Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake
Entry updated 9 October 2023. Tagged: TV.
US animated tv series (2023). Frederator Studios, Cartoon Network Studios. Based on Adventure Time (2007; 2010-2018; 2020-2021) created by Pendleton Ward and the characters Fionna and Cake created by Natasha Allegri. Developed by Adam Muto. Directed by Ryann Shannon and Steve Wolfhard. Writers include Anthony Burch, Adam Muto, Hanna K. Nyström, Jack Pendarvis and Kate Tsang. Voice cast includes Felicia Day, Donald Glover, Tom Kenny, John DiMaggio, Kayleigh McKee, Madeleine Martin, Olivia Olson, Andrew Rannells, Sean Rohani, Roz Ryan, Jeremy Shada and Hynden Walch. Ten circa 25-minute episodes. Colour.
Fionna (Martin) and Cake (Ryan) – gender-swapped versions (see Transgender SF) of Adventure Time's main characters Finn the Human (Shada) and Jake the Dog (DiMaggio) (with Cake also changing species) – were created by Natasha Allegri. They appeared in five episodes of Adventure Time; initially explained as fan fiction written by the Ice King (Kenny), the last "Fionna and Cake and Fionna" suggested the pair's adventures were beamed into his mind as he slept.
Fionna Campbell works as a city tour guide in a world much like ours: but the only tv show seems to be Cheers (1982-1993), the tour bus's passengers are locals and small details in the architecture look off; the viewer also notes that the population are gender-swapped inhabitants of Adventure Time's land of Ooo – except that they are all human. Fionna and her cat, Cake, enter Ooo though a portal created by the occult attempts of Simon Petrikov (Kenny), the former Ice King, to locate his beloved Betty (Day). In the Adventure Time finale she had been absorbed by GOLB, the embodiment of chaos and discord – her sacrifice freeing Simon from being the Ice King.
The trio discover Fionna and Cake's world was created by Jake's friend Prismo the Wishmaster (Rohani), a builder of Dimensions for others, who had decided to make one for himself – realizing on completion that it is simply a variation of his friend's reality. What he had done was illegal, so he hid it in the Ice King's mind – and when the Ice King reverted to Simon that world shifted from magical to mundane (Fionna and Cake have the same effect when they touch magical items). Prismo's infraction is detected by Scarab (McKee), an auditor – they both work for an unspecified bureaucracy – who imprisons him then sets out to wipe out Fionna, Cake and their world (which does not extend beyond the City). Simon, depressed over both his failure to rescue Betty and acclimatize to Ooo, agrees to become the Ice King again, so restoring Magic to Fionna's world, believing this will mirror Betty's sacrifice. With a device provided by Prismo – who also gives Cake her talking and Shapeshifting powers – the trio travel through the Multiverse seeking a new copy of the Ice King's crown: Scarab pursues, ending up in Fionna and Cake's dimension, which he starts to erase.
Eventually Simon understands he has wasted Betty's gift and had unquestioningly accepted her devotion to him; meanwhile, Fionna realizes Simon becoming the Ice King again would be tragedy for him and that the inhabitants of her world should have some say in what happens to it. Lessons learnt, GOLB (within whom something of Betty's consciousness resides) now intervenes, enabling Fionna and Cake to defeat Scarab. All ends happily: Simon is now comfortable in Ooo, whilst Fionna's and Cake's world is linked to the other dimensions – made "canon". An overarching theme of the series is dealing with loss, a skill many of the characters lack.
The finale is very good, but wraps up Fionna's and Cake's threads a little too glibly – however it does bring the Adventure Time Simon Petrikov/Ice King arc to a satisfactory close. A criticism of Fionna and Cake might be that, though these characters are prominent, the show is more centred on Simon: however, should it prove the launchpad for further seasons focusing on the pair, this is less of an issue. Additionally, Scarab is a largely two-dimensional character, existing to move the plot. Nonetheless, the first nine episodes of the season are a joy; they include the trio visiting dimensions containing various iterations of Ooo's characters: tremendously rich and imaginative, they blend Absurdism, Humour and Horror – as most are Post-Holocaust Ooo's, the latter is marked. We also witness the romance between Marshall Lee (Glover) and Gary Prince (Rannells) back in Fionna and Cake's world, echoing that of their originals, Marceline the Vampire Queen (Olson) and Princess Bubblegum (Walch).
The mundane version of Fionna and Cake's world recalls Allegri's series Bee and Puppycat (2013-current), whilst the series has frequent references to other media: for instance, at least two Hayao Miyazaki films; Fionna dreaming of being a Sailor Moon-like hero; the pink laser that Prismo beams into the Ice King's mind a nod to Philip K Dick's Valis (1981) – and in this multiverse The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack is real. [SP]
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