The fun has ended, Adventure Time. YouTube has left fans of the hit animated series enraged after the trailer for the upcoming spin-off was labeled as kids content despite being rated TV-14.
The upcoming Max series Fionna & Cake premieres on the streaming giant on August 31 and follows the titular characters, who are alternate universe versions of Finn and Jake from the original series, on a journey through the multiverse.
Max teases, “When Fionna and her sidekick Cake find themselves in the crosshairs of a powerful new foe, they have no choice but to seek the help of former Ice King Simon Petrikov.”
The show is listed on the Max website as an adult animation series with a TV-14 rating, despite the original show being TV-PG. When the rating for the spin-off went public, devotees rejoiced in fan communities on Reddit and Twitter, and pondered over what explicit language and adult situations the new series could contain.
“The Adventure Time fandom has always had a pretty sizable adult demographic, not to mention the fans that have grown up in the time since they started watching, and, if fanworks are any indication, I think certain AT characters and certain parts of the AT world scale up to more mature subject matters fairly well,” wrote one fan.
But now, YouTube has made a misstep in labeling the trailer for Fionna & Cake as part of YouTube Kids, sparking a long-running debate over the devaluing of animation as a medium for children. Review content settings for YouTube Kids indicate parental restrictions for YouTube users under the age of 13, which is younger than the intended audience for the Max series. Frustrated fans have pointed out that the labeling may result in limited engagement and viewership for the trailer.
Decider reached out to YouTube and Max for comment, but did not hear back by the time of publication.
Additionally, comments are restricted for the video, seemingly as a result of the content being set to “made for kids.” Other videos posted by Max, such as The Last of Us official trailer, have a live comment section.
“Fionna and Cake is rated TV-14. Not only will this limit its reach to its demographic, but it could expose kids to things that aren’t made for them. YouTube should know this, given it has a number of adult animated content under its belt,” wrote one fan.
Others slammed the critics and said that it was a “non-issue” and argued that the show is for children.
Animation fans have long debated over the devaluing of animation as a children’s medium –and the Fionna and Cake backlash is a prime example. The spin-off has been explicitly advertised to adult fans, both through the press circuit in anticipation of the premiere and its “adult animation” labeling on the Max website.
At the Annecy Festival in June, Suzanna Makkos, the Executive Vice President of Max, called the upcoming series “more adult,” per Comicbook.com. The executive shared, “Tonally, it is very much Adventure Time, but Fiona’s older. She’s in the workforce. It’s more adult, so I think it’s going to bring in new fans.”
Notable filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro drew attention to the debate while accepting his award for Best Animated Feature for Netflix’s Pinocchio during last year’s Oscar, saying in his acceptance speech, “Animation is not a genre for kids. It’s a medium for art, it’s a medium for film, and I think animation should stay in the conversation.” He commented on this lightly in his interview with Decider, “In this arena when we were pitching Pinocchio, they would say ‘Is it for kids?’ And I would say, ‘It’s not for kids. But kids can watch it if their parents talk to them.’”
All said and done, the best thing Max and YouTube can do is fix this incorrect labeling and offer an explanation to fans who are confused by the inconsistency in the show’s advertising.