Adventure Time

Premise

Adventure Time follows the adventures of a boy named Finn the Human (voiced by Jeremy Shada), and his best friend and adoptive brother Jake the Dog (John DiMaggio), who has magical powers to change shape and size at will. Pendleton Ward, the series' creator, describes Finn as a "fiery little kid with strong morals". Jake, on the other hand, is based on Tripper Harrison, Bill Murray's character in Meatballs. This means that while Jake is somewhat carefree, he will "sit [Finn] down and give him some decent advice if he really needs it". Finn and Jake live in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo, which was ravaged by a cataclysmic event known as the "Mushroom War", a nuclear war that destroyed civilization a thousand years before the series' events. Throughout the series, Finn and Jake interact with major characters, including Princess Bubblegum (Hynden Walch), the sovereign of the Candy Kingdom and a sentient piece of gum; the Ice King (Tom Kenny), a menacing but largely misunderstood ice wizard; Marceline the Vampire Queen (Olivia Olson), a thousand-year-old vampire and rock music enthusiast; Lumpy Space Princess (Pendleton Ward), a melodramatic and immature princess made out of "lumps"; BMO (Niki Yang), a sentient video game console-shaped robot that lives with Finn and Jake; and Flame Princess (Jessica DiCicco), a flame elemental and ruler of the Fire Kingdom.

Development

Concept and creation

Main article: Adventure Time (short film)

According to series creator Pendleton Ward, the show's style was influenced by his time attending the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and his experiences working as a writer and storyboard artist on The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, a series that ran on Cartoon Network from 2008 until 2010. In an interview with Animation World Network, Ward said he strove to combine Adventure Times subversive humor with "beautiful" moments, using Hayao Miyazaki's film My Neighbor Totoro as inspiration for the latter. Ward has also named Home Movies and Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist as influences, largely because both shows are "relaxing" and feature "conversational dialogue that feels natural [and is neither] over the top [nor] cartoony and shrill".

The series traces its origins to a seven-minute, stand-alone animated short film of the same name (this short was later identified as the show's pilot post facto). Produced by Frederator Studios, the short was created by Ward almost entirely by himself, and its production concluded in early 2006. and was re-broadcast as part of Frederator's anthology show Random! Cartoons on December 7, 2008. After its initial release, the video became a viral hit on the Internet. When Nicktoons' rights to commission a full series expired, Frederator pitched it to other channels. One of the studios that Frederator approached was Cartoon Network, which was interested in producing a full series, but would commit to a deal only if Ward could prove the pilot "wasn't a one-hit wonder". Rob Sorcher, the chief content officer at Cartoon Network, was influential in getting the network to take a chance on the show; he recognized the series as "something that felt really indie ... comic book-y [and] new".

Cartoon Network asked Ward to submit a sample script for their consideration, but Frederator convinced him to rough out a storyboard instead, as "a board would give a better sense of what was on Pen's mind", according to Frederator's vice president Eric Homan. Ward and his college friends Patrick McHale and Adam Muto (who both would go on to take significant roles in the series' production) began developing ideas, all the while concentrating on "keep[ing] the good things about the original short [while also] improv[ing] on" them. The group's first product was a rough storyboard featuring Finn and Princess Bubblegum going on a spaghetti-supper date. Cartoon Network was not happy with this story, and so Ward, McHale, and Muto created a storyboard for the episode "The Enchiridion!", an attempt to emulate the style of the original Nicktoons short. This tactic proved successful, and in August 2008, Cartoon Network approved a first season, which was produced by Cartoon Network Studios. "The Enchiridion!" was the first episode to enter into production.

Ward and his production team began storyboarding episodes and writing plot outlines, but Cartoon Network was still concerned about the direction of the new series. McHale later recalled that during the pitch of an episode titled "Brothers in Insomnia" (which, for various reasons, was scrapped) the room was filled with executives from Cartoon Network. The pitch went well, but the production staff was soon inundated with questions about the stylistic nature of the series. Around this time, Cartoon Network paused the production of the show in an attempt to resolve these creative issues. A number of writers and animators were let go, and in their place, Cartoon Network management hired three veteran animators who had worked on SpongeBob SquarePants: Derek Drymon (who served as executive producer for the first season of Adventure Time), Merriwether Williams (who served as head story editor for the show's first and second seasons), and Nick Jennings (who became the series' long-serving art director). Drymon, in particular, played a key role at this time, ensuring that both Cartoon Network and the show's production crew were on the same creative page. Thurop Van Orman, the creator of The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, was also hired to guide Ward and his staff for the first two seasons. The storyboard for "Prisoners of Love" assuaged many of the fears some Cartoon Network executives had expressed.

As production for season one progressed, more artists were brought on board. Dan "Ghostshrimp" Bandit, a freelance illustrator who had also written and storyboarded on Flapjack, was hired as the show's lead background designer; Ward told him to create background art that set the show "in a 'Ghostshrimp World". Ghostshrimp designed major locations, including Finn and Jake's home, the Candy Kingdom, and the Ice Kingdom.

For the show's first four and a half seasons, Ward served as the showrunner. In an interview with Rolling Stone, he said he had stepped down from this role sometime during the fifth season. As a naturally introverted person, he found interacting with and directing people every day to be exhausting. After Ward resigned from the post, Adam Muto became the showrunner. Until late 2014, Ward continued to work on the series as a storyboard artist and storyline writer.Examples of latter series episodes storyboarded by Ward include:

Production

Writing and storyboarding

Warda self-professed fan of ambivalent emotions, such as feeling "happy and scared at the same time"has called the show a "dark comedy". He has also cited the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragonsof which many of the show's writers are devoteesas an inspiration for the show. Ward said he never wanted to push the boundaries of the PG rating, noting in an interview with Art of the Title that he "never really even thought about the rating ... we don't like stuff that's overly gross. We like cute stuff and nice things". Ward intended the show's world to have a coherent physical logic, and although magic exists in the story, the show's writers tried to create an internal consistency in the characters' interactions with the world.

In an interview with The A.V. Club, Ward said the show's writing process usually began with the writers telling each other what they had done the previous week to find something humorous to build on. He also said, "A lot of the time, if we're really stuck, we'll start saying everything that comes to our mind, which is usually the worst stuff, and then someone else will think that's terrible but it'll give him a better idea and the ball just starts rolling like that". Former storyboard artist and creative director Cole Sanchez said episode scripts are either created by expanding the good ideas produced by these writing games, or are based on an idea proposed by a storyboard artist in the hope it can be developed into an episode.

After the writers pitched stories, the ideas were compiled onto a two-or-three-page outline that contained "the important beats". The episodes were then passed to storyboard artists (often called "boarders"). While many cartoons are based on script pitches to network executives, Cartoon Network allowed Adventure Time to "build their own teams organically" and communicate using storyboards and animatics. The storyboard artists generally worked on an episode in pairs, independent from other storyboarders, which, according to freelance writer David Perlmutter in his book America Toons In, countered creative ennui and prevented episodes from being "alike in either content or tone". The storyboard artists were given a week to "thumbnail" (roughly sketch out) a storyboard and fill in the details complete with action, dialogue, and humor. The series' showrunner and his creative directors then reviewed the storyboard and made notes. The artists were then given another week to implement the notes and to clean up the episode. Storyboard writing and revising usually took up to a month.

Animation

Following the writing revisions, voice actors would record their parts for the episodes and an animatic would be compiled to reduce the running time to the necessary 11 minutes. Specialized artists then created prop, character, and background designs. According to Rynda, most of this pre-production was done in Photoshop. While the episodes' design and coloring was done at Cartoon Network Studios in Burbank, California, the actual animation was handled in South Korea by either Rough Draft Korea or Saerom Animation. Executive producer Fred Seibert compared the show's animation style to that of Felix the Cat and various Max Fleischer cartoons, but said its world was equally inspired by "the world of videogames".

While the episodes were being handled in South Korea, the production crew in the U.S. worked on retakes, music scoring, and sound design.

While a great majority of the series' episodes were animated by Korean animation studios, Adventure Time occasionally featured guest animators and directors. For instance, the second-season episode "Guardians of Sunshine" was partly rendered in 3D to emulate the style of a video game. The fifth-season episode "A Glitch is a Glitch" was written and directed by Irish filmmaker and writer David OReilly and features his distinctive 3D animation. Animator James Baxter animated select scenes and characters in both the fifth-season episode "James Baxter the Horse" as well as the eighth-season episode "Horse & Ball". The sixth-season episode "Food Chain" was written, storyboarded, and directed by Japanese anime director Masaaki Yuasa, and animated entirely by Yuasa's studio Science SARU. Another sixth-season episode, "Water Park Prank", features Flash animation by David Ferguson. The stop-motion episode "Bad Jubies", directed by Kirsten Lepore, aired near the middle of the show's seventh season. Finally, Alex and Lindsay Small-Butera, noted for their web series Baman Piderman, contributed animation to the eighth-season episode "Beyond the Grotto" and the ninth-season episode "Ketchup".

Voice cast

The series' voice actors include Jeremy Shada (Finn the Human), John DiMaggio (Jake the Dog), Tom Kenny (Ice King), Hynden Walch (Princess Bubblegum), and Olivia Olson (Marceline the Vampire Queen). Ward voices Lumpy Space Princess and several minor characters. Former storyboard artist Niki Yang voices the sentient video game console BMO in English, as well as Jake's girlfriend Lady Rainicorn in Korean. Polly Lou Livingston, a friend of Ward's mother Bettie Ward, voices the small elephant Tree Trunks.

The show's cast members recorded their lines together at group recording sessions rather than individually, with the aim of recording natural-sounding dialogue. Walch described these group recordings as akin to "doing a play readinga really, really out there play". The series regularly employed guest actors for minor and recurring characters, and crew members cast people with whom they were interested in working. For instance, in a panel, Muto and Kent Osborne said the Adventure Time crew often sought out actors who had had roles in the television programs Star Trek: The Next Generation and The Office to play various supporting or background characters.

Title sequence and music

When Ward was developing the series' title sequences, the rough draft version consisted of quick shots and vignettes that were "just sort of crazy [and] nonsensical", which alluded to the show's theme of quirky adventures. These drafts included "the characters ... just punching random ghosts and monsters, jumping through anything and everything [and] there were a bunch of atomic bombs at the end of it". Ward later called this version "really silly". He sent the draft to Cartoon Network; they did not like it and wanted something more graphical like the introduction to The Brady Bunch. Inspired by the title sequences of The Simpsons and Pee-wee's Playhouse, Ward developed a new title sequence featuring a panning sweep of the Land of Ooo while a synthesizer note rose slowly until the main theme was played. Ward's draft for this idea was handed to layout animators, who then finalized the timing for the sequence. From there, the sequence evolved; while Ward added "silly character stuff", Patrick McHale focused his attention on the Ice King's shot and gave him a "high school [year]book" smile. The crew also struggled to get the shadows in the shot featuring Marceline correct. After the panning sweep, the sequence cuts to the theme song, which plays while shots of Finn and Jake adventuring are shown. For this part of the sequence, Ward was inspired by the "simple" aspects of the introduction to the 2007 comedy film Superbad. When the theme mentions "Jake the Dog" and "Finn the Human", the characters' names are displayed next to their heads, with a solid color in the background. The sequence was finalized immediately before the series aired.

The show's eponymous theme song is sung by Ward, accompanied by a ukulele. It is first heard in the pilot episode; in that version, Ward is accompanied by an acoustic guitar. For the version used in the series, Ward sang in a higher register to match the ukulele's range. The theme song's final version was originally supposed to be a temporary one. Ward said, "I recorded the lyrics for the opening title in the animatics room where we have this little crummy microphone just so that we could add it to the titles and submit it to the network. Later, we tried re-recording it and I didn't like it ... I only liked the temp one!" The two eventually worked together on its music.

The show's title sequence and theme song have stayed mostly consistent throughout its run, with seven exceptions. During the episodes featuring Fionna Campbell and Cake the Cat (viz. season three's "Fionna and Cake", season five's "Bad Little Boy", season six's "The Prince Who Wanted Everything", season eight's "Five Short Tables", and season nine's "Fionna and Cake and Fionna") the series features a different intro sequence that mirrors the original, with the major exception that all the characters are gender-bent, and the theme is sung by former storyboard revisionist Natasha Allegri. Likewise, the intro to the series' three miniseries are each unique: the introduction to the Marceline-centric Stakes (2015) places most of the emphasis on Marceline, and the theme song is sung by Olson; the introduction to Islands (2017) adopts a nautical theme, highlights the principal characters in the miniseries, and is sung by Shada; and the intro to Elements (2017) features imagery reflecting the four primary elements in the Adventure Time universe (fire, ice, slime, and candy) and is sung by Hynden Walch. The introductions to the guest-animated episodes "A Glitch Is a Glitch" and "Food Chain" are each unique, featuring animation courtesy of OReilly and Yuasa, respectively. Finally, the series finale, "Come Along With Me", features an introduction offering viewers a glimpse of future Ooo, 1,000 years after Finn and Jake. This intro features the new characters Shermy and Beth and is sung by the latter (voiced by Willow Smith).

The series regularly features songs and musical numbers. Many of the cast membersincluding Shada, Kenny, and Olsonsing their characters' songs. Characters often express their emotions in song; examples of this include Marceline's song "I'm Just Your Problem" (from season three's "What Was Missing") and Finn's "All Gummed Up Inside" (from season three's "Incendium"). While the series' background music is composed by Basichis and Kiefer, the songs sung by characters are often written by the storyboard artists. And while it is a general rarity, the show also occasionally refers to popular music.Examples include the following:

• Early during the show's run, Frederator, Seibert's production company, occasionally uploaded demos and full versions of songs sung by the characters to their official website,Examples include the following:
• and when the production crew set up a series Tumblr account, this tradition of publishing demos and full versions of songs to the public was revived.Examples include the following:
• On November 20, 2015, the label Spacelab9 released a limited-edition 12" LP featuring many of Marceline's songs, followed by a 38-song series soundtrack in October 2016.

Setting and mythology

The show is set in the fictional Land of Ooo, in a post-apocalyptic future about a thousand years after a nuclear holocaust called the "Great Mushroom War". According to Ward, the show takes place "after the bombs have fallen and magic has come back into the world". Before the series was fully developed, Ward intended the Land of Ooo to simply be "magical". After the production of the episode "Business Time", in which an iceberg containing reanimated businessmen floats to the surface of a lake, the show became explicitly post-apocalyptic; Ward said the production crew "just ran with it". Ward later described the setting as "candyland on the surface and dark underneath",

The series has a canonical mythologyor, an overarching plot and backstorythat is expanded upon in various episodes. This mythology mainly involves the nature of the Mushroom War, the origin of the series' principal antagonist the Lich, and the backstories of several of the series' principal and recurring characters. Ward once noted that the details behind the Mushroom War and the series' dark mythology form "a story worth telling", but he also felt the show would be better off if the show "dance[d] around how heavy the back-history of Ooo is".

LGBTQ+ representation

After the September 2011 episode "What Was Missing" hinted at romantic subtext between Marceline and Bubblegum, fans began to "ship" the two, referring to the pairing as "Bubbline". Some reviewers also discussed the possible relationship, with Kjerstin Johnson of Bitch magazine expressing hope that that show's "queer cartoon subtext" would turn into "a queer cartoon subplot". Eventually, Bubblegum and Marceline's relationship was confirmed in the series finale, "Come Along With Me", which also featured the two characters kissing. While Bubblegum seems to have dated a male character named Mr. Cream Puff, her exact sexuality, unlike Marceline's, has not been confirmed. As such, reviewers have argued that she is either bisexual, non-binary, queer, lesbian, or a combination of some of the latter, as both live in a world where "sexuality is somewhat fluid."

Much of the series' LGBTQ+ representation was the result of storyboard artist Rebecca Sugar, who soon after joining the production crew "became more aware of what we're really saying by excluding [LGBTQ] characters" from children's TV—a situation which felt "more and more dire" to her. She thus began working hard to put "LGBTQIA characters in G-rated content" in the years to follow. Zeroing in on the relationship between Marceline and Bubblegum, Sugar tried to foster their relationship. In a March 2021 Vanity Fair interview, Sugar said that she was encouraged by the "creative team to put their own life experiences into the character of Marceline," but when this led to a "romantic storyline between Marceline and Princess Bubblegum", Cartoon Network executives intervened. This moment led Sugar and the rest of the show's team to see the limit of what they could accomplish, in terms of representation. The writers initially responded to this roadblock by working queer themes into episodes as subtext to avoid controversy or network censorship, but later episodes would openly expand on these themes, bringing them to the forefront of the series' plot.

Finale

Main article: Come Along with Me (Adventure Time)

During the last seasons of Adventure Time, there was discussion at Cartoon Network about concluding the series. Olivia Olson, who provided the voice of Marceline, said that since this discussion wore on for a while, "the ending of the show was getting stretched and stretched and stretched". Chief content officer Rob Sorcher told the Los Angeles Times of the network's decision to end the series, saying:

Adventure Time was playing less and less on Cartoon Network, yet we were moving towards a large volume of episodes. And I really began thinking "[The end] can't come quickly as a sudden company decision, it needs to be a conversation over a period of time." And it did also strike me that if we don't wind this up soon, we're going to have a generation of fans graduate through the [television] demo [graphic that Cartoon Network targets] and we won't have completed a thought for them.

Consequently, on September 29, 2016, Cartoon Network confirmed that the series would conclude after its tenth season. The final episode of the series was a special, titled "Come Along with Me"; the special was written and storyboarded by Tom Herpich, Steve Wolfhard, Seo Kim, Somvilay Xayaphone, Hanna K. Nyström, Aleks Sennwald, Sam Alden, and Graham Falk. The story was developed by Herpich, Wolfhard, Ashly Burch, showrunner Adam Muto, head writer Kent Osborne, Jack Pendarvis, Julia Pott, and series creator Pendleton Ward. Former head background designer Ghostshrimp returned after having officially left the series during the fourth season.

According to Osborne, Cartoon Network provided the writers with "an opportunity to spend a lot of time thinking about the finale" before production ended. This allowed the finale itself to be "less dense" by simply "hitting the big [beats] and then finding vignettes for all the characters ... so we could get snapshots of where they could end up." According to Pendarvis, storyline writing for the series ended in mid-November 2016, with the last storyline meeting held on November 21. A tweet by Osborne revealed that the series' final script was pitched to storyboarders, with Alden and Nyström in attendance, on November 28. This episode was then pitched to the show's producers during the third week of December 2016. Voice recording for the episode ended on January 31, 2017, as confirmed by a number of cast members, including Maria Bamford and Andy Milonakis. The series finale aired on September 3, 2018 to universal acclaim.

Broadcast and ratings

Episodes

Main article: List of Adventure Time episodes

Each Adventure Time episode is about eleven minutes in length; pairs of episodes are often telecast in order to fill a half-hour program time slot. Before the official debut of the first season, Cartoon Network aired both "Business Time" and "Evicted!" on March 11 and 18, respectively, advertising these showings as "previews" of the series-to-come. The show officially debuted with "Slumber Party Panic" on April 5, 2010.

During the latter part of its run, the show began to experiment with the miniseries format. The first of these was Stakes (2015), which aired during the show's seventh season. The following miniseries, Islands (2017) aired as part of the eighth season. The third and final miniseries, Elements (2017), aired during the show's ninth season.

The show's seventh season was originally intended to comprise 39 episodes, ranging from "Bonnie & Neddy" to "Reboot". However, when it came time to upload the season onto streaming sites like CartoonNetwork.com, Cartoon Network chose to end the season with the episode "The Thin Yellow Line", for a total of 26 episodes. This new episode count for the season was cemented by the release of the complete seventh season DVD on July 18, 2017, which included episodes "Bonnie & Neddy" through "The Thin Yellow Line". As such, the episode and season number sequence is accordingly changed, as follows:

For its first six seasons, episodes regularly aired once a week. Starting in November 2014, the show began to air new episodes via "bombs", or weeks in which new episodes debuted every day. This change in airing style disrupted the viewing patterns of some fans, as Dave Trumbore of Collider explained: "Back when [the show] was regularly airing in a more traditional schedule, it was a little easier to keep track of the completely insane episodes full of half-explained mythology and lots and lots of non-sequiturs. During the last few seasons, however, [when] the episodes started to arrive in more of a scattershot fashion scheduled around multi-part specials [it became easier to miss] the random airings of certain episodes".

The series' initial run concluded in 2018, after the airing of its tenth season. Reruns have aired on Boomerang and Adult Swim.

Ratings

Upon its debut, Adventure Time was a ratings success for Cartoon Network. In March 2013, it was reported that the show averaged roughly 2 to 3 million viewers an episode. According to a 2012 report by Nielsen, the show consistently ranked first in its time slot among boys aged 214. The pilot episode was a ratings success. According to a press release by Cartoon Network, the episode's time slot saw triple-digit percentage increases from the previous year. The program was viewed by 1.661 million children aged 211, which marked a 110% increase from the previous year's figures. It was watched by 837,000 children aged 914, a 239% increase from the previous year's figures.

Between the second and sixth seasons, the show's ratings continued to grow; the second-season premiere was watched by 2.001 million viewers, the third-season premiere by 2.686 million, the fourth-season premiere by 2.655 million, the fifth-season premiere by 3.435 million, and the sixth-season premiere by 3.321 million. The show's seventh-season opener took a substantial ratings tumble, being watched by only 1.07 million viewers. Likewise, the eighth-, ninth-, and tenth-season premieres were watched by only 1.13, 0.71, and 0.77 million viewers, respectively. The series finale, "Come Along with Me", was viewed by 0.92 million viewers and scored a 0.25 Nielsen rating in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic, which means the episode was seen by 0.25 percent of all individuals aged 18 to 49 years old who were watching television at the time of the episode's airing.

Home media and streaming service

On September 27, 2011, Cartoon Network released the region 1 DVD My Two Favorite People, which features a selection of twelve episodes from the series' first two seasons. Following this, several other region-1 compilation DVDs have been released, including: It Came from the Nightosphere (2012), Jake vs. Me-Mow (2012), Fionna and Cake (2013), Jake the Dad (2013), The Suitor (2014), Princess Day (2014), Adventure Time and Friends (2014), Finn the Human (2014), Frost & Fire (2015), The Enchiridion (2015), Stakes (2016), Card Wars (2016), and Islands (2017). All of the seasons have been released on DVD, and the first six have been released domestically on Blu-ray. A box set containing the entire series was released on DVD on April 30, 2019.

On March 30, 2013, the first season of Adventure Time was made available on the Netflix Instant Watch service for online streaming; the second season was made available on March 30, 2014. Both seasons were removed from Netflix on March 30, 2015. The series was made available for streaming via Hulu on May 1, 2015.

While in the United States, HBO Max becomes the primary platform to watch Adventure Time: Distant Lands, there are debuts of "BMO", the first special of the spin-off series, in different countries and regions in respective Cartoon Network channels worldwide, on different dates mainly in 2020; such as October 24 (Turkey), October 25 (France), November 21 (the United Kingdom), December 12 (Germany, Australia, and Taiwan), and December 27 (Russia). In South Korea, the debut was on January 1, 2021.

Reception

Critical reception

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".

The show has been praised for its resemblance to cartoons of the past. In an article for the Los Angeles Times, television critic Robert Lloyd compared the series to "the sort of cartoons they made when cartoons themselves were young and delighted in bringing all things to rubbery life". Robert Mclaughlin of Den of Geek expressed a similar sentiment when he wrote that Adventure Time "is the first cartoon in a long time that is pure imagination". Eric Kohn of IndieWire said the show "represents the progress of [cartoon] medium" in the current decade.

A number of reviews have positively compared the series and its creators to other culturally significant works and individuals, respectively. In 2013, Entertainment Weekly reviewer Darren Franich called the series "a hybrid sci-fi/fantasy/horror/musical/fairy tale, with echoes of Calvin and Hobbes, Hayao Miyazaki, Final Fantasy, Richard Linklater, Where the Wild Things Are, and the music video you made with your high school garage band". Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker praised Adventure Times unique approach to emotion, humor, and philosophy by likening it to "World of Warcraft as recapped by Carl Jung". Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club concluded that the show was "basically what would happen if you asked a bunch of 12-year-olds to make a cartoon, only it's the best possible version of that, like if all the 12-year-olds were super geniuses and some of them were Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and the Marx Brothers".

Adventure Times willingness to explore dark, depressing, and complex issues has received praise. Kohn applauded the fact that the show "toys with an incredibly sad subtext". Critics have suggested that the show has grown and matured as it has aged. In a review of season four, for instance, Mike LeChevallier of Slant magazine complimented the show for "growing up" with its characters.

The series has been included on a number of best-of lists. Entertainment Weekly awarded it second place in its 2012 list of the "10 Best Cartoon Network Shows" and ranked it number 20 (out of 25) in a list of the "Greatest Animated TV Series". Similarly, The A.V. Club, in a non-ranked run-down of the "best animated series ever", called the series "one of the most distinctive cartoons currently on the air".

The show has also received some minor criticism from reviewers. LeChevallier, in an otherwise largely positive review of the third season for Slant magazine, wrote that "the short-form format leaves some emotional substance to be desired", and that this was inevitable for a series with such short episodes. The independent cartoon scholar and critic David Perlmutter, who otherwise applauded the show's voice acting and its ability to surpass its source material, argued that the show's vacillation between high and low comedy epitomizes the fact that Cartoon Network is "unsure of what direction to pursue". He noted that "while some of [Adventure Times] episodes work well, others [are] simply confusing". The newspaper Metro cited the show's frightening situations, occasional adult themes, and use of innuendo as reasons why parents might not want their young children watching it.

Industry impact

(Top Row) Patrick McHale, Kent Osborne (Bottom Row) Rebecca Sugar and Ian Jones-Quartey.

Several former crew members who worked on Adventure Time have gone on to create their own series, including Patrick McHale (a former storyline writer, storyboard artist, and creative director who went on to create Over the Garden Wall), J.G. Quintel (a former storyboard artist who went on to create Regular Show and Close Enough), Pete Browngardt (a former storyboard artist who went on to create Secret Mountain Fort Awesome, Uncle Grandpa, and Looney Tunes Cartoons), Rebecca Sugar (a former storyboard artist who went on to create Steven Universe), Ian Jones-Quartey (a former storyboard revisionist and supervisor who went on to create OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes), Skyler Page (a former storyboard artist who went on to create Clarence), Julia Pott (a former storyline writer who went on to create Summer Camp Island), Kent Osborne (the show's former head story writer who went on to create Cat Agent), and Elizabeth Ito (a former storyboard artist and supervising director who created City of Ghosts for Netflix).

Heidi MacDonald of Slate argued that the scouting of indie comic creators employed by Adventure Time (as well as several other Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon series) has led to an "animation gold rush" in which major studios are actively seeking under-the-radar talent for their shows, with her article surmising that "your favorite brilliant indie cartoonist is probably storyboarding for Adventure Time". MacDonald also pointed out that Adventure Time has influenced the tone of modern comics, noting:

If anything, walking around [comic] shows like SPX, I've noticed something of an Adventure Time track among many of the small press comics now coming out: Where once young cartoonists overwhelmingly produced gloomy masculine self-absorption and misanthropy in the tradition of Daniel Clowes or Chris Ware, these days many booths feature fantasy epics with colorful characters and invented worlds heavy on the talking animals. It shouldn't be surprising that up-and-coming cartoonists are absorbing the Adventure Time aesthetic. A 20-year-old making comics now could have been watching the show since she was 15, after all.

In an interview with Paste magazine, Sugar explained that working on Adventure Time and connecting with indie and underground comic artists who worked on the show (like Ward, McHale and Muto) was a creative game-changer, as they told her to do what she would do when drawing comics and to not hold anything back. She argued that many of the recent developments in animation were inspired by what the show was able to do by being "very artist-driven" and allowing independent comic artists to have a major say in the direction of episodes.

Academic interest

Adventure Time has attracted academic interest for its presentation of gender and gender roles. Emma A. Jane, an academic from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, wrote that while the two main characters are male and many episodes involve them engaging in violent acts to save princesses, "Finn and Jake are [nevertheless] part of an expansive ensemble cast of characters who are anything but stereotypical and who populate a program which subverts many traditional gender-related paradigms". Carolyn Leslie, writing in Screen, agrees, saying, "despite having two male leads, Adventure Time is particularly strong when it comes to questioning and challenging gender stereotypes".

The first non-fiction book to scholarly study the series was Adventure Time and Philosophy (2015), edited by Nicolas Michaud. Published by Open Court Publishing Company, this work considers Adventure Time from a variety of angles, using the show as a way to explore different philosophical angles and ideas. In July 2020, independent scholar Paul A. Thomas released a book entitled Exploring the Land of Ooo that documented the show's production history; an expanded and updated version of the book was released in 2023 by the University Press of Mississippi.

Fandom

Since its debut, Adventure Time has developed a strong following among children, teenagers, and adults; according to A.V. Club critic Noel Murray, fans are drawn to Adventure Time because of "the show's silly humor, imaginative stories, and richly populated world". Eric Kohn of IndieWire said that the series has "started to look like one of the biggest television phenomenons of the decade". In 2016, a study by The New York Times of the 50 TV shows with the most Facebook Likes found that Adventure Time "is the most popular show among the young in our datajust over two-thirds of 'likes' come from viewers [aged] 1824".

The show is a popular presence at fan conventions, such as San Diego Comic-Con. Reporter Emma-Lee Moss said, "This year's [2014] Comic-Con schedule reflected Adventure Times growing success, with several screenings [as well as] a dramatic reading with the show's voice talent". In an interview, Olivia Olson (who voices the character Marceline) said, "Literally, anywhere you look, anywhere in your range, you're going to see at least two people dressed up like Finn. It's crazy".

Accolades

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by the Adventure Time franchise

Related media

Spin-offs

Main article: Adventure Time: Distant Lands, Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake

On October 23, 2019, Cartoon Network announced that four hour-long specials—collectively titled Adventure Time: Distant Lands—would air on HBO Max. The specials aired in 2020 and 2021. On August 17, 2021, it was announced that a second spin-off, Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake, focusing on the gender-swapped Fionna and Cake characters, had been ordered by HBO Max. On June 12, 2024, it was revealed that two additional spin-offs, entitled Adventure Time: Side Quests and Adventure Time: Heyo BMO, had also been greenlit by Cartoon Network Studios.

Comic books

On November 19, 2011, KaBoom! Studios announced plans for an Adventure Time comic book series written by independent webcomic creator Ryan North, who wrote the series Dinosaur Comics. The series launched on February 8, 2012, with art by Shelli Paroline and Braden Lamb. In October 2014, it was revealed that North had left the comic series after three years. His duties were assumed by Christopher Hastings, the creator of The Adventures of Dr. McNinja. This comic book line ended in April 2018 with its seventy-fifth issue, which North returned to co-write.

In 2025, Oni Press launched a new monthly Adventure Time series. On October 1, 2025, the Adventure Time: Bubbline College Special one-shot comic book was released, written by Caroline Cash.

After the success of the original 2012 comic book line, several spin-off mini-series were launched. Some of the comic series are as follows:

A separate line of comics officially denoted as graphic novels, have also been released. Books in this line are:

Other literature

Other Adventure Time-themed books have also been released. The Adventure Time Encyclopaedia, published on July 22, 2013, was written by comedian Martin Olson, father of Olivia Olson and the voice of recurring character Hunson Abadeer. This was followed by Adventure Time: The Enchiridion & Marcy's Super Secret Scrapbook!!!, which was released on October 6, 2015. Written by Martin and Olivia Olson, it is presented as a combination of the Enchiridion and Marceline's secret diary. An official Art of ... book, titled The Art of Ooo was published on October 14, 2014. It contains interviews with cast and crew members and opens with an introduction by filmmaker Guillermo del Toro. Two volumes with collections of the show's title cards have also been released, as has a cookbook with recipes inspired by the show, and a series of prose novels published under the header "Epic Tales from Adventure Time" (which includes The Untamed Scoundrel, Queen of Rogues, The Lonesome Outlaw, and The Virtue of Ardor, all of which were published under the pseudonym "T. T. MacDangereuse").

Video games

The series has spawned several major video game releases. The first game based on the series, Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?!!, was announced by Pendleton Ward on his Twitter account in March 2012. The game was developed by WayForward Technologies for Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS, and was released by D3 Publisher on November 20, 2012. A year later, the game Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I Don't Know!, which follows Finn and Jake as they strive "to save the Candy Kingdom by exploring the mysterious Secret Royal Dungeon deep below the Land of Ooo", On November 18, 2014, Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom was released for Nintendo 3DS, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and Microsoft Windows. In October 2015, the fourth major Adventure Time video game, titled Finn & Jake Investigations, was released for 3DS, Windows and other consoles. It is the first in the series to feature full 3D graphics. Another game, Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion, was released for the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Windows, and Xbox One in July 2018. The game was published by Outright Games, developed by Climax Studios, and features the show's original cast. That game won the award for "Performance in a Comedy, Lead" with John DiMaggio at the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards, in which Jeremy Shada was also nominated for the same category.

Various other minor video games have also been released. Several, including Legends of Ooo, Fionna Fights, Beemo Adventure Time, and Ski Safari: Adventure Time, have been released on the iOS App Store. A game titled Finn & Jake's Quest was released on April 11, 2014, on Steam. Cartoon Network also released a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game titled Adventure Time: Battle Party on Cartoon Network's official site, on June 23, 2014. In April 2015, two downloadable content packs for LittleBigPlanet 3 on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 were released; one contained Adventure Time costumes, while the other contained a level kit with decorations, stickers, music, objects, a background, and a bonus Fionna costume. A virtual reality (VR) game entitled Adventure Time: Magic Man's Head Games was also released to Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR. A second VR game, entitled Adventure Time: I See Ooo, was released on September 29, 2016. In that same month, Adventure Time characters were added to the Lego Dimensions game. Finn and Jake became playable characters in the video game Cartoon Network: Battle Crashers which was released for the Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One on November 8, 2016 and the Nintendo Switch on October 31, 2017. Finn, Jake, Banana Guard, and Marceline are playable characters in the platform fighter MultiVersus.

Film

In February 2015, it was reported that a theatrical Adventure Time film was being developed by Cartoon Network Studios, Frederator Films, Vertigo Entertainment, and Warner Animation Group. According to reports, the film would be executive-produced and written by Pendleton Ward, and produced by Roy Lee and Chris McKay. In October 2015, series producer Adam Muto confirmed that series creator Pendleton Ward was "working on the premise" for the film, but that there was "nothing official to announce yet". On July 22, 2018, Muto noted that "an [Adventure Time] movie was never officially announced". On August 31, 2018, Muto said the finale of the show would not affect a potential movie, nor would the finale lead directly into a film. He also noted that "all the lore and stuff would not work for a first time viewer", suggesting that the film would have to hold well on its own to be successful.

However, on June 12, 2024, during the Annecy Animation Festival, it was announced that an Adventure Time movie was in development, with Rebecca Sugar, Adam Muto, and Patrick McHale all involved in the project.

Other appearances

A variety of officially licensed merchandiseincluding action figures, role-playing toys, bedding, dishware, and various other productshave been released.For a small selection of the many objects, see:

• Since the dramatic increase in popularity of the series, many graphic T-shirts have been officially licensed through popular clothing retailers. Pendleton Ward hosted T-shirt designing contests on the websites of both We Love Fine and Threadless. Other shirts can be purchased directly from Cartoon Network's store. A collectible card game called Card Wars, inspired by the fourth-season episode of the same name, has been released. On March 11, 2016, it was announced by Lego via Lego Ideas that an official Adventure Time Lego set from an idea by site user, aBetterMonkey, had met voting qualifications and was approved to be produced in cooperation with Cartoon Network. The set was released in January 2017.

On July 21, 2013, Taiwan High Speed Rail and the Taiwan branch of Cartoon Network worked together on a project called "Cartoon Express" (). The entire train was covered with characters from various Cartoon Network shows (including The Amazing World of Gumball, The Powerpuff Girls, Ben 10, and Regular Show), and the two sides of the train is painted with Finn and Jake respectively. Throughout the project, there were over 1,400 runs of the train and over 1.3 million passengers were transported. Near the end, the Taiwan High Speed Rail also sold postcards as souvenirs for sale since August 23, 2014, and the project eventually ended on September 9, 2014. In addition, Cartoon Network established a waterpark named Cartoon Network Amazone in Chonburi, Thailand; it opened on October 3, 2014. Promoting the waterpark, Thai Smile painted Finn, Jake, Princess Bubblegum and Marceline on the planes.

台灣高鐵-卡通造型列車停靠於桃園站南下月台.JPG|The Finn train as seen in Taoyuan HSR station, Taiwan (2014) 高鐵700T 酷狗老皮彩繪列車.jpg|The Jake train as seen from Xinpu, Hsinchu near the railway (2013) HS-TXQ (30328494464).jpg|An Airbus A320 (SL) in Khon Kaen, Thailand (2016)

"Leela and the Genestalk", an episode from the seventh season of the animated Comedy Central program Futurama, features a cameo of Finn and Jake, with DiMaggio (who voices Bender in Futurama) reprising his role as Jake for the appearance. Similarly, the twenty-eighth season premiere of the Fox series The Simpsons, entitled "Monty Burns' Fleeing Circus", includes a couch gag that parodies the title sequence to Adventure Time, complete with Pendleton Ward himself singing a spoof of the Adventure Time theme song. According to Al Jean, the executive producer of The Simpsons, "[The couch gag] was the brain child of Mike Anderson, our supervising director ... It's a really beautiful, elaborate crossover".

On the Portuguese talk show 5 Para A Meia-Noite, the humorist Eduardo Madeira, who portrayed a hater called Osório, used Princess Bubblegum and Marceline to mock the Eurovision Song Contest 2018's Portuguese contestants, Cláudia Pascoal and Isaura.

In the 2016 horror film Better Watch Out, the two boys in the film, Luke the antagonist and his friend Garrett, are fans of the series, and after subduing Luke's babysitter and using drugs and alcohol, the two boys play Fuck, Marry, Kill using Princess Bubblegum and Marceline as options.

Notes

References

References

1. Whalen, Andrew. (January 26, 2017). "'Adventure Time: Islands' Review: Most Futures Are Dark In New Season 8 Episodes, Life". iDigitalTimes.
2. Sava, Oliver. (October 9, 2013). "Beneath ''Adventure Time''{{'}}s Weirdness Lies Surprising Emotional Complexity".
3. (November 22, 2015). "''Adventure Time'' Has Become this Era's Finest Coming of Age Story".
4. Muto, Adam [MrMuto]. (February 5, 2013). "No one currently gets the "directed by" credit. And we've actually phased out the title of creative director in favor of supervising director".
5. (September 3, 2018). "''Adventure Time'' Concludes with a Celebration of what Makes it so Special". [[The Onion]].
6. Lloyd, Robert. (April 5, 2010). "'Adventure Time With Finn & Jake' Enters a Wild New World". [[Los Angeles Times]].
7. Muto, Adam [MrMuto]. (January 2014). "For a short time, we weren't sure if we'd be able to use Adventure Time (without "with Finn and Jake") as the official title for the show".
8. "Adventure Time". [[Cartoon Network]].
9. DeMott, Rick. (April 25, 2010). "Time for Some Adventure with Pendleton Ward".
10. Bustillos, Maria. (April 15, 2014). "It's ''Adventure Time''".
11. Seibert, Fred. (October 9, 2012). "From Another Era, it Seems Like". [[Frederator]].
12. Feeney, Nolan. (March 29, 2013). "The Weird World of ''Adventure Time'' Comes Full Circle".
13. (December 7, 2008). "Adventure Time".
14. (April 22, 2010). "'The Enchiridion' Storyboards". [[Frederator Studios]].
15. (March 11, 2021). "Best of Original Cartoons: Adventure Time [2010-2018+]". The Fredfilms Blog.
16. (November 11, 2008). "'Adventure Time' Background Development Art". Frederator.
17. Amidi, Amid. (August 29, 2008). "Cartoon Network Acquires ''Adventure Time''".
18. (July 6, 2009). "'Enchiridion' Props in Color". Frederator.
19. DiMaggio, John. (2012). "Prisoners of Love". Cartoon Network.
20. Webb, Charles. (April 28, 2011). "It's 'Adventure Time' With Series Creator Pendleton Ward".
21. Strauss, Neil. (October 2, 2014). "'Adventure Time': The Trippiest Show on Television".
22. Kohn, Eric. (June 18, 2015). "Kent Osborne Explains the Crazy Logic Behind 'Uncle Kent 2' and the ''Adventure Time'' Connection". [[IndieWire]].
23. (November 1, 2012). "'Adventure Time' Creator Talks '80s". [[USA Today]].
24. "TV Parental Control". Cartoon Network.
25. Graham, Bill. (July 16, 2012). "Comic-Con: ''Adventure Time'' Panel Features Live Radio Play With Audio; A Brief Look At New Flame Princess Episode".
26. Sanchez, Cole. (March 19, 2013). "'Adventure Time' Cartoon Networks Story Process".
27. McKendry, David. (February 4, 2013). "Q&A: "Adventure Time" Writer Dick Grunert". [[Fangoria]].
28. Ristaino, Andy [skronked]. (February 14, 2012). "It takes about 8 months to create an episode from start to finish. About a week to write an episode, a month to storyboard, a few days to record voices, two weeks to put together an animatic, a week to design it, a week to do clean up on the designs, a week to do color design, then it goes overseas and takes about five months to be animated. The rest of the time goes to retakes editing and music and sound design".
29. Goldstein, Rich. (December 19, 2013). "This Is How an Episode of Cartoon Network's 'Adventure Time' Is Made". [[The Daily Beast]].
30. Rynda, Phil. (October 14, 2014). "Preproduction uses a lot of photoshop. RT @achidente: @philrynda What animation software is currently used for Adventure Time?".
31. Rynda, Phil. (October 14, 2014). "Adventure Time is animated on paper, then digitally composited. RT @achidente: @philrynda What animation software is used on Adventure Time?".
32. Perlmutter, David. (2014). "America Toons In". [[McFarland & Company]].
33. Zahed, Ramin. (February 5, 2010). "And Now for Something Entirely Brilliant!". [[Animation Magazine]].
34. Murray, Noel. (March 21, 2012). "''Adventure Time'' Creator Pendleton Ward". [[The A.V. Club]].
35. Ristaino, Andy [skronked]. (January 11, 2013). "except for a few instances, like in guardians of sunshine where we use 3d, all the animation is hand drawn".
36. Anders, Charlie. (October 12, 2012). "Neil Patrick Harris Teams Up with Donald Glover for ''Adventure Time''{{'}}s Next Gender-Swapped Adventure!". [[io9]].
37. Muto Adam. (January 9, 2017). "and featuring the return of James Baxter as the voice/animator of James Baxter the Horse".
38. Polo, Susana. (October 28, 2014). "Our Interview with ''Adventure Time''{{'}}s Head of Story and the Voice of Flame Princess!". The Mary Sue.
39. B, Jonathan. (April 20, 2014). "''Adventure Time'' Panel Wondercon 2014".
40. Sava, Oliver. (May 21, 2015). "''Adventure Time'': "Water Park Prank"".
41. Lepore, Kirsten. (October 29, 2014). "New project in the works ... #WhatTimeIsIt?".
42. Sava, Oliver. (April 9, 2016). "''Adventure Time'' Makes a Bold Visual Shift for its ''Wizard Of Oz'' Pastich".
43. (July 11, 2017). "Adventure Time: Ketchup". [[Tumblr]].
44. Livingston, Polly Lou. (2012). "'Tree Trunks' [Commentary track]". Cartoon Network.
45. Perlmutter, David. (2014). "America Toons In". [[McFarland & Company]].
46. Orange, B. Alan. (July 27, 2011). "SDCC 2011 Exclusive: Adventure Time Cast Interviews". [[MovieWeb]].
47. Mumford, Gwilym. (September 7, 2012). "Is Adventure Time the Weirdest Kids' TV Show Ever?". [[The Guardian]].
48. Bradley, Bill. (October 27, 2014). "8 Facts You Didn't Know About 'Adventure Time,' Even If You Were Born In Ooo".
49. Ulloa, Alexander. (2010). "Adventure Time (2010)".
50. Seibert, Fred. (September 30, 2010). "Manlerette Party Song". Frederator.
51. Basichis, Casey James. (2012). "'''Adventure Time'' Music With Time + Casey' [Featurette]". Cartoon Network.
52. Seibert, Fred. (July 25, 2011). "'Adventure Time with Fionna and Cake' Preview". Frederator.
53. Kickham, Dylan. "New York Comic Con: Adventure Time cast reveals what's in store for season 7".
54. ''Adventure Time'' production staff. (December 12, 2016). "Adventure Time: Islands {{en dash}} Main Title". [[Tumblr]].
55. (April 3, 2017). "Adventure Time {{!}} Elements Arc Theme Song". [[Tumblr]].
56. "A Glitch Is a Glitch".
57. "Food Chain".
58. (September 4, 2018). "Adventure Time: Come Along with Me {{en dash}} Main Title". [[Tumblr]].
59. Clark, Noelene. (November 18, 2012). "'Adventure Time': Finn Actor Jeremy Shada is 'Constantly Surprised'". Los Angeles Times.
60. Whittaker, Richard. (April 30, 2012). "Singing with the Ice King". [[The Austin Chronicle]].
61. Sugar, Rebecca. (September 28, 2011). "I'm Just Your Problem {{en dash}} Demo Track". [[Tumblr]].
62. Sugar, Rebecca. (February 14, 2012). "All Gummed Up Inside". [[Tumblr]].
63. Moynihan, Jesse. (December 11, 2012). "Adventure Time : Marceline's Closet".
64. Seibert, Fred. (October 11, 2010). "Rebecca Sugar's First Board (Nightosphere)". Frederator.
65. (November 19, 2015). "Spacelab9's Licensed Vinyl LPS Hit Trade Through Retailer Exclusives". [[ICv2]].
66. (July 19, 2016). "'Adventure Time' Music Coming to Vinyl". Modern-Vinyl.com.
67. Carroll, Bart. (April 8, 2011). "Pendleton Ward Interview".
68. Kohn, Eric. (March 26, 2013). "Why 'Adventure Time' Is the Best Sci-Fi Show on TV Right Now". [[IndieWire]].
69. Anders, Charlie Jane. (November 13, 2012). "How Does ''Adventure Time'' Blend Intense Mythology with Laugh-Out-Loud Comedy?". [[io9]].
70. Sava, Oliver. (March 25, 2013). "''Adventure Time'': "Simon And Marcy"". [[The A.V. Club]].
71. Ewalt, David. (November 15, 2011). "It's ''Adventure Time''! Pendleton Ward Talks About His Hit Cartoon". [[Forbes]].
72. (September 30, 2011). ""Adventure Time"'s Animated Lesbian Subtext Is Too Hot for TV'".
73. (July 10, 2015). "Four cartoons that are leading the way in LGBT visibility".
74. (October 4, 2011). "Adventure Time Gay Subtext: "Spicy" or Adorbz?".
75. (March 11, 2014). ""Marceline and The Scream Queens" is Punk Rock and Precious".
76. (August 14, 2014). ""Adventure Time" Actor Confirms Princess Bubblegum And Marceline The Vampire Queen Once Dated". [[BuzzFeed]].
77. (October 1, 2019). "Move over, Disney! Meet the woman leading the LGBT cartoon revolution".
78. (June 6, 2014). "Finn Is Lost In The Darkness On This Weeks' Adventure Time". [[Gizmodo]].
79. (August 5, 2020). "In Conversation: Rebecca Sugar and Noelle Stevenson".
80. Curve Staff. (September 25, 2020). "5 Best LGBTQ+ Characters On Kids TV And Why They Matter".
81. (June 19, 2019). "The awesome (and unexpected) queering of Adventure Time".
82. (July 15, 2019). "The 50 Most Relatable Lesbian and Bisexual Characters On TV".
83. (September 25, 2020). "Adventure Time's Princess Bubblegum & Marceline May Be TV's Best LGBT Romance".
84. (August 22, 2018). "From Steven Universe to Voltron: The fight to bring LGBTQ characters to kids' shows".
85. (September 18, 2018). "Six Degrees of Rebecca Sugar: The Long Road to Bubbline and Beyond".
86. (Winter 2020). "Rebecca Sugar Talks "Steven Universe" Success, Queer Visibility In Children's Cartoons, and Own Non-Binary Identity".
87. (March 5, 2021). "Raya and the Last Dragon's Kelly Marie Tran Thinks Her Disney Princess Is Gay".
88. Weekes, Princess. (November 18, 2020). "Adventure Time: Distant Lands – Obsidian Features PB and Marcy Not Just as a Queer Couple, but as Queer Characters".
89. (August 23, 2018). "As 'Adventure Time' Wraps, a Look Back at How the Series Broke Barriers and Changed the Genre". [[Los Angeles Times]].
90. (November 4, 2016). "Interview with 'Adventure Time' Head Writer Kent Osborne". [[Skwigly (magazine).
91. "Come Along with Me".
92. (January 31, 2017). "Rumor has it that I will be doing some new backgrounds for the final story arc of Adventure Time!". [[Facebook]].
93. Kulzick, Kate. (September 3, 2018). "''Adventure Time'' Is Going Out with an Epic, Emotional Finale". [[TV Guide]].
94. (November 1, 2016). "Brockport Welcomes ''Adventure Time'' Writer Jack Pendarvis".
95. Pendarvis, Jack. (November 21, 2016). "Starting my last ADVENTURE TIME meeting in about half an hour. Bah, I say! But also I'm excited about the story! But also my stomach hurts".
96. Osborne, Kent. (November 28, 2016). "Last Adventure Time handout meeting :(".
97. Alden, Sam. (December 8, 2016). "@HannaKtweet @kikutowne my board however is going to be hot garbage, ruin the show, etc".
98. Nyström, Hanna K. (December 7, 2016). "hold me tight and tell me this board will be good. rock me to sleep".
99. Alden, Sam. (December 26, 2016). "Pitched my last Adventure Time storyboard last week". [[Instagram]].
100. Muto, Adam. (December 26, 2016). "from last week's final Adventure Time storyboard pitch".
101. Franich, Darren. (September 4, 2018). "''Adventure Time'' Finale Review: One of the Greatest TV Shows Ever Had a Soulful, Mind-Expanding Conclusion".
102. Schindel, Daniel. (September 4, 2018). "''Adventure Time'' Finale Review: 'Come Along with Me'". [[IGN]].
103. (August 27, 2018). "'Come Along With Me' is a Fantastic Conclusion and Perfect Encapsulation of Adventure Time".
104. Sava, Oliver. (September 3, 2018). "Adventure Time Concludes with a Celebration of What Makes It So Special". [[The A.V. Club]].
105. Seibert, Fred. (September 28, 2010). "Tell Us What You Think". Frederator.
106. Homan, Eric. (March 11, 2010). "'Business Time' Sneak Preview Tonight". Frederator.
107. Homan, Eric. (March 18, 2010). "Get 'Evicted' Tonight". Frederator.
108. . (February 19, 2015). ["Cartoon Network Unveils Upfront Slate For 2015{{en dash}}2016"](https://deadline.com/2015/02/cartoon-network-upfront-powerpuff-girls-adventure-time-1201376480/).
109. (December 12, 2016). "''Adventure Time Islands'' Is a New Mini-Series Event Debuting this January".
110. (March 30, 2017). "Cartoon Network to Debut New Adventure Time Miniseries, Six New Shows This Year".
111. "Adventure Time {{!}} Video". [[Cartoon Network]].
112. "Adventure Time {{!}} Video". [[Cartoon Network]].
113. "Adventure Time". [[Cartoon Network]].
114. Muto, Adam [MrMuto]. (2018-06-28). "I think officially AT is in its 10th season because of how CN decided to group the episodes after the fact".
115. (November 13, 2014). "Coming Soon". [[Tumblr]].
116. (August 27, 2018). "'Adventure Time: The Final Seasons' DVD Review: Revisit the Series Finale Again and Again". [[Collider (website).
117. Pedersen, Erik. (September 29, 2016). "Cult Hit Animated Series 'Adventure Time' To End In 2018".
118. "TV Schedule for Boomerang". TV Passport.
119. DeMarco, Jason [Clarknova]. (January 30, 2019). "Nope! That's real".
120. Seidman, Robert. (April 6, 2010). "Cartoon Network's 'Adventure Time' Premieres Big; 13 Additional Episodes Ordered". [[TV by the Numbers]].
121. Gorman, Bill. (October 12, 2010). "Monday Cable Ratings: Monday Night Football Up; 'Real Housewives of Atlanta,' 'American Pickers' Slip, MLB Playoffs & More". [[TV by the Numbers]].
122. (July 13, 2011). "Monday's Cable Ratings: 'Pawn Stars' Tops Heated Race".
123. (April 4, 2012). "Cartoon Network's 'Adventure Time' Season 4 Premiere Tops Monday Ratings". [[TV by the Numbers]].
124. Bibel, Sara. (November 13, 2012). "Monday Cable Ratings: 'Monday Night Football' Wins Night, 'WWE Raw', 'Teen Moms II', 'Pawn Stars', 'Catfish', 'Real Housewives' & More". [[TV by the Numbers]].
125. Kondolojy, Amanda. (April 22, 2014). "Monday Cable Ratings: NBA Playoffs Lead Night + WWE Raw, 'Basketball Wives', 'Blank Ink Crew' & More". [[TV by the Numbers]].
126. Metcalf, Mitch. (November 3, 2015). "Top 100 Monday Cable Originals & Network Update: 11.2.2015". Showbuzz Daily.
127. (March 29, 2016). "Saturday Cable Ratings: 'Family Guy' Tops a Quiet Day".
128. Metcalf, Mitch. (April 24, 2017). "Top 100 Friday Cable Originals & Network Update: 4.21.2017". Showbuzz Daily.
129. Metcalf, Mitch. (September 19, 2017). "Top 150 Sunday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 9.17.2017". [[Showbuzz Daily]].
130. Metcalf, Mitch. (August 9, 2018). "Top 150 Sunday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 9.3.2018". [[Showbuzz Daily]].
131. "Adventure Time: My Two Favorite People". [[Barnes & Noble]].
132. "''Adventure Time'' on DVD".
133. "Cartoon Network: Adventure Time: The Final Seasons".
134. (January 31, 2019). "Watch: CN Announces 'Adventure Time: The Complete Series' with New Theme Video".
135. Kurp, Josh. (January 14, 2013). "A Bunch Of Great Animated And Adult Swim Shows (And 'Dallas'!) Will Soon Be Added To Netflix".
136. Cruz, Gilbert. (March 4, 2014). "What's New on Netflix Streaming This Month: March 2014". [[New York (magazine).
137. Rackham, Casey. (February 24, 2015). "Netflix's March 2015: 'Glee' Season 5 and 'Mad Men' Season 7 Coming, 'Adventure Time' Going".
138. Baldwin, Roberto. (April 23, 2015). "Hulu's Turner Deal Gives it Adventure Time, Venture Bros. and More". [[Engadget]].
139. (2020-10-22). "Adventure Time hayranlarına güzel haber".
140. "Pour cette toute nouvelle aventure spatiale, c'est sur ⭐ #Beemo ⭐ qu'il va falloir compter ! RDV demain à 8h45 pour #BMO, #AdventureTime le pays magique !".
141. (2020-10-24). "Adventure Time Distant Lands: BMO sera diffusé en France".
142. "Adventure Time: Distant Lands Series 1 Episode 1: BMO".
143. (December 5, 2020). "Interview BMO: Adventure Time: Ferne Länder – BMO".
144. "The first Adventure Time: Distant Lands special 'BMO' premieres on SATURDAY at 3:30pm!". Cartoon Network Australia.
145. (2020-11-30). "華納媒體旗下頻道與App十二月強檔推薦".
146. "【HBO台灣12月強檔片單】台劇《戒指流浪記》上演！《高校十八禁》推出特別篇".
147. (2020-12-27). "Cartoon Network - программа передач канала на сегодня".
148. . (2020-12-31). ["카툰네트워크 편성표"](https://search.naver.com/search.naver?where=nexearch&sm=top_hty&fbm=1&ie=utf8&query=%EC%B9%B4%ED%88%B0%EB%84%A4%ED%8A%B8%EC%9B%8C%ED%81%AC+%ED%8E%B8%EC%84%B1%ED%91%9C).
149. Handlen, Zack. (June 4, 2012). "''Adventure Time'': "Goliad"". [[The A.V. Club]].
150. Lloyd, Robert. (April 5, 2010). "'Adventure Time With Finn & Jake' Enters a Wild New World". Los Angeles Times.
151. Mclaughlin, Robert. (April 13, 2011). "The Geek Appeal of Pendleton Ward's Adventure Time". Den of Geek.
152. Kohn, Eric. (November 13, 2012). "Why 'Adventure Time,' Now In Its Fifth Season, Is More Groundbreaking Than You May Realize". [[IndieWire]].
153. Franich, Darren. (February 21, 2013). "Adventure Time".
154. Nussbaum, Emily. (April 14, 2014). "Castles in the Air: The Gorgeous Existential Funk of ''Adventure Time''".
155. (June 17, 2013). "An 'Adventure' For Kids And Maybe For Their Parents, Too". [[NPR]].
156. LeChevallier, Mike. (May 13, 2012). "Adventure Time: Season Four". [[Slant Magazine]].
157. (October 1, 2012). "10 Best Cartoon Network Shows: We Rank 'Em!".
158. (July 15, 2011). "The 25 Greatest Animated TV Series: You Ranked 'Em!".
159. Lambert, David. (November 23, 2011). "Adventure Time {{en dash}} Press Release, Box for {{'}}''It Came From the Nightosphere''{{'}}". [[TVShowsOnDVD.com]].
160. (February 15, 2015). "The Best Animated Series Ever, from ''Adventure Time'' to Whatever ''The Zeta Project'' Is".
161. LeChevallier, Mike. (August 3, 2011). "Adventure Time: Season Three". [[Slant Magazine]].
162. (March 16, 2017). "A Parent's Guide to ''Adventure Time'': What Is it about and Should Your Children Be Watching It?". [[Metro (British newspaper).
163. McBride, Ryan. (June 13, 2015). "Interview with Pat McHale (Adventure Time, Over the Garden Wall writer)".
164. (March 22, 2021). "''Looney Tunes Cartoon'' EP Pete Browngardt Strikes Overall Deal With Warner Bros. Animation & Cartoon Network Studios".
165. Kohn, Eric. (November 1, 2013). "'Adventure Time' Writer Rebecca Sugar on 'Steven Universe,' Being Cartoon Network's First Female Show Creator And Why Pop Art Is 'Offensive'". [[IndieWire]].
166. Frank, Allegra. (March 9, 2017). "Capy Games Returns for Project with Cartoon Network (Update)".
167. Milligan, Mercedes. (December 13, 2012). "Cartoon Network Greenlights ''Clarence''". Animation Magazine.
168. (January 30, 2017). "'Summer Camp Island' Series Gets Greenlight From Cartoon Network".
169. (February 24, 2017). "'Adventure Time' Is Slowly Going Off the Air, And Everyone's Moving On".
170. Milligan, Mercedes. (January 24, 2023). "'Kiff' Brings Nutty Animated Comedy to Disney Channel March 10".
171. Petski, Denise. (May 23, 2019). "Netflix Orders 'City Of Ghosts' Kids Animated Series From 'Adventure Time' Alum".
172. MacDonald, Heidi. (November 2, 2015). "The Indie Comics Animation Gold Rush".
173. Jane, Emma. (March 27, 2015). ""Gunter's a Woman?!"{{em dash}}Doing and Undoing Gender in Cartoon Network's ''Adventure Time''". Children and Media.
174. Leslie, Carolyn. (Winter 2015). "''Adventure Time'' and Gender Stereotypes". [[Screen (journal).
175. (2015). "Adventure Time and Philosophy: The Handbook for Heroes". [[Open Court Publishing Company]].
176. Heigl, Alex. (September 14, 2016). "How ''Adventure Time'' Quietly Conquered the Animation World".
177. Katz, Josh. (December 27, 2016). "'Duck Dynasty' vs. 'Modern Family': 50 Maps of the U.S. Cultural Divide". [[The New York Times]].
178. Kohn, Eric. (October 17, 2013). "Does the Obsessive 'Adventure Time' Fandom Overlook the Depths of Pendleton Ward's Cartoon Network Hit?".
179. Moss, Emma-Lee. (July 27, 2014). "Oh my Glob! ''Adventure Time''{{'}}s Upbeat Imagination Inspires Devotees". [[The Guardian]].
180. Chevat, Zoe. (August 2, 2013). "The Mary Sue Interview: Olivia Olson, Voice of Marceline the Vampire Queen".
181. Hibberd, James. (August 17, 2021). "'Adventure Time' Spin-Off Series 'Fionna and Cake' Ordered by HBO Max". The Hollywood Reporter.
182. Burlingame, Russ. (December 27, 2011). "It's ''Adventure Time'' at Boom! in February".
183. Goellner, Caleb. (November 19, 2011). "'Adventure Time' Comic Series Coming From Boom! in February".
184. Terror, Jude. (December 21, 2010). "''Adventure Time'' Goes KaBoom! this February!". Theouthousers.com.
185. Sims, Chris. (December 21, 2010). "Ryan North Talks 'Adventure Time' Comic: "The Zombies Represent Friendship" [Interview]".
186. Sims, Chris. (October 22, 2014). "Ryan North Leaves 'Adventure Time' Comic After Three Years, Will Be Replaced By Christopher Hastings".
187. "Adventure Time #75 (Preview)". [[Comic Book Resources]].
188. (2025-01-09). "''Adventure Time'' Will Release An All New Comic Series in 2025, Check Out Our Exclusive Cover Reveals and More".
189. Salkowitz, Rob. "'Adventure Time' Gets A New Spin From Award-Winning Cartoonist Caroline Cash".
190. ""It's true, the series has been canceled. Issue 6 will be the final issue."".
191. (April 2019). "Ted Anderson's Adventure Time Season 11 AMA".
192. Corsetto, Danielle. (2013-06-14). "Adventure Time Original Graphic Novel Vol. 1: Playing with Fire". [[Boom! Studios#KaBoom!.
193. Corsetto, Danielle. (2013-12-10). "Adventure Time Original Graphic Novel Vol. 2: Pixel Princesses". [[Boom! Studios#KaBoom!.
194. Smith, Zack. (2013-12-11). "Exclusive: Kate Leth heads to Nightosphere with new Adventure Time Graphic Novel". [[Newsarama]].
195. Leth, Kate. (2014-11-11). "Adventure Time Original Graphic Novel Vol. 4: Bitter Sweets". KaBoom! Studios.
196. Corsetto, Danielle. (2015-05-12). "Adventure Time Original Graphic Novel Vol. 5 Graybles Schmaybles". KaBoom! Studios.
197. Goulet, Tyler. (2015-10-14). "Kate Leth and Bridget Underwood Party-Hop in ''Adventure Time: Masked Mayhem'' Original Graphic Novel".
198. Trujillo, Josh. (2016-05-17). "Adventure Time Original Graphic Novel Vol. 7: Four Castles". KaBoom! Studios.
199. Trujillo, Josh. (2016-09-27). "Adventure Time Original Graphic Novel Vol. 8: President Bubblegum". KaBoom! Studios.
200. Trujillo, Josh. (2017-03-28). "Adventure Time Original Graphic Novel Vol. 9: Brain Robbers". KaBoom! Studios.
201. Sorese, Jeremy. (2017-07-18). "Adventure Time Original Graphic Novel Vol. 10: The Ooorient Express". KaBoom! Studios.
202. Sorese, Jeremy. (2018-01-30). "Adventure Time Original Graphic Novel Vol. 11: Princess & Princess". KaBoom! Studios.
203. Sorese, Jeremy. (June 2018). "Adventure Time Original Graphic Novel Vol. 12: Thunder Road". KaBoom! Studios.
204. (February 26, 2019). "Adventure Time Original Graphic Novel: Marceline the Pirate Queen". BOOM! Studios.
205. Olson, Martin. (Oct 6, 2015). "The Adventure Time Encyclopaedia". [[Abrams Books]].
206. (October 6, 2015). "Adventure Time: The Enchiridion & Marcy's Super Secret Scrapbook!!!". [[Abrams Books]].
207. (2014). "Adventure Time: The Original Cartoon Title Cards (Vol 1): The Original Cartoon Title Cards Seasons 1 & 2". [[Titan Books]].
208. (August 4, 2015). "Adventure Time: The Original Cartoon Title Cards (Vol 2): The Original Cartoon Title Cards Seasons 3 & 4". Titan Books.
209. Fujikawa, Jenn. (November 18, 2016). "''Adventure Time'' Cookbook Is Tops Blooby". [[Nerdist Industries]].
210. MacDangereuse, T. T. [Adrianne Ambrose]. (2014). "The Untamed Scoundrel". [[Price Stern Sloan]].
211. MacDangereuse, T. T. [Leigh Dragoon]. (2014). "Queen of Rogues". [[Price Stern Sloan]].
212. MacDangereuse, T. T. [Leigh Dragoon]. (2015). "The Lonesome Outlaw". [[Price Stern Sloan]].
213. MacDangereuse, T. T. [Leigh Dragoon]. (2016). "The Virtue of Ardor". [[Price Stern Sloan]].
214. Pendleton, Ward. (March 22, 2012). "The Adventure Time DS game will release later this year sometime  I'm gonna be working on it with @wayforwardtech".
215. (March 23, 2012). "Adventure Time Heading to Nintendo DS Later This Year". Nintendo World Report.
216. Seibert, Fred. (May 8, 2012). "''Adventure Time'' Art". Frederator.
217. Drake, Audrey. (May 14, 2013). "New Adventure Time Game Announced". [[IGN]].
218. "Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom".
219. Schuler, Erich. (April 21, 2015). "Enter the Third Dimension with the New Adventure Time Game". [[IGN]].
220. (December 14, 2017). "Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion Is Sailing Onto Switch in Spring 2018".
221. Good, Owen S.. (December 16, 2017). "''Adventure Time'' Open-World Game Comes to Consoles and PC Next Year".
222. (February 11, 2019). "Nominee List for 2018".
223. (March 13, 2019). "Winner list for 2018: God of War breaks record".
224. "Mobile Games". Cartoon Network.
225. Parrish, Peter. (April 11, 2014). "Adventure Time Game Finn and Jake's Epic Quest Appears on Steam".
226. "Play 'Adventure Time' Battle Party". Cartoon Network.
227. (April 29, 2015). "LBP 3 Gets Adventure Time Level Kit and Costume Pack".
228. Hayden, Scott. (February 1, 2016). "'Adventure Time' Game Coming Soon to All Major VR Headsets".
229. Loveridge, Sam. (September 29, 2016). "You Have to Try This ''Adventure Time'' Google Cardboard Game".
230. Totilo, Stephen. (June 9, 2016). "Sonic, E.T., Gollum, Batman and Adventure Time Are All Going To be In The Same Video Game".
231. Martin, Liam. (June 6, 2016). "Are Sonic the Hedgehog, Harry Potter and Rebooted Ghostbusters All Coming to ''Lego Dimensions''?".
232. Brown, Ryan. (November 14, 2016). "Cartoon Network: Battle Crashers review: a repetitive, dull game that ignores the cartoons it's based on".
233. Mason, Matthew. (November 7, 2017). "Cartoon Network: Battle Crashers Review".
234. (November 18, 2021). "New fighter MultiVersus is Smash Bros. but with Bugs Bunny, Batman, and Game of Thrones".
235. (November 7, 2024). "MultiVersus adds DC's Raven on November 12, Adventure Time's Marceline later in Season 4".
236. Busch, Anita. (February 27, 2015). "Cartoon Network's 'Adventure Time' Heads To Big Screen At Warner Bros.".
237. (February 28, 2015). "Warner Bros. to produce 'Adventure Time' film". [[ABS-CBN News]].
238. Frank, Allegra. (October 9, 2015). "Adventure Time Creator Working on Movie, but Nothing Official Yet".
239. Muto, Adam [MrMuto]. (July 22, 2018). "An AT movie was never officially announced".
240. Radulovic, Petrana. (August 31, 2018). "Adventure Time's Finale Doesn't Impact the Rumored Movie, Says Showrunner".
241. (June 12, 2024). "'Adventure Time' Movie in Development With Rebecca Sugar, Patrick McHale and Adam Muto Attached; Two Spinoff Series Also in the Works".
242. "Adventure Time Shirts". [[Hot Topic]].
243. "Adventure Time". We Love Fine.
244. "''Adventure Time'' T-Shirt Design Challenge". [[Threadless]].
245. "Adventure Time Design Contest". We Love Fine.
246. "Shirts {{en dash}} Adventure Time". Cartoon Network.
247. "Adventure Time Card Wars Princess Bubblegum vs. Lumpy Space Princess". [[Cryptozoic Entertainment]].
248. "Lego Ideas Second 2015 Review Results". [[Lego Ideas]].
249. "Lego Adventure Time Building Set on the Way".
250. Fox, Sarah. (June 21, 2016). "Adventure Time Lego Set on the Way".
251. "台灣高鐵歡樂卡通列車".
252. (24 July 2013). "Cartoon Network brands Taiwan train".
253. (2013-07-24). "台灣高鐵歡樂卡通列車12節車廂全入鏡. Taiwan High Speed Rail x Cartoon Network Theme Train.". [[YouTube]].
254. (2014-08-25). "歡樂卡通列車說掰掰 高鐵中秋疏運再加開！".
255. (2014-08-22). "老皮要跟大家說再見了！高鐵卡通列車9月9日回歸原貌".
256. "World's First Cartoon Network Amazone Waterpark Opens on October 3, 2014".
257. (2014-12-09). "Branded Planes and Trains for Cartoon Network Amazone".
258. Hernandez, Patricia. (August 8, 2013). "Watch ''Futurama'' Make Fun of ''Adventure Time'' In Last Night's Episode".
259. Swift, Andy. (September 23, 2016). "''The Simpsons'' Meets ''Adventure Time'' in Season Premiere Couch Gag{{em dash}}Watch".
260. "[VÍDEO] Portugal: '5 Para a Meia Noite' dedicado ao Festival da Canção".
261. (March 16, 2018). "Osório acusa as vencedoras do Festival da Canção 2018 de plágio {{!}} 5 Para a Meia-Noite {{!}} RTP". RTP.
262. (October 3, 2017). "''Better Watch Out'' Review: Holiday Horror Comedy Plays Like ''Home Alone'' with a Body Count".
263. (October 8, 2017). "Better Watch Out".
264. McDonnell, Chris. (2014). "Adventure Time: The Art of Ooo". [[Abrams Books]].
265. (2023). "Exploring the Land of Ooo: An Unofficial Overview and Production History of Cartoon Network's Adventure Time". [[University Press of Mississippi]].
266. (2020). "Exploring the Land of Ooo: An Unofficial Overview and Production History of Cartoon Network's ''Adventure Time'' (Supplemental Materials)". [[University of Kansas.
267. Perlmutter, David. (2014). "America Toons In". [[McFarland & Company]].
268. Polo, Susana. (2012-04-17). "''Adventure Time''{{'}}s Marceline Gets Her Own Comicbook Spinoff, by the Creator of ''Octopus Pie''".
269. "Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake #01". KaBoom! Studios.
270. "Series: ''Adventure Time'': Candy Capers". KaBoom! Studios.
271. Pitts, Lan. (2014-01-02). "''Adventure Time'' Goes 'Freaky Friday' in Boom!'s ''Flip Side'' Mini-series". [[Newsarama]].
272. Osborne, Kent. (2015). "Adventure Time: Banana Guard Academy". KaBoom! Studios.
273. Brown, Tracy. (2015-10-16). "Exclusive 'Adventure Time's' Ice King Is Getting His Own Comic Book Series". Los Angeles Times.
274. (2018-07-21). "'Adventure Time' Season 11 Is Coming To Comics".
275. Muto, Adam [MrMuto]. (2018-07-21). "No. No one from the show is involved in them so they're their own thing. Calling it Season 11 feels like a stretch".
276. (2018-10-15). "'Adventure Time: Marcy & Simon' Series Announced".
277. (January 12, 2015). "Preview: Adventure Time: Marceline Gone Adrift #1".
278. "Adventure Time: Marceline Gone Adrift #6".
279. (June 11, 2015). "Adventure Time with Fionna & Cake: Card Wars Coming in July".
280. "Adventure Time: Fionna & Cake - Card Wars #6".
281. (January 4, 2016). "'Adventure Time: Ice King' to be released January 2016".
282. "Adventure Time: Ice King #6".
283. (August 2, 2017). "Review: ADVENTURE TIME/REGULAR SHOW #1".
284. "BOOM! STUDIOS · RELEASED JAN 10TH, 2018 Adventure Time / Regular Show #6".