The Strange Allure of the <em>Adventure Time</em> World

When my daughter, Hadley, was around seven months old I realized that she started more actively paying attention to what was going on the TV screen. With this in mind, I happened to discover Adventure Time on Netflix and turned it on. I had seen many references, unknowingly, in the past on sites like Reddit, but boy was I unprepared for exactly what this show had to offer. My wife immediately joked about how I enjoyed it much more than my daughter ever has… which is probably true.

Watching cartoons and engaging in childlike activities is a great reminder of your humanity when you’re just a 9-5 adult; working, going to school, watching your kids… It is finally through having kids of your own that you get the opportunity to vicariously relive your younger years—which may sound boring to some, but it actually hard to quantify and explain until you actually are able to experience it. Watching a child learn to talk, walk, and seeing in their eyes the wonder about how the world works is something we all once had and is absolute gold.

Adventure Time is something that immediately appealed to me, as it reminded me of the expansive imagination and fun children have, all packed up in fantastically (and most amazingly) short episodes. Given my love for post-apocalyptic worlds, this show was right up my alley while somehow staying arm’s length from anything else in this realm.

It had my attention without me even recognizing it at first. Then my wife caught me singing “Makin’ bacon pancakes,” one morning.

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