Pendleton Ward: Creator of Adventure Time
- May 11
- 2 min read
Pendleton Ward is an animator known for Adventure Time, The Midnight Gospel, Bravest Warriors, and The Elephant. He is one of the most influential animators of his generation, and yet the one who seems genuinely fine with you not knowing that. We talked about creative process, solitude, and what it looks like when success changes nothing at all.
There was a version of your creative life that existed before it had an audience or a name. What did that version of you know that the successful version had to relearn?
Hmm.. everything I knew before success is still in me. It's my tetris tower, I'm still stackin it up. All my knowledge from baby to big guy. My creative life before success was the same.. just sittin and makin stuff. I'm still doin that. I'll keep doin that. It's all I do!
You built an entire creative life around solitude, and then kept making things that millions of people needed. How did that change what loneliness feels like?
HMM! I am fairly solitary and I'm not sure if people need entertainment.. but it does pass the time! I do think people need connection.. and maybe they can glean some of that from the stories I've worked on. Hmm, loneliness feels about the same as it ever did. When I'm around fans of art I've worked on, I try to be there for them and listen to the feelings they want to share with me. I feel happy for them and share their feelings. It's nice!
Lumpy Space Princess is everything you've said you're not — loud, dramatic, shameless — yet you've been voicing her for over a decade. What does she know that you don't?
Oh haha, hmm, I think patience and impulsivity are a spectrum. Some people have the dial cranked one way or another. I'm slower to think, my thoughts are a trickle. Lumpy doesn't wait for thoughts to form, she just goes off. They're both fine ways to be!
Something that starts as a personal idea has to survive network notes, approvals, and a hundred other hands before it reaches an audience. What do you never let them touch?
Oh, I let my personal ideas and fabricated ideas merge. It's all fodder for capitalism. If the bard held anything back he'd be starving.. I imagine.
If you animated this interview the way you animated The Midnight Gospel, what would be happening on screen right now?
Hmmmm.. we could be sittin in a dusty moon crater dippin bran muffins in pink lemonade. Lettin moon bugs eat the crumbs off my feet.
When Pen talks about his creative life, before and after success, the picture is essentially the same. He never needed the work to be a big deal. The shows found audiences, the credits accumulated, and through all of it he keeps making things, probably somewhere quiet, sippin pink lemonade.
Learn more about Pendleton at:
• IMDb
