Television

The Fun Never Ends With Four New 'Adventure Time' Specials Coming To HBO Max

adventure time hbo max
By Hoai-Tran Bui

As Adventure Time taught us over and over, the fun (and adventure) will never end. A year after the acclaimed Cartoon Network series went off the air, HBO Max is bringing back the animated fantasy-adventure for four new specials. The Adventure Time HBO Max specials will be an hour long each, and will not only bring back everyone's favorite talking dog and human but give the spotlight to a slew of the Land of Ooo's most colorful denizens.

Cartoon Network Studios will be producing the four hour-long Adventure Time specials, titled Adventure Time: Distant Lands, which are set to premiere exclusively on HBO Max in 2020. The first two specials set to air in 2020 are BMO, which follows the lovable air-headed robot on a "deadly space emergency," and Obsidian, a Marceline and Princess Bubblegum-centric story that will be sure to send the Bubbline shippers in a tizzy. Wizard City and Together Again will follow at undisclosed dates.

Here are the synopsis for the four specials:

  • BMO follows the lovable little robot from Adventure Time. When there's a deadly space emergency in the farthest reaches of the galaxy, there's only one hero to call, and it's probably not BMO. Except that this time it is!
  • Obsidian features Marceline & Princess Bubblegum as they journey to the imposing, beautiful Glass Kingdom—and deep into their tumultuous past—to prevent an earthshaking catastrophe.
  • Wizard City follows Peppermint Butler, starting over at the beginning, as just another inexperienced Wizard School student. When mysterious events at the campus cast suspicion on Pep, and his checkered past, can he master the mystic arts in time to prove his innocence?
  • Together Again brings Finn and Jake together again, to rediscover their brotherly bond and embark on the most important adventure of their lives.

    • With Cartoon Network producing the specials, I presume some of the original creative team will be on board — which is tantamount to these Adventure Time specials being a success. A weird, gonzo, wildly imaginative animated series that didn't balk at experimenting with animation styles or non-chronological storytelling even if it was cracking a bunch of fart jokes the episode before, Adventure Time was truly an a masterwork among animated cable shows.

    Created by Pendleton Ward and executive produced by Adam Muto, Adventure Time began as a surreal short uploaded to YouTube in 2010 by Nickelodeon that quickly gained a cult following. That cult following grew to every college stoner and countless young children when Cartoon Network picked it up and turned it into a series that ran for 10 seasons from 2010-2018 and won eight Primetime Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, and countless other accolades.

    In a statement following the announcement of the Adventure Time: Distant Lands specials, HBO Max original content head Sarah Aubrey praises the series as a great addition to the "HBO Max kids and family programming lineup" but the series was always so much more than that. It was made for a kid-friendly demographic sure, but Adventure Time had the ability to break your heart and blow your mind right after it made you laugh to the point of breathlessness. It was a "groundbreaking series and a creative playground for so many talented creative artists," as Chief Content Officer of Cartoon Network Studios Rob Sorcher, said. And it will be so good to have it back.

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