Adventure Time

This article is about the animated TV series. For other uses, see Adventure Time (disambiguation).

Adventure Time
File:Adventure Time with Finn Jake.png
Genre	Adventure Comedy Fantasy Surrealism
Created by	Pendleton Ward
Written by	Pendleton Ward Patrick McHale Adam Muto Tim McKeon Merriweather Williams Steve Little Thurop Van Orman
Directed by	Larry Leichliter
Creative directors	Patrick McHale Cole Sanchez
Voices of	Jeremy Shada John DiMaggio Hynden Walch Tom Kenny Maria Bamford Olivia Olson Pendleton Ward Dee Bradley Baker
Opening theme	"Adventure Time" by Pendleton Ward
Ending theme	"Island Song" by Ashley Eriksson
Composer	Casey James Basichis
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	26 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Fred Seibert Eric Homan Derek Drymon Thurop Van Orman
Producers	Kelly Crews Pendleton Ward
Running time	22 minutes
Production companies	Frederator Studios Nickelodeon Animation Studios (short) Cartoon Network Studios (series) Rough Draft Studios Saerom
Original release
Network	Cartoon Network
Release	April 5, 2010 – present

Adventure Time (formerly known as Adventure Time with Finn & Jake) is an American animated television series created by Pendleton Ward. It is based on the animated short "Adventure Time" that aired as part of Frederator Studios' Random! Cartoons on Nickelodeon. The series focuses on the surreal adventures undertaken by two best friends and adopted brothers: Finn (a 12-year old boy) and Jake (a wise 28-year-old dog with magical powers) that dwell in the Land of Ooo. In September 2008, the short was officially greenlighted for a series by Cartoon Network. Half-episode "sneak peeks" aired on March 11 and 18, 2010, and the series officially premiered on April 5, 2010.

Plot

Twelve-year-old Finn, who was found in the woods as a baby by a Dog Family, and his best friend and adopted brother Jake, a 28-year-old dog with magical powers, are adventurers living in the Land of Ooo, a setting full of surreal characters, with fantasy and post-apocalyptic elements. The duo's typical adventures involve saving princesses, fighting evil monsters, exploring dungeons, and helping people in need. They also meet characters with strange characteristics.

Characters

File:Finn and Jake Pastures.jpg

The main characters in Adventure Time. In foreground: Jake and Finn. In background from left to right: Princess Bubblegum, Lady Rainicorn, and Ice King.

• Finn (voiced by Zack Shada in short, Jeremy Shada in series) - A 12-year-old human boy who enjoys defeating evil forces and is skilled at multiple forms of combat. He is shown to have a crush on Princess Bubblegum, though he tries to hide it. He wears a self-proclaimed 'awesome hat' that covers his blond hair, and is prone to strange exclamations and outbursts. He has a lust for adventure and will help anyone in need. Finn is known to not to hurt anyone that is not evil. Finn also uses 80's lingo such as righteous. Finn is known to be bad at math, although his spontaneous outbursts imply an appreciation of the subject (e.g. 'mathematical!',"algebraic!", "rhombus!" ). Though he can swim, he has an intense fear of the deep ocean. Whenever he sings, his voice has a Vocoder sound to it, because he swallowed a small computer. He is the main protagonist of the show. In "Adventure Time" [The Original Pilot] Finn's name was Pen.

• Jake (voiced by John DiMaggio) - A shape-shifting 28-year-old (this may be a reference to 'dog years,' which would make him 4) bulldog and best friend who inexplicably gained magical powers while rolling in a magical mud puddle when he was a puppy. Acting at times as a moral compass to his energetic pal, Jake has a laid-back attitude to most situations, but loves adventure, and will fight when he needs to. He is the boyfriend of Lady Rainicorn, whom he met in the pilot. Also, he understands Rainicorn, who speaks Korean. His powers help Finn considerably in combat, but are also sometimes used just for jovial forms of expression. He is shown to be quite skilled at playing the viola, although this talent is often unappreciated, as it is shown to bore Finn. Jake seems to enjoy songs and rhyming (e.g. "Solving crimes and makin' up rhymes"). All his "most important lessons" are said in song. He is the deuteragonist of the show.

Supporting characters

• Princess Bubblegum (voiced by Paige Moss in short, Hynden Walch in series) - Princess Bubblegum rules the Candy Kingdom, an empire whose inhabitants are also composed of sweets. Her proficiency in science and fluency in German is testament to her high intelligence. Finn is shown to have a crush on her. While she is typically kind and well-mannered, her temper can be a powerful force when provoked.

• Lady Rainicorn (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker in short, Niki Yang in series) - Princess Bubblegum's loyal, majestic, half-rainbow, half-unicorn steed who speaks Korean. Despite her being unable to speak English, she seems perfectly capable of understanding it. She can also turn objects and people different colors. She is shown to have a love of the viola. She can fly because she can intercept light and can dance on it. She's very fond of Jake and they play music together. Jake describes her as "The Rowdy Queen" because she can have fun and fight evil.

• The Ice King (voiced by John Kassir in short, Tom Kenny in series) - The wicked Ice King serves as the primary antagonist of the series. He spends the majority of his time kidnapping princesses in hopes that one of them may want to become his wife, even threatening them with death if they refuse. He is shown, however, to have companionship with the penguins and snow & ice beasts who populate the Ice Kingdom. His magic powers (primarily freezing things by hurling 'frozen lightning bolts', summoning snow monsters, and flying with his beard) stem solely from the magical crown which rests on his head. At one point he temporarily lost his heart, who became his own character: Ricardio the Heart Guy.

• Marceline the Vampire Queen (voiced by Olivia Olson) - A human turned vampire who wanders the land of Ooo. She stakes claim to many different places of refuge on her travels, one of which happened to be Finn and Jake's treehouse. More flexible than blood-thirsty vampires, Marceline at times just sucks the colour red from objects instead of actually drinking blood. She also has the ability to transform into a bat of varying size, as well as other creatures and entities. She is often shown to play bass guitar. Her sly, prankster humor and unpredictable nature constantly keep Finn and Jake on edge. While appearing villainous at first, Marceline and Finn have been shown to have become friends. She has been described as "not really evil, just naughtily playful".

Recurring Characters

• Lumpy Space Princess (voiced by Pendleton Ward) - Also called by her nickname of "L.S.P.", she is the princess of Lumpy Space who speaks with a very thick valley girl accent (though voiced by a male). She appears as a floating purple cloud with a gold star on her forehead. She tends to act like an impatient teenage girl, using the words "lumpin'" or "lump" in place of profanity when necessary. However, her demeanor is misleading;she can actually be a very sympathetic person with good (though often misunderstood) intentions. She also appears to be fifteen years old, considering the fact that she celebrated her quinceanera in the episode "The Eyes", also leading to the understanding she is Mexican.

• Tree Trunks (voiced by Polly Lou Livingston) - Tree Trunks is an elephant friend of Finn and Jake who speaks with a gentle, Texan accent. Tree Trunks lives in a little home in the forest, surrounded by apple trees. She is known for making very good apple pies. In the episode "Tree Trunks," she disappeared after taking a bite out of the Crystal Gem Apple, but is then seen skipping happily in a strange, red crystal-like ball.

Episodes

Main article: List of Adventure Time episodes

Each Adventure Time episode comprises two distinct segments, each approximately eleven minutes in length. Currently, Cartoon Network airs new episodes from the show's second season on Mondays at 8:00 p.m. in most markets.

Production

Following the animated short, Frederator Studios pitched an Adventure Time series to Nickelodeon, but the network passed on it twice. The studio then approached Cartoon Network, with creator Pendleton Ward delivering them an early storyboard for "The Enchiridion", showing that the premise could be expanded into a series while maintaining elements from the original short: funny catchphrases and dances, an awkward kiss moment with the princess, and an "Abe Lincoln moment." Cartoon Network greenlit the first season in September 2008, and "The Enchiridion" would become the first produced episode.

Series creator Pendleton Ward has stated that the artistic style is influenced by his time at CalArts and later working as a storyboard artist on The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. He tries to include "beautiful" moments like those in Hayao Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro and some subversive humor, inspired by series like The Simpsons and Pee-wee's Playhouse. Executive producer Fred Seibert compares the show's animation style to that of Felix the Cat and the Max Fleischer cartoons but says its world is also equally inspired by video games. Ward intends the show's world to have a certain physical logic instead of "cartoony slapstick" -- even though magic exists in the story, the show's writers try to create an internal consistency in how the characters interact with the world.

Ward describes the character Finn as "fiery little kid" with strong morals, while Jake is based on Bill Murray's character in the movie Meatballs, as a laidback twenty-something who usually jokes around, but occasionally gives good advice.

Critical reception

The show has received generally positive reviews. Television critic Robert Lloyd, in an article for the LA Times covering the new series, said it, "strikes [him] as a kind of companion piece to the network's currently airing Chowder and The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. Each takes place in a fantastical land peopled with strange, somewhat disturbing characters and has at its center a young male person or person-like thing making his way in that world with the help of unusual, not always reliable, mentors." He went on to say that the show is, "not unlike CN's earlier Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, about a boy and his imaginary friend, though [it is] darker and stranger and even less connected to the world as we know it." Lloyd also compared it to, "the sort of cartoons they made when cartoons themselves were young and delighted in bringing all things to rubbery life."

Awards and nominations

Award	Category	Nominee	Result
2008 Annie Awards	Best Animated Short Subject	Pendleton Ward Larry Leichliter For the original short	Nominated
2010 Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Short-format Animated Program	Pendleton Ward Kent Osborne Larry Leichliter For "My Two Favorite People"	Nominated

Animated short

"Adventure Time"
Directed by	Larry Leichliter Hugo Morales Pendleton Ward
Written by	Pendleton Ward
Produced by	Kevin Kolde
Starring	Zack Shada John DiMaggio Paige Moss John Kassir Dee Bradley Baker Pendleton Ward
Music by	Casey James Basichis
Production company	Frederator Studios
Distributed by	Nickelodeon
Release date	December 7, 2008
Running time	8 minutes

The animated short "Adventure Time" aired as part of Frederator Studios' Random! Cartoons, and led to the creation of the animated series.

Plot

The cartoon begins with Pen (who was renamed Finn in the series) sleeping under a tree and Jake meditating. After they do a little dance (which Jake downloaded from the internet while meditating), Lady Rainicorn (a unicorn/rainbow hybrid) flies by in tears. They discover that Lady Rainicorn is so sad because Princess Bubblegum is being imprisoned by the Ice King. Using snowballs, they battle their way past the Iceclops, Snow Golem, and other monsters that inhabit the Ice Kingdom.

A scene from the short.

Eventually, Pen and Jake reach the Ice King's mountain lair. Pen and the Ice King fight while Jake remains outside flirting with the Rainicorn, ignoring the battle. Just when Pen seems to be gaining the upper hand, the Ice King uses his "frozen lightning bolts" to freeze Pen in a block of ice. For unexplained reasons, this transports Pen's mind "back in time, and to Mars" where he has a short motivational conversation with Abraham Lincoln. After being told to believe in himself, Pen is returned to the present: just in time to see the Ice King fly away with Princess Bubblegum. Chasing after him using Jake's extendable legs, Pen rescues the princess from the Ice King's grasp. Jake pushes the magical crown off the Ice King's head, thereby removing the King's source of power. The Ice King then plummets off screen, yelling a long list of complex threats of things he will do when he returns.

The story closes with Bubblegum giving Pen a kiss, which embarrasses him greatly. He attempts to leave, but Jake claims that they have nowhere else to go and that there are no adventures that need them. Fortuitously, some nearby ninjas are stealing an old man's diamonds, and they both run off in pursuit.

External links

• Pendleton Ward's Official Website
• Frederator Studios, the series production company
• Production blog
• Template:Bcdb
• Adventure Time at IMDb
• Animation Blog
• Adventure Time with Finn and Jake Wiki–A wiki devoted to Adventure Time