Adventure Time

Adventure Time (formerly known as Adventure Time with Finn and Jake) is an American animated television series which was created by Pendleton Ward and produced by Frederator Studios. The show is based on an original Animated Short which aired on Frederator's Random! Cartoons show and won an Annie Award for the Best Animated Short Subject of 2006. The series is about a boy named Finn and his twenty-eight year-old, magical dog named Jake who encounter many strange adventures in the Land of Ooo. In 2008, Cartoon Network picked up the series, and it premiered with "sneak peeks" on March 11 and 18, 2010, followed by the official series premiere on April 5, 2010.

Original pitch
According to a Frederator blog post, Adventure Time was first pitched as a series to Nickelodeon, which airs most of Frederator Studios' other shows, but they passed on it twice.

Pendleton Ward (with help from Pat McHale and Adam Muto) then pitched the show to Cartoon Network with an early storyboard for "The Enchiridion!", showing that the premise could be expanded from a seven minute short into a full series while maintaining the elements that made it successful: funny catchphrases and dances, an awkward kiss moment with the princess, and an "Abe Lincoln moment." (Enchiridion storyboard 1.0) Cartoon Network greenlit the first season in September 2008, aiming to premiere it by Christmas 2009, although this was later pushed to 2010. "The Enchiridion!" would become the first produced episode.

Development of world and style
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 Dungeons and Dragons and 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.

Development of characters
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 laid back twenty-something who usually jokes around, but occasionally gives good advice.

Episodes
Season one of the series ran from April 5, 2010 to September 27, 2010. After the premiere episode drew strong TV ratings, earning the number one spot in many kids demographics, Cartoon Network renewed the show for second season of 13 half-hours (26 episodes).

Season two premiered on October 11, 2010 and is expected to run at least through mid-2011.

Season three was confirmed in November 2010.

Trivia

 * There is a hidden waving snail in every episode (excluding the premiere of "Trouble in Lumpy Space").
 * Most episodes includes a transition with full screen "Adventure Time" title (or some variation of this, as in the episode "Ricardio the Heart Guy", in which the words "Party Time" were shown.) This seems to have been mostly phased out in season two.
 * According to lead character designer Phil Rynda, the show's titlecards are done in the style of old comic book or pulp magazine covers, which is why they look aged and torn.
 * Almost every episode introduces a new major or minor character.

Voice actors

 * Jeremy Shada as Finn
 * John DiMaggio as Jake
 * Hynden Walch as Princess Bubblegum
 * Tom Kenny as Ice King
 * Niki Yang as Lady Rainicorn/Beemo
 * Olivia Olson as Marceline
 * Pendleton Ward as Lumpy Space Princess/others