Adventure Time

Adventure Time (also known as Adventure Time with Finn & Jake) is an American animated television series created by Pendleton Ward. It is based on the animated short "Adventure Time" that aired as part of Frederator Studios' Random! Cartoons on Nickelodeon. The series focuses on the surreal adventures undertaken by two best friends and adopted brothers: Finn (a 14 year old boy as of the end of Season 3) and Jake (a 28-year-old dog with magical powers) that dwell in the Land of Ooo. In September 2008, the short was officially greenlighted for a series by Cartoon Network. Half-episode "sneak peeks" aired on March 11 and 18, 2010, and the series officially premiered on April 2, 2010. It's aimed on kids' ages 10-19.

Plot
14 -year-old Finn, who was found in the woods as a baby by Jake's parent's, Joshua and Margret, and his best friend and adopted brother Jake, a 28-year-old dog with magical powers, are adventurers living in the Land of Ooo, a setting full of surreal characters, with fantasy and post-apocalyptic elements. The duo's typical adventures involve saving princesses, fighting evil monsters, exploring dungeons, and helping people in need. They also meet characters with strange characteristics.

Characters

 * Finn (voiced by Zack Shada in short, Jemery Shada in series) - A 14-year-old human boy who enjoys defeating evil forces and is skilled at multiple forms of combat. He is shown to have a crush on Princess Bubblegum, though he tries to hide it. He wears a self-proclaimed 'awesome hat' that covers his blond hair, and is prone to strange exclamations and outbursts. He has a lust for adventure and will help anyone in need. Finn is known to not to hurt anyone that is not evil. Finn also uses 80's lingo such as righteous. Finn is known to be bad at math, although his spontaneous outbursts imply an appreciation of the subject (e.g. 'mathematical!',"algebraic!", "rhombus!"). Though he can swim, he has an intense fear of the ocean. Whenever he sings, his voice has an autotuned sound to it, because he swallowed a small computer. He is the main protagonist of the show. In "Adventure Time" [The Original Pilot] Finn's name was Pen. Which can be explained by the creator's name, Pendleton Ward.


 * Jake (voiced by John DiMaggio) - A shape-shifting 28-year-old (in magical dog years. He is Finn's best friend. Acting at times as a moral compass to his energetic pal, Jake has a laid-back attitude to most situations, but loves adventure, and will fight when he needs to. He is the boyfriend of Lady Rainicorn, whom he met in the pilot. Also, he understands Rainicorn, who speaks Korean. His powers help Finn considerably in combat, but are also sometimes used just for jovial forms of expression. He is shown to be quite skilled at playing the viola, although this talent is often unappreciated, as it is shown to bore Finn. Jake seems to enjoy songs and rhyming (e.g. "Solving crimes and makin' up rhymes"). All his "most important lessons" are said in song. He is the deuteragonist of the show. Jake gets very jealous, as seen when Lady Rainicorn starts hanging out with Finn. He got Tiffany, a boy, as a replacement. Also, as seen in "Power Animal" Jake has a habit for being unfocused and ends up becoming more unfocused to save Finn. As of the Season 5 episode, Jake the Dad, he and Lady Rainicorn have 5 rainicorn-puppies. The puppies names are Viola (respectfully named after Jake's and Lady Rainicorn's interest of playing the viola), T.V, Kim-Kil-Wan, Charlie and Jake Jr.

Episodes
Season one of the series ran from April 5, 2010 to September 27, 2010. After the premiere episode drew strong TV ratings, earning the number one spot in many kids demographics, Cartoon Network renewed the show for a second season of 13 half-hours (26 episodes).

It was renewed for a third season of 26 episodes.

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

Production
Following the animated short, Frederator Studios pitched an Adventure Time series to Nickelodeon, but the network passed on it twice. The studio then approached Cartoon Network, with creator Pendleton Ward delivering them an early storyboard for "The Enchiridion", showing that the premise could be expanded into a series while maintaining elements from the original short: funny catchphrases and dances, an awkward kiss moment with the princess, and an "Abe Lincoln moment." Cartoon Network greenlit the first season in September 2008, and "The Enchiridion" would become the first produced episode.

Series creator Pendleton Ward has stated that the artistic style is influenced by his time at CalArts and later working as a storyboard artist on The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. He tries to include "beautiful" moments like those in Hayao Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro and some subversive humor, inspired by series like The Simpsons and Pee-wee's Playhouse. Executive producer Fred Seibert compares the show's animation style to that of Felix the Cat and the Max Fleischer cartoons but says its world is also equally inspired by video games. Ward intends the show's world to have a certain physical logic instead of "cartoony slapstick" -- even though magic exists in the story, the show's writers try to create an internal consistency in how the characters interact with the world.

Ward describes the character Finn as "fiery little kid" with strong morals, while Jake is based on Bill Murray's character in the movie Meatballs, as a laidback twenty-something who usually jokes around, but occasionally gives good advice.

Critical reception
The show has received generally positive reviews. Television critic Robert Lloyd, in an article for the LA Times covering the new series, said it, "strikes [him] as a kind of companion piece to the network's 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 a boy and his imaginary friend, though [it is] 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."

It is Cartoon Networks's most highest rated series.

Awards and nominations
Adventure Time has been nominated three times for an Emmy in the category, Outstanding Short-Format Animated Program. The first was for "My Two Favorite People." The second was for "It Came from the Nightosphere." The third nomination was "Too Young" for the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards.

Animated short
The animated short "Adventure Time" aired as part of Frederator Studios' ''Random! Cartoons'', and led to the creation of the animated series.

Plot
The cartoon begins with Pen (who was renamed Finn in the series) sleeping under a tree and Jake meditating. After they do a little dance (which Jake downloaded from the internet while meditating), Lady Rainicorn (a unicorn/rainbow hybrid) flies by in tears. They discover that Lady Rainicorn is so sad because Princess Bubblegum is being imprisoned by the Ice King. Using snowballs, they battle their way past the Iceclops, Snow Golem, and other monsters that inhabit the Ice Kingdom. Eventually, Pen and Jake reach the Ice King's mountain lair. Pen and the Ice King fight while Jake remains outside flirting with the Rainicorn, ignoring the battle. Just when Pen seems to be gaining the upper hand, the Ice King uses his "frozen lightning bolts" to freeze Pen in a block of ice. For unexplained reasons, this transports Pen's mind "back in time, and to Mars" where he has a short motivational conversation with Abraham Lincoln. After being told to believe in himself, Pen is returned to the present: just in time to see the Ice King fly away with Princess Bubblegum. Chasing after him using Jake's extendable legs, Pen rescues the princess from the Ice King's grasp. Jake pushes the magical crown off the Ice King's head, thereby removing the King's source of power. The Ice King then plummets off screen, yelling a long list of complex threats of things he will do when he returns.

The story closes with Bubblegum giving Pen a kiss, which embarrasses him greatly. He attempts to leave, but Jake claims that they have nowhere else to go and that there are no adventures that need them. Fortunately, some nearby ninjas are stealing an old man's diamonds, and they both run off in pursuit.