Adventure Time

I'm clearly not alone in saying that Adventure Time is a brilliant show. The loveable characters, surreal humour, cute art style, and brilliant story all make it an amazing cartoon. I would personally call it surrealist art, rather than just another silly kid's show though. For starters, there are a lot of dark aspects of the show that are hidden underneath the bright and upbeat atmosphere. It's no secret anymore that the show is set in a post-apocalyptic world, but before now, the only way to know that would be if you were to really analyse it and catch all the hints that were hidden in the background, or some major ones that would appear for one frame. Plus, even though the art style is cute and reminiscent of a child's drawings, and they spend a lot of time in the Candy Kingdom, a brighter and more up-beat setting but every so often they will wind up in a more darker location, like a cave full of monsters or an old post-war setting. Even with all these dark aspects, though, the show is still light-hearted and silly, and this contrasting tone is surreal to me. There is also a sense of growing maturity as the show progresses. The protagonist, Finn, grows older as the show goes on. In the first season he's more immature and is more of an excitable little kid, but the more he gets older, the more serious the show gets. Finn starts to discover what it's like to date a girl, the value of his friends, and responsibility. It seems to be a made like a dream-world, created by a young boy's psyche that matures the older he gets.