The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack

The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack
Come with me, we'll go and see, a place called Candied Island!
Genre: Adventure Fantasy Comedy Animation Surreal humor Horror Running Time: 22 minutes Country: United States Release Date: June 5, 2008 - August 20, 2010 Network(s): Cartoon Network Created by: Thurop Van Orman Distributed by: Warner Bros. Television Distribution Starring: Thurop Van Orman Brain Doyle-Murray Roz Ryan Seasons: 3 Episodes: 46

The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack is an American animated television series created by Thurop Van Orman for Cartoon Network that premiered in North America on June 5, 2008 and ended in August 30, 2010.

Premise

A happy-go-lucky young sailor named Flapjack, his lazy pirate captain K'nuckles, and his sassy but caring adoptive whale mother, Bubbie are on a quest to make it to Candied Island and get wind up in a bunch of hijinks along the way.

Why It's Marvelous

1. Great animation from Saerom Animation (who animated My Gym Partner's a Monkey and season 4 of Johnny Bravo).
2. Heartwarming moments, such as Flapjack befriending Cammie in Cammie Island.
3. The idea of a candy island was interesting.
4. "Fish Out of Water" was a heartwarming series finale, despite ending on a cliffhanger.
5. Great voice acting.
6. Episodes have interesting plots.
7. It was one of Cartoon Network's best shows during the infamous CN Real era, along with Ben 10: Alien Force, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, The Secret Saturdays, Transformers Animated, Total Drama, and Chowder.
8. Flapjack, K'nuckles, and Bubbie are all good characters that work off each other well.
9. Some of the people that worked on the show such as: J.G. Quintel went on to create Adventure Time, Regular Show, Over the Garden Wall, and Gravity Falls.
10. It pushed the boundaries for what was acceptable for a kids show at the time, with a lot of gross-out, scary moments, and innuendo.
11. Catchy theme song.
12. Had a handful of funny episodes like:
    • "Dear Diary"
    • "Unhappy Endings"
    • "Oh You Animal!"
    • "Shut It"
    • "Eye Sea You"
    • "I'm A Believer"
    • "Over The Moon"
    • "Low Tidings: A K'NUCKLES STORY"
13. It was part of "HAR HAR THURSDAYS" on Cartoon Network every Thursday night along with Chowder, Total Drama, Johnny Test (2005), 6teen, and Stoked.

Not So Marvelous Qualities

1. Notable problems surrounding the characters' personalities or dynamics every now and them.
   • Flapjack being annoying sometimes.
     • He is often seen as a Gary Stu, often causing trouble and getting away with it while still being perceived by others as sweet and innocent when in reality he is not. He receives no discipline from Bubbie whatsoever and K'nuckles is often unfairly punished for Flapjack's misbehavior. One possible explanation of Bubbie's refusal to discipline Flapjack is that she perceives him as an angel who can do no wrong.
   • K'nuckles acting unlikable occasionally.
   • Bubbie can be unlikable too as she often berates and punishes K'nuckles even when such things are unwarranted and she is quite a hypocrite as she said that spying and lying are wrong yet was caught doing these things herself with Flapjack calling her out for them. Even worse is that she is sometimes seen as a Mary Sue.
     • She also hates K'nuckles for unknown reasons, though it could be due to the fact that K'nuckles sets a bad example for Flapjack and usually puts them in dangerous situations.
2. Despite the theme song's lyrics, the characters never made it to Candied Island, therefore, unintentionally ending on a cliffhanger.
3. There are some REALLY disturbing moments, such as that closeup of a scary cat and Flapjack having a nightmare where he must comb bugs off his hair while an evil Santa laughs at him and K'nuckles' nightmare. Also, the face that Flapjack make. It also got up to the point where even kids to tweens to adults have claimed that they had nightmares, and that the show was banned in different regions, mostly Malaysia and Southeast Asian regions.
   • Much like Ren and Stimpy and SpongeBob SquarePants, the show has excessive amounts of gross close-ups.
4. The show can sometimes teach some bad lessons to children and parents as one example is "My Guardian Angel Is Killing Me" which taught parents that they should be overprotective of their children and that being overprotective is good.
5. The show can become very mean-spirited at times, such as Sally Syrup telling some bullies laughing at Flapjack that they will eventually die and her and Flapjack will be alive to see it. Though, to be fair, she was trying to defend Flapjack. However, it is more mean spirited to K'nuckles for mostly Flapjakcks doings.
6. Some episodes excessively use gross out humor, sometimes doing it to the point of making Ren and Stimpy look tame in comparison.
7. A couple of episodes decided to feature background noises from young kids that sound similar to laugh tracks, which is very annoying, and it even featured cutaways involving old black and white footage featuring young children, which is very distracting from the animated scenes. Fortunately the kid laugh track and the old cutaways were quickly discontinued.
8. "My Guardian Angel is Killing Me!!!" is considered the weakest episode of the series.
   • It had a handful of other bad episodes besides that such as "Down With The Ship", "Who's That Man In The Mirror?", "High Land Lubber", "Knot Funny", "Fancy Pants", "These Boots Were Made For Walking (On Your Face)", and "Catch Me If You Candy!" but not too many.

Reception

The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack received mixed reviews when it first came out, but over time has been more appreciated for its great animation, likable characters and its dark moments. The show currently has a 7.8/10 on IMDb.

Trivia

• Thurop Van Orman the creator of this show used to be the writer of The Powerpuff Girls (1998) and Camp Lazlo, and would later be the voice of Gideon from Gravity Falls and director of The Angry Birds Movie 2.

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