Why 'Adventure Time' Is More Than Just Stoner Humour

Adventure Time doesn’t always colour inside the lines, and that’s a big part of what makes this genre-bending animated series the wild, weird treat that it is. At first glance it may seem like a knowingly hip riff on the surreal adventures of a hyped-up boy named Finn and his cool talking-dog pal Jake, but as the show has progressed it seems to have liberally borrowed elements from sources as diverse as H.P. Lovecraft, David Lynch and Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki in crafting its own unique style and sensibility.

“It can be enjoyed, at varying levels, by third graders, art historians, and cosplay fans,” wrote Emily Nussbaum, television critic for The New Yorker. “It’s also the type of show that’s easy to write off as ‘stoner humour’, which may be why it took me a while to drop the snotty attitude, to open up and admit the truth: Adventure Time is one of the most philosophically risky and, often, emotionally affecting shows on TV. It’s beautiful and funny and stupid and smart, in about equal parts, as well as willing to explore uneasy existential questions, like what it means to go on when the story you’re in has ended.”

It’s still primarily for kids, of course, but grown-up viewers can come away from any given ten-minute episode feeling a strange combination of giddiness and melancholia, which is a dichotomy that tickles series creator Pendleton Ward. “I think that contrast is really funny,” he told an interviewer in the US. “We do a lot of sad episodes and dark episodes, but, yeah, it’s true that they’re always partying to electronic music with, like, skeletons buried in the ground right below them.”

Ward’s objective with Adventure Time was simple, and one that will strike a chord with many creative people: he wanted to make something he would enjoy himself. “I like making children’s television,” he said. “And the point going into this was to make stuff that I would have liked when I was a kid. That’s what I’m interested in doing: making stuff that’s going to blow kids’ minds for the first time.”

He tells another interviewer, “Sometimes I recognise a joke that reminds me of something that I would’ve busted up at as a kid. I’m happy when I see those kinds of jokes. Because the show is for kids more than anyone else, but most of the time we are just trying to crack ourselves up and trying not to worry about much other than that.”

It’s perhaps not what you might expect from a TV station like Cartoon Network, but the station does pride itself on defying expectations and transcending stereotypes in its programming, something Curtis Lelash, its vice president of comedy animation, was keen to point out during his recent visit to Australia.

“What drives our thinking is that we’re looking for the most unique and surprising characters and storytelling in our projects,” says Lelash, an animation buff who had a stint at DreamWorks developing the likes of How To Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda before joining Cartoon Network. “At Cartoon Network, we’ve done that since the early days of Powerpuff Girls and Johnny Bravo, and you see it now with Adventure Time and Regular Show – they’re things that seem weird and risky to begin with but that also turn out to be beloved and broadly entertaining. One of the taglines we’ve had at the network is ‘Fun. Funnier. Fearless.’”

Lelash’s role has him overseeing all new comedy productions at Cartoon Network as well as supervising the shorts development program, which he describes an “an experimental and rapid way to develop new projects”.

"What drives our thinking is that we’re looking for the most unique and surprising characters and storytelling in our projects."

“For instance, the people who saw the seven-minute short that led to Regular Show said, ‘I’m not sure what this is or where it’s going to go... but, man, that was a lot of fun,’” laughs Lelash. “Or in the case of Adventure Time, well, ‘a boy and his dog’ hardly seems like an idea that might excite you at first, but we were interested in nurturing the talent of people who could create complex worlds that could drive stories over seasons. In animation you hear certain types of pitches over and over again, but we’re about finding people who can execute them in new and interesting ways, who can kick down the door with their unique vision.”

That’s partly what brought Lelash to Australia recently. “In looking for those unique voices we go all over the world, and having heard how well the likes of Adventure Time and Regular Show were received here in Australia, I was really keen to come. I think there’s a similarity in comic sensibility; we’re a good match tonally.”

The search brought Lelash to Melbourne animation company Bogan Entertainment Solutions, which is producing two programs, the anime-influenced Exchange Student Zero and the surfers-versus-creatures romp Monster Beach, for Cartoon Network. (Monster Beach is scheduled to premiere on Cartoon Network this October; Exchange Student Zero has a 2015 release date.) “We are really looking forward to introducing the world to a taste of what Australia can offer.”