155-414: The first season of Adventure Time , an American animated television series created by Pendleton Ward , premiered on Cartoon Network on April 5, 2010, and concluded on September 27, 2010, and was produced by Frederator Studios and Cartoon Network Studios . The series is based on a short produced for Frederator's Nicktoons Network animation incubator series Random! Cartoons . The season follows
310-489: 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 . The series has also spawned various forms of licensed merchandise , including books, video games and clothing. Adventure Time follows the adventures of a boy named Finn the Human (voiced by Jeremy Shada ), and his best friend and adoptive brother Jake
465-495: A jazz and blues record producer and audio engineer in the 1970s. He co-founded the record label Oblivion Records by 1972 and has received a Grammy Award nomination. In his time working in cartoons at three studios, Seibert has helped jumpstart the creator careers of over 100 animated filmmakers, including Genndy Tartakovsky . From 1992 until 1996, as the last president of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon studio, Seibert
620-466: A viral hit on the internet , Cartoon Network picked it up for a full-length series that previewed on March 11, 2010, and officially premiered on April 5, 2010. The season was storyboarded and written by Adam Muto , Elizabeth Ito, Pendleton Ward, Sean Jimenez, Patrick McHale , Luther McLaurin, Kent Osborne , Pete Browngardt , Niki Yang , Armen Mirzaian, J. G. Quintel , Cole Sanchez , Tom Herpich , Bert Youn, and Ako Castuera . The first episodes of
775-486: A 2007 short film that aired on Nicktoons . After the short became a viral hit on the Internet, Nickelodeon 's executives passed on its option before Cartoon Network commissioned a full-length series from Fred Seibert and Ward, which was previewed on March 11, 2010. The same year, the series premiered on Cartoon Network on April 5, and it ended its eight-year run on September 3, 2018. The series drew inspiration from
930-437: 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
1085-434: A better idea and the ball just starts rolling like that". Because of the busy schedule of writing and coordinating a television series, the writers did not have time to play Dungeons and Dragons , but they still wrote stories they would "want to be playing D&D with". Sometimes, the writers and storyboard artists convened and played writing games. One game that was often used is called exquisite corpse ; one writer starts
1240-424: 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 (the former of whom served as a writer, storyboard artist, and creative director for the show during its first few seasons, while the latter served as a storyboard artist and creative director for the show before becoming its showrunner) began developing ideas, all
1395-412: A boy and his imaginary friend, though darker and stranger and even less connected to the world as we know it." Lloyd also compared it to "the sort of cartoons they made when cartoons themselves were young and delighted in bringing all things to rubbery life." After its release on DVD in 2012, the season received positive critical attention, although many reviewers initially expressed their unhappiness that
1550-451: 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
1705-491: A casualty of jumping into production without having had any serious development time." "The Helmet of Thorogon", despite initially being assigned the production number 692-008 (which would eventually be taken by the episode "Freak City"), never made it to the storyboard stage, although several pieces of background art for the episode were designed by Ghostshrimp . The storyboards for "Brothers in Insomnia" and "The Glorriors" and
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#17328026223791860-499: A channel on YouTube which consists of various animated shorts and series. Cartoon Hangover gained a much larger audience with the revival of Bravest Warriors by Pendleton Ward on November 8, 2012 which originally aired as a pilot on Fred Seibert's Random! Cartoons on Nicktoons Network in 2009. In 2014, Channel Frederator was revived as a multi-channel network focused entirely on animation, signing one of YouTube's biggest animation channels, Simon's Cat . By September 2014,
2015-506: A first look deal at VIS Kids. The company is in various stages of production on five reboots of vintage Seibert productions, including a live-action The Fairly OddParents for Paramount+ and a CG animated version for Netflix . The company is developing several adult and children's original animated properties, furthering Seibert's philosophy of creators first, always original, and producing your next favorite cartoon. In March 1999, MTV Networks CEO Tom Freston tapped Seibert to become
2170-523: 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 3-D 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 3-D animation. Animator James Baxter animated select scenes and characters in both
2325-415: A group of investors in a failed attempt to save the troubled underground / alternative comics publisher Kitchen Sink Press . Seibert's production of the first season of Natasha Allegri 's Bee and PuppyCat for his Cartoon Hangover streaming channel was the most backed animated project on Kickstarter for several years. Season 2 was accidentally leaked onto Seibert's Vimeo channel in early 2020, but
2480-555: A human boy, and his best friend Jake , a dog with magical powers to change shape and grow and shrink at will. Finn and Jake live in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo, wherein they interact with the other major characters, including: Princess Bubblegum , the Ice King , Marceline the Vampire Queen , Lumpy Space Princess, and BMO. Common storylines revolve around: Finn and Jake discovering strange creatures, rescuing princesses from
2635-473: A kind of companion piece to the network's [then] currently airing Chowder and The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack . Each takes place in a fantastical land peopled with strange, somewhat disturbing characters and has at its center a young male person or person-like thing making his way in that world with the help of unusual, not always reliable, mentors." He went on to say that the show is "not unlike CN's earlier Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends , about
2790-423: A late 1970s stint with media promotion innovator Dale Pon at New York's WHN Radio, Seibert began his work at Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment in 1980, original owner of Nickelodeon and The Movie Channel and would go on to launch MTV: Music Television on August 1, 1981. Initially, MTV had none of the kinds of programs that were thought of as "television," only more than 160 hours (there are 168 hours in
2945-635: A logo that did not remain constant, but the approach ultimately prevailed. The 10-second network IDs and the promos ultimately influenced graphic design and advertising for years to come. Within two years of launch, Seibert led the team that developed "I Want My MTV!", creative direction by his mentor Dale Pon, and it became one of the most famous advertising campaigns of the late 20th century and immortalized through Dire Straits ' 1985 hit song " Money for Nothing ". In 1983, with partner Alan Goodman , Seibert founded Fred/Alan Inc. in New York City as
3100-421: 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
3255-424: 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
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#17328026223793410-420: A number of best-of lists. Entertainment Weekly 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 limited criticism from reviewers. LeChevallier, in an otherwise largely positive review of
3565-461: A number of cast members, including Maria Bamford and Andy Milonakis . The series finale aired on September 3, 2018 to largely positive reception. 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 between 2020 and 2021. On August 17, 2021, it was announced that a second spin-off, Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake , focusing on
3720-412: 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
3875-678: A rough storyboard that featured Finn and Princess Bubblegum going on a spaghetti-supper date. Cartoon Network was not happy with this story and asked for another. Ward then created a storyboard for the episode " The Enchiridion! ", which was his attempt to emulate the style of the original Nicktoons short. Cartoon Network approved the first season in September 2008, and "The Enchiridion!" was the first episode to enter into production. While many cartoons are based on script pitches to network executives, Cartoon Network allowed Adventure Time to "build their own teams organically" and communication through
4030-527: A similar sentiment when he wrote that Adventure Time "is the first cartoon in a long time that is pure imagination". He complimented the show for "its non-reliance on continually referencing pop culture". 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
4185-406: 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
4340-533: A story on a sheet of paper, and another writer tries to finish it. But while a few episodes (such as the fifth-season episode " Puhoy " and the sixth-season episode " Jake the Brick ") have been generated using this game, Ward has said that "the ideas are usually terrible". 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
4495-521: 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 . Rob Sorcher said this novel approach
4650-455: 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
4805-494: A temp track, ambient noises can be heard throughout. For instance, the sound of Derek Drymon typing can be heard while Jake is walking through the Ice Kingdom. According to Ward, much of the series' music has similar "hiss and grit" because one of the show's original composers, Casey James Basichis, "lives in a pirate ship he's built inside of an apartment [and] you can hear floorboards squeak and lots of other weird sounds". As
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4960-428: A variety of sources, including the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons and video games. It was produced using hand-drawn animation; action and dialogue for episodes are decided by storyboarding artists based on rough outlines. Because each episode took roughly eight to nine months to complete, multiple episodes were worked on concurrently. The cast members recorded their lines in group recordings, and
5115-530: A way that manages to satisfy both a desire for sophisticated (i.e., weird) writing and plain old silliness". Adventure Time has been complimented 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
5270-451: A week to "thumbnail" (roughly sketch out) a storyboard and fill in the details complete with action, dialogue, and jokes. 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. Following the writing revisions, voice actors would record their parts for
5425-412: A week) of music videos that were about three minutes each, and with no set schedule that could be promoted. Seibert had to develop an alternative promotional strategy that was completely different than traditional networks. The promos and network identifications his team produced did not resemble anything TV had every seen before, focusing on an approach that subtly made a series of "promises" to viewers in
5580-526: 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
5735-403: Is about my father dying". 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. He concluded that the series has "strikingly few faults" and awarded the fourth season three-and-a-half stars out of four. The series has been included on
5890-459: Is an American television producer and media proprietor . Seibert was the original creative director for MTV . He also served as the president of its MTV Networks Online branch, and as a consultant. He founded the production company Frederator Studios in 1998, as well as its spin-off entities Frederator Networks , Channel Frederator Network , and Cartoon Hangover . Having held numerous executive positions for Viacom Media Networks , he
6045-478: 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 (that is: fire, ice, slime, and candy) and is sung by Hynden Walch. The introductions to the guest-animated episodes "A Glitch Is
6200-413: Is to capture more natural sounding dialogue among the characters. Hynden Walch has described these group session as akin to "doing a play reading—a really, really out there play." The series also regularly employs guest voices for various characters. For instance, in the episode "Enchiridion!", John Moschitta, Jr. , Mark Hamill , and Fred Tatasciore all lend their voices to various beings. In " Ricardio
6355-493: The Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake spin-off, which were released on Max . Two additional spin-offs, entitled Adventure Time: Side Quests and Adventure Time: Heyo BMO , have also been greenlit by Cartoon Network Studios as of June 2024. Adventure Time was a ratings success for Cartoon Network, with some of its episodes attracting over three million viewers, and despite being aimed primarily at children,
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6510-479: The Multi-channel networks . Along with their affiliated Indy Mogul , Barely Political , Channel Frederator and several other networks, the company's superdistribution allowed it to become among the most widely distributed video in the world, and to become YouTube 's top professional content provider. By the end of 2010, Next New Networks had YouTube's top two videos. In March 2011, Next New Networks
6665-617: The Cartoon Network Shop, and the individual episodes can be downloaded from both the iTunes Store and Amazon.com . The full season set was released on DVD on July 10, 2012. By July 29, 2012, the DVD set had sold 151,535 copies. A Blu-ray edition was released on June 4, 2013. Adventure Time Adventure Time is an American fantasy animated television series created by Pendleton Ward and co-produced by Frederator Studios for Cartoon Network . The series follows
6820-1306: The Cowardly Dog , and Craig McCracken 's The Powerpuff Girls . After Ted Turner included Hanna-Barbera in Turner Broadcasting 's 1996 sale to Time Warner , Seibert established Frederator Studios as an independent animation producer based in Burbank, California. Frederator has created cartoon series on Nickelodeon including Rob Renzetti 's My Life as a Teenage Robot ), Cartoon Network ( Pendleton Ward 's Adventure Time ), and Cartoon Hangover ( Pendleton Ward 's Bravest Warriors , Natasha Allegri 's Bee and PuppyCat ), and Kevin Kolde's production of Castlevania for Netflix . Seibert created 250 short cartoons between 1995 and 2018 at Hanna-Barbera , Frederator Studios , 19 of which were continued as series at Cartoon Network , Nickelodeon , Cartoon Hangover , Netflix and YouTube . Seibert has also created several Internet channels featuring cartoons, including Channel Frederator , Cartoon Hangover , and Next New Networks . After starting Frederator Studios in 1997, Seibert brought together
6975-539: 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
7130-745: The Fire Kingdom. 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 Time ' s subversive humor with "beautiful" moments, using Hayao Miyazaki 's film My Neighbor Totoro as inspiration for
7285-585: The Heart Guy ", actor George Takei voices the titular villain. "Business Time" features Brian Posehn as one of the business men. Erik Estrada portrays King Worm in the episode " Evicted! " In "Memories of Boom Boom Mountain", Matt L. Jones voices the talking mountain. Andy Milonakis appears as the pie-throwing robot N.E.P.T.R. in the episode "What is Life?" Hamill reappears in the episode "Ocean of Fear", which also features opening and closing narration courtesy of Clancy Brown . Kerri Kenney-Silver portrays
7440-605: The Ice King's bride in the episode "When Wedding Bells Thaw". Michael Dorn portrays Gork in the episode "Freak City". Brown reappears in the episode "Dungeon" as a demon cat. Kevin Michael Richardson portrays the titular character in the episode "Donny". Finally, Lou Ferrigno plays the part of the being Billy in "His Hero". Various other characters are voiced by Tom Kenny, Dee Bradley Baker , Maria Bamford , and Steve Little . The episodes "Business Time" and "Evicted!" each were "previewed" on Cartoon Network before
7595-496: The Ice King, and battling monsters in order to help others. Various other episodes deal with Finn attempting to understand his attraction towards Bubblegum. 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 . In an interview with Animation World Network , Ward said he strives to combine
7750-410: The Internet. Frederator then pitched an Adventure Time series to Nicktoons Network, which rejected it five times. 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
7905-584: The U.S. worked on retakes, music scoring , and sound design . Upon being completed, the animation was sent back to the U.S., at which point the production crew inspected it, looking for mistakes in the animation or "things that didn't animate the way [the staff] intended". These problems were then fixed in Korea and the animation was finalized. From story outlining to broadcast, it took between eight and nine months for each episode to be created; because of this, multiple episodes were worked on concurrently. While
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#17328026223798060-632: The Vampire Queen). Ward voices several minor characters and Lumpy Space Princess. 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 Adventure Time cast members recorded their lines together at group recording sessions rather than individually, with
8215-487: 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 is 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, and Sam Alden, and Graham Falk . The story
8370-401: The adventures of Finn , a human boy, and his best friend and adoptive brother Jake , a dog with magical powers to change shape and size at will. Finn and Jake live in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo, where they interact with the other main characters of the show: Princess Bubblegum , The Ice King , Marceline the Vampire Queen , Lumpy Space Princess, and BMO. After the original short became
8525-410: The adventures of a boy named Finn ( Jeremy Shada ) and his best friend and adoptive brother Jake ( John DiMaggio )—a dog with the power to change size and shape at will. Finn and Jake live in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo, where they interact with Princess Bubblegum ( Hynden Walch ), the Ice King ( Tom Kenny ), Marceline ( Olivia Olson ), BMO ( Niki Yang ), and others. The series is based on
8680-444: The aim of recording natural-sounding dialogue. Hynden Walch has described these group recordings as akin to "doing a play reading—a 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
8835-494: The animation incubator anthology series What a Cartoon! in 1994, Oh Yeah! Cartoons in 1998, and Random! Cartoons in 2008; all three have spawned successful television programs as spin-offs, including The Fairly OddParents , Johnny Bravo , Dexter's Laboratory , Courage the Cowardly Dog , My Life as a Teenage Robot , The Powerpuff Girls , and Adventure Time —for most of which he has served as executive producer. Seibert began his professional career as
8990-535: The backstory of the Ice King and the exploration of his condition in the third-season episode " Holly Jolly Secrets ", the fourth-season episode " I Remember You ", and the fifth-season episode " Simon & Marcy ", noting that his origin is "psychologically plausible". Grossman praised the way the series was able to tackle the issues of mental illness , saying: "It's very affecting. My dad has been going through having Alzheimer's , and he's forgotten so much about who he used to be. And I look at him and think this cartoon
9145-555: The bodies of reanimated business men floats to the surface of a lake, the show suddenly became post-apocalyptic, and Ward noted that the production crew "just ran with it." Ward later described the setting as "candyland on the surface and dark underneath". The show began as a single stand-alone animated short titled " Adventure Time ", which ran for seven minutes. It aired in January 2007 and again as part of Frederator Studios ' Random! Cartoons on December 7, 2008. After its release,
9300-413: 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
9455-521: 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
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#17328026223799610-461: The cable TV industry for several years. He was employed by Turner Broadcasting as the last president of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, then as a consultant for almost 15 years at Warner-Amex successor MTV Networks , and as a producer of several animated series for Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. Seibert began his media career in college radio at Columbia University 's WKCR-FM in 1969. According to Seibert himself, he spent most of his time in college at
9765-435: The cast members—including Shada, Kenny, and Olson—sing 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
9920-615: The company, and served on its board before its acquisition. Seibert was the original angel investor in Sawhorse Media in 2010, the company that created the Shorty Awards and MuckRack, a public relations management platform that enables organizations to connect with journalists to generate media coverage. After creating Channel Frederator as the "first cartoon video podcast" and migrating it to youTube in 2007, on February 21, 2012, Fred Seibert launched Cartoon Hangover ,
10075-434: The debut was on January 1, 2021. " Adventure Time makes me wish I were a kid again, just so I could grow up to be as awesome as the kids who are currently watching Adventure Time will be". Entertainment Weekly staff. The show has received universal acclaim 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
10230-432: The end of 1985, at the request of Nickelodeon president Geraldine Laybourne Seibert and Goodman conceived a radical rethinking of television networks by creating Nick-at-Nite , pitched as "the first oldies TV network." Over the nine years of the company's existence they also did extensive work with The Movie Channel , Lifetime , Showtime , Comedy Central and Mosaic Records . Seibert continued involvement with
10385-539: The episode "Ocean of Fear" after asking Ward if he wanted any freelance help for Adventure Time . Quintel and Ward had previously worked together on The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack . The voice actors for the season include: Jeremy Shada (Finn the Human), John DiMaggio (Jake the Dog), Tom Kenny (The Ice King), Hynden Walch (Princess Bubblegum), and Olivia Olson (Marceline the Vampire Queen). Ward himself provides
10540-463: The episodes "Brothers in Insomnia" (written and storyboarded by Armen Mirzaian and Luther McLaurin, with revisions by Ako Castuera ), "The Glorriors" (written and storyboarded by Joe Horne and Doug TenNapel ), and "The Helmet of Thorogon" (outlined by Ward, Muto , McKeon, McHale, and Craig Lewis). "Brothers in Insomnia" had been pitched to the network, although it was later scrapped. "The Glorriors", according to Frederator Vice President Eric Homan, "was
10695-710: 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 . Animating an episode often took between three and five months. The animation
10850-411: The fact that Cartoon Network is "unsure of what direction to pursue". He noted that "while some of [ Adventure Time ' s] 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. Fred Seibert Frederick G. Seibert
11005-531: 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
11160-503: The finale" before production ended. In an interview with TV Guide , Muto explained that the show's writers used many of the episodes preceding the finale to conclude minor character story arcs "so we wouldn't have to cram too much in at the very end here." 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
11315-432: The first president of the new MTV Networks Online, soon to split into MTV Interactive (The MTVi Group) and Nick.com. Building on this new media success, in 2007 Seibert co-founded Next New Networks (with Emil Rensing, Herb Scannell , Tim Shey, and Jed Simmons), a pioneer in streaming video, with over 2 billion video views and as of 2010 over 200 million views every month, making it, along with Maker Studios , creators of
11470-443: 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 ,
11625-411: The first season. He assembled a team made up largely of "younger, inexperienced people", many of whom he discovered on the Internet. Many of these individuals had backgrounds in indie comics , and Ward has called them "really smart, smartypants people" who were responsible for inserting more idiosyncratic and spiritual ideas into the series. For the show's first four and a half seasons, Ward served as
11780-487: The first ten episodes were bundled into 30-minute airings. This means two of the eleven-minute segments were combined into one. Starting with the eleventh episode, "Wizard", the episodes dropped to only one, eleven-minute segment. The first season aired on Mondays at 8:00 pm. The season has received very positive reviews from critics. Television critic Robert Lloyd, in an article for the LA Times , said it "strikes [him] as
11935-522: The following year. Seibert played a key role in the ascendance of the modern cable television age (1980-2010). As MTV's first creative director, Seibert was responsible for a complete rethinking of how the entire television industry was able to think of themselves as “brands.” He guided his team to develop the original voice and visual identity for MTV, and went on to do the same at Nickelodeon , Nick-at-Nite (which he invented with his long time creative partner Alan Goodman ), and Comedy Central . After
12090-404: The forefront of the series' plot. During the last seasons of Adventure Time , there was talk 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 and "the ending of the show was getting stretched and stretched and stretched". Chief content officer Rob Sorcher told the Los Angeles Times of
12245-421: The gender-swapped Fionna and Cake characters, was 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. 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
12400-440: 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 . Upon its debut, Adventure Time was a ratings success for Cartoon Network. In March 2013, it
12555-403: 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 can trace its origin to a seven-minute, stand-alone animated short film of the same name (this short was later identified as
12710-492: 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 ". The series' voice actors include Jeremy Shada (Finn the Human), John DiMaggio (Jake the Dog), Tom Kenny (The Ice King), Hynden Walch (Princess Bubblegum), and Olivia Olson (Marceline
12865-590: The network was distributing 688 channels, with over 65 million monthly views and 10.5 million subscribers, and by 2017 announced it had reached 1 billion monthly views on YouTube. Seibert and his Frederator Networks partnered with John Borthwick and Betaworks ; Jonathan Miller , Jason Ostheimer, Shari Redstone ; and entrepreneur Yoel Flohr to form Thirty Labs in 2014, a startup studio based in New York City to develop and invest in video based technology businesses Seibert served as its CEO until its dissolution
13020-431: 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
13175-428: 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
13330-462: The official series launch date, on March 11 and 18, respectively. The series officially premiered on April 5, 2010. It debuted with the episodes "Slumber Party Panic" and "Trouble in Lumpy Space". The episode was watched by 2.5 million viewers. The episode was a ratings smash; according to a press release sent out by Cartoon Network, the episode's timeslot saw triple digit percentage increases from
13485-444: The original Nicktoons short. This tactic proved successful, and in September 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
13640-431: The outline for "The Helmet of Thorogon" were later released on Fred Seibert's official Scribd page. Furthermore, the episode "What Have You Done" was given the production number 27, despite only 26 episodes being ordered. This is because the original sixth episode was scrapped during production, and "What Have You Done" took its place, but was given a different code. Due to this, some sources like The Futon Critic , give it
13795-614: 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
13950-468: 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 ),
14105-413: The previous year. The program was viewed by 1.661 million children aged 2–11, which marked a 110 percent increase from the previous year's figures. It was watched by 837,000 children aged 9–14, a 239 percent increase on 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,
14260-497: 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
14415-430: The production number 692-006, whereas Frederator gave it the number 692-027. All of the season's episodes began as simple two-to-three-page outlines that contained the necessary plot information. These outlines were then handed off to storyboard artists, who would then expand the rough outline into a full storyboard. The episodes' design and coloring were done at Cartoon Network Studios in Burbank, California . Animation
14570-467: The public was revived. 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. 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
14725-565: The radio station headquarters rather than attending classes, and thus never graduated. While at Columbia he co-founded his first company, Oblivion Records with partners Tom Pomposello and Dick Pennington, releasing LPs by Mississippi Fred McDowell ( Live in New York ) and Joe Lee Wilson . Simultaneously, he produced numerous jazz and blues albums for independent companies such as Muse Records , JCOA Records , and Birth Records (owned by instrumentalist/composer Gunter Hampel ). Seibert
14880-475: The same time. It's my favorite way to feel – when I'm on the edge of my seat but I'm happy, that sense of conflicting emotions. And there's a lot of that in the show, I think." Executive producer Fred Seibert compared the show's animation style to that of Felix the Cat and various Max Fleischer cartoons, but said that its world is also equally inspired by Dungeons & Dragons and video games. Ward intended for
15035-482: 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
15190-434: The season, "Slumber Party Panic" and "Trouble in Lumpy Space" were watched by 2.5 million viewers; this marked a dramatic increase in viewers watching Cartoon Network when compared to the previous year. The season ended with the finale "Gut Grinder" on September 27, 2010. Soon after airing, the show began to receive critical acclaim as well as a large fan following. In 2010, the Adventure Time episode " My Two Favorite People "
15345-521: 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
15500-556: 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 Time ' s 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
15655-409: 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
15810-486: The series on a limited basis. Ward—a 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 & Dragons —of which many of the show's writers are devotees—as an inspiration for the show. In the United States, the series is rated TV-PG ; Ward said he never wanted to push
15965-522: The series regularly employed guest actors for minor and recurring characters. Each episode runs for about eleven minutes; pairs of episodes are often telecast to fill half-hour program slots. Cartoon Network announced on September 29, 2016, that the series would conclude in 2018, after the airing of its tenth season. The series finale aired on September 3, 2018, which was followed by the Adventure Time: Distant Lands specials and
16120-479: The series runs 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
16275-569: 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
16430-482: 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". After the September 2011 episode " What Was Missing " hinted at romantic subtext between Marceline and Bubblegum, fans began to "ship"
16585-504: The series' subversive humor with "beautiful" moments, using Hayao Miyazaki 's film My Neighbor Totoro as inspiration. 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] not over the top [nor] cartoony and shrill". Ward described the show as a "dark comedy"; he said "dark comedies are my favorite, because I love that feeling – being happy and scared at
16740-425: The set was not initially released as a Blu-ray edition. Wired wrote positively of the set, and applauded the release's bonus features. R.L. Shaffer of IGN awarded the set a 7 out of 10, denoting a "good" release. He called the show a "rare treat", but was critical of the release's packaging, noting that "a few too many episodes are crammed onto the discs, leaving little room for these transfers to breathe" and that
16895-410: The setting as "candyland on the surface and dark underneath", noting he had never intended the Mushroom War and the post-apocalyptic elements to be "hit over the head in the show". He limited it to "cars buried underground in the background [and other elements that do not] raise any eyebrows". Ward has said the series' post-apocalyptic elements were influenced by the 1979 film Mad Max . Kenny called
17050-444: The short video became a viral hit on the internet . Frederator Studios then pitched an Adventure Time series to Nicktoons Network , but the network passed on it twice. The studio approached Cartoon Network , which said it would be willing to produce a series if Ward could prove the short could be expanded into a full series while maintaining elements of the original's pilot. Rob Sorcher, the chief content officer at Cartoon Network,
17205-418: 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
17360-462: The show "in a 'Ghostshrimp World ' ". Ghostshrimp designed major locations, including Finn and Jake's home, the Candy Kingdom, and the Ice Kingdom. The position of lead character designer was given to Phil Rynda, who held this role for two and a half seasons. The show's lead production crew (which included Ward and McHale) was initially hesitant to bring him on board, but they were soon convinced by director Larry Leichliter , who assured them Rynda
17515-486: The show has developed a following among teenagers and adults. Adventure Time has received universal acclaim from critics, with much praise for its originality and worldbuilding . The show won 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 ,
17670-532: The show progressed, Basichis's friend Tim Kiefer joined the show as an additional composer. The two now work 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")
17825-570: 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 Time ' s willingness to explore dark, sad, and complex issues has received praise. Kohn applauded the fact that the show "toys with an incredibly sad subtext". Novelist Lev Grossman , in an interview with NPR , praised
17980-435: The show's first and second seasons), and Nick Jennings (who became the series' long-serving art director). Thurop Van Orman , the creator of The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack , was also hired on as a supervising producer, providing guidance for the series' first two seasons. In addition to the 26 episodes created during the first season, several others were commissioned and storyboarded, but not produced. These include
18135-403: 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. It was first broadcast on Nicktoons Network on January 11, 2007, 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
18290-448: 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
18445-452: 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 tried to create an internal consistency in how the characters interact with the world. Although the show is set in a post-apocalyptic setting, according to Ward, the original intention was for the Land of Ooo to simply be "magical". After making the episode "Business Time", in which an iceberg containing
18600-579: 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 cartoon as a storyboard artist and storyline writer. After November 2014, he stopped regularly contributing to episode outlines, but still looked over stories, provided occasional input, and continued to storyboard for
18755-419: The storyboard artists. And while it is a general rarity, the show also occasionally refers to popular music . 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, and when the production crew set up a series Tumblr account, this tradition of publishing demos and full versions of songs to
18910-503: The television programs Star Trek: The Next Generation and The Office to play various supporting or background characters. 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
19065-420: 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
19220-503: 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",
19375-401: The time period of the previous year. For instance, the entry was viewed by 1.661 million kids aged 2–11, which marked a 110 percent increase from the previous year. Furthermore, it was watched by 837,000 kids aged 9–14, which saw a 239 percent increase. This also made it the most-watched episode of the first season. The season finale, "Gut Grinder", was watched by 1.77 million viewers. Originally,
19530-505: 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
19685-399: The use of storyboards and animatics . Rob Sorcher, Cartoon Network's chief content officer at the time, explained that the network allowed this because the company was "dealing with artists who are primarily visual people" and by using storyboards, the writers and artists could learn and grow "by actually doing the work." As such, Ward soon assembled a storyboarding team for the series, which
19840-532: The video compression left something to be desired. Tyler Foster of DVD Talk "highly recommended" the set, and wrote that the series is "bursting with imagination, sweetness, and a ridiculous sense of humor". Foster was particularly pleased with the characters, citing Ricardio and Marceline as highlights of the season. Furthermore, he wrote that "even the worst episode in this [season]—and I'm hard-pressed to pick one—is beautifully designed and packs at least one or two killer gags." The episode " My Two Favorite People "
19995-430: The voice for several minor characters, as well as Lumpy Space Princess. Former storyboard artist Niki Yang voices the sentient video game console BMO, as well as Jake's girlfriend Lady Rainicorn in Korean. Polly Lou Livingston , a friend of Pendleton Ward's mother, Bettie Ward, plays the voice of the small elephant Tree Trunks. The Adventure Time cast records their lines together as opposed to doing it individually. This
20150-476: The way the elements are worked into the plot "very fill-in-the-blanks", and DiMaggio said, "it's been obvious the Land of Ooo has some issues". The series has a canonical mythology —or, an overarching plot and backstory—that 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
20305-409: 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
20460-514: The wildest and most creative ways possible. The network identifications, 10-seconds each, were based on the MTV logo he commissioned and approved, designed by the Manhattan Design collective (that included his oldest childhood friend, Frank Olinsky). The logo mutated its design hundreds, thousands of ways, sometimes within one short animated film. Some senior network executives objected to
20615-495: The world's first media branding company. Goodman had been one of his key creative lieutenants at MTV, and they had worked together in college radio a decade before. Together, they successfully adapted the MTV branding and promotional strategy to overhaul the then-floundering children's cable channel Nickelodeon between June 1984 and January 1985, moving it from worst to first in the ratings in six months, and continued overseeing network branding and promotion for eight more years. By
20770-431: 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
20925-409: Was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Short-format Animated Program, although the series did not win. Several compilation DVDs that contained episodes from the season were released after the season finished airing. On July 10, 2012, the full season was released on Region 1 DVD; a Blu-ray edition was released on June 4, 2013. The season follows the adventures of Finn the Human ,
21080-605: Was able to reinvigorate the company's creative reputation with the establishment of the animation incubator What a Cartoon! . Modeled on the Golden Age of mid-20th century cartoons, the 48 short films from creators around the world, Hanna-Barbera was able to launch seven hit series after a dry spell since the launch of The Smurfs in 1981 for NBC. The shows included Genndy Tartakovsky 's Dexter's Laboratory , David Feiss ' Cow and Chicken and I Am Weasel , Van Partible 's Johnny Bravo , John R. Dilworth 's Courage
21235-411: Was acquired by YouTube. In 2004, then-unknown web developer David Karp interned at Frederator Studios at its first New York City location, and built the company's first blogging platform. In 2007, Karp launched Tumblr from a rented desk at Frederator Studios' Park Avenue South offices, along with chief engineer Marco Arment . Seibert was one of Tumblr's first bloggers, an angel investor in
21390-467: 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
21545-536: Was an early employee of New Music Distribution Service , a non-profit distributor of musician-owned record company started by composers Carla Bley and Michael Mantler , before going on the road with Bley's big band as sound engineer and road manager. Seibert announced the revival of Oblivion Records in 2021 for a digital release of a historic concert recording of jazz innovator Cecil Taylor . Seibert's productions span multiple mediums in American entertainment. He
21700-416: 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
21855-578: 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
22010-455: Was eventually announced to be officially dropped on Netflix sometime in 2022. Seibert stepped down from his position as CEO of Frederator in August 2020, though the company indicated that he would remain executive producer for current projects, including Bee & PuppyCat and Castlevania . On February 23, 2021, Seibert announced the formation of cartoon production company FredFilms, with
22165-504: Was first recognized for his musical activity, having received a Grammy Award nomination at the 20th Annual Grammy Awards , and later several Annie Awards , Emmy Awards , and BAFTA Awards for his television productions. He received an American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) Medal for lifetime exceptional achievements in 2000, was inducted to the Animation Magazine Hall of Fame in 2017. In November 2023,
22320-474: Was hand-drawn on paper, which was then digitally composited and painted with digital ink and paint . 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 [ sic ]". While the episodes were being handled in South Korea, the production crew in
22475-450: Was handled overseas in South Korea , by Rough Draft Korea and Saerom Animation . The season was storyboarded and written by Muto, Elizabeth Ito, Ward, Sean Jimenez, McHale, Luther McLaurin, Armen Mirzaian, Kent Osborne , Pete Browngardt , Niki Yang , Cole Sanchez , Tom Herpich , Bert Youn, Ako Castuera, and J. G. Quintel . Quintel, who would later go on to create the popular Cartoon Network series Regular Show , co-wrote and boarded
22630-441: 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] really new". Ward quickly rethought the concept of the pilot; he wanted a potential series to be "fully realized", rather than be characterized by the "pre-school vibe" that permeated the original film. Ward's college friends Patrick McHale and Adam Muto helped him produce
22785-466: Was largely composed of "younger, inexperienced people" who had been found using the Internet. However, Cartoon Network, worrying about the status of the show and the inexperience of its production members, hired three veteran animators who had worked on SpongeBob SquarePants to help guide Ward and his team: Derek Drymon (who served as executive producer for the first season of Adventure Time ), Merriwether Williams (who served as head story editors for
22940-622: 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 ,
23095-406: Was nominated for a 2010 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Short-format Animated Program, although the episode did not win. Warner Home Video released multiple DVD volumes, such as My Two Favorite People , It Came from the Nightosphere , Jake vs. Me-Mow , The Suitor , Frost & Fire , and The Enchiridion which contain episodes from the first season. All DVD releases can be purchased on
23250-406: Was originally supposed to be a temporary version . 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!" Because the series' finalized theme song was originally recorded as
23405-439: 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 2–14. The show premiered on April 5, 2010, and was watched by 2.5 million viewers. The episode was a ratings success. According to a press release by Cartoon Network, the episode's time slot saw triple-digit percentage increases from
23560-506: Was sanctioned because the company was dealing with "primarily visual people", and that by using storyboards the writers and artists could learn and grow "by actually doing the work". 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
23715-457: Was talented and could draw in a variety of styles. With the producers satisfied, Rynda quickly began designing characters that were simple but still fell in line with "Pen's natural aesthetic". Around this time, Rynda and McHale began drafting artistic guidelines for the show, so that its animation style would always be somewhat consistent. With many of the lead production roles filled, Ward turned his attention to choosing storyboard artists for
23870-408: Was the final president of animation studio Hanna-Barbera from 1992 to 1996. He has since co-founded Next New Networks , Bolder Media , and launched the production company FredFilms. Seibert is an angel investor in technology and media-based startup projects. He was a seed investor for the website Tumblr , and has executive produced for various animated and live action projects. He created
24025-418: 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. On September 27, 2011, Cartoon Network released the region 1 DVD My Two Favorite People , which features a selection of twelve episodes from
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