The past decade has been a golden age for children’s animated television, and
Adventure Time led the charge. Starting life as a cute but seemingly inessential fantasy about a candy kingdom, a bubblegum princess, a boy named Finn and his malleable talking-dog best friend, Jake, the series quickly expanded its scope without ever losing its sense of wonder and playfulness. Exploring the pains of adolescence, building a mythology without ever seeming to strain for it, experimenting with different formats, finding depth and tragedy in a villain as goofy as the Ice King—nothing was out of bounds. At once complex and instantly accessible,