I also appreciate how dark and emotionally charged this show can get, like the two-part "Holly Jolly Secrets" that revealed Ice King's tragic backstory, or "I Remember You" that touches on Marceline's youth, later followed up on with "Simon & Marcy". And, of course, the episodes done by guest animators that change up the art style.
That's where the show really gets me. While it does have a quirky and kind of cute atmosphere, it's a Cerebus Rollercoaster that doesn't shy away from being horrifying or disturbing, or in other cases
depressing as heck. It took one of the wackiest characters and gave him a depressing depth thus turning him into one of the deepest written characters in the series, and maybe in modern animation in general. This show could have easily just been a boy and his crazy Plastic-Man type dog having wacky adventures in a cartoony kingdom and it still would have been enjoyable and fun. But by making a show full of emotions and depth, this show ushered in a new era for television animation, especially at a time where these shake ups were needed most.
Say what? How come none of the good shows from CN's golden era ever got a seventh season?
Adventure Time came at a crossroads for CN. Management shifts because of the Boston Mooninite Lite Brite scare hammered the network, all the while Disney Channel's tween-centric programming was somehow choking the animation industry. They sabotaged their CN originals line up with weak cartoons like Camp Lazlo (which by no means is a bad show, just kinda disappointing when you think about who it came from) and My Gym Partner is a Monkey (perhaps the laziest, unfunniest thing to come out of a CN original). Those failures (ones they pretty much orchestrated) lead to CN's live action rebrand with that
awful stereotypical kiddycom that, quite honestly could have had potential for something, but turned into the old "stuffy principal falls into messy things" type kidcom that I just can't abide. Then they had two
better originals with Chowder and Flapjack, but CN just couldn't wait to sabotage those for their next biggest blunder. That's right. The AWFUL reality shows lifted from Discovery Kids' 2005 line up. Their general poorness, and lack of an audience speaks for themselves. Yet they
kept pushing these cheap to produce piles of crap while ignoring
every bleeding sign they should have abandoned it in the first place.
Then came Adventure Time. And trust me when I say this. We wouldn't have any of the major cartoons here or on The Disney Channel (or rather, XD) if it wasn't for this show. Finally. They had a reason to get kids over the age of 12 to watch cartoons and count them as the demographic. AT was the first show that proved Tweens can watch animated programming and didn't have to greenlight substandard Saved by the Bell knockoffs to get that demo. And that show in turn lead to Regular Show, Gumball, Uncle Grandpa, Clarence, Steven Universe and actually going back to the CN original programming that they since abandoned. So the popularity of the show pretty much saved the state of animation.
And as a result of that popularity
and still being overly cautious about their line up, that's why AT got another renewal. They don't want to stray too far from the comfort zone. And for once, it's actually helping the network more than hurting it.
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Although one does wonder how many episodes he's seen of these shows to actually judge them.