Adventure Time

**Adventure Time** is an American fantasy animated television series created by American animator, screenwriter, and voice actor Pendelton Ward and produced by American animation television production company Frederator Studios, for Cartoon Network.

The entire ten-season, adventure series was available at launch.

## **Premise**

*Adventure Time* follows the adventures of a boy named Finn the Human, and his best friend and adoptive brother Jake the Dog, who has magical powers to change shape and size at will. Finn and Jake live in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo, which was ravaged by a cataclysmic nuclear war a thousand years before the series' events. Throughout the series, Finn and Jake interact with major characters, including Princess Bubblegum, the sovereign of the Candy Kingdom and a sentient piece of gum; the Ice King, a menacing but largely misunderstood ice wizard; Marceline the Vampire Queen, a thousand-year-old vampire, and rock music enthusiast; Lumpy Space Princess, a melodramatic and immature princess made out of "lumps"; BMO, a sentient video game console-shaped robot that lives with Finn and Jake; and Flame Princess, a flame elemental and ruler of the Fire Kingdom.

## **Cast**

### Main

* Jeremy Shada as Finn Mertens Campbell -  A human boy who loves nothing more than going on adventures and saving the day. Considering himself a hero, Finn has a lust for adventure and swore that he would help anyone in need, but being so full of energy, he has trouble in situations that require him to do tasks other than fighting.
	+ Zack Shada voices Finn in the pilot.
* John DiMaggio as Jake the Dog - Finn's best friend and adoptive brother. He is a 28-year-old—in "magical dog years"—a shapeshifting bulldog. Jake's magic powers allow him to stretch or shrink any part of his body to any shape and size, ranging from becoming gigantic to becoming incredibly small.
* Hynden Walch as Princess "Bonnibel" Bubblegum - A bubblegum humanoid, comparable to the inhabitants of the Candy Kingdom which she rules  The official series website has described her as "a millionaire nerd enthusiast [who] immerses herself in every branch of geekdom". She and Finn have a complex relationship.
	+ Paige Moss voices Bubblegum in the pilot.
		- Isabella Acres voices her as a child in the series.
* Olivia Olsen as Marceline Abadeer -  a half-human and half-demon vampire, and the eponymous Vampire Queen. Although she is over a thousand years old, she appears in the form of a young adult. She is usually shown playing her axe bass, which was formerly her family's heirloom battle axe.
	+ Ava Acres voices her as a child, while Cloris Leachman voices her when she's elderly.
* Simon Petrikov/Ice King

### Supporting

* BMO
* Lumpy Space Princess
* Flame Princess
* Lady Rainicorn
* Martin Mertens
* Betty Grof

## **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 a "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.

## Reception

*Adventure Time* has been a ratings success for Cartoon Network and some episodes have attracted over three million viewers; despite being aimed primarily at children, it has developed a following among teenagers and adults. The series has also spawned various forms of licensed merchandise, including books, video game,s and clothing.

### Critical Reception

The show has received positive reviews 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".

### Awards

The show has received positive reviews from critics and won awards including: eight Primetime Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, three Annie Awards, two British Academy Children's Awards, a Motion Picture Sound Editors Award, and a Kerrang! Award. The series has also been nominated for three Critics' Choice Television Awards, two Annecy Festival Awards, a TCA Award, and a Sundance Film Festival Award, among others. Of the many comic book spin-offs based on the series, one received an Eisner Award and two Harvey Awards.

## Cast

* Olivia Olson as Marceline
* Tom Kenny as Ice King
* Niki Yang as BMO and Lady Rainicorn
* Pendleton Ward as Lumpy Space Princess
* Jessica DiCicco as Flame Princess
* Stephen Root as Martin Mertens
* Lena Dunham (ep. 152-ep. 226) and Felicia Day (ep. 255-onwards) as Betty Grof

## Trivia

* The series originally had only nine seasons, but Cartoon Network split it into ten.
	+ Because of this, Adventure Time is now the first Cartoon Network show to have reached 10 seasons.

* There's a waving snail who's hiding in almost every episode. It could be easily seen in the background of nearly every episode of .
* Finn's voice got gradually deeper as the seasons progressed because his voice actor, Jeremy Shada, went through puberty mid-series.

## Navigation

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