Roxana Morri, Anul II, EN-FR

The Complexity of the Childrens Cartoon Adventure Time

Animated television series for children are known to be imaginative, funny and goofy

so that they can appeal to the kids, but also a bit educational, so that the young ones can learn

useful things while they are also having fun. While most of the cartoons contain the usual,

child-appropriate humour and everyday-life situations, Adventure Time takes a step forward

and presents children with highly creative content, out-of-this-world locations and characters,

and sometimes even disturbing or at least bizarre concepts.

Adventure Time first appeared in 2007, being born out of the incredibly imaginative

mind of Pendleton Ward, and was picked up by Cartoon Network in 2010 after the pilot

episode gained a lot of popularity on the internet. It has six seasons to the present day and it

still continues. It is all produced through hand-drawn animation and it is heavily inspired by

the well-known role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, as well as various video games, as

Pendleton Ward himself stated that he spent a lot of time playing video games in his

childhood. The plot follows the adventures of Finn, a 13 year-old boy, and his magical shape-

shifting dog and best friend Jake, who is also his brother as Finn was adopted by Jakes

family of dogs. The other major characters are Princess Bubblegum a responsible and

conscientious girl made of gum who loves science and is in charge of the Candy Kingdom,

Ice King a seemingly crazy old wizard who troubles everyone but is only misunderstood,

and Marceline a laid-back vampire girl who feeds on the colour red, rather than blood, and

is a rock music enthusiast. If the plot is so far weird and random, the daily adventures of these

characters are even more than that.

 The action takes place on a post-apocalyptic Earth, a thousand years after The Great

Mushroom War which probably refers to a nuclear war that destroyed almost all life and left

a large hole on the planet. The only ones who survived the apocalyptic events are Marceline,

who was a little girl then, and the one who rescued her, Simon, who later became the Ice King

because of a magic crown and lost all his memory. Since the war, all kinds of creatures sprung

to life, like candy people, fire people, lemon people, demons and monsters. Finn seems to be

the only human and he has a heroic task to protect anyone who is in need and to occasionally

save princesses from the Ice King, who is desperate for company. Finn sets a great example

for children, as he is brave, loyal, righteous and compassionate, but he shows that he also has

his weaknesses, like stubbornness and short-temper, and is willing to conquer his darkest fears

so that he can save his friends, like when he plunged to the bottom of the ocean to rescue

Jake, even though he was terrified of water. There are a lot of enjoyable things for children in

this show, but I am more interested in the ones that dont quite seem child-appropriate. For

example, there are several jokes and situations that may pass over the heads of the young

viewers, like when at a party, two characters have to go into a closet for seven minutes in

heaven, or when one of the princesses flirts with Finn and says I didnt wait infinity for a

dip in the kiddy pool, were taking this to the deep end to which Finn innocently responds

but Im not a good swimmer. Other times the action goes really insane, involving space

travel to the all-knowing Cosmic Owl, terrifying clown nurses who insist on kissing the

pain away, a twisted magic man who turns a bird inside out, the dreadfully evil antagonist

The Lich, and even a fox who obviously suffers from depression.

All in all, Adventure Time is a wonderful feat of imagination, fun and oddity and one

my favourite shows. In my opinion, it bears a great resemblance to Courage the Cowardly

Dog, which was also terrifying at times, but always with a great moral lesson in the end. That

is why Adventure Time is such an enjoyable show for children and adults alike.