Pendleton Ward's Cartoon Network classic Adventure Time spanned eight years, ten seasons, countless
comics, tons of merchandise, and a whole lot of truly dedicated fans.
It's easy to see why fans would instantly fall in love with these quirky characters
and the strange world of Ooo.
"After his butt!"
"I'm your dingy dog!"
So whether you're a lifelong fan of Finn and Jake, or if you're just curious what the buzz
is all about, here's everything you probably didn't know about Adventure Time.
Pitch perfect
It's impossible to discuss Adventure Time without discussing its music.
At any given point, characters are likely to burst into song.
"Making pancakes.
Making, making pancakes.
Take some bacon and put it in a pancake.
Making pancakes, that's what it's gonna make…"
However, the most famous Adventure Time song is undoubtedly the one that opens every single
episode.
"With Jake the Dog and Finn the Human.
The fun will never end, Adventure Time!"
It's the perfect encapsulation of the series… which is fitting because this song is how
the series truly began.
When series creator Pendleton Ward went to pitch the first Adventure Time short, he brought
along his guitar so that he could sing the opening theme song for the executives.
They liked the song well enough to order the short, and the short's popularity snowballed
into the series that we know and love.
For the series, Ward rerecorded the song using a ukulele instead of a guitar.
It was meant to be a temporary recording to quickly submit to Cartoon Network, but Ward
liked it so much that it ended up staying, despite later attempts at rerecording it.
Accidental apocalypse
Over the course of many seasons, viewers could piece together some of the events surrounding
a Mushroom War that destroyed most of the humans, created mutations, and took a giant
chunk out of the Earth.
Considering all of this detail, it would certainly seem like the creators had a plan all along.
But this post-apocalyptic setting came about completely by accident.
In the first season, the characters encounter some 21st-century businessmen that have been
frozen in an iceberg.
"It's a bunch of guys."
"You know what they remind me of?
Well-dressed pickles."
It was just a gag, but it also suggested that the world of Finn and Jake had once been very
much like our own before it was changed.
The writers decided to run with the apocalyptic idea, crafting nuanced stories about how that
time period was formative for both Marceline and the Ice King.
And it all happened because the writers thought frozen businessmen would be funny.
"What kind of business do you do?"
"Been frozen so long I…"
"Can't remember…"
Eating disorder
The Ice King's most familiar appearance in the show is as an overweight wizard.
Other times, though, you can practically count the ribs under his robes.
(whistles)
"You're looking kind of fat, Gunter.
Look at these arms!
Fat, fat, fat.
Daddy's little fatty!"
There are other scenes where he is super-thin like this and still feels the need to work
out, showing an obsessive worry about his weight.
"I'm so tired of looking at this face."
Overall, Ice King's story is one tragedy after another: he loses his fiancee to the madness
of the crown and later has to abandon a young Marceline for the same reason.
Now, trapped in his mind, he's unable to find romantic love, and that inability drives him
to either overeat or completely starve himself.
We told you it was tragic.
"Gol'dern you, tear ducts."
Lumpy identity
In addition to creating the show, Pendleton Ward serves as the voice for Lumpy Space Princess.
This unconventional character is a constant outsider, having been kicked out of her parents'
house in their dimension and later shunned by other princesses on Ooo.
From time to time, the character lives homeless in the woods and stoops to terrorizing villagers
for food when necessary.
"Monster!!!"
All of which makes it interesting that Ward - who's been described as quiet and shy - admitted
that he identifies closely with this character that's constantly ostracized, lonely, and
misunderstood.
"And that's how I saved the village."
"Well, we're just glad you're home."
"Whatever!"
Banana voices
The Banana Guards are Princess Bubblegum's potassium-rich, brain-poor protectors of the
Candy Kingdom.
You think she'd hire some workers who were actually competent, but you take what you
can get in the Land of Ooo.
They definitely have some unique voices, and the story behind it is pretty strange.
John DiMaggio — who also voices Jake — explained that his take on the Banana Guard is his impression
of Pendleton Ward doing the Lumpy Space Princess voice.
"Uh, princess, should we listen to him?"
The Bill Murray connection
Adventure Time is steeped in pop culture, which isn't surprising considering one of
the characters is a walking, talking Gameboy.
One of the main characters, though, has a rather unexpected influence.
According to Pendleton Ward, the character of Jake the Dog was inspired by Bill Murray's
character Tripper in his late-'70s comedy Meatballs.
In that movie, Murray plays a summer camp counselor who is a mentor to young visitors.
Even as Murray provides advice, he also keeps things real...and a little crazy.
"It just doesn't matter if we win or we lose!
It just doesn't matter!"
These elements are all in play with Jake the Dog, who plays an older, mentor role with
Finn the Human but is still goofy and refuses to take anything that seriously.
"Heh, heh, heh.
Cute."
Niki Yang
Adventure Time has employed some of the animation world's best voice actors.
But one of the show's true standouts only had one acting credit to her name when she
joined the cast.
Niki Yang brings humor and depth to the roles of Lady Rainicorn and BMO.
"BMO!"
"BMO chop!"
Yang didn't have a lot of voice acting experience because her main job on Adventure Time is
storyboard artist.
Lady Rainicorn's dialogue is actually written in English, and Yang personally translates
it before her recording sessions.
"I suppose that's true."
Of course, we also have to give an honorable mention to Tree Trunks, aka Polly Lou Livingston.
"What are you doing here, Tree Trunks?"
"I'm helping you by tempting this guy with my body."
Having never worked on TV before, she got the job voicing the sassy elephant lady simply
because she was a friend of Pen Ward's mom, and the choice couldn't have possibly been
better.
"Mr. Pig's been so kind, helping me - tend to my rose garden."
Self-demoted
Adventure Time went from quirky cult animated series to pop-culture juggernaut in just a
few years.
While that kind of success is most people's dream, Pendleton Ward found out that running
a hit show of his own creation wasn't everything it was cracked up to be.
He told Rolling Stone in 2014:
"Dealing with people every day wears on you.
To spend that extra energy and time you don't have, to make something that's worth making,
to make it awesome, wears you out."
During the production of the show's fifth season, he had enough.
He demoted himself and went back to doing what he loved most about the show, which was
drawing storyboards and writing episodes.
The secret snail
Animators and other creators are pretty notorious for sticking weird Easter eggs in their shows
for obsessive fans to find.
Pendleton Ward and his team did this, albeit on a very small scale: every episode of Adventure
Time has a snail hidden in it, and that snail often waves to viewers.
At times, the snail has taken a prominent role in the show, like when it became an unwitting
vessel for the mind of The Lich.
The snail Easter egg has also continued into some of the show's merchandise, such as the
official Adventure Time Munchkin spinoff.
In that game, the snail is hidden on several cards, whereas other cards prompt players
to immediately level up if they can find a snail hidden on the table in ten seconds or
less.
Sounds easy enough!
"Now let me explain the rules."
"That's basically the basics."
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