50 Fun Facts About 2010s Cartoons

In Adventure Time, Finn's best friend and adoptive brother Jake is what kind of animal?

A dog: Jake can stretch and reshape his body at will, and creator Pendleton Ward based his easy-going, big-brother manner on Bill Murray's camp counsellor in the film Meatballs.

Adventure Time's Land of Ooo was ravaged a thousand years before the show by which cataclysm?

The Mushroom War, a nuclear conflict glimpsed in flashbacks, ravaged Earth a thousand years before the show and gives the candy-coloured world its dark undertone.

Which network passed on Adventure Time after its 2007 short went viral?

Nickelodeon passed on the series even though the pilot, made for Frederator's Random! Cartoons, had aired on Nicktoons in 2007 and gone viral online; Cartoon Network picked it up instead.

Regular Show's Mordecai and Rigby are what two animals?

A blue jay and a raccoon: the show's creator, who voices Mordecai himself, drew its characters from the student films he had made at the California Institute of the Arts.

Gravity Falls twins Dipper and Mabel spend the summer helping their Grunkle Stan run what?

The Mystery Shack, a tourist trap of fake curiosities, is Grunkle Stan's business; creator Alex Hirsch drew the twins from life, modelling Mabel on his own twin sister, Ariel.

In Gravity Falls, what is Dipper Pines's real first name?

Mason is Dipper's real name, revealed in the tie-in book Journal 3; 'Dipper' is a nickname from the Big Dipper-shaped birthmark on his forehead.

Which Steven Universe character is a fusion of the Gems Ruby and Sapphire?

Garnet is revealed in the first-season finale, 'Jail Break', to be two smaller Gems who stay fused all the time because they are in love.

Steven Universe lives with the Crystal Gems in which fictional town?

Beach City is modelled on the Delaware seaside towns, Rehoboth Beach among them, that creator Rebecca Sugar visited as a child.

In The Amazing World of Gumball, what kind of animal is Gumball's adoptive brother Darwin?

A goldfish: Darwin began as Gumball's pet, then sprouted legs and was taken in as a full member of the Watterson family.

In Bluey, what is the profession of Bluey's dad, Bandit?

Archaeologist: creator Joe Brumm took Bandit's job from real life, because his own older sibling, Adam, grew up to become one.

Bluey is produced by Ludo Studio in which Australian state?

Queensland is both home and setting: Ludo Studio works in Brisbane, and that city, with its timber Queenslander houses, inspired the neighbourhood where the Heelers live.

Which 2016 cartoon follows Lincoln, the only boy in a family with ten sisters?

The Loud House began as creator Chris Savino's idea for a boy rabbit with 25 sisters; he then made the family human and cut the sisters to ten, a number he found far easier to manage.

Rick and Morty airs on which Cartoon Network programming block?

Adult Swim cut ties with co-creator Justin Roiland in 2023 and recast his two lead roles.

A Rick and Morty joke brought which discontinued McDonald's item back to menus in 2018?

Szechuan Sauce, a 1998 tie-in with the film Mulan, was demanded by Rick in the 2017 season-three premiere; fans clamoured so loudly that McDonald's returned it to all its stores in February 2018.

BoJack Horseman is a washed-up star of what?

A 1990s sitcom, Horsin' Around, made BoJack famous; the show's animal look comes from Lisa Hanawalt, a friend of creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg since high school, who at first turned the job down.

What are the names of the three Belcher children in Bob's Burgers?

Tina, Gene and Louise are the Belcher children, eldest first; in the original pilot the eldest was a boy named Daniel, who was replaced by Tina before the series aired.

Phineas and Ferb try to make the most of how many days of summer vacation?

104 days is the summer the theme song promises; creators Dan Povenmire and Jeff 'Swampy' Marsh pitched the show to networks for 16 years before Disney finally bought it.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic attracted a famous adult male fanbase known as what?

Bronies took off on the message board 4chan, where interest in the show surged after an animation writer's essay held it up as a sign that toy tie-ins were taking over television cartoons.

Which studious pony is the lead character of Friendship Is Magic, with a dragon assistant named Spike?

Twilight Sparkle starts the show as a bookish unicorn sent to study friendship; at the end of season three she repairs an ancient spell, sprouts wings and becomes a princess.

PAW Patrol's rescue pups are led by a boy named what?

Ryder, a ten-year-old boy, leads the pups from the Lookout; the series grew out of a toy, a transforming truck that a co-founder of the Canadian company Spin Master designed in 2010.

PAW Patrol was created by Keith Chapman, who had earlier created which British children's TV hero?

Bob the Builder made Keith Chapman's name: the stop-motion character's theme song, 'Can We Fix It?', was the UK's Christmas number one in 2000, beating Westlife to the top.

Teen Titans Go! (2013) is a comedic spin-off based on which publisher's superhero team?

DC's young heroes are played for laughs here, yet by the same five actors who voiced them in the more serious 2003 Teen Titans series, all of whom returned for the spin-off.

The Legend of Korra's first season is set mostly in which metropolis?

Republic City was founded by Aang after the war as a home for people from all four nations; 70 years on, it has grown into a metropolis styled on 1920s New York and Shanghai.

Which 2015 Disney XD series follows a magical princess from another dimension?

Star vs. the Forces of Evil began as creator Daron Nefcy's college idea about a girl whose magic was all in her head, a kid who thought she was Sailor Moon, until a Disney executive suggested giving her real powers.

We Bare Bears follows three bear brothers trying to fit into human life where?

The San Francisco Bay Area is home to Grizz, Panda and Ice Bear, who began in Daniel Chong's webcomic The Three Bare Bears; the pilot then won an audience prize at an Amsterdam animation festival.

Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir is set in which city?

Paris is home to Marinette and Adrien; creator Thomas Astruc paired his ladybug heroine with a black cat because one stands for good luck and the other for bad.

In Sofia the First, village girl Sofia becomes a princess when her mother marries the king of which realm?

Enchancia's King Roland II marries Sofia's widowed mother, Miranda, making Sofia royalty overnight; classic Disney princesses such as Cinderella then drop in to advise her.

Doc McStuffins, a Disney Junior hit from 2012 to 2020, follows a six-year-old girl who does what?

Fixes broken toys: Doc treats them in her playhouse clinic, and the character moved 131 women doctors of colour to publish a group portrait titled 'We Are Doc McStuffins'.

In the 2017 DuckTales reboot, the Scottish actor David Tennant voices which character?

Scrooge McDuck is a Scot himself, born in Glasgow in the comics; Carl Barks created him in 1947 meaning to use him only once, and he became the artist's signature character.

Who voices Wirt, the elder half-brother, in the 2014 miniseries Over the Garden Wall?

Elijah Wood voices the anxious Wirt, with Collin Dean as his half-brother Greg; the miniseries won the 2015 Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program and grew out of Patrick McHale's short Tome of the Unknown.

On Infinity Train, a passenger may leave once the glowing number on their hand reaches what?

Zero opens a door home: the number falls as passengers face their personal problems, such as Tulip's turmoil over her parents' divorce in the first season.

Amphibia's Anne Boonchuy is swept into a world of talking frogs after stealing what on her birthday?

A music box, the Calamity Box, hurls Anne into Amphibia on her 13th birthday; creator Matt Braly based the story on his own childhood trips to Bangkok.

Which one-eyed, triangle-shaped demon is the main villain of Gravity Falls?

Bill Cipher outlived the show: in 2016 creator Alex Hirsch sent fans on an international treasure hunt for a real statue of the demon, glimpsed in the series finale.

Hilda, the blue-haired heroine of the Netflix series, has what kind of pet?

'A deerfox named Twig' follows Hilda everywhere, a creature from Luke Pearson's comics; she and her mother Johanna move to the city of Trolberg after a giant crushes their house in the wilderness.

Netflix rebooted She-Ra in 2018; the 1985 original was itself a spin-off of which cartoon?

He-Man's twin sister, Adora, was introduced in The Secret of the Sword, a 1985 film stitched together from the first five She-Ra episodes.

Voltron: Legendary Defender rebooted a franchise itself adapted from which Japanese anime?

Beast King GoLion, a 1981 Toei anime, was re-cut and dubbed in America as 1984's lion Voltron, whose second season was then made from a different, unrelated anime.

Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia was created by which Oscar-winning film director?

Guillermo del Toro, who won the Best Director Oscar for The Shape of Water, created the Netflix series; Anton Yelchin voiced the hero Jim Lake before his death in 2016, with Emile Hirsch taking over for the final season.

Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu, launched in 2011, was made to promote which company's toys?

Lego planned to retire its Ninjago sets in 2013, but fans objected, so the toy line was revived and the cartoon made to sell it ran on until 2022.

The Lion Guard, a 2015 Disney Junior series, follows Kion, the son of which Lion King character?

Simba's second-born cub leads the Lion Guard that protects the Pride Lands; James Earl Jones came back to voice Kion's grandfather, Mufasa.

Which 2016 Disney series introduced the studio's first Latina princess?

Elena of Avalor spent 41 years trapped inside a magic amulet before the young heroine of another Disney series freed her to win back her kingdom from a sorceress.

Wander Over Yonder was created by Craig McCracken, best known for which earlier Cartoon Network hit?

The Powerpuff Girls began as a short film McCracken made while still a student at the California Institute of the Arts, years before Cartoon Network turned it into a series.

In Uncle Grandpa, which animal appears as a cut-out photograph that the hero rides around on?

A tiger: Giant Realistic Flying Tiger is a static photo among cartoon drawings; the show spun out of Secret Mountain Fort Awesome, which lasted only months, and ran for nearly four years itself.

Which 2014 cartoon was the first Sonic the Hedgehog series made in computer animation?

Sonic Boom, the fifth Sonic cartoon series, was built as a comedy and redrew its cast to match: Knuckles got the most drastic redesign, a taller, beefed-up body for a newly dim-witted character.

Which cartoon won a 2012 Emmy for 'Eggscellent', about an omelette-eating challenge?

Regular Show won the short-format animation Emmy for the episode, in which Rigby falls into a coma attempting a twelve-egg omelette, so Mordecai takes on the challenge to win him the prize hat.

Which Adventure Time character is a vampire queen whose bass guitar is an axe?

Marceline's bass was once her family's heirloom battle-axe; the show later reveals that the Ice King, before he lost his mind, was the kindly man who looked after her as a child.

Rick and Morty won its first Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program in 2018 for which episode?

Pickle Rick, in which Rick turns himself into a pickle to get out of family therapy, won in 2018; the show took the same award again in 2020.

Which actor voices Bob Belcher in Bob's Burgers?

H. Jon Benjamin also voices the spy Sterling Archer, and the two shows once crossed over: an Archer episode opens with its amnesiac hero flipping burgers, convinced he is Bob Belcher.

In Craig of the Creek, who are Craig's two best friends?

Kelsey and JP explore the Creek with Craig; creators Matt Burnett and Ben Levin, both ska fans, hired the punk musician Jeff Rosenstock to write the show's music for that reason.

Rick and Morty grew out of a crude short film parodying the two heroes of which movie?

Back to the Future gave Justin Roiland his targets, Doc and Marty, for a spoof he made for Channel 101, a short-film festival co-founded by Dan Harmon, his later partner on the series.

After The Legend of Korra was pulled from television midway through Book Three, how were the remaining episodes released?

Online only: after the first episodes of Book Three drew low ratings, the network took the last five off its schedule and released them through its website, apps and digital stores.