Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
Cartoon Network put their two hit animated series back to back for The Regular Show/Adventure Time Panel Extravaganza. The event was a massive draw as fans lined the back of the Hilton San Diego Bayfront and quite a number of kids and adults were shut out of the hotel’s Indigo Ballroom.
The Regular Show panel was comprised of creator J. G. Quintel (voice of Mordecai), William Salyers (voice of Rigby), Sam Marin (voice of Benson, Pops, and Muscle Man), Sean Szeles (supervising director), Matt Price (writer), and storyboard artists Toby Jones and Calvin Wong. At the time of the panel, there were four episodes left of their fourth season. They were proud to have been able to have made it to 100 episodes and had just been nominated for two Emmy awards. They also announced future holiday specials for Halloween and Thanksgiving and the fall release of Regular Show: Mordecai and Rigby In 8-Bit Land for the Nintendo 3DS.
The Adventure Time gang was next with creator Pendleton Ward (Lumpy Space Princess) serving as moderator, Jeremy Shada (Finn), John DiMaggio (Jake), Tom Kenny (Ice King), Olivia Olson (Marceline), Kent Osborne (head of story), Adam Muto (supervising producer), and Rebecca Sugar (writer, storyboard artist, ukulele player).
While they also had their own upcoming game title to promote, Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I DON’T KNOW!, available this fall on WiiU / X360 / PS3 / N3DS, and gave away a BEEMO-looking iPad, the most memorable thing about the panel was how almost everyone seemed to have no idea how microphones worked, which was particularly surprising since they use them to make the show. Most were screaming into them, causing the sound guy to have to turn them down. On the other extreme, Sugar stalled for time as Ward worked on a play involving an audience member that was read later in the program by singing songs. Unfortunately, she kept turning her head away from the mike to look at her fingers on the ukulele, making it difficult to hear what she was singing.
Both panels had some of the biggest lines I saw all weekend when they opened it up for Q&A. It’s unfortunate they, especially Adventure Time, didn’t spend more time allowing eager young kids to ask questions about their favorite characters and storylines. Even more unfortunate was clueless adults in line taking away those special moments from the kids behind them.
