The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack

**The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack** (also known as **The Misadventures of Flapjack**; or simply just **Flapjack**) is an American animated television series created by Thurop Van Orman exclusively for Cartoon Network, premiering in the United States on June 5, 2008.

The entire series was made avaliable at launch.

## Premise

*The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack* follows Flapjack, a naïve young boy who was raised by a whale named Bubbie and is mentored by a crusty old pirate named Captain K'nuckles. Together the trio spend their days in Stormalong Harbor, where most of the show takes place, whilst on the search for the elusive Candied Island.

## Production

### Development

As a child, show creator Van Orman lived in Panama City, Florida, and "used to fantasize about living near the dock and having adventures all the time." When he was 13, his family moved to Utah, but Van Orman still dreamed of adventure. He worked after school as a janitor, saving money for a plane ticket back to Florida. There, he packed some rice and potatoes, and paddled a surfboard to Shell Island. He planned to live off sea urchins and "even speared a manta ray," but things soon went sour. Eventually he became badly sunburned and began to starve. He returned to the mainland, but later tried again: he "went to Mexico and lived in the jungles and found [himself] eating out of dumpsters." Orman took his failures in stride, chalking all these bad circumstances up as "part of the adventure".

Van Orman attempted to pitch the concept to Cartoon Network in 2001. He created a short and incorporated many childhood favorites, with visual inspiration from older adventure novels. His first pitch was rejected, but he received a lot of feedback and re-pitched the concept in 2003.

The series works with stop-motion animation studio Screen Novelties to produce the stop-motion and title card portions of the show.

Many of Van Orman's influences included the likes of Gary Larson, Jim Henson, Stephen Hillenburg, and even his old boss Craig McCracken. Van Orman was well known for his work on other Cartoon Network shows, such as *The Powerpuff Girls*, *The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy*, and *Camp Lazlo*.

### Release

After three seasons and 46 episodes, the series ended on August 31, 2010.

The series ended on August 31, 2010, after 3 seasons, 46 half-hour episodes, and 91 episode segments. The final episode entitled "Fish Out of Water" included live-action sequences and featured an appearance by creator Thurop Van Orman, who played live-action K'nuckles, and his son Leif Van Orman, who played live-action Flapjack.

Reruns of the show slowly but briefly aired on the channel Boomerang from June 11 to July 29, 2018.

Sometime in 2020, reruns of the show started airing late at night on Cartoon Network in Canada along with other older Cartoon Network TV shows.

### Awards

During its run, *Flapjack* received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations, two Annie Award nominations, and one Golden Reel Award nomination.

## Reception

### Industry Impact

Several former storyboard artists and production crew members who worked on *The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack* have gone on to create their own series, including Pendleton Ward (a former writer and storyboard artist who went on to create *Adventure Time*), J. G. Quintel (a former creative director and storyboard artist who went on to create *Regular Show*), Alex Hirsch (a former writer and storyboard artist who went on to create *Gravity Falls*), and Patrick McHale (a former writer and storyboard artist who went on to create *Over the Garden Wall*)

## Trivia

* Paul Reubens was originally selected to be the voice of Flapjack, but when Reubens did not show up to any recording sessions, Van Orman himself decided to voice Flapjack.

## Navigation

- Films: Ben 10: Race Against Time | Foster's Movie: Destination Imagination | Regular Show: The Movie | Steven Universe: The Movie