“What time is it?” I hear you cry, (well, not really, but bear with me) it’s Adventure Time!
One of Cartoon Network’s undeniable successes, created by Pendleton Ward; Adventure Time has become loved by children and slightly obsessed over by grown-ups.
From the tiny snail hiding in every episode (except for “Food Chain”) to the heart-rending storyline that communicates the pain of living with Alzheimer’s Disease, Adventure Time has something for everyone.
The Story
For those of you that may have not followed the story of Jake the Dog and Finn, the Hu-man with a fanaticism that borders on religious, Adventure Time takes place roughly 1,000 years after the Mushroom War, which is supposed to have taken place some time around our present day.
The Mushroom Bomb followed, which took a huge chunk out of the earth (seen in “Sons of Mars”).
The show mainly centers around Finn, who is generally believed to be the last human left (I’d say more, but I decline to embroil myself in a storyline that the show has yet to fully resolve); and his half-dog, half-shapeshifter brother Jake.
When Adventure Time originally aired, Finn was around twelve years old, but as Jeremy Shada (Finn) ages, the show has opted to allow Finn to age, and he’s currently around seventeen.
For all you LOST fans out there, you’ll possibly know Jeremy as Young Charlie Pace.
Jake the Dog is voiced by the incomparable John Dimaggio, also known as Bender “Bending” Rodriguez.
The Princesses…
The land of Ooo, which Jake and Finn inhabit, is a land full of fantastical creatures, nuclear war debris, and Princesses.
So many Princesses.
It is mentioned, in the episode “Princess Day”, that there are many unregistered Princesses roaming the land of Ooo, which could explain the sheer volume of goddamn princesses in the show.
There have been (and this is a conservative estimate) at least 50 princesses shown over the six season span of Adventure Time so far.
These include, but are not limited to: Princess Bubblegum, Gridface Princess, Lumpy Space Princess (LSP), Embryo Princess, Slime Princess, Raggedy Princess, Peanut Princess, Purple Princess, Wildberry Princess, Engagement Ring Princess, Skeleton Princess, Old Lady Princess, Elbow Princess, Jungle Princess, Muscle Princess, Truth Field Projection Princess, Strudel Princess, and Princess Princess Princess.
Oddly enough, Dr. Princess is not royalty (seen in “The Chamber of Frozen Blades”).
Is it me, or does “Princess” seem like it’s not even a word anymore?
Princess Bubblegum
Speaking of Princesses, the main princess of the show is Princess Bubblegum.
But don’t let the name fool you, she is a scientist/despot who runs the Candy Kingdom.
She possesses the knowledge to give life to food, knowledge she uses to rule over an entire kingdom of sweets… I’m not here to judge.
She is, for the majority of the show’s run, the object of Finn’s desires.
Voiced by Hynden Walch, Princess Bubblegum seems to be around the age of 18, but is actually 828.
Her hobbies include conducting scientific experiments, bossing around our heroes, and occasionally getting kidnapped by the Ice King.
The Ice King
The Ice King, original antagonist of Finn and Jake voiced by Tom “SpongeBob” Kenny, is actually a human with a cursed crown.
All of his power, not to mention his crazy, derives from this crown.
If you’ve ever tuned into Adventure Time only to find that there’s a girl Finn and a cat instead of lovable old Bender onscreen, then you have stumbled into the alternate reality of Fionna and Cake, a gender-swapped fan fiction created by the Ice King, and further added to by LSP.
His human form, Simon Petrikov, found the cursed crown a thousand years previous (seen in “Holly Jolly Secrets”).
It is revealed that the Ice King was once very close to Marceline the Vampire Queen (seen in “I Remember You” & “Simon and Marcy”), another main character of the show.
Marceline
Marceline is a thousand year-old vampire, who also happens to be half-demon (seen in “Daddy’s Little Monster”).
She actually owns the tree house in which Finn and Jake live, until she trades it for a lunatic bass guitar.
She is the only main character of the show to not have been featured in the pilot.
Adventure Time is, for the most part, a show for kids, but there are so many grown up elements included that it has gained itself quite a cult following.
So if you haven’t seriously entertained the idea of settling down to watch it, or if you’ve only ever caught a few episodes because nothing else was on, I hope I’ve been able to pique your interest with just a few facts.
If not, then come back and reread this article after you have children yourself, or when you’ve watched all of the grown up TV and need to rest your brain.
So there you have it folks, a few facts about that cartoon everyone keeps going on about.
