What Time Is It?

Right, well if you spend much time on youtube or watching Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network, you've probably heard or seen something about Adventure Time. It's a Cartoon Network series based on a Frederator Studios Random! Cartoon short for Nickelodeon. Frederator is the studio responsible for producing other quality cartoons like ChalkZone, The Fairly Oddparents, and My Life as a Teenage Robot. Don't be put off if you're not a fan of any of these shows, because Adventure Time is an entirely different animal. If you're looking to compare it to an existing show, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack is a closer match- minus the grotesque characters.

Shows like Flapjack and Adventure Time are really unlike anything else on television; their writers are unafraid of pushing the limits of coherence in story and humor. The thing that elevates Adventure Time beyond Flapjack for me is the art. Ghost Shrimp is the illustrattion company responsible for many of those glorious, dramatic backgrounds that compose Adventure Time's world: The Land of Ooo.

As for what the show is about, the premise is really delightfully simple: two buddies, Jake the 28 year old magical dog and Finn the 12 year old human finding adventure and letting adventure find them. If that's too vague for you, the premiere which aired last Monday, featured a candy slumber party, reanimated candy corpses, something like werewolfism and a lumpy parallel dimension. Far out, right?

This part kind of pains me to write, because I don't want you to misunderstand me. If you were expecting the non-stop hilarity of the original short, you will be disappointed; I certainly was. Truthfully, it was unfair to assume that Pendleton Ward- the genius that he is- could maintain the level of humor present in the seven-minute short through full-length episodes. That being said, as its own show, Adventure Time is great; it's clever, cute, beautiful, and rad (the action is not to be overlooked.) From a show so new, this kind of quality is almost unprecedented, and gives me great hope for what is to come. If you have not had the pleasure of watching it, do yourself a favor and tune in to new episodes on Mondays at 8pm.

For added fun check out The Autumn Society's Adventure Time art!

enjoy!

-Daniel