Adventure Time is Not (Just) For Kids

Recommendations from you loyal and wise Sparklers are always welcome. But you must forgive me if I take your advice warily. After all, it was you who thought I'd enjoy A Very Potter Musical (I did not), and while I've come to like and enjoy Doctor Who, I have yet to tattoo a Tardis to my tongue and proclaim the show be the very best thing of all time. I still don't understand why the Doctor doesn't just…eh…never mind.

When you told me Adventure Time was good, I thought: I probably won't like it, so I better not watch it because I don't want the Sparklers to hate me. If I don't mention it, maybe Adventure Time will just go away.

But it didn't. And you kept asking me to watch it. And so I watched it.

It's the very best thing I've seen in a very long time.

No Sarcasm Hand was raised for that sentence. I love this show. I want to erase the previous episodes form my brain so I can watch them again for the first time.

If you don't like Adventure Time, then I don't like you.

What is Adventure Time? It's an animated show on Cartoon Network about a human (Finn) and his best friend (Jake…the magical dog). These two characters have adventures. And that's the overall plot.

It's a bright, colorful, cheery cartoon that is unlike anything else. It's crazy. It's completely, unapologetically crazy. But not crazy in the manic Spongebob way. Adventure Time is crazy in a This-Is-Pop-Art kind of way. There is a certain genius behind the show. Maybe it's the writing. Maybe it's the style. Maybe it's both.

It's a show that's impossible to fully explain to anyone who hasn't watched it. You could say it's Lord of the Rings meets Looney Tunes while having a fever dream. That's almost accurate. Maybe.

Season Three of the Emmy-nominated has just ended, but the first season DVD is available, and season four starts up in April. Watch it!

You will be downright shocked that:

A. This exists.
B. Human beings made it.
C. Someone at Cartoon Network allowed this to exist.
D. It's successful.

How did such a weird, silly, clever, insane, delightful, insane, wonderful, insane show ever get made?

But the real question remains: Is this a kid's show?

Short answer: Nope.

Slightly longer answer: Not really.

Kids will like it, but kids will like whatever is bright and colorful. Show a 5-year-old a bucket filled with used Silly String and he will be entertained. Adventure Time's sense of humor, music, and off-the-wall animation seems more focused on older audiences.

There are jokes about sex, violence, and other adult topics. But dumb kids are too dumb to realize it.

Thank you for recommending the show. Perhaps I should give A Very Potter Musical another shot...

No. No, I should not.

Are you excited that Dan loves Adventure Time?