Key Takeaways
- Show Overview: “Adventure Time: Side Quests” features a return to the series’ light-hearted roots with self-contained adventures.
- Character Development: John DiMaggio expresses joy in continuing his role as Jake, highlighting the character’s enduring appeal.
- New Talent: Sasha Knight successfully captures Finn’s essence while adding his unique interpretation to the character.
- Fan Interaction: The series aims to engage both new and existing fans with its playful storytelling and familiar characters.
Adventure Time: Side Quests stars John DiMaggio and Sasha Knight spoke with ComingSoon about the new show. The duo discussed its back-to-basics approach, Knight taking over a role as iconic as Finn, and more. It’s now streaming on Hulu and Disney+.
“Adventure Time: Side Quests builds on the spirit of the early seasons, delivering lighter, self-contained adventures. Designed to introduce a new generation of fans to the land of Ooo, whilst giving existing fans more of what they love, the series brings standalone, silly quests and playful challenges – celebrating the joyful chaos of Finn and Jake’s adventures,” says the official description.
Tyler Treese: John, you’ve been voicing Jake the Dog for 15 years. That’s pretty remarkable longevity, even for a voice role. What’s been most rewarding about this character living on for this many years? That’s over a decade and a half now.
John DiMaggio: The paycheck. No, I’m kidding.
Honestly, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I’ve been fortunate enough to work on a bunch of different productions, a bunch of different shows, and a bunch of different things that have come back to life multiple times. It’s really a joy and a privilege to come back and play this character. It’s just like riding a bike. You get back on that horse and just let it ride.
It’s wonderful. The Land of Ooo is this incredible place to exist in. I’m fortunate enough to be able to play Jake, and it’s just great.
Sasha, to his credit, is doing such a wonderful job playing a young Finn. I think he just nails it. It sounds so right to me. For me to say that, knowing how long I worked with Jeremy Shada, who I got to see grow into a mature adult — he’s got two kids now and a beautiful wife — it’s incredible. I hope to watch this young man grow into a mature adult too. It’s just lovely. It’s really something. Very fortunate.
Tyler Treese: Sasha, you want to play off what came before since it’s the same character. How did you approach finding your Finn voice without it just being an imitation? You have to find a blend of the two. That’s tricky, but you found the right spot.
Sasha Knight: Yeah. Obviously, I’d seen the show before. I was a fan. I watched a bunch of it when I was a kid.
DiMaggio: Show your sword. Show him your sword. He made his own sword watching the show, being a fan of the show. That’s how much he is Finn.
Knight: [Shows off his homemade sword.] The main thing was that I really wanted to stay true to the Finn that we all know and love, but I also wanted to bring my own spin to it. Finn’s younger, so I think the thing I was really focusing on was getting the right tone and the voice specifically at first. Then I feel like Finn’s personality just came. That was the easy part. Once I had the voice, I was like, “Oh yeah, now I can just be Finn.”
John, what was most exciting about going back and getting to explore Jake’s early adventures? The show got so deep with its storytelling and just so much scale that you probably could have never imagined from the very beginning. Was it nice to go back to basics and have these goofy fantasy stories like Season 1?
John DiMaggio: Yeah, it was definitely a lot of fun and definitely something to look forward to.
As we all know, Adventure Time got a little dark, got a little serious, got a little heavy-duty during certain seasons. But this one is so much lighter and so much more silly. Yes, there is a little bit of darkness. A little bit of darkness shows every once in a while. Instead of a ray of light, it’s the polar opposite of what a ray of light would be, I guess.
It’s always fun to come back to something, and to come back to Jake the Dog is just fantastic. It’s wonderful.
Sasha’s doing such a fantastic job that the relationship is 100% there. We got the whole gang back together. Everybody’s fantastic. Jessica DiCicco, Olivia Olson, Hynden Walch, Tom Kenny, Steve Little, Maria Bamford—I mean, come on. The cast is just unbelievable.
And we got the rookie batting third. He’s swinging the bat pretty hard. We love it.
Tyler Treese: Sasha, you’re obviously a fan of the show, and there’s such a wide range of great characters in Adventure Time. Were there any characters that you were particularly excited to interact with as Finn?
Sasha Knight: Ooh, that’s a good question. The first thing that comes to mind is Ice King because he’s such a funny guy. I think it’s funny because Finn obviously has such a hatred for him, which was also fun to play because I really like Ice King as a character. I think it’s funny to play someone who has that hatred toward him.
So yeah, I’d say Ice King.
Thanks to John DiMaggio and Sasha Knight for taking the time to talk about Adventure Time: Side Quests.
