Since My Baby Left Me

The recent discovery of Adventure Time, with Jake the Dog and Finn the Human, has brought back my interest for cartoons.

My personality has always kept an important childish side quite alive. Perhaps the fact that I developed a highly stimulated imagination had to do with that. When I was a little girl not only I loved role playing and spent hours with my action figures, but also I was an avid reader, and my favorite books were mostly related to adventures. You know, both kids and adults travelling, heartless villains, extraordinary powers, remote lands, magic characters… Of course cartoons and movies were also essential, but books helped me to develop a personal universe in which the main characters looked the way I wanted them to look, and all the descriptions in the books were adjusted to my own personal view.

Seems like many others in my generation are in the same situation, since years ago the trend of more adult oriented cartoons came up, being us the targeted addressees. There’s actually a rising market, and this product is gaining consumers and therefore strength. But hey! Let’s leave aside all these AOC series and let’s focus on the adventures of Finn and Jake in the Land of Ooo. We’ll deal with both chilhood and adult oriented cartoons in the future, as there’s plenty to talk about and many references to highlight.

As usual, in Spain this series is completely unknown and has started to be broadcasted by a minor cartoon channel not so long ago, at weird times. I didn’t know of their existence till a guy showed me a video of Marceline, the vampire queen, playing bass and singing a rock song to Finn, and the cool merchandising related. The aesthetics, far away from both the classic and the current trends, the energy of the characters, especially Finn’s, the settings, amazing places such as The Candy Kingdom, which vaguely reminds me a bit of Rainbow Brite, or The Lumpy Space , and the uniqueness of characters such as Lumpy Space Princess, Beemo, the video game console, and the scary Lich, caught my attention right away. I particularly like the personification of these inanimate objects.

Even though Adventure Time is about the stories of a 14-year-old kid, and a dog, and reminding us of Fry, in Futurama, this time it’s the human who is the weird creature, the freak. Humans are extinguished in the Land of Ooo after the fallen of the bombs, and Finn seems to be the only survivor, always seeking for adventures and committed to assist whoever might require some help. He’s a good boy, very energetic and enthusiastic, and the figure of Jake, the shape-shifting dog, seems to be like a kind of elder brother, trying to keep calm to balance this hyperactive character. There are rules established there, completely different to those ruling the old world, Finn has to stick to.

Some weeks ago, the news of Sponge Bob being gay were quickly spread. This was a conclusion achieved after some research. Yes, it does sound odd. This would be impossible if questioning Finn. Princess Bubblegum and the boy had this weird affectionate relationship, basically a crush which led to a strong friendship and complicity, Flame Princess is his current girlfriend, and Marceline is a very close friend.

Probably both the characters and the appealing way they are showed and designed have made me sympathized with this series. Not that I’m watching it everyday, but definitely trying to meet its unsettled schedules to see some of the stories.

Characters are so cool I’m really into the merchandising stuff. t-shirts, earrings, cufflinks, bags, sneakers, laptop cases, plush toys…everything is adorable.

So, let’s try one more time. What time is it?