Anyone who watched the children’s TV show Adventure Time when it aired, would agree that the show’s silly yet dramatic post-apocalyptic plot was unique, funny, and whimsical. The show’s animation style, dark character development, and goofy one liners make the series fun and memorable. I recently decided to rewatch all 10 seasons of the show and found it to be much darker than I remembered.
Despite being a children’s show, the plot constantly revolves around the idea of world annihilation, reconciling with one’s past, and confronting the inherent true evil of the world. Cloaked in brightly colored, smooth animation, the world of adventure time actually reflects a dark and serious reality that often contemplates the existence of powerful negative entities. Overall, I found the show to be much scarier than I did as a child.
I found the music in the show to be much more powerful than simple children’s music. In the earlier seasons, music plays a huge part in the plot of each episode but as the series goes on there is less emphasis on song, and more on story and world building. The music, though centered around the plot of each episode, often highlights loneliness, love lost, and coming to terms with mental illness. Most of the music in the show features a fun simple theme, but a few songs maintain a much darker narrative.
Here is a playlist of songs that I found to embody the darker elements of Adventure Time: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2hmPAOQJ38eFeGdTp7cMXJ?si=fad30a9235954441
