The second season of Adventure Time, an American animated television series created by Pendleton Ward, premiered on Cartoon Network on October 11, 2010, and concluded on May 2, 2011. The season follows the adventures of Finn, a human boy, and his best friend and adoptive brother Jake, a dog with magical powers to change shape and size at will. Finn and Jake live in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo, where they interact with the other main characters of the show: Princess Bubblegum, The Ice King, Marceline the Vampire Queen, Lumpy Space Princess, and BMO. After the first, the second season of Adventure Time was quickly ordered by Cartoon Network. However, the beginning of the series debuted under production constraints, and "It Came from the Nightosphere" aired after just barely being finished. The first episode of the season, "It Came from the Nightosphere" was watched by 2.001 million viewers; this marked a decrease in viewers watching Cartoon Network when compared to the previous season's debut, although it marked an increase when compared to the last season's finale. The season ended with the episode "Heat Signature" on May 9, 2011. It was viewed by 1.975 million viewers, which marked an increase from the first-season finale. The season was initially supposed to end with the cliffhanger two-parter "Mortal Folly"/"Mortal Recoil." Still, due to a scheduling error, "Heat Signature" was the last episode to air for the season. In 2011, Adventure Time was nominated for an Annie Award, and the episode "It Came from the Nightosphere" was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Short-format Animated Program. Neither the series nor the episode won, however. Several compilation DVDs that contained episodes from the season were released after the season finished airing. The complete season set was released on June 4, 2013, on DVD and Blu-ray.
Development
Concept The season follows the adventures of Finn the Human, a human boy, and his best friend Jake, a dog with magical powers to change shape and grow and shrink at will. Finn and Jake live in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo, wherein they interact with the other major characters, including Princess Bubblegum, The Ice King, Marceline the Vampire Queen, Lumpy Space Princess, and BMO. Common storylines revolve around: Finn and Jake discovering strange creatures, battling the Ice King, and battling monsters to help others. Various other episodes deal with Finn attempting to understand his attraction towards Bubblegum. Two of the season's final episodes, "Mortal Folly"/"Mortal Recoil", expand the mythology of the show by introducing the Lich (voiced by Ron Perlman), who would become the show's main antagonist.
Production After Adventure Time debuted on April 5, 2010, with "Slumber Party Panic" and "Trouble in Lumpy Space", the series was quickly renewed for a second season of 26 eleven-minute segments. Around August 2010, the writing for the second season was finished, and the production staff had started to receive bits of animation from the show's overseas animation staff. The first episode to enter into production was "Loyalty to the King", based on its production code. However, it was later temporarily shelved, and aired as the season's third episode. The third episode produced, "It Came from the Nightosphere", was instead chosen to open the season. When the network announced the start of season two, the episode was not finished. On the official Frederator site, contributor Eric Homan noted that he would "prefer [that the series] stock up on a few episodes before jumping into season two, but it ain't my network". The episode was the first episode storyboarded by Rebecca Sugar. During the network pitch of the episode, Ward beatboxed and Sugar played ukulele and the two performed "The Fry Song". Sugar later called the experience "super terrifying", although the network did green-light the episode. This season's episodes were produced in a process similar to those of the previous season. Each episode was outlined in two-to-three pages that contained the necessary plot information. These outlines were then handed to storyboard artists, who created full storyboards. Design and coloring were done at Cartoon Network Studios in Burbank, California, and animation was handled overseas in South Korea by Rough Draft Korea and Saerom Animation. The exception to this is the sixteenth episode, "Guardians of Sunshine", which features roughly 5 minutes of 3-D animation that emulates the style of 8-bit video games. For these segments, the series asked animator Ke Jiang for assistance; he single-handedly "modeled, rigged and animated" the sequence. The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack creator Thurop Van Orman was brought in to work on the season as supervising producer and outline writer when his show entered a hiatus, but left shortly after Flapjack wrapped up production in order to concentrate on other projects. Benton Conner had just finished a job working on the series The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack and had subsequently taken on a job as a storyboard artist for Regular Show. However, due to scheduling delays, he was free to work on two episodes of Adventure Time—"Blood Under the Skin" and "Slow Love"—as a freelance storyboard artist. The season was the last to feature creative director Patrick McHale in a full-time capacity. He was still credited with being part of the story writing team with the premiere of season three, but his level of contribution was more limited than it had been for the first two seasons.
Cast
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