4.
^Trujillo, Josh (September 27, 2016).Adventure Time Original Graphic Novel Vol. 8: President Bubblegum. Los Angeles: KaBoom! Studios.ISBN978-1-60886-846-9.
^Trujillo, Josh (March 28, 2017).Adventure Time Original Graphic Novel Vol. 9: Brain Robbers. Los Angeles: KaBoom! Studios.ISBN978-1-60886-875-9.
^Sorese, Jeremy (July 18, 2017).Adventure Time Original Graphic Novel Vol. 10: The Ooorient Express. Los Angeles: KaBoom! Studios.ISBN978-1-60886-995-4.
^Sorese, Jeremy (January 30, 2018).Adventure Time Original Graphic Novel Vol. 11: Princess & Princess. Los Angeles: KaBoom! Studios.ISBN978-1684150250.
^Sorese, Jeremy (June 2018).Adventure Time Original Graphic Novel Vol. 12: Thunder Road. Los Angeles: KaBoom! Studios.ISBN978-1684151790.
^Ward, Pendleton; Williams, Leah (February 26, 2019).Adventure Time Original Graphic Novel: Marceline the Pirate Queen. BOOM! Studios.ISBN978-1684153053.
^Adventure Time: The Original Cartoon Title Cards (Vol 1): The Original Cartoon Title Cards Seasons 1 & 2. London:Titan Books. 2014.ISBN978-1-78329-287-5.
^Adventure Time: The Original Cartoon Title Cards (Vol 2): The Original Cartoon Title Cards Seasons 3 & 4.London: Titan Books. August 4, 2015.ISBN978-1-78329-511-1.
^"Nominee List for 2018".National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers. February 11, 2019. Archived fromthe original on February 13, 2019. RetrievedFebruary 20, 2019.
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