Despite the original series coming to an end in 2018, the Adventure Time franchise has never slowed down. Fans have still fortunate enough to enjoy new tales from the Land of Ooo through acclaimed spinoff series such as Distant Lands and Fionna and Cake. Earlier this year saw the debut of Adventure Time: Side Quests, a series exploring the never-before-seen adventures of the franchise heroes Finn and Jake that recalls the early seasons of the show. After premiering an acclaimed first season a few months back, the second season is set to debut tomorrow on Hulu. Check The Beat’s review of Adventure Time: Side Quests Season 2.
Ahead of the premiere of the new season, The Beat had the opportunity to chat with executive producer and showrunner Nate Cash and supervising director Victor Courtright. Our conversation included coordinating the franchise’s continuity, experimenting with animation, and much more.
Taimur Dar: You’ve created a lot of new characters for the Adventure Time franchise with Side Quests. So I have to ask about the character of Abrelton Danno introduced in this new season. How did he come about and what’s his connection to Abracadaniel?
Nate Cash: That started as Abracadaniel. Then in writing we were like, “We don’t know if the timeline would work out because we don’t know when the Wizard Battle happened.” So Jesse Moynihan just decided to switch out the name to add a little bit of confusion whether or not it’s one of his personas.
Taimur Dar: Along those lines, was there anything off-limits to you or did you have access to everything?
Nate Cash: Full access to everything. I think one character I tried not to mention was The Lich. We hadn’t planned on following that thread or having the series go in that direction.
Victor Courtright: I think it was all on the table and a question when did [Finn and Jake] meet [certain characters]. Would they have been around in these early days? Nobody was telling us we couldn’t use any specific characters. It was what we were excited about. Like Abracadaniel, it’s easy to not 100% commit. Maybe he’s a new guy or maybe he went through a phase.
Taimur Dar: Adventure Time has always been an experimental show. Right out the gate this season, you do some different things with the “Death Fiction episode. What went into the different animation style for that episode?
Nate Cash: That was a real treat to do. It started out as a cool episode idea where Finn and Jake accidentally watch a movie with more explicit violence than they’d ever seen and want to bury and get rid of it. The board was done and it was amazing. Victor had some experience doing full animation here in the states on his own. So he rolled that experience and getting the board artists to animate it. It was born out of experimentation.
Victor Courtright: My whole thing is I think we can do stuff on a smaller scale. Basically, we worked with the same two artists who wrote and storyboarded the episode to fully animate it. So it was working with a very small team who was very familiar with the episode and good, fast talented animators. The goal was to do it in the same amount of time if we had shipped it to the overseas studio. Obviously it took a little bit of convincing on the Warner Bros. side. [Laughs]. That is not typical but I think that we proved that it should be. I hope if we end up doing more episodes we end up doing way more. They’ve already expressed some interest. Fingers crossed.
Taimur Dar: Adventure Time was initially fairly episodic before growing into these vast serialized storylines. With Side Quests, you’re going back to basics with the episodic approach. Do you find episodic easier or harder than serialized storytelling?
Nate Cash: For me, 11-minute episodic is so fun. It just feels like making a bunch of student films. Each [episode] is interconnected because we’re using similar characters and they do have shared experiences between episodes.
Victor Courtright: It’s not easier. I think a lot of shows nowadays, you get one season and it’s one story with lots of little details. We’re doing 11-minutes and each one is its own story. It has to have a beginning, middle, and end. It’s not easier. It’s kind of harder in some ways because each story has to be unique and complete. For me, and I think Nick and a lot of other people on the show, it’s kind of more fun because you get to play with more stuff and have more ideas. Through the fun of it all, it feels like less work than it is. It’s not easier but definitely more fun.
Taimur Dar: As I’ve mentioned, Adventure Time has become a major franchise in its own right and has still continued since the original series ended with Fionna and Cake and the upcoming Bubblegum and Marceline spinoffs. Is there any communication between the different shows just to make sure you’re not stepping on each other’s toes with what you’re doing?
Nate Cash: I don’t think there’s too much overlap because we’re each trying to do such different things. We’re so focused on standalone [episodes] like Victor said. Our intention is not to disrupt continuity with the rest of the series so we’re kind of policing ourselves so it feels like it’s own thing that lives within the world but doesn’t need to be tethered to other storylines.
Taimur Dar: Many people involved in Side Quests previously worked on the original Adventure Time series. But you’ve also brought in folks who are playing in the Adventure Time sandbox for the first time such as writer Dani Michaeli. How did you build the crew for the Side Quests?
Nate Cash: Intentionally, I tried to mix it up with people who already know the show and I already know what their sensibilities with the characters are. And then people who I knew hadn’t done it before and imagining, “That would be amazing to have [them]!” You mentioned Dani. I got to work with him on SpongeBob and I loved the outlines he created for SpongeBob. That became a match made in heaven for the episode he came up with. Victor too, I imagined the things Victor would bring the series I know haven’t been done before but also fit in so well.
Victor Courtright: I think a lot of us who didn’t work on the original show, most of us were already fans and watched the whole thing. We were really invested in it as it was coming out. To throw it into this space was a big, wonderful magic dream come true. But then working with people from the original show. I remember seeing Jesse Moynihan’s first pitch for this show. It opened pathways in my brain. When Pendleton Ward pitched his chunk of the episode that he did with Niki [Yang] it felt like I was understanding it on a whole new level that as a fan I wasn’t aware of. It’s a dream come true [and] wish fulfillment but also it was like art school a little bit coming in and seeing these different perspectives on how to approach storytelling.
Nate Cash: That’s the magic of the original series, too. It was a bunch of film school buddies who knew each other because of our student films and seeing each other’s student films. But also indie comic makers we didn’t even know if they were interested in animation or not. We knew Jesse Moynihan through his comic Forming and we just brought him on. It’s similar vibes.
Taimur Dar: Adventure Time has always boasted some major guest star voices. This season of Adventure Time: Side Quests has a pretty major actor voicing the character of Sweet Tooth. I don’t want to divulge the person so people can find out for themselves. But can you reveal how you got that actor?
[Laughter]
Victor Courtright: This mysterious person happened to be already a big fan. That’s the thing. Reaching out to a lot of different people, you’re crossing your fingers. Even casting might be like, “You’re probably not going to get this person.” “Let’s just reach out anyway. You never know.” And a lot of times, people come back, “I’m a huge Adventure Time fan. Yes, I want to do this!” That was the case with that mysterious person and a lot of the other people that signed up. It was awesome. We were all excited.
Taimur Dar: Finally, anything you can tease for this new season of Adventure Time: Side Quests to excite fans?
Nate Cash: I’m excited for maybe the voice acting debut of Jon Ronson in the episode “Island of Shame.”
Victor Courtright: For the local viewers, that was in the first twenty [episodes] but I guess the international viewers will see that once it starts airing in October. I just want everybody to watch “Death Fiction” and anytime people are doing bespoke animation in a television budget. Please tune in and support it and be excited about that sort of thing happening more. Tell those studios we like it!
Adventure Time: Side Quests Season 2 will be available on Disney+ and Hulu October 2 and coming to Cartoon Network internationally on October 5.
