Adventure Time
Pendleton Ward's hand-drawn fantasy series about Finn and Jake in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo.
Last updated
via Wikipedia: Adventure Time · see source
Adventure Time is an American animated fantasy series that Pendleton Ward created for Cartoon Network. Its heroes are Finn, a human boy voiced by Jeremy Shada, and Jake, a shape-shifting dog voiced by John DiMaggio who is both his best friend and adoptive brother.
The pair roam the Land of Ooo, a world rebuilt long after a nuclear conflict called the Mushroom War, and cross paths with Princess Bubblegum, the Ice King, Marceline the Vampire Queen and the robot BMO. Cartoon Network Studios and Frederator Studios made the show. It drew strong ratings, won eight Primetime Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award, and earned wide praise for its originality and worldbuilding.
Lore & Background
The series grew out of a seven-minute short that Ward made almost single-handedly for Frederator Studios. Finished in early 2006, the short first aired on Nicktoons Network on January 11, 2007, and later ran on Random! Cartoons, then spread widely online. Nicktoons turned down a full series pitch five times, so Frederator took the idea elsewhere.
Cartoon Network showed interest but wanted proof the pilot was more than a fluke. Rather than a script, Ward, Patrick McHale and Adam Muto roughed out storyboards, and their version of "The Enchiridion!" won approval for a first season in August 2008. Production stalled briefly over creative doubts, and veterans Derek Drymon, Merriwether Williams and Nick Jennings were brought in to steady it. After a preview on March 11, 2010, the show premiered that April and wrapped on September 3, 2018.
Reader's Guide
Episodes last about eleven minutes and usually air in pairs to fill a half-hour slot. Storyboard artists shaped the action and dialogue from loose outlines, and because a single episode needed roughly eight to nine months, many were in production at once. Actors recorded together as a group, with frequent guest performers.
Ward cited Dungeons & Dragons, video games, My Neighbor Totoro, Home Movies and Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist as influences. Beyond its Emmys, the show collected three Annie Awards and two British Academy Children's Awards, and one of its comic spin-offs won an Eisner Award. The Adventure Time: Distant Lands specials began a run of follow-up shows in 2020.
Did You Know?
- Jake's personality was modelled on Bill Murray's character Tripper Harrison in Meatballs.
- Lumpy Space Princess is voiced by the show's creator, Pendleton Ward.
- Background designer Ghostshrimp created Finn and Jake's home, the Candy Kingdom and the Ice Kingdom.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did Adventure Time air?
It premiered on Cartoon Network in 2010 and its final episode aired on September 3, 2018.
Where is the show set?
In the Land of Ooo, a world left behind after the Mushroom War destroyed civilization a thousand years earlier.
More in Children'S And Animation
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Adventure Time (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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