It was one of those things that, even though it was just a short little seven-minute video, felt like something more important. The first is the Internet: the original short was one of the first videos I remember watching on YouTube, and, at 16, I was hooked. The success of the show can be chalked up to a few things. Now shows like Steven Universe (created by Adventure Time veteran Rebecca Sugar) and Gravity Falls (which reads like a version of Twin Peaks for kids), along with the phenomenal miniseries Over the Garden Wall (created by another Adventure Time veteran, Pat McHale) have taken up the torch, but for a time, there was just Adventure Time. Adventure Time is the elder statesman of this new wave of generation-crossing animated shows. Now, you can’t look at the state of children’s television without playing “spot-the- Adventure-Time-influence”. When Pen Ward first created the Adventure Time with Pen and Jake short in 2006, he was still just a fresh-faced CalArts grad with a multitude of ideas, trying his hardest to find a home for them, and Nickelodeon passed on his original pilot because they thought it would be too weird for the kids out there. They cross paths with the sociopathic and mentally unstable Ice King (Kenny), the megalomaniac ruler of the Candy Kingdom, Princess Bubblegum (Walch), 1000-year-old self-proclaimed Vampire Queen, Marceline (Olivia Olson), and any number of wacky weirdos across their episodic adventures. The Setup: In the post-apocalyptic acid-soaked fantasyland of Ooo, a young boy named Finn (Shada), presumably the last human alive, and his magic dog Jake (DiMaggio), go on various adventures to help the less fortunate, the unfortunate, the more fortunate, and, more often than not, themselves.
Original adventure time pilot for free#
Where to watch: Seasons 1-5 (and the first half of season six) available on Hulu Plus, stray episodes available for free on
Six Seasons on Cartoon Network, 2010-Present
Starring Jeremy Shada, John DiMaggio, Hynden Walch and Tom Kenny Boom! Comics “Adventure Time #5” alternate cover image courtesy of Created by Pendleton Ward