One of the reasons Adventure Time is so interesting is that it manages a delicate balance - it is both your typical "kids cartoon" but also manages to appeal to an older audience. Most cartoons try to do this by slipping in pop culture references/jokes that will just go over children's heads - and AT does this too, there's a lot of literary and pop culture references; for example there's a great episode with Jonathan Frakes guest starring that heavily references the ST:TNG episode "inner light".
However, AT also goes beyond that.
It deals with themes like love, rejection, death, identity, and morality in very real and mature ways...but also in a way that children can relate to and laugh at it. There are quite a lot of episodes that deal with the main characters struggle with an unrequited love and heartache. An incarnate Death and "the cosmic owl" are reoccurring characters. One major arc is one of the characters struggle with (magic induced) mental illness. The show itself takes place after a nuclear holocaust has ripped apart the planet and mutated the inhabitants (referred to in the show as "the mushroom war").
One episode for example, the main character finds a bag full of miniature figurines in the form of all his friends. When he takes them out of the bag, they come to life. He becomes fixated on them. Obsessively pairing them up and taking them apart to observe their reactions. He takes the miniature version of his best friends girlfriend and pairs her up with another man. He stops sleeping, he just sits surveilling this tiny world he has become god of. It's depicted very much as a descent into madness.
There are quite a lot of episodes like this, and while they often get heavy and dark they never lose their young audience or fail to maintain an overall uplifting and optimistic tone.
However, AT also goes beyond that.
It deals with themes like love, rejection, death, identity, and morality in very real and mature ways...but also in a way that children can relate to and laugh at it. There are quite a lot of episodes that deal with the main characters struggle with an unrequited love and heartache. An incarnate Death and "the cosmic owl" are reoccurring characters. One major arc is one of the characters struggle with (magic induced) mental illness. The show itself takes place after a nuclear holocaust has ripped apart the planet and mutated the inhabitants (referred to in the show as "the mushroom war").
One episode for example, the main character finds a bag full of miniature figurines in the form of all his friends. When he takes them out of the bag, they come to life. He becomes fixated on them. Obsessively pairing them up and taking them apart to observe their reactions. He takes the miniature version of his best friends girlfriend and pairs her up with another man. He stops sleeping, he just sits surveilling this tiny world he has become god of. It's depicted very much as a descent into madness.
There are quite a lot of episodes like this, and while they often get heavy and dark they never lose their young audience or fail to maintain an overall uplifting and optimistic tone.
I wish I had a show like this when I was young.