For me, “Adventure Time” was a silly but meaningless show that grew into something more. I was a teenager when it premiered in 2010, and it very much capitalized on the random humor that was popular on the internet at the time, with silly fantasy scenarios paired with contemporary dialogue and unexpected punchlines.
But slowly, it began developing its world of Ooo as a tragic successor to our world, one that had been shaped by nuclear fallout to eventually give way to a magical fantasy land. Its main villain, Ice King (Tom Kenny) was revealed to be Dr. Simon Petrikov, who had been kept alive for a millennia by his twisted ice crown that granted him ice powers but slowly drove him insane and made him forget about everyone he cared about. It’s stories like his that ultimately make “Adventure Time” an unexpected slow-burn show, one that its spinoff, “Fiona and Cake,” fully capitalizes on.
The show stars the titular Fiona Campbell (Madeleine Martin) and Cake the Cat (Roz Ryan), who are gender-swapped versions of “Adventure Time” protagonists Finn Mertens (Jeremy Shada) and Jake the Dog. In “Adventure Time,” they are the subject of fanfictions created by Ice King, but are revealed to be actual alternate versions of Finn and Jake from another reality created by the cosmic wish-granter Prismo (Sean Rohani). Minor spoilers, Prismo hid their universe in Ice King’s mind because he is not authorized to create universes.
After the conclusion to “Adventure Time,” Ice King loses his crown and reverts back to Simon, which in turn causes Fiona and Cake’s world to lose its magic, resembling a version of New York City with gender-swapped characters from the original show’s main timeline. Simon is plagued by the sacrifice of his fiancee, Betty Grof (Felicia Day), who merged with an all-powerful world destroyer named GOLB in order to save him in “Adventure Time.” Simon also feels left out in the futuristic world of Ooo, which has seen a huge resurgence in the human population.
After a failed ritual to see GOLB brings Fiona and Cake to Ooo, an evil Scarab (Kayleigh McKee) tasked with auditing the multiverse becomes aware of their unauthorized universe and starts to track them down. The show then becomes a multiverse-hopping adventure.
This show also ties up a lot of loose ends from “Adventure Time.” We see adult Finn, who has become reckless and more adept as a fighter in the years since the original show, as well as the Farmland timeline in which that universe’s Finn became an evil version of Ice King. We also see universes where Ice King never met Marceline the vampire (Olivia Olson), whom he mentored and looked after soon after the nuclear bomb changed Earth, as well as a timeline where the Lich (Ron Perlman), a major antagonist in the original show, won and succeeded in destroying all life.
Perhaps knowing that its audience is fans of “Adventure Time” and knowing this show might have an extremely limited runway thanks to the antics of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav cutting animation from Max, “Fiona and Cake” focuses a lot less on the silly but meaningless antics that originally was the focus of its predecessor and fully leans into expanding and fleshing out its existing lore, with Simon’s story taking center stage.
The show is called “Fiona and Cake,” but Simon is its protagonist, as he goes through a journey of self-discovery, acceptance and reform while he reevaluates how he has treated others and how he derives happiness. He’s a man in need of a purpose and in a way, Fiona and Cake give him one.
Fiona and Cake, however, have very little character development other than accepting their magicless world and learning to love it. Other than that, they’re essentially the same characters throughout the show.
This is a very good follow-up that manages to stand on its own from “Adventure Time.” It’s also a natural progression of the more mature focus that that show slowly introduced, something I’m keen to see more of in a second season.
“Adventure Time: Fiona and Cake” Season 1 gets a 9/10
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