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About
Adventure Time is an animated series created by Pendleton Ward. Originally a short produced by Frederator Studios for the “Random! Cartoons” project on Nickelodeon, the show was picked up by Cartoon Network after Pendleton presented it to the executives on 2008 [1]. Since then, the show has gotten 3 seasons due to its success, both critically and commercially among the channel’s demographics. Both the short and the series have received a lot of attention online on different websites such as YouTube, DeviantArt and Tumblr.
Original Short
The short was originally meant to premiere in Fall of 2007, but it was leaked to the Internet in 2006. The short featured a human boy named Pen (named after its creator), and a magic dog named Jake (voiced by John DiMaggio, known for his role as Bender on Futurama). Internet audiences were drawn to the surreal nature, stylized animation, and clever humor of the short.
The short was nominated for an Annie award for Best Animated Short Subject in 2006 [2].
The Show
Adventure Time premiered on Cartoon Network on April 5th of 2010 and had a rating of 2.50 million viewers [3]. The show remained constant with the short with some minor changes in the plot and voice actors. Pen’s name was changed to Finn and now he’s voiced by Jeremy Shada (younger brother of his original voice actor) [4]. Now the writers had more freedom to develop a bigger universe with even more characters and storylines.
Due to the show’s popularity on its first season, there have been many famous guest stars including Lou Ferrigno, Mark Hamill, Andy Samberg, and Neil Patrick Harris among others. The show has also been nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Short-format Animated Program twice [5].
Spread
The most outstanding things about both the short and the series are its cast of characters, the random nature of the show and the writing (mainly its catchphrases). These things were mostly responsible of the shorts popularity on the web. The impact of the short online was of the factors that made Cartoon Network greenlight the show in the first place.
Fanart and Cosplays
A DeviantART search for “Adventure Time” brings in lots of pieces of art. For example:
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There have been cosplayers dressed as the cast of characters at Anime and Comic Cons even before Cartoon Network announced they were going to pick the show [6].
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The popularity of Finn’s hat was so big that people started making their own hats. Even the Frederator blog along with DIY expert Rob Czar made an instructional video of how to make your own hat prior the premiere of the series [7].
Finally on December 15th of 2010, Hot Topic released on sale Finn’s hats as official merchandise [8].
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There’s actually an official Fan Art Blog on Tumblr managed by the Adventure Time crew.
YTMNDs
There have been several YTMNDs made, with the oldest one made in January 12th of 2007. Most of them are related to the short, but there are some based on the show as well.
- Ninjas Stole My Diamonds!
- Rhombus!
- Your mind has been transported
- Elemental!
- lol, adventure time
- SNOW GOLEM!
- Adventure Time!
- what time is it…?
- Pen Sees Something Algebraic
- QQcorn
- What Time Is It?
- Jigglybrush
- Aw yeah. Hug me.
- It’s Fine
- Finn Dance Time!!
- scrumdiddlyumptious
- You’re shakin it all wrong…
- Party Dog!!!
- Jake and Bug
- Cant mess with finn
- Jake Laughing at his own joke
Tumblr
It’s not uncommon finding Adventure Time pictures on Tumblr since, as mentioned before, one of the things that made the show popular was its catchphrases. Most reblogged pictures with an “Adventure Time” tag are both still pictures and animated Gifs with the quote of the scene in question. For example:
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There have also been created various accounts where the users rperesent some character of the series and answer other users questions as the character. Sometimes they even post an illustration as their answer. This is part of a popular activity on Tumblr, “Ask X”.
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These are the most active “Ask X” accounts:
- Ask the Vampire Queen
- Ask Finn the Adventurer
- Ask Princess Bubblegum
- Ask Lumpy Space Princess
- Ask Tree Trunks
- Ask Shelby the Worm
- Ask the Poo Brained Horse
- Ask Prince Gumball
- Marshall Lee the Vampire King
Interactivity with the Creator and Crew
Adventure Time is also well known for the attitude of its creative crew with the fans. The official Adventure Time blog has shared lots of official artwork, early drafts, storyboards and animatics before the premiere of new episodes. They also share fanart, as mentioned before. And some of the writers and animators are open to fan questions about the show, its development and even its universe; in fact, most of the information about the Adventure Time universe that isn’t confirmed by the show, it’s confirmed through answers made by the writers and Pendleton Ward as well. These are their Formspring accounts:
Adventure Time with Fionna and Cake
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On 2010, just months after the premiere of Adventure Time on Cartoon Network, character designer Natasha Allegri designed gender-swapped versions of Finn and Jake called Fiona (now renamed Fionna) and Cake, a cat.
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These versions of the protagonist resulted quite popular that many fans wanted more and made fanart that proved that:
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On December 29th of 2010 Natasha Allegri confirmed on her Tumblr that an episode of Adventure Time starring Fionna and Cake was on the works [9] and now its scheduled to premiere on its third season.
This is one outstanding case of Rule 63 .
External References
[1] Frederator Studios Blog – “The Enchiridion” Storyboards / 4-22-2010
[2] The Annie Awards – 34th Annual Annie Awards
[3] TV by the Numbers – Monday Cable: Pawning & Picking Good for History / 4-6-2010
[4] IMDb – Jeremy Shada
[5] Wikipedia – Adventure Time
[6] Toonzone News – “Adventure Time”: You Can Believe the Hype, Sort Of / 4-5-2010
[7] Frederator Studios Blog – Finn’s Hat is AWESOMEEEEE! / 4-22-2010
[8] Frederator Studios Blog – Finn Hats, Jake Hats on Sale Now / 4-22-2010
[9] Pancake Pancake Pancake – Pen announced it (kind of) on Twitter / 12-29-2010