Adventure Time (2007)

Interesting facts

Adventure Time is an animated short film created by Pendleton Ward which first aired on Nicktoons on January 11, 2007. The film follows the adventures of Pen, a human boy, and his best friend Jake, a dog with magical powers to change shape and grow and shrink at will. In the film, Pen and Jake have to rescue Princess Bubblegum from the antagonistic Ice King.

Production

Adventure Time was created by Pendleton Ward. The short's style was influenced by his time at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). Adventure Time was Ward's first job in animation after he graduated from CalArts. Ward had been contacted by Eric Homan, the vice president of Development at Frederator Studios, after Homan saw one of Ward's films at a CalArts animation screening called The Producer's Show.

During the initial storyboard pitch to Frederator Studios, Ward brought a guitar and played the episode's theme song. Frederator's CEO Fred Seibert was initially disinclined to make the short, feeling it was too much of a "student film" and without much commercial appeal.

Ward hired several of his recently graduated CalArts friends to work on the short with him. Neil Graf was tasked with coloring, Julian Narino was the background designer, and Adam Muto drew the props. Graf and Narino later got jobs with other series and studios—King of the Hill and Laika, respectively—but Muto continued working with Ward and eventually became Adventure Time's co-executive producer and showrunner.

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