Once again Adventure Time has made another fantastic entry into the franchise for everyone to enjoy.

The newly-released series Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake just ended its run on Max. After the original series and its sequel, Adventure Time: Distant Lands both ended, fans had assumed that was the end of the franchise.

Now though, we find ourselves in another sequel/spinoff to the original series. This one follows Fionna and Cake, characters who were previously just used for a few gender-bent one-off episodes of the original series. Fionna and Cake are corresponding characters to Adventure Time leads Finn and Jake, and were explained in the series as fanfiction written by the insane Ice King. Now Fionna and Cake have a whole show focused on them, and this time have their own unique world and characteristics.

In the new world, we follow Fionna Campbell (Madeleine Martin) and her cat Cake (Roz Ryan), but unlike in the original iteration of Adventure Time, Fionna’s world appears devoid of magic and more closely resembles our world. Fionna is seen dreaming of a magical Sailor Moon-inspired world where she and Cake fight evil as heroes, but reality strikes as Fionna wakes to her alarm clock in her crummy apartment with her non-magical cat Cake.

She groans and gets ready for her job. Cake appears to be acting strangely, pawing at the ice maker on her fridge, but she ignores that and goes through the motions of her day, heading for her job as a bus tour guide (but she does schedule a vet appointment for Cake.) On the way to work, she meets with her friend Gary Prince (Andrew Rannells), who works at a bakery. After he gives her some coffee and pastries Fionna heads for work, bringing Cake with her in a pet carrier to take her to the vet later.

She then bumps into her friend Marshall Lee (Donald Glover), who is seen playing music on the street and acting quite laid back in contrast with Fionna, who is rushing to work. While giving an unenthusiastic tour of the way to the bus, they pass a park where a woman is running an ice cream cart. Cake begins freaking out and escapes her carrier, and Fionna tries to catch her as the bus breaks out into commotion.

Fionna’s attempts are halted as one of the riders reveals themselves to be her boss in disguise, monitoring her after numerous complaints about her previous work. This distraction allows Cake to escape and bolt to the ice cream cart. She dives into it and enters a magical portal that awaits inside. Fionna rushes to catch Cake but finds the ice cream cart empty, and is then fired by her boss for causing trouble at her job. Frustrated with losing Cake and her job, Fionna starts the search for her cat but to no avail.

We then cut to The Land of Ooo, the world where the original Adventure Time takes place, this time in a setting many years after the end of the original series. Here we find Simon Petrikov (Tom Kenny), the former Ice King, looking depressed as he struggles to live in the magical world of Ooo. He is now just a normal human after being released from the magical crown that cursed him to become the Ice King for the past one thousand years. He feels he doesn’t belong as he doesn’t even fit in with the other humans of Adventure Time, as they are much more technologically advanced than society was when he used to be the king.

As Simon drinks his woes away, he is also missing his lover, Betty (Felicia Day), who sacrificed herself in the finale of the original Adventure Time to free him of his curse. He is approached by a much older Finn The Human (Jeremy Shada), now a grown up and much stronger and gruffer. Finn offers Simon a chance to join him on one of his adventures, hoping to help his mood, but Simon can’t do it: he isn’t a strong warrior like Finn and struggles to keep up with him. Simon thanks Finn for his attempt to help him and returns to his home, where he conducts a magical ritual to try and see Betty again. 

However this ritual goes wrong and a portal like the one Cake entered opens – this time in Simon’s head. Cake leaps out of it, leaving them both confused. Cake flees, distressed after discovering she is now in the Land of Ooo. After being scared by the creatures and people of this magical world, a talking magical squirrel offers her a device that lets her speak English and a magic apple that lets her use the shape-changing abilities she and Jake used in the original series.

We then cut back to Fiona, exhausted after spending all day (and into the night) looking for Cake. Giving up hope, she returns to Gary’s shop for a drink, where she spots a portal in the refrigerator. She enters this and finds herself in Ooo, also exiting out of the portal in Simon’s head. Despite being shocked to find herself in a new magical world, Fionna readies herself and adapts to the new world quickly in order to search for Cake.

When Fionna finds Cake being attacked by many talking animals of the land of Ooo, Fionna saves her. Now resembling her heroic self from the previous series, Fionna, with Cake, successfully fight off their attackers. Just then, they are transported to the Time Room by Prismo the Wishmaster (Sean Rohani), an interdimensional being that monitors the multiverse and grants wishes to those who find their way to his room. Viewers of the original series will know he aided Finn and Jake in many of their adventures.

Prismo is surprised they escaped their universe, as it was one he himself created one day when he was feeling bored and creative. As this misuse of his power is against the laws of the universe, he hid Fionna’s world in the mind of the Ice King. He explains that when the Ice King was cured and he turned back into the normal non-magic Simon Petrikov, Fionna’s world lost all its magic and became the depressingly realistic world we found her in. Prismo summons Simon to his room to mend the issue he created.

Fionna and Cake intend to ask more questions but Prismo’s Time Room is visited by The Scarab (Kayleigh McKee), a humanoid beetle and interdimensional bounty hunter who captures interdimensional criminals like Prismo for creating Fionna’s reality. While Prismo distracts The Scarab, he explains that in order to return magic to Fionna’s world they must get Simon to wear another cursed crown, as the one in Simon’s version of Ooo is no longer available due to Betty’s efforts.

Simon believes he has nothing left to lose and says he will put another crown on to aid Fionna, even if it makes him insane again. The Scarab ends up capturing Prismo, proclaiming that he will capture Fionna, Cake and Simon and destroy the illegal universe Prismo created. Prismo manages to aid the trio by giving them a device to travel multiple universes in search of another magical crown.

Now on a race to escape The Scarab and return magic to her bleak world, Fionna, Cake and Simon travel across the multiverse, exploring many different worlds, some familiar and some new to fans of the original series. Their adventures see the return of many familiar faces, though they are different from how they were in the other series.

Returning characters include Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum (Hynden Walch), Marceline the Vampire Queen (Olivia Olson), Jake the Dog (John DiMaggio), BMO (Niki Yang), Finn and Jake’s robot companion, as well as the horrifying embodiment of death, The Lich (Ron Perlman), to name a few. The new show also introduces many new faces.

Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake is a wonderful addition to the franchise, sporting fantastic animation with a unique artistic style that makes this show stand out from previous iterations. This series contains equal parts of a great and unique story for Fionna and Cake and a continuation, expanse and resolution for storylines set up in the original series. All ten episodes are available to watch now on Max.