Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake

For the episode, see Fionna and Cake. For the comic series, see Fionna and Cake (comic series).

Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake
File:Adventure Time Fionna and Cake poster art.jpg Promotional poster
Genre	Adult animation Science fantasy Adventure
Based on	Adventure Time by Pendleton Ward Characters by Natasha Allegri
Developed by	Adam Muto
Story by	Jack Pendarvis Kate Tsang Hanna K. Nyström Anthony Burch Adam Muto
Voices of	Madeleine Martin Roz Ryan Tom Kenny Donald Glover Andrew Rannells
Theme music composer	Amanda Jones
Opening theme	"Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake Main Title Song"
Composer	Amanda Jones
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	8
Production
Executive producers	Adam Muto Fred Seibert Sam Register
Producer	Debora Arroyo
Running time	24–27 minutes
Production companies	Frederator Studios Cartoon Network Studios
Original release
Network	Max
Release	August 31, 2023 (2023-08-31) – present

Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake is an American adult animated television series developed by Adam Muto. It is a spin off of the Cartoon Network series Adventure Time, which was created by Pendleton Ward. Unlike Adventure Time, the show is made for a young adult audience. The third series in the franchise, it premiered via the streaming service Max on August 31, 2023.

The series focuses on the titular characters, Fionna the Human and Cake the Cat, alternative versions of main characters Finn the Human and Jake the Dog from the original series who had previously appeared in several episodes, along with the Ice King as his human form Simon Petrikov. The series is executive produced by Muto, who had served as showrunner for the latter half of Adventure Time and oversaw production of the Distant Lands specials, as well as Fred Seibert and Sam Register. Ten half-hour episodes have been confirmed, and are expected to be released with two episodes weekly until September 28.

Synopsis

Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake is a spin-off of Adventure Time, the latter of which follows the adventures of Finn the Human and Jake the Dog. This series follows Finn and Jake's gender-swapped complements, Fionna the Human and Cake the Cat. The series also stars Simon Petrikov, a character who for most of Adventure Time had been well known as the Ice King.

Fionna lives with her cat, Cake, in an alternate reality without magic, spending her days cycling through dead-end jobs; at night, she dreams of a magical world that appears to be forever unreachable. Simon, in the Land of Ooo, works from home, made into a living exhibit of a bygone era. Later, the trio travel throughout the multiverse, while also being chased by "a powerful new antagonist" who is "determined to track them down and erase them from existence".

Cast

Main article: List of Adventure Time characters

Main

• Madeleine Martin as Fionna Campbell, the gender-swapped version of Finn the Human.
• Roz Ryan as Cake the Cat, Fionna's pet cat who is the gender-swapped version of Jake the Dog.
• Tom Kenny as Simon Petrikov, formerly the Ice King.
• Andrew Rannells as Gary Prince, the gender-swapped human version of Princess Bubblegum.
• Donald Glover as Marshall Lee, the gender-swapped human version of Marceline the Vampire Queen.
• Sean Rohani as Prismo, a wish-granting deity residing in the Time Room and overseeing the multiverse.
• Kayleigh McKee as the Scarab, a multiversal auditor who hunts down Fionna and Cake.

Supporting

• Pendleton Ward as Ellis P., the gender-swapped human version of Lumpy Space Princess.
• Cree Summer and Jinkx Monsoon as the Lemoncarbs, gender-swapped human version of Lemongrab.
• Audrey Bennett as Astrid, a young human girl who is a fan of Ice King's Fionna and Cake stories.
• Jeremy Shada as Finn the Human and Farmworld Finn.
• Hynden Walch as Princess Bubblegum, Candy Queen, and Bonnie.
• Olivia Olson as Marceline the Vampire Queen and The Star
• Brian David Gilbert as the Winter King, an alternate-universe Ice King successfully controlling the crown's madness.
• Ron Perlman as The Lich.
• Felicia Day as Betty Grof, Simon's fiancée who disappeared after fusing with the malevolent entity, GOLB.

Episodes

No.	Title	Supervising director	Written and storyboarded by	Original air date
1	"Fionna Campbell"	Ryann Shannon	Hanna K. Nyström, Anna Syvertsson, Jacob Winkler, & Haewon Lee	August 31, 2023 (2023-08-31)
Fionna Campbell, a young woman who lives alone with her cat Cake in the city, dreams of having fantastic adventures, and is cynical and depressed despite having friends and acquaintances. When Cake begins behaving oddly, Fionna's trip to the vet results in her getting fired from her job. She is eventually directed to the bizarre Ellis P. and openly admits to him her own personal insecurities. Cake suddenly chases after a mysterious blue light and jumps into an ice cream vendor's stand where she mysteriously disappears.
2	"Simon Petrikov"	Steve Wolfhard	Iggy Craig, Graham Falk, Jim Campbell, & Lucyola Langi	August 31, 2023 (2023-08-31)
Simon Petrikov works in a personalized 20th-century home for visitors in the land of Ooo, only to be tormented by his past as the Ice King, who authored the Fionna and Cake stories; a brief adventure with Finn Mertens and a one-sided phone call with Marceline only leaves him even more dejected and isolated. Later, Simon attempts to perform a ritual to bring back Betty, his fiancée who disappeared after fusing with the malevolent entity GOLB. Instead, a portal appears on the back of his head that brings Fionna's pet cat Cake into his world.
3	"Cake the Cat"	Ryann Shannon	Hanna K. Nyström, Anna Syvertsson, Jacob Winkler, Haewon Lee, & Nicole Rodriguez	September 7, 2023 (2023-09-07)
With Cake's arrival in Ooo, the crossover triggers a nonstop alarm in the Time Room, but a depressed Prismo ignores it, instead watching Finn and Jake's adventures. Fionna witnesses Cake's disappearance and desperately tries to find her; meanwhile, in Ooo, Cake flees from Simon's house and explores the world around her, inadvertently causing mayhem in a market. Simon resumes his magic ritual, creating another portal, which allows Fionna to pass through. With the help of Astrid, Fionna reunites with Cake, but the two are suddenly teleported away.
4	"Prismo the Wishmaster"	Steve Wolfhard	Iggy Craig, Graham Falk, Jim Campbell, & Lucyola Langi	September 7, 2023 (2023-09-07)
Prismo teleports Fionna, Cake, and Simon to the Time Room, revealing that he created the Fionna and Cake universe unauthorized, which is strictly forbidden, and surreptitiously hid it within the Ice King's mind. After the Ice King was turned back into Simon, the universe lost its original magical qualities. A regular auditor named Scarab visits the Time Room for investigation, where he finds Fionna, Cake, and Simon; however, Prismo gives the trio a remote to escape. Simon suggests to the duo about him being the Ice King again, so as to solve their problems.
5	"Destiny"	Ryann Shannon	Jacob Winkler, Sonja von Marensdorff, Hanna K. Nyström, & Anna Syvertsson	September 14, 2023 (2023-09-14)
Fionna, Cake, and Simon search for the crown in the Farmworld, and one of the adult Farmworld Finn's children, Jay, brings the trio home to stay with his family. Later, Jay and the trio go to the crater where the crown once sat, where they merely find some remaining shards, as it was removed and destroyed by Prismo, before being seized by the Destiny Gang. Scarab, just capturing Prismo, finds the crater and is teleported away along with the trio, who take a shard to fix Prismo’s remote.
6	"The Winter King"	Steve Wolfhard	Jim Campbell, Lucyola Langi, Iggy Craig, Graham Falk, & Nicole Rodriguez	September 14, 2023 (2023-09-14)
Having not heard from Fionna for days, Gary goes to her apartment, where he meets Marshall Lee. The two go shopping for a baking project, which the Lemoncarb twins later reject. Meanwhile, Winter King is copying his crown for Simon to restore the magic of Fionna's world; both him and Simon are kidnapped by the Candy Queen, who is actually an insane Princess Bubblegum, as he had transferred the crown's madness to her to cure himself. Fionna saves them and accidentally deactivates the crown, killing the Winter King and lifting Princess Bubblegum's curse. The trio flee as Scarab is still after them.
7	"The Star"	Ryann Shannon	Iggy Craig, Graham Falk, Jacob Winkler, & Sonja von Marensdorff	September 21, 2023 (2023-09-21)
In an alternate reality where a non-magical Simon has been killed by vampires, Cake is recruited by Bonnie and her vampire-hunting team to assume the crown possessed by the Vampire King, who adopted Marceline. When Bonnie's plan fails, Simon leaves this reality again with Fionna and Cake. Meanwhile, Gary and Marshall attend a charity ball held by Marshall Lee's mother, Hana Abadeer, who wants her son to join the family business. Sensing that this is against Marshall's will, Gary leaves with Marshall Lee, and they kiss in an elevator.
8	"Jerry"	Steve Wolfhard	Hanna K. Nyström, Anna Syvertsson, Jim Campbell, & Jackie Files	September 21, 2023 (2023-09-21)
Simon shares his past with Betty to Fionna, while Cake finds BMO, who lives alone in a desolate land. In the former Ice Kingdom, Fionna finds some old tapes documenting the Ice King's madness, and BMO unsuccessfully tries to fix the broken remote and burns off. They find BMO's friend, "Jerry," who is actually the Lich, having eliminated all life from the wish Prismo granted. Simon resumes the magic ritual, allowing Fionna and Cake to return to their universe. Scarab arrives just as Simon is about to put on the crown Fionna found, but a red portal appears and they both fall into it.
9	"Casper & Nova"	Unknown	Unknown	September 28, 2023 (2023-09-28)
10	"Cheers"	Unknown	Unknown	September 28, 2023 (2023-09-28)

Production

Concept and creation

The characters "Fionna the Human" and "Cake the Cat" were created by Natasha Allegri

The idea for "Fionna the Human" and "Cake the Cat" evolved from drawings that Adventure Time character designer and storyboard revisionist Natasha Allegri had posted online during the show's earliest seasons. Reception to the gender-swapped characters was so positive that the Adventure Time producers decided to write the characters into the series. They debuted in Season 3's "Fionna and Cake", which Allegri worked, and it functioned as both "a jab [and] a huge celebration of, [sic] the feeling of being a fan" and "allowing something completely ridiculous to make your heart tighten". The characters would make additional appearances in Season 5's "Bad Little Boy", Season 6's "The Prince Who Wanted Everything", Season 8's "Five Short Tables", and Season 9's "Fionna and Cake and Fionna". In these episodes, Ice King shares stories about Fionna and Cake he made, who are in fact characters from modern shows; when he sleeps, a beam projects to his head to transport ideas of the fan-fiction.

After the 2018 finale "Come Along with Me", a first spin-off series of Adventure Time: Distant Lands debuted in 2020; before the latter's finale, HBO Max announced that a gender-swapped spin-off series was in production, on August 17, 2021, and ten half-hour episodes were planned. In a 2022 interview, Jeremy Shada, the voice actor of Finn the Human, noted that he "may or may not be in that" when it came to the new spin-off. In the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2022-23, Cartoon Network and HBO Max released sneak peek material, while HBO Max was rebranded under the name Max as of May 2023.

Development

The Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake limited series was developed specifically with the young adult demographic in mind, according to Suzanna Makkos, an executive for both Max and Adult Swim: "The Adventure Time fans have grown up and people are still coming in the bottom, and they're aging up", she noted in an interview with Comic Book Resources. "[Fionna and Cake] felt like a perfect show for us. Tonally, it is very much Adventure Time, but Fiona's older. She's in the workforce. It's more adult, so I think it's going to bring in new fans, and it's also going to serve the fans that we already have." Longtime Adventure Time and Distant Lands executive producer Adam Muto produced the limited series and also served as the showrunner. In the interviews of The Direct and The Washington Post, Muto and Ryann Shannon explained that the crew decided to focus on Fionna and Cake pretty early on, not because of actively pursued by the network; for some fans, such content is the only what they desire, but the duo haven't actually been in that many episodes. In the United States, the limited series received a TV-14 certification based on the adult content (nudity, gore, profanity, and substance abuse); for instance, some of the lead characters were shown revealing underwear (Fionna) and nudity (Simon). On the other hand, the series remains the TV-PG rating, just like Adventure Time, in Australia.

Adam Muto, executive producer of Adventure Time, Distant Lands, and Fionna and Cake

Muto concerned about doing another spin-off, as for other franchises by the time, there were sequels and reboots released with mixed success. As such, the crew tried not to touch the original series too much; while there are cameos of some Adventure Time characters, but they were very conscious of "not stepping on what we've done before." Instead of relying on the precedents, the spin-off needs to be satisfying on its own, focusing on the characters' growth became helpful to distinguish the projects. In addition, as an episode is of limited length, fitting too many things in it would diffuse the attention too much, and Muto noted that he "think a lot of that was just in the writer's room and in the boarding."

When discussing how the production crew differentiated Fionna and Cake from the original Adventure Time series, Muto revealed that the crew members "were looking for ways to explore stories and characters that can be pretty different than Finn." While Finn is a selfless and energetic hero, Fionna is more ordinary and realistic, since she does not live in a world of magic and is not as skilled as a fighter. In this limited series, therefore, the writers "wanted to see where [Fionna would] go if she kind of knew about that magical world from the first series which had been denied her". Muto later added that the crew attempted to make Fionna more than just "Girl Finn" by giving her a unique personality that, in certain respects, is "way different than Finn and others." The crew also took this contrasting approach when working on Cake: While Jake is a lazy dog with the power to stretch his body into a whole number of fantastic shapes, Cake lacks magic powers and begins the series as a regular house cat. As to Jake's uncertain death, Muto decided to leave it ambiguous and noted that he doesn't "want to cut those off yet or say definitively what the answer is". For adult Finn's possible future adventures, Muto liked the idea of Finn living his own life but not necessarily having him in more episodes; instead, they brought back Farmworld Finn, which is a very different version of him.

According to Muto, the crew thought about doing more spin-offs with many ideas pitched, it depends on, however, "what the appetite is and who’s willing to bankroll it," as there are no guarantees for the buyers. In addition, a poorly-received project could exist and be discovered later, but in the trend of streaming platforms removing original content, Muto said that cancellation becomes a horrifying new normal, which is also freeing as they have no control over the case. There may be future reboots that may contain recognizability instead of existing continuity, as they are very recognizable just as visual icons, and they might trump the original one and become the new version, somebody else's Adventure Time. Muto hopes that the audience find the spin-off is enjoyable, but if one don't like it, "you can write your own ending, and that is equally valid."

Production design

Rebecca Sugar and Patrick McHale both returned to compose songs for Fionna and Cake

The three main characters were voiced by the original cast of Adventure Time, namely Madeleine Martin as Fionna, Roz Ryan as Cake, Tom Kenny as Simon Petrikov; Donald Glover voiced Marshall Lee, other cast members include Andrew Rannells, Kayleigh McKee and Sean Rohani. According to the trailer and the synopsis by Max, Finn, Jake, Princess Bubblegum and Marceline the Vampire Queen appear in the series. In the original Adventure Time series, the character Prismo was voiced by Kumail Nanjiani. However, due to a communication mishap with Nanjiani's representatives, the producers of Adventure Time believed that the actor was not available to reprise his role for Fionna and Cake, so they recast the part. Nanjiani later expressed his frustrations on Twitter, writing: "[Prismo is] one of my absolute favorite characters I've ever had the honor of playing... I would have [voiced him] for free... [The situation] is ridiculous." In the original series, Prince Gumball was voiced by Neil Patrick Harris and later Keith Ferguson; Justin Roiland originally voiced Earl of Lemongrab and he was replaced by Jinkx Monsoon.

Some known cast of the rest of characters are as follows. In the first two episodes, there are Robbie Daymond (Ice Prince), Niki Yang (BMO-shaped alarm), Maria Bamford (Starchy), Vico Ortiz (Hunter & Fern), Chelsea Peretti (Queenie), Phil LaMarr (Dog Tourist), Jack Pendarvis (Dirt Beer Guy), Dan Mintz (TV), Dee Bradley Baker, Erica Mendez (Skater Fairies & Ice Scout #1), Cristina Vee (Skater Fairies & Ice Scout #2), Jeff Bennett (Evil Choose Goose & Choose Bruce). For episodes 3-4, there are Grey DeLisle, Sharon Horgan (Minerva-bot), Marc Maron (Squirrel), Jim Cummings, Melissa Villaseñor (Rainy), Andrew Daly (Kheirosiphon & Wyatt); for the episode 5, there are James Kyson (Big Destiny), Mickey Zacchilli (Little Destiny), Tiffany Wu (Jay), Eric Bauza (Peanut), Nía Castro (Bonnie). For episodes 7-8, there are Jenny Slate (Huntress), Stephen Root (Martin Mertens), Erica Luttrell (Hana Abadeer), Billy Brown (Vampire King), Steve Little (virtual assistant of Peppermint Butler), Cole Sanchez (Moderator & Heckler #2), David McCormack (Orbo).

As with Adventure Time, Rough Draft Korea and Saerom Animation worked in different episodes of the spin-off series. In an interview with Animation Magazine, Adam Muto revealed that for this spin-off, the writers had to plot out the season beforehand; this approach was required of them by Max, and it contrasted with how the writers had approached storylines when working with Cartoon Network. Muto noted that the production was challenging because there was not much overlap in terms of color palette and backgrounds, as each episode is basically its own new world. Approximately 50 crew members from Cartoon Network Studios worked on the pre- and post-production side; the production started in 2021, during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the team was based in California, but some animators were as far away as Russia and Japan; during the height of the pandemic, about 90 percent of the work was done remotely until the studio reopened in 2022. Production of Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake ended on December 9, 2022.

Former Adventure Time crewmembers Rebecca Sugar, Somvilay Xayaphone, and Patrick McHale as well as Distant Lands composer Amanda Jones returned to compose songs for the spin-off. The series intro and end credits were storyborard by Steve Wolfhard and animated by Nick Cross, who additionally animated the silent film sequence of the fourth episode, "Prismo the Wishmaster" and the Orbo scenes of the eighth episode, "Jerry". The song "Not Myself", written by Zuzu, is the intro song for the first episode "Fionna Campbell"; Sugar wrote two songs, "Part of the Madness" and "Cake on the Loose". For the sixth episode "The Winter King", with J. R. Kaufman, McHale wrote two songs "Winter Wonder World" and "Baked with Love", and the animation sequence of "Winter Wonder World" was directed by Alex and Lindsay Small-Butera (SmallBü), who previously guest animated two Adventure Time episodes, "Beyond the Grotto" and "Ketchup". The eighth episode "Jerry" features a song "Everything in You", written and performed by Half Shy, who also wrote the song "Monster" in Distant Lands.

Release

During the San Diego Comic-Con on July 20, 2023, Max announced that the Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake would debut on August 31, and a trailer was released on August 17. Within five weeks between the debut to September 28, two episodes will be released each week, making up ten episodes in total.

Outside the United States, the series debuted on the same day in Australia on the streaming service Binge, and later by Fox8 on September 1. The series also premiered on Cartoon Network in Canada on September 15.

Reception

Reviews

Since the day after the debut, September 1, Fionna and Cake has a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 10 reviews.

Before the debut, Chase Hutchinson of IGN commented that Fionna and Cake sidesteps mawkishness and embraces a distinctly unsentimental tone, which he found invigorating. He argued that "it ponders how the complex characters may have changed since we last saw them and, in recurring meta interjections, how its creators may have changed themselves". Kaiya Shunyata of RogerEbert.com said that the series let viewers "fall in love with different versions of characters that viewers initially fell in love with 13 years ago" and argued that the series remains "true to the show's fans". Coleman Spilde of The Daily Beast said the series is far from a "nostalgia-baiting cash grab" but is rather a "marked expansion of the Adventure Time lore", and stated that the series replicates the "soothing character design and animation style" from Adventure Time. He also argued that the series has "meta fun at its own history" and said that it succeeds where Adventure Time "faltered".

Jake Kleinman of Inverse said that the series moves the "entire franchise forward by leaps and bounds", called it one of the "most emotionally mature entries" in the franchise, and added that the series is, at its heart, "a story about the heartbreak of growing up". Nick Valdez of ComicBook.com stated that the series ushers in a "whole new era of the franchise" by focusing on "darker tones" and called it a "series made with fans of the original series in mind". Reuben Baron of Paste said that the series is "targeted specifically at a young adult audience," called it a show for "hardcore" fans, and compared the first two episodes to Bee and Puppycat and Steven Universe Future. He also stated that the use of multiverses in the series resembles Loki and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and called the series a "worthy continuation of the legendary cartoon".

Samantha Puc of Polygon and James Factora of Them both gave praise to the series for its queer representation—mainly through the romantic relationship between Marshal Lee and Gary Prince. Puc noted the intercutting between the relationships of Gary and Marshall Lee, and their gender-swapped counterparts Bubblegum and Marceline, in "The Star", commenting that "they are always written as each other's romantic destinies". Factora contrasted Gary and Marshall's "unabashedly gay relationship" with "how contrivedly heterosexual" the early seasons of Adventure Time could be at times. Puc similarly contrasted Fionna and Cake's casual presentation of "queerness as a given in its parallel universes" with the earlier Adventure Time, which had to "[fight] hard for increased and visible queer inclusion". Muto noted that, instead of him actively asking for it, the LGBTQ+ representation came out of the involved writers and artists themselves, who want their identities to be expressed and portrayed, and it became more overt in Steven Universe and some following shows.

External links

• Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake on Max
• Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake at IMDb