Adventure Time": Mathematical or Just Calculated Hype?

Have you ever been to a really crazy, bitchin' party? Where the dance floor is hot and the drinks are cool? The wine is pouring like water and everyone is having the maddest, craziest most fun they could ever have?

...And you're the designated driver?

Well, that's how I feel whenever I'm online with friends discuss Cartoon Network's Adventure Time.

Oh, wait. Let me rephrase that. It's:

(cue majestic chord)

ADVENTURE-A-TI-IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME!!!!!!!!!
























Or so the show's fanbase will tell you. If you're reading this, then you have the internet, and if you have the internet, then you most likely know about this show, so I won't go into its' history and whatnot to any great length, but here's the overview:

Adventure Time is the brainchild of cartoonist Pendelton "Pen" Ward. It follows the exploits of 2 oddball characters: a boy named Finn and a talking dog named Jake as they traverse a mystical land called Ooo (Ooo? Seriously? All of the names for fantasy worlds to choose from--Krull, The Fantaverse, Looneyland--and Ward went with Ooo? Was he gazing into a bowl of Cheerios when creative lightning struck?) where they fight monsters, encounter giants, goblins, princesses, heavy metal vampires, maladjusted ice kings and all manner of assorted weirdos and beasties.

Sounds like a hoot, right? Well, it should be.

Adventure Time first manifested as a short on Nickelodeon's Random! Cartoons, a short-lived series which showcased potential pilots for new series. (Why Sparkles and Gloom, which also appeared on R!C wasn't made into a series I have no idea, but I digress.) Shortly thereafter, the short went viral and became an internet sensation. Then Cartoon Network picked up Adventure Time as a series, promoting the living hell out of it for about 4 months prior to its' debut. Toon's spin doctoring paid off: in short order, Adventure Time has become for many one of Cartoon Network's biggest hits and one of the favorite shows of the decade (even though it's only been on for about 2 months, has an episode count of less than 10 and we're only about 5 months and 6 days into the new decade).

So why am I one of the few people not having an orgasm for this show?

First, to clarify my stance on Adventure Time, let me say right off that:






















"I am not a hater."

But I am, by my own admission, not easily impressed. I've never been one of those people who likes something "just because", nor am I known for jumping on the bandwagon for something immediately. That said, there are some things which I enjoy about Adventure Time and some which I decidedly do not as much. Let's break things down, shall we?

First of all, there's a simplicity to AT which both pleases and displeases me. The best comedians have always used restricted tools, like Charlie Chaplin, and AT is very simple at its' core: all Ward really did was take the time-honored archetypes of a boy and his dog, plonked them into a surreal Never-Never Land, infused Dog with the power of speech and the ability to alter the size and shape characteristics of his body and infused Boy with one of the most bizarre pieces of headgear ever drawn and the idee fixe that he's the hero of this world and must help anyone in need and slay anyone or anything that's evil.

*Incidentally, I originally thought that the land of Ooo (Ick. You know what, screw that name: I'm calling it Looneyland from now on) was another world, but according to Ward's blog, it's actually our world, centuries after a nuclear strike which has decimated much of Earth's population and many of Oo...no! Looneyland's inhabitants: its' elves, it's talking animals, its' Slime Princesses, et al, are in fact mutations. (Not unlike Ralph Baskhi's film Wizards). I question how necessary a move this was, especially since this apocalypse has occurred so long beforehand that none of Looneyland's citizenry remembers the disaster or the world which existed before theirs, but it is original, I'll give you that.

Another strong point to AT: the character of Jake the dog.



















I like him. Voiced by comedian John "Bender/Dr. Drakken" Di Maggio, he adds saucy commentary to the stories, cuts up and is fiercely loyal to his buddy. Having the ability to grow to mammoth size and extend one's legs to giraffe-like proportions doesn't hurt either. In the debate between Funny "Ha-Ha" and Funny "Huh?" that constantly rages through this show, Jake falls firmly into Ha-Ha.

Next, the Land of---you know where--itself. I like this strange place. I've always been a fan of magical fantasy worlds, and so any setting teeming with wizards, princess, ogres, trolls and the like is OK with me. I also like how there's also modern day science and technology present; medieval fantasy has been done to death. Plus, I can't completely look down on a show that's given us a land called Candy Kingdom:





















...and its' ruler, one Princess Bubblegum.
















































PB is another favorite character of mine. Who couldn't like a pink princess who's also a science geek and rules a land of living candy people and whose pet is part rainbow/part unicorn? The fact that PB is voiced by none other than Hynden "Starfire" Walch doesn't hurt either.

Now we come to the gripes. Here's one of my biggest ones: the fact that for all of the Hot Dog Princesses, laser-blasting flying cubes, dirty thieves and overly muscled barbarians which inhabit this world, the one character at the helm, the one which we have to see more of than anyone else is........




































...this kid, Finn the Human.


Now before you pelt me with rotten fruit, let me explain myself. I don't hate Finn, or even dislike him. Not one bit. But you have to admit that it would've been cool to get a wisecracking apprentice wizard or a hot fairy or something as our protagonist instead of an ordinary human boy. I get that the show is more or less every 12-year-old boy's fantasy: he gets to run around, fighting monsters and what have you, vanquishing evil and nearly princess on the show has the hots for him. I get that. I do. But let's be honest here: how many adventure-loving, hyper, athletic, not book-smart but brave, courageous and fearless preteen boys have we seen as the stars of their own shows before? Start with about 30 and work your way up. Finn isn't a bad character, he's just nothing that I haven't already seen a dozen other times on a dozen other shows. I mean, Chowder and Flapjack, stars of their own respective self-titled Cartoon Network shows, are also young boys, but they at least bring something different to the table: Chowder, aside from being a purple cat/bear/rabbit thing, he's also a silly, food-loving apprentice chef who studies under a talented but narcissistic cooking master with an abrasive mushroom pixie for a wife and a surly rock monster for an employee at the catering company they all work in. Flapjack is an incurable optimist and the only nice, squeaky-clean thing in his ugly, dirty, creepy, scary sea harbor town who lives inside a maternal whale and who idolizes and worships a washed up old sea captain who's the biggest jerk/bum/liar/loser in town, but he's the only one too naive to see this. Those are at least different. Aside from that hat, what does Finn bring to the show that we haven't seen a ton of other boy heroes of his ilk bring? Sure, he's a tad spazzier than most other cartoon boys and prone to bizarre rages at the slightest provocation, but the basic problem I have with Finn is that he's surrounded by characters who are far more interesting than he is: Jake is more interesting than Finn. Princess Bubblegum is more interesting than Finn. Lady Rainicorn is more interesting than Finn. Marceline the Vampire Queen is more interesting than Finn. Lumpy Space Princess is more interesting than Finn. Heck, the character of Science Cat, who only appeared in 1 scene of one episode ("My 2 Favorite People") is more interesting than Finn.

With his nonstop ranting about heroism and fighting evil, he reminds me of another character: Amelia from the anime Slayers!























Like Finn, Amelia can be a tad annoying at times too. However, Amelia has 3 things going for her which put her over Finn for me:

1. Amelia knows magic, so she's capable of doing more than just making overblown speeches about justice and punching.
2. Amelia is adorable, which is what keeps her from becoming too annoying (the old "How can I stay mad at that face?" tactic).
3. Amelia isn't the star of Slayers!; she's just one of the series' regulars. The writers knew that if Amelia were front and center, she'd quickly become irritating, the more layered and complex character of Lina is the protagonist.

Now, just to straddle the fence a little, it's possible I'm being a tad harsh with this criticism. I know Finn has a lot of fans, and like I said, I don't dislike the character; I'd just like to see him do a little more than the whole "speech-run-jump-punch" bit. I fear that Finn's one-note personality may put a limit on the number of stories the writers can do without repeating themselves. So far, they typically go: Finn and Jake go to x-location, meet some locals, some sort of conflict erupts, Finn goes into his hero spiel, fights someone, odd random things happen, conflict is resolved.

-Plus, and I know I'm being a total guy here, but Finn ain't much to talk about as far as fan service goes. Hey, us older guys need incentive to tune in too.-

The other beef I have with AT is that it tends to go overboard with its' surrealism. I actually like shows with a touch of the surreal (one of my all-time favorite cartoons is 1989's Beetlejuice from Canada's Nelvana studios, which depicts a 'Neitherworld' which is a land-of-living-puns) But sometimes the show's humor can be a little too "out there". Even zany humor has to have a modicum of logic and be somewhat grounded. Even Beetlejuice's Neitherworld had some rules and structure to it. Adventure Time's Looneyland is basically anarchic.

To name just one nitpick: As much as I enjoy the Candy Kingdom and its' inhabitants (seriously, it's probably my favorite location on the show), Princess Bubbegum's genealogy is all over the road. If she's the absolute ruler of Candy Kingdom and her parents aren't around, then shouldn't she be Queen? And just where are PB's parents? It's understandable why Finn runs around without any parents or guardians since it's part of his shtick that his past is a mystery (for all we know, he could be a survivor of the big disaster which wiped out the previous civilization), but Bubblegum is a princess, she should have a tad more structure than that. And just how old is PB anyway? 14? 15? 16? That whole thing just gets glossed over.

Finally, while the show delivers some laughs, I have yet to experience any true belly laughs as I have on Chowder or Flapjack, or even Johnny Test. And one mo' thing: just what is all of the fanatical fandom for the character of Marceline the Vampire Queen? She's only made 1 appearance so far and people on the 'net have taken to her like geeks to a new Batman sequel. "Team Marceline"? WHAT?

I don't flat-out hate Adventure Time, but it's not giving me a lot of reasons to want to keep on watching it. The stories and characters on average just don't really interest me, and the show's humor (or what passes for humor) just doesn't do anything for me, either.


It's possible that I'm just venting a bit, or maybe I'm just confused because I'm not feeling the huge fandom that others are. But again, I'm not easily impressed. Maybe as time progresses, I'll grow as fond of Adventure Time as others are now. To sum up: I don't think Adventure Time is a bad show; on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give it a solid 5. I just think less than 3 months on the air is far too early to be declaring a show the best anything. It needs time to find its' legs and we need to see if it can continue as strong as it has when it first exited the starting gate. Adventure Time is an OK, show, if a tad overhyped.

Not terrible by any means, just not the best show ever.