Adventure Time: Side Quests: Cash & Courtright on Favorite Eps, Improv

Posted in: Disney+, Hulu, TV | Tagged: adventure time, Adventure Time: Side Quests

Adventure Time: Side Quests: Cash & Courtright on Favorite Eps, Improv

Adventure Time: Side Quests showrunner Nate Cash and supervising director Victor Courtright discussed their favorite episodes and much more.

Published Fri, 02 Oct 2026 14:37:08 -0500
by Tom Chang
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Article Summary

• Adventure Time: Side Quests' Nate Cash and Victor Courtright discuss the show's move to Disney+ and Hulu.
• Cash says Adventure Time: Side Quests kept its creative spirit intact, with Disney and Hulu backing the team’s vision.
• Courtright shares how favorite Adventure Time episodes emerged through collaboration, pitching, and board artist passion.
• The duo also reveal standout improv moments, including Bobby Moynihan and Sasha Knight line reads kept in the series.

As the Adventure Time franchise sprouts its wings away from its original Warner Bros-Discovery platforms with its current run on Disney+ and Hulu, showrunner Nate Cash and supervising director Victor Courtright are taking advantage of the opportunity presented to expand the brand to new audiences who might not be familiar with it, those used to seeing it on Cartoon Network and HBO Max with the prequel series Side Quests. The animated comedy series continues the adventures of Jake the Dog (voiced by John DiMaggio) and Finn the Human (voiced by Sasha Knight) as they take on odd jobs, interact with cloud people, explore the Land of Ooo, and engage in playful confrontations with classic villains like the Ice King. In part two of our interview, Cash and Courtright spoke with Bleeding Cool about whether they found any confusion among fans who weren't aware of the show's current home, standout episodes, and improv moments. The following contains minor spoilers.

Adventure Time: Side Quests: Showrunner Nate Cash and Supervising Director Victor Courtright on Embracing Disney+ & Hulu and Favorite Moments from Series

Bleeding Cool: As part of the franchise, 'Adventure Time' has largely stayed within the Warner Bros. Discovery family, but while it's only been the case for 'Side Quests' overseas on HBO Max, in the United States, you're on Disney+ and Hulu. Does it feel like there was any form of confusion among the audience, or is it just another one of those things where there was enough word of mouth, and you seamlessly transitioned to being on those platforms?

Cash: When I was developing it in the beginning, I didn't think it would be on Hulu-Disney, but when we sold the show and it went with them, they were so enthusiastic about it and just loved the series. It didn't feel any different to me. I don't think there is too much. I'm sure for some people, it was odd for the announcement in the beginning. Once you watch it, It feels the same, and the people that we worked with at Hulu were such big fans of the show that they wanted it to be what we wanted it to be, and they're really supportive. It didn't feel like they were saying, "Well, this is what our version would do."

Courtright: Yeah, I think maybe 10 years ago, something like that, people cared a little bit more about those kinds of brand boundaries. I don't think they care so much anymore. I worked on 'Pickle and Peanut,' which was for Disney XD, and when that first came out, people were like, "This feels like a Cartoon Network show. Why is it on Disney? That doesn't make any sense." I'm like, "But do you like it?" [Cash laughs] It was hard to have that conversation and get past that, like, preconception that "This is a Disney show? Should they make this kind of joke?" Literally nobody's like talking about that. If anybody's talking about it, they're just sort of like, "Huh? It's on Disney. That's interesting." We accept that those boundaries are a little bit more flexible now.

Was there any particular episode that stood out that you guys might have had some difficulty with, or was it just sort of a seamless process within this batch?

Cash: I think it was pretty seamless. In the outline stage, some episodes are more difficult to pitch on how it's going to be funny, like the "Tiny Negs" episode (204) where a bard is singing a little small disses towards Jake, but not Finn. I think there's a little bit of like, "We don't get how this works," but once the board artists do the episode and everything clicks, it's like, "Oh, yeah."

Courtright: Yeah, I think that every episode has its own challenges, like one of my favorite moments was when we were pitching Jesse [Moynihan] and Nick Edwards a new episode to work on, I think they were just like, "Not necessarily." It didn't speak to them, the outline that we pitched them. They're like, "Do you got anything else?" I'm like, "Well, we got this one where Finn rides around and Jake's mouth all day and pretends to be a dog." [Both laugh]. They're like, "Oh, let's do that!" Working with artists who like to find something that speaks to them and that they can get excited about or wrap their heads around. It's a challenge, but it's also so fun, and when you make that connection and listen to people, it makes it more collaborative and fun here.

A follow-up question: what would you say would be the most pleasant surprise, or maybe something that was improvised off the script and you guys left it in there?

Courtright: As far as acting or writing?

Acting, like when someone deviates and runs it by you, and you leave it in.

Courtright: "Re-run Dungeon" (118) was in the first batch, right?

Cash: Yeah.

Courtright: I really love that take. What did we put? It said, "The dungeon manager says, "Wah, wah!" like it was just supposed to be screaming about something, but then the performance, "Wah, wah!" [Cash laughs] and reading, "Wawa!" and it was like. "Wait, what?! What is that?" It was so funny and like, we just left it in there and then just screaming, "Wah, wah!" As he flies off into space at the end, it's like…I don't know.

Cash: That was Bobby Moynihan, and Finn had to say, "Woo," and the way that Sasha did this, like, "Woo!" I think we included it in several episodes because we loved it so much.

Courtright: That was when he was jumping into Jake's mouth in "All You Can Eat" (109), which is one that I'm excited for people to see.

Cartoon Network Studios and FredFilms' Adventure Time: Side Quests, which also features the voices of Hynden Walch, Tom Kenny, Olivia Olson, and Niki Yang, is available on Disney+ and Hulu on October 2nd.

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