Adventure Time

Created by

Pendleton Ward

Directed by

Larry Leichliter
Hugo Morales
Pendleton Ward

Creative Director(s)

Patrick McHale (season 1-2)
Cole Sanchez (season 2-3)
Adam Muto (season 3-4)
Nate Cash (season 3-4)

Country of origin

United States

Language(s)

English

No. of seasons

6

No. of episodes

172

Production

Executive producer(s)

Pendleton Ward
Fred Seibert
Derek Drymon (season 1)

Producer(s)

Kelly Crews

Story editor(s)

Merriwether Williams

Running time

Approx. 11 minutes

Proudction companies

Frederator Studios
Cartoon Network Studios

Broadcast

Orignal channel

Cartoon Network

Rating

TV-PG

Original run

2008 (Pilot)
2010 (Official)

Chronology

Related shows

Regular Show
Steven Universe

This article is about the animated series. You may be looking for the comic or the animated short.

Adventure Time (formerly known as Adventure Time with Finn and Jake) is an American animated television series created by Pendleton Ward and produced by Frederator Studios. The show is based on an original animated short titled "Adventure Time," which aired on Frederator's Random! Cartoons show and won an Annie Award for the Best Animated Short Subject of 2009. The series is about a boy named Finn and a twenty-eight year-old, magical dog named Jake who encounter many strange adventures in the Land of Ooo. In 2010, 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. This series is rated TV-PG, with a few re-rated episodes.

History

Original pitch

According to a Frederator blog post, Adventure Time was first pitched as a series to Nicktoons Network, which airs most of Frederator, but they passed on it twice.

Pendleton Ward (with help from Patrick 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 green-lit 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, but "Slumber Party Panic," which was aired on April 5, 2010, is considered the first episode.^[1]^[2]

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. Then he tried some subversive humor, inspired by series like The Simpsons and Pee-wee's Playhouse.^[3] 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.^[4] 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.^[3]^[4]

Development of characters

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 laid back man in his twenties who usually jokes around, but occasionally gives good advice.^[3]

Episodes

Main article: List of 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 a second season of 13 half-hours (26 episodes).^[5]

It was renewed for a third season of 26 episodes.^[6]

Season two ran from October 11, 2010 to May 9, 2011; Season three from July 11, 2011 to February 13, 2012; Season four from April 2, 2012 to October 22, 2012; and Season five from November 12, 2012 to March 17, 2014. Season six began April 21, 2014.

Characters

Main article: Category:Characters

Trivia

Adventuretime event main — Snail on a dollar bill that Finn and Jake are riding

There is a waving snail in every episode (excluding the premiere of "Trouble in Lumpy Space" and "Food Chain").
Most episodes in the beginning of the show include 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 2 (though the way they used it in this season was more enthusiastic and creative) and completely in season 3 and onward.
Some members of the Adventure Time staff have Spring.me accounts where they answer questions about Adventure Time. This includes Adam Muto, Andy Ristaino, and Cole Sanchez.
According to lead character designer Phil Rynda, most of the show's title cards are done in the style of old comic book or pulp magazine covers, which is why they look aged and torn.^[7]
Cartoon Network gave Adventure Time great attention during Comic-Con 2011.
Every Adventure Time episode has been presented in a CinemaScope format with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Unfortunately, they are shown to Cartoon Network HD in a "full screen" format where some scenes were presented in an open matte format, and some where in a pan and scan format. This has been standardized for all Cartoon Network content filmed in CinemaScope up until HDTVs are standardized to the aspect ratio.
The only holdover from the animated short who still voices his character in the series is John DiMaggio, who voices Jake, and Dee Bradley Baker, who voices Cinnamon Bun, among others (his original role of Lady Rainicorn went to Niki Yang).
On November 20, 2012, the game Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd you steal our garbage?!! was released.
Jazwares released Adventure Time toys in late 2011.
On July 26, 2011, Poptropica.com had a little mission based off the episode "The Limit" at Shark Tooth Island and the prizes are Finn and Jake costumes.
- On August 12, 2011, if one goes to early Poptropica there will be a video of the mini episode "The Wand," and if you watch it you will get an Adventure Time Jake Follower.
- On April 2, 2012 on early Poptropica there is an ad that gets one a Finn costume. Then, on Shark Tooth island, there is a quest that gets you a Flambo follower and a Flame Princess power.
- On February 13, 2013, the ad for the Fionna and Cake DVD was released on Shark Tooth Island, which gets you a Marshall Lee costume and power, though he has Marceline's guitar.
Finn's voice gets deeper every season because Jeremy Shada, the person who voices Finn, is getting older.
Every season, excluding season one, has had a two part episode. The third season provides the first part of a two part episode.
Adventure Time began airing in Japan on June 2012.
During an interview, Jeremy Shada stated there were talks of a possible Adventure Time movie.^[8] An hour-long special has since been confirmed by one of the storyboarders, Jesse Moynihan.^[9]
Adventure Time has been nominated three times for an Emmy in the category, Outstanding Short-Format Animated Program. The first was for "My Two Favorite People." The second was for "It Came from the Nightosphere." The third nomination was "Too Young" for the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards.
Adventure Time was rated #1 on the Cartoon Network and the Teletoon website.