Adventure Time 15th Birthday Retrospective
What time is it? Adventure Time, come on grab your friends! We’ll go to very distant lands with Jake the Dog and Finn the Human, the fun will never end, it’s Adventure Time!
In November 2009, Cartoon Network aired the finale movie to its longest-running series, Ed Edd n’ Eddy. And with it, the Cartoon Cartoon Era, considered to be the network’s golden age, came to a close. Little did anyone know, but less than half a year later, Cartoon Network would be experiencing a renaissance. And on the night of April 5th, 2010, after months of promotion, the show that would pioneer this renaissance would appear on tv’s everywhere.
Its name was Adventure Time, and it would change animation forever. Though its story actually begins a few years earlier.
The Origin of Adventure Time
The brainchild of CalArts graduate Pendleton Ward, Adventure Time got its start as a seven-minute short he wrote and produced for Frederator Studios. The short aired on Nicktoons Network in January 2007, and after being posted online, it went viral. However, Nickelodeon passed on making it into a series five times, leaving Ward and Frederator to look elsewhere. Ward would find work at Cartoon Network on The Misadventures of Flapjack, and eventually, they pitched Adventure Time to them. After proving it could work as a series, the show was greenlit.
Nickelodeon’s loss quickly proved to be Cartoon Network’s gain, as Adventure Time became a massive success. Set in the magical land of Ooo, the series focuses on Finn, supposedly the only Human, and his adoptive brother Jake, a talking dog with stretchy powers. Together, the two would go on adventures that ranged from rescuing princesses in peril to searching for great treasures. With its colorful setting and whimsical characters, Adventure Time seemed like a very light-hearted show at first glance. The kind of show that was meant to be watched by kids and few others. Yet Adventure Time defied this notion by attracting a massive fanbase amongst teens and adults (myself included).
Why it Was So Popular
There was a good reason for this popularity. Pen Ward and many on his team were fans of Dungeons and Dragons, and the worldbuilding needed to play those games seeped into the show. Little by little, Adventure Time started dropping hints that there was more to Ooo than meets the eye, and people began to notice. People took to the Internet coming up with theories as to the true history of Ooo and its inhabitants, and slowly but surely, a more mature image began to form. Rather than being a whimsical fantasy separate from ours, Ooo was, in fact, a post-apocalyptic Earth in which magic had resurfaced after centuries of dormancy.
In addition to this incredibly deep lore, the characters themselves started to grow beyond their initial first impressions. The Ice King wound up having one of the most tragic pasts in cartoon history. Princess Bubblegum went from a sweet princess to someone who would do morally questionable things. And Finn, the bright and pure-hearted hero, would get put through the ringer, often experiencing things that no kid should have to experience!
By the time the original Adventure Time series ended in September 2018, it had cemented itself as one of the greatest cartoons of all time. It had a global fanbase, characters that resonated with countless people, and enough lore to rival anything J.R.R. Tolkien or George R.R. Martin could come up with. While the show could’ve rested on its laurels, though, it wasn’t done cementing its legacy.
An Ongoing Legacy
Even before it had ended, Adventure Time was already growing its influence in the animation industry. Many of the people who worked on the series have gone on to become successful in their own right. Former creative director Pat McHale created the critically acclaimed Over the Garden Wall. Ian Jones-Quartey, a former storyboard revisionist, would create OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes. Storyboard artist Pete Browngardt created the absolute legend Uncle Grandpa, and recently directed The Day the Earth Blew Up: a Looney Tunes Movie. And Rebecca Sugar? She gave the world Steven Universe, which did more to help LGBTQ+ representation in kids shows than anyone before.
As for the show itself, Adventure Time kickstarted the Cartoon Network renaissance era, which is significant for several reasons. Firstly, it showed that it was possible for an animated series aimed at kids to have a fanbase amongst teens and adults. That, in turn, has led to more adults being open about liking these cartoons, which helps fight the stigma that they’re just for kids. Secondly, it’s inclusion of mature themes has encouraged other shows to take a chance on talking about heavy subjects like loss, growth, change, and healing from past trauma.
The Fun Will Never End, it’s Adventure Time!
Now, fifteen years since it introduced itself to us, Adventure Time remains as popular as ever. Warner Bros continued the story with the limited series Distant Lands in 2020-21. And more recently, got the sequel/spin-off series, Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake, focused on the adventures of alternate, gender-swapped versions of the original cast. With a second season in the works, it’s likely that the franchise will continue to remain a part of the cultural zeitgeist for years to come.
So, on behalf of The Game of Nerds, happy 15th birthday, Adventure Time! Here’s to many more mathematical years together!
