The Adventure Time Blog

Even though it’s not been on the TV where you live, my guess is most of you Canadians who had been inclined to do so have already found a way to watch Adventure Time. However, things will get a lot easier for you beginning March 20 when Teletoon begins airing the series as part of its Sunday night line-up. Teletoon is unfortunately taking Cartoon Network’s lead by airing new episodes in measly eleven-minute portions rather than satisfying half-hour chunks, but complaining doesn’t do any good. (Thanks to Nick and More! for the heads up.)

– Eric

Teletoon’s 3 hours of “awesome” programming block moves to Sunday nights with adventure time

(Toronto, ON, March 9, 2011) – TELETOON’s “3 Hours of Awesome” programming block is moving exclusively to Sundays from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET/PT, beginning Sunday, March 20. This block will kick off with the premiere of Adventure Time at 6 p.m. ET/PT [Read more…]

Collin David over at Splice Today has written a very complimentary piece on the show (as if you couldn’t tell by the title). While I’m not sure everything he writes is on the money - “When Cartoon Network puts out a new show, it’s usually an epic puberty metaphor about an overconfident boy with strange powers who goes through the process of learning how to use them within the scary world around him,” for instance - there’s much here that’s thoughtful and admiring.

There’s no real backstory, there’s no complicated explanation about why a kid is hanging out with a talking dog, there’s no theoretical limits placed on Finn and Jake’s adventures, apart from a unique set of basic, malleable physics. It just is, and that’s the kind of unrestrained, uncomplicated storytelling that makes it beautiful.

Read the whole article here.

– Eric

Good news on the merchandise front. Cartoon Network Enterprises is announcing today a whole raft of new Adventure Time stuff coming our way over the next few months. The entire press release is below.

Now that we’ll see a wider variety of merchandise, what character would you most like to see on a T-shirt?

– Eric

Cartoon Network Enterprises Adds up Team of Mathemagical Soft Lines Partners for Adventure Time with Finn & Jake

What time is it? Time for an awesome assortment of consumer products for the hit animated comedy series, Adventure Time with Finn & Jake! Cartoon Network Enterprises (CNE), the global licensing and merchandising arm of the network, today announced an algebraic line up of apparel and accessories partners that will feature the best buds Jake and Finn, the Ice King, Princess Bubblegum and other loveable characters from creator Pendelton Ward in a range of categories across retail this spring. Building on [Read more…]

“#3. Adventure Time fills the void left by Calvin and Hobbs!”

Animation Magazine
December/January 2010/11

Illustrated by Mike Fischer

Of course most of you already knew about Cartoon Network’s order for a third season of Adventure Time months and months ago. It’s such old news that about half of this new batch of thirteen half-hours is already written, and the season’s second episode is being recorded today. The network had made sure we didn’t spill the beans here on the blog, but to our surprise their press release announcing the news (complete with their requisite misspelling of Fred’s name) went out yesterday. So hats off to Pen and the cast and crew (and the same to the folks at Regular Show and MAD, too). The press release is below. And we promise again not to blog about the fourth season until everyone else on the Internet gets the opportunity first.

– Eric

Cartoon Network’s “Adventure Time,” “Regular Show” and “MAD” to Return for Additional Seasons

CARTOON NETWORK ORDERS MORE MONDAY NIGHT MERRIMENT! Adventure Time, [Read more…]

“Marceline the Vampire Queen” by Deviant Artist aiji

Thanks to AWN’s Rick DeMott for his rhombus new interview with Pen. Rick’s been a big supporter of Adventure Time since the short was first put online back in 1822, and, for that, he gets no cash but a big thumbs-up.

RD: As a young creator how has the process been for you? What were some of the more difficult parts of the process you had to get accustomed to?

PW: I’m playing a lot of it by ear. I learned a lot as I went, in the beginning. Craig [McCracken] and Genndy [Tartakovsky] and those dudes where all pretty young too when they were all starting out. You just have to roll into it. We all graduated and we all love animation so you have your ideal in mind of the product you want make.

Because I worked as a board artist on Flapjack for a year I understood the [Read more…]

Finn hat, submitted by Alex

* From Cartoon Network:

Cartoon Network’s newest original animated series Adventure Time premiered Monday night as television’s #1 show on either cable or broadcast at 8 p.m. among kids 6-11 and kids 2-11, as well as the #1 telecast of the entire night on all TV among boys 6-11, boys 2-11 and boys 9-14, according to preliminary data from Nielsen Media Research. Earning triple-digit gains compared to the same 2009 time period, Adventure Time also scored as Cartoon Network’s #1 telecast of the year to date among kids and boys 6-11, as well as kids and boys 2-11. This outstanding premiere performance has prompted the network to order 13 additional episodes of the new series, which will continue to air premiere episodes into the fall. Adventure Time is produced at Cartoon Network Studios in Burbank, CA.

Adventure Time also served as the anchor to a new night of prime time comedy programming [Read more…]

Fan art by oswaldperson

I think ToonZone’s Karl R. Olson has a spot-on assessment of the series in his just-published review.

I would say it lived up to my expectations, but I wonder if other people, after living with four years of seven perfect minutes, will be similarly satisfied. Still, this is one of the strongest starts Cartoon Network has had with a series in a while, and if nothing else, they’ve made a cartoon that defies comparison, and that alone earns it the term “cult classic.” Shoot, it should be huge with counter-culture minded teens and twenty-something hipsters almost by default. The next Spongebob? Honestly, we won’t know that until 2020, but don’t rule it out.

Read the entire review here.

– Eric

Fan Art by Tracey Turner

From Robert Lloyd’s review in The Los Angeles Times:

This is how Monday night’s first adventure begins. Princess Bubblegum, doing a science experiment, says: “All right, let me just add three more drops of explosive diarrhea.”

“Princess Bubblegum,” asks Finn, “when we bring the dead back to life, will they be filled with worms?”

“No,” she says. “If my Decorpsinator serum works, then all the dead candy people will look as young and healthy as you do.”

It’s hard for me to resist talk like that, at once so childish, so pulpy, so polite. (The drawing is like that too.) Lines like “Lumpy Space Princess, you big faker, you’re floating, not bouncing,” or “Don’t cry, Hot Dog Princess, Jake and I will fend off these Battle Cubes” — there are whole wild worlds in there.

Read the whole article here.

– Eric

Fan art from Banana Paper

In what’s the first review we’ve seen stemming from the Cartoon Network’s release to press last week of Adventure Time’s premiere episode, UGO’s Vincent Genovese writes, “After getting a sense of the characters, and enjoying the far-out plotlines that manage to come together I’m definitely anticipating more Adventure Time.”

Read Vincent’s entire review here.

– Eric