Adventure time all monsters

Since its premiere as a proper series on Cartoon Network, Pendleton Ward's Adventure Time has rapidly become one of the most rabidly successful cartoons to come out of America in nearly two decades, and in my book, rightfully so. It's as alternately funny, bizarre and touching as you could ask for, it's pleasant to look at, it's socially progressive in ways much more serious websites have already explained in excrutiating detail, and of course, its post apocalyptic sci-fi fantasy setting enables a limitless variety of stories and characters - including some of the most inventive creature designs to grace television since Courage.

Every time I nearly started on an Adventure Time monster list, another episode would premiere with something else I wanted to squeeze in, and chances are good that this page will just have to keep expanding as long as the series keeps getting renewed. These are, of course, only going to be some of my personal favorites of note in no particular order; if I were aiming for completeness, we would have a multi-page archive on our hands, but feel free to discuss other creatures in the comments!

Episode: "Dungeon"

A great deal of Adventure Time's setting draws inspiration from fantasy role-playing games, and this was the first episode to really drive that home, with a string of monsters lifted almost straight from Dungeons and Dragons. Many gaming worlds offer their own take on the shape-shifting "mimic, " usually disguised as a treasure chest, but Adventure Time's bug-eyed, babbling, treasure-vomiting example is at once one of the coolest and funniest I've seen in quite some time.

Though referred to by Finn as a mere "trap, " this living dungeon floor is a dead ringer for the Trapper, a flesh-eating monster from the original AD&D Monster Manual. Phased out of the actual game, it's nice to see one of my old favorites get a television role even this minor. Whatever pays the bills!

The adorable Jelly Cube, meanwhile, differs only from D&D's iconic Gelatinous Cube by name and the delightful presence of free-floating, tentacled eyeballs. Of course, nothing says those really have to be the Jelly Cube's eyes. For all we know, they could just be a pair of cute little eye creatures who happen to take up parasitic residence in dungeon-dwelling oozes, perhaps alerting their symbiont to dangers it would otherwise never detect. Feel free to stat that up, guys!