Everything Announced at the Annecy Cartoon Network, Max, and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe Panel

Cartoon Network Studios, Warner Bros. Animation, and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe had a panel at the Annecy Festival today. These panels aren't available to the public, but according to people who were there, we can see what was announced. There's a lot of news to cover here.

Wild pink female characters 🩷

Interesting to note that Fionnaworld losing it's magic is not the only thing that changed about it when Ice King was turned back into Simon Petrikov. The 'side-effects' of it being in Simon's head seem to have... inverted.

Because the whole thing about Fionnaworld being in Ice King's head is that this is how he 'got the idea' for his 'Fionna and Cake' stories. Even though Ice King was supposed to just be 'a big nutty hard-drive', it seems like IK's subconsciousness had some sort of a connection to Fionnaworld and absorbed information from it - that Ice King's conscious self then put into his stories.

This... doesn't seem to be the case with Simon. You know, it's not like he goes 'oh, I get ideas for Fionna and Cake stories sometimes I just don't want to write them because I associate them too much with the Trauma of being Ice King' or even "I can't relate to Fionna and Cake anymore! But I do have some ideas for a pre-war era story about the quarter-life crisis of a blonde girl also coincidentally named Fionna!".

There's no indication that he gets any sort of 'ideas' from the Fionnaworld in his head anymore, a fact that he attribute to, just, a lack of interest in the characters.

Maybe one could speculate that Ice King's magic-infused mind gave it more of an ability to connect to the AU God Shoved in His Head. But.... Simon Petrikov's subconscious is still connected to it on some level. As we can see by the fact Simon's thoughts and immediate surrounding keep effecting the events going on in Fionnaworld.

Did this ever happen with Ice King? It's really hard to say, since we've seen so little of the 'real' Magical Fionnaworld. It was almost always filtered via the lens of Ice King's 'fanfiction'. Like, most obvious examples of 'Fionna and Cake' stuff being influenced by IK's psyche are probably just supposed to be him rewriting the stories in an inaccurate way.

But still, since Prismo was also actively 'writing stories' for Fionnaworld, and he considered it his own personal creative outlet, and since he found Ice King to be a satisfactory 'hard drive' for it all... Like, I'm going to assume that if IK's subconscious had a noticeble effect of the events of the Magical Fionnawrold - Prism wouldn't have been happy with it.

What I think is going on is related less to the matter of the magical-ness of Simon's brain and more to the other factor that Prismo mentioned in regards for picking Ice King's brain

It's emptiness.

Under the effect of the Magic Crown's Curse, Simon has lost most of his long-term (and sometimes even short-term) memories and, like, a lot of knowledge and intellectual skills he used to have. And that meant... a lot of space to store a whole-ass universe in his head, with probably also room to spare.

And maybe even the emptiness of IK's 'cursed dome' acted a bit like a vacuum - causing some information from Fionnaworld to leak into his mind.

But once Simon became himself again, all of this information and knowledge was restored inside his head. And maybe most of the experience of being Ice King is just 'dream-like impressions' like he said back in 'Betty' - but he still seems to retain some memories of these 1000 years as well. Back in 'Betty' he seems to have immediately remembered Finn and Jake, and after being permanently cured, well... he does seem to at least remember the events of "I Remember You' vividly enough to try and recreate them.

So now Fionnaworld is in a head full to the brim with stuff and... well, now it's, like, smooshed up with all of these elements of Simon's mind and psyche. Metaphorically, I'm visualizing it as, like, a bunch of items shoved inside an overstuffed cupboard and Fionnaworld is getting squashed and bent according to the shape of Simon's thoughts and memories that are shoved up close beside it. Less 'breathing room' for the world, and so Simon's thoughts can subconsciously affect the world more. But Fionnaworld information isn't leaking out anymore cause, like, there's enough out-there already.

That might also explain why Fionnaworld seems to be so damn small. Not even a full city as much as a few blocks.

It should be about as large as the actual Land of Ooo, but it might've shrank to be 'compact' enough to still fit into Simon's no-longer-empty mind.

(But now that they're free from his head and also canonized that's no longer a concern. It's alright now.)

Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake Spoiler-Filled Review

Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake is a mature animated series developed by Adam Muto. It is a spinoff of the well-known Adventure Time series. Unlike the original, it is aimed at a young adult audience. Muto, Fred Seibert, and Sam Register are executive producers. Debora Arroyo is another producer. Frederator Studios and Cartoon Network Studios produced the series. This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without labor of the actors currently on strike, Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake, being reviewed here, wouldn't exist.

Reprinted from Pop Culture Maniacs and Wayback Machine. This was the fifty-second article I wrote for Pop Culture Maniacs. This post was originally published on October 9, 2023.

Unlike the original series or the Adventure Time: Distant Lands specials, this series focuses on alternate versions of Finn the Human and Jake the Dog: Fionna Campbell (voiced by Madeleine Martin) and Cake (voiced by Roz Ryan). Character designer Natasha Allegri created them years ago. These characters debuted in the season 3 Adventure Time episode "Fionna and Cake." They made additional appearances in Seasons 5, 6, 8, and 9 of that series. In that series, they are part of Ice King's Finn and Jake fan fiction. Also, the characters appeared in comic books which Allegri co-created with other comic book artists.

This series brings Fionna and Cake beyond their depictions in Adventure Time. In this series, Fionna works as bus tour guide, but struggles to find her place. The fact that her apartment is a mess, with uncleanliness and dirty dishes, is symbolic. It shows that her life is disorderly. In many ways, her character is relatable. She stands up for herself and is on the edge between having work (and not). The latter is not unique. Protagonists of Magical Girl Friendship Squad, The Great Jahy, and The Devil is a Part-Timer! are impoverished and live in similar circumstances. The difference is that Fionna actively does not want to go to work. Instead, she likes to hang out with street musicians like Marshall Lee (voiced by Donald Glover).

"oooooh, I know the comics aren't canon, but I wonder if Simon did an 'Ice King Apology Tour' in the main show continuity as well?"

Guys, let's not kid ourselves.

Simon's first instinct is to apologize for the actions of his Alternative Universe Counterparts.

OF COURSE HE DID A FUCKING ICE KING APOLOGY TOUR!

HE ABSOLUTELY DID THIS

Fionna and Cake ending with both Simon and Fionna realizing their worth in their current lives/existence. Realizing they do not need to be changed from who they inherently are to be better or more desirable. Simon and Betty not ending up with a “happy ending” because they made the choices they made and they’d never do it any different. Simon realizing how inadvertently selfish he had been. Fionna the same. I’m gonna freak out it really is all about loving the life you’ve been given and finding the joys and worth that are residing within you. Accepting the past for what it is and allowing it to help you grow. I need to sit down.

I am a sad sad person that has always wanted escape my life. I always wanted a portal to zap me off to somewhere different and adventure time just so happened to be my favourite show of all time.

When Fiona and cake came out and I saw it was about Fiona being underwhelmed by life as is I felt seen and I was waiting at the edge of my seat to see her get a world she wanted and she did, just not I the way I expected.

I don't know how to feel about it. I dunno if I should look at my life and take the joys where I can get them.

I don't know but I love ending regardless. Yet another treasure to keep with me.

Anyway my new Hot Adventure Time Theory is the Flapjack universe is actually the ‘Prime’ universe in the AT Multiverse and Ooo is, itself, a Wish-Altered Reality derived from it.

year of the girlfailure

So my current working theory about What the Hell is Going On is that, yeah, Fionna and Cake and their whole world are indeed a creation of Simon’s Mind. Like, it’s probably gonna be something about how Ice King’s brain was so infused with Magic and Madness and Sadness and a heartfelt belief that Fionna and Cake are real that it created this world where they can be real and now that he’s Simon again it’s still linked to him. But also Fionna and Cake and the others are ‘Real’ in the sense that they all have a clear interiority and real emotions and some amount of free will. You know, the fact that Fionna has some sort of lingering feeling that something’s Wrong about her world, and that everyone seems to dream of their old magical selves and their own magical lives is proof enough to me that even if they are born of Simon’s psyche they also have minds and wills of their own.

And my thoughts about the Ice Prince of Fionna’s dream is that it’s like… So Fionna is dreaming of snippets of her old Magical Adventurer Life in Ice King’s old fanfictions, filtered via also Regular Dream Weirdness and general Wish Fulfillment. And Ice Prince is the lingering afterimage of Ice King’s tendency to self-insert himself into Fionna’s adventures in very Wish Fulfilment kinda way (as seen at the start of ‘Bad Little Boy’, for example)

Only filtered through the lens of Fionna’s subconscious - and filtered through her own Wish Fulfillment desires (since she’s a Real Person now and not just a tool for Ice King’s fantasies) and also she’s a Sailor Moon fangirl

So if I’m right, that would make Ice Prince a Wish Fulfillment version of a Wish Fulfillment character created from the mind of a Wish Fulfillment character.

Fionna’s friendship with (Gary) Gumball and Marshall Lee

Lots of insane adventure time news today but the part that drives me to madness is this:

Back in 2013, Adventure Time spawned a number of successors. Steven Universe, OK KO, Clarence, in some ways Infinity Train, the big boom on cartoon network was a result of Adventure Time.

And yet, in 2023, after all its children and grandchildren have died off, after Cartoon Network Studios has been shut down completely, after we watched the show's very protagonists move on to their next lives, Adventure Time still stands.

And it's probably going to be with us for a long time yet.

Adam Muto is like Bmo, bunking in the top of mount cragdor as the One True King of Ooo while the cycles of death and rebirth in the world wash around, and yet he is still here, always the same,

This really is the never ending story.

a long old king amongst a field of a long forgotten kings

ADVENTURE TIME: FIONNA AND CAKE IS COMING AUGUST 31ST AAAAAAAA

I completely forgot to talk about this yesterday, so I'll talk about it now. Annecy happened a day ago, and Cartoon Network used it to give updates to a bunch of upcoming Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, and HBO Max shows.