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Ketchup (Adventure Time)

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"Ketchup"
Adventure Time episode
Episode no.Season 9
Episode 11
Directed by
Written bySeo Kim
Somvilay Xayaphone
Story byKent Osborne
Jack Pendarvis
Julia Pott
Patrick McHale
Ashly Burch
Adam Muto
Featured music"I Want To Ride" by Pat McHale and his son
Production code1042-271[1]
Original air dateJuly 18, 2017 (2017-07-18)
Running time11 minutes
Guest appearance
Episode chronology
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"Fionna and Cake and Fionna"
Adventure Time season 9
List of episodes

"Ketchup" is the name of the eleventh episode of the ninth season of the American animated television series Adventure Time. The episode was written and storyboarded by Seo Kim and Somvilay Xayaphone, from a story by lead writer Kent Osborne, Jack Pendarvis, Julia Pott, Patrick McHale, Ashly Burch, and series showrunner Adam Muto. It originally aired on Cartoon Network on July 18, 2017 and guest stars J. G. Quintel as a blue jay.

The series follows the adventures of Finn (voiced by Jeremy Shada), a human boy, and his best friend and adoptive brother Jake (voiced by John DiMaggio), a dog with magical powers to change shape and grow and shrink at will. In this episode, Marceline is unexpectedly visited by BMO who is asked to download a USB drive. While they wait, the two tell each other stories, leading to BMO telling Marceline the story of "the Child and the Moon Girl", based on Marceline and her mother.

Plot

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Marceline (voiced by Olivia Olson) is unexpectedly visited by BMO (voiced by Niki Yang), who believes that vampires are still threatening Marceline's life. Marceline assures the robot that the vampire threat passed months ago, and asks BMO to download the contents of an old USB drive. While they wait for BMO to secure the contents, the two decide to tell each other stories.

BMO goes first, describing how it, Finn and Jake recently traveled the seas. However, the story gets highly exaggerated and surreal, involving a cat named Ted and a blue jay (voiced by J. G. Quintel). Marceline then tells the story of "Lollipop Girl" and "Rock Star Girl" and their encounter with a "Blue Tranch" that resulted in "Weekend Island" getting taken over by a potato curse.

When the USB drive finally downloads, Marceline and BMO discover that it contains pictures of a young Marcy with her mother. Marceline feigns not knowing who they are and asks BMO to tell their story. BMO obliges and narrates a tale about "the Child and the Moon Girl". When BMO finishes, Marceline is moved to tears and thanks BMO for the story.

Production

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"Ketchup" was written and storyboarded by Seo Kim & Somvilay Xayaphone, from a story developed by Ashly Burch, Patrick McHale, series showrunner Adam Muto, Kent Osborne, Jack Pendarvis, and Julia Pott.[2] McHale—who had served as a storyline writer, storyboard artist, and creative director for the show in its first few seasons—wrote portions of BMO's first story with his son; the two also wrote the lyrics for the song that Finn sings in this segment.[3][4] Elizabeth Ito served as the episode's supervising director, and Sandra Lee served as art director.[2] Portions of this episode were animated by Alex and Lindsay Small-Butera,[5] a husband and wife duo had previously contributed animation to the eighth-season episode "Beyond the Grotto".[6]

The Small-Buteras were tasked with animating each of BMO and Marceline's stories in a unique style. The palette for the first segment, narrated by BMO, was based on the "tropical" feel of the Islands miniseries. However, the Small-Buteras made use of tones that were slightly "off" to give it an "unsettling atmosphere".[7] The entire sequence featured 24 frames a second "to heighten [its] dream-like, sweet, but eerie quality".[8]

The second sequence starts off with a palette based on Princess Bubblegum's look (e.g. bright pink) and ends with a palette based on Marceline's colors (that is, "cool" colors, like grey, black, and dark blue).[9] This sequence also used a number of unique shots and idiosyncratic angles so that it would "feel more cinematic and important, since it's an important story to Marceline."[10] The idea to reinterpret Bubblegum's distorted elemental self as a potato monster was inspired by the anime Akira.[10]

For the final segment, the Small-Buteras decided that they wanted to animate the story in the style of a fairy tale. To do this, they made it "feel very staged" by "border[ing] everything with lush, velvet curtains to sell that vision of the piece."[11] The fairy-tale version of Marceline's mother is wearing a dress that recalls a bird cage, since the character "is sort of a prisoner of circumstance".[12]

Reception

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"Ketchup" first aired on Cartoon Network on July 18, 2017. The episode was viewed by 0.67 million viewers and scored a 0.19 Nielsen rating in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic. Nielsen ratings are audience measurement systems that determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States, which means that the episode was seen by 0.19 percent of all households aged 18 to 49 years old were watching television at the time of the episode's airing.[13] The episode was physically released as part of the complete eighth, ninth, and tenth season DVD on September 4, 2018.[14]

Oliver Sava of The A.V. Club awarded the episode an "A–" and wrote that "Ketchup" "is a great example of [of] how different creative voices change the series".[15] Sava wrote positively of the episode's tone, use of emotion, unique animation and its use of misdirection, ultimately concluding that "Ketchup" "highlights the versatility of its guest animators and shows hows [sic] embracing different styles can enrich storytelling."[15]

For her work animating the characters for this episode, Lindsay Small-Butera received an Emmy for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation" at the 70th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, making it the show's sixth win in this category.[d][17]

Explanatory notes

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  1. ^ Supervising director
  2. ^ Art director
  3. ^ a b Co-director of "special sequences"
  4. ^ Previous winners included Andy Ristaino (2013), Nick Jennings (2014), Tom Herpich (2015, 2016), and Jason Kolowski (2016).[16]

References

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  1. ^ Production codes for the season derived from the following sources:
    • Adventure Time production staff (November 8, 2013). "King of Ooo". Tumblr. Archived from the original on November 9, 2013. Retrieved November 9, 2013. Note: Production codes are stamped onto various storyboards that must be searched for.
    • "Copyright Catalog" (enter "Adventure Time" in the search parameter and select individual episode titles for further information). United States Copyright Office. Archived from the original on June 29, 2012. Retrieved July 14, 2017.
  2. ^ a b Ito, Elizabeth (supervising director); Sandra Lee (art director); Seo Kim & Somvilay Xayaphone (storyboard artists) (July 18, 2017). "Ketchup". Adventure Time. Season 9. Episode 11. Cartoon Network.
  3. ^ McHale, Pat (August 31, 2017). "'My Son and I...'". Tumblr. Archived from the original on January 5, 2018. Retrieved June 17, 2018.
  4. ^ Adventure Time production staff (July 18, 2017). "'Video Pitch...'". KingOfOoo. Tumblr. Archived from the original on December 27, 2017. Retrieved June 17, 2018.
  5. ^ Adventure Time production staff (July 7, 2017). "Adventure Time Returns on Monday, July 17th". KingOfOoo. Tumblr. Archived from the original on July 19, 2017.
  6. ^ Adventure Time production staff (April 8, 2016). "'Beyond the Grotto' Promo Art". KingOfOoo. Tumblr. Archived from the original on May 2, 2016.
  7. ^ Small-Butera, Lindsay [@SmallBuStudio] (February 4, 2018). "The first sequence, a story by BMO, was actually based on an adorable story by @Patrick_McHale 's tiny son!s" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  8. ^ Small-Butera, Lindsay [@SmallBuStudio] (February 4, 2018). "I also chose to have the sequence entirely on 1's" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  9. ^ Small-Butera, Lindsay [@SmallBuStudio] (February 4, 2018). "The second sequence, Marceline's puppet show!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  10. ^ a b Small-Butera, Lindsay [@SmallBuStudio] (February 4, 2018). "I love night palates, plus a little Akira inspo for potato-cursed Princess Bubblegum" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  11. ^ Small-Butera, Lindsay [@SmallBuStudio] (February 4, 2018). "BMO's last story, called Moon Lady, read to me as a fairy tale" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  12. ^ Small-Butera, Lindsay [@SmallBuStudio] (February 4, 2018). "I had a lot of fun designing a "Moon Lady" based off Marceline's mom!!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  13. ^ Metcalf, Mitch (July 19, 2017). "Top 150 Tuesday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 7.18.2017". Showbuzz Daily. Archived from the original on July 19, 2017.
  14. ^ "Cartoon Network: Adventure Time: The Final Seasons". Amazon. Archived from the original on July 10, 2018.
  15. ^ a b Sava, Oliver (July 18, 2017). "Adventure Time Welcomes Guest Animators that Experiment with Style". The A.V. Club. The Onion. Archived from the original on August 3, 2018. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
  16. ^ "Adventure Time". Emmys.com. Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Archived from the original on March 7, 2016. Retrieved January 23, 2013.
  17. ^ Pedersen, Erik (August 28, 2018). "Emmys: 'Broad City', 'The Simpsons' & 'Adventure Time' Among Juried Winners". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on August 28, 2018. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
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