'Adventure Time' fan trailer makes silly look somber

When the quirky, animated series "Adventure Time" is reimagined as a gritty live-action movie with tormented human actors, it's more morose than mathematical.

Adventuring isn't always as fun as it looks in this reimagined, live-action trailer for "Adventure Time." Screenshot by Bonnie Burton/CNET

When "Adventure Time" character BMO said, "Sometimes life is scary and dark, and this is why we must find the light," he could easily have been referring to this depressing yet entertaining fan-made live-action trailer for the hit Cartoon Network cartoon.

The "Adventure Time: The Movie" trailer takes place "years later when magic in the Land of Ooo begins to fade, and Finn and Jake must embark on one mommy of an adventure to save their world."

The trailer is created by the Youtube user Gritty Reboots from the Seattle-based company Cinesaurus -- who also made dark live-action trailers for Calvin and Hobbes, Pokemon Snap and The Legend of Korra.

In this postapocalyptic trailer we see not only the main "Adventure Time" characters Finn the boy and Jake the dog, but also Princess Bubblegum, Ice King, Earl of Lemongrab, BMO, Flame Princess and Marceline the Vampire Queen, among others. Sadly, Lady Rainicorn, Lumpy Space Princess and Peppermint Butler don't survive.

Poor BMO doesn't look so good. Screenshot by Bonnie Burton/CNET

The trailer uses dialogue from the animated series, but in this context it seems less giddy and more gruesome. After all, lines like "There's hardly enough magic left for two awesome dudes like us" and "I just want to eat ice cream again or soft tacos" sound much more dramatic with a soaring music soundtrack in the background.

Even "Adventure Time" creator Pendleton Ward approves of the trailer's reimagined take on his beloved and bizarre series.

"Live Action Adventure Time: this is super nice y'all...reading silly lines sincerely is really nice," Ward tweeted.

Reminiscent of indie film director Spike Jonze version of "Where the Wild Things Are," Gritty Reboots successfully transforms a weird and whimsical kids cartoon into a desolate and bleak film full of regret, sadness and loneliness. This is a dreary existence for two adventurers, indeed.

Want more? Check out the "Adventure Time: Behind the Scenes" video.

Bonnie Burton Crave freelancer Bonnie Burton is the best-selling author of "The Star Wars Craft Book" and host of the Web show "Geek DIY." When she's not writing or vlogging about sci-fi pop culture, robot fighters, and taco-delivery drones, she enjoys acting out Benedict Cumberbatch replicant fantasies with her Admiral Sackbar puppet. E-mail Bonnie. See full bio

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Chill-inducing 'Interstellar' trailer pulls your heart into space

Get ready, world. The next great sci-fi epic could be coming soon as "Interstellar" releases a trailer that teases a world of space wonders and a desperate attempt to save humanity.

Matthew McConaughey goes through a wormhole. Warners Bros./Legendary/Paramount

It's the end of the world as we know it. Dust storms are choking the planet. Our only hope is Matthew McConaughey in a spaceship. If you're not jumping to stand in line for tickets, then you haven't seen the latest trailer. "Interstellar" is an upcoming film from Christopher Nolan, the man who brought us the twisting "Memento," a small army of gritty Batman movies and the mind-bending hit "Inception."

Nolan is blasting off out of our solar system for his next effort. The plot involves a spacecraft heading through a wormhole in search of a habitable and friendly enough planet to save the human race from its own crumbling Earth. Time is short and the search is perilous. Michael Caine tells McConaughey to "get out there and save the world."

The film is rated PG-13, partly for "some intense perilous action." We get a glimpse of that action in the form of a wave as big as a mountain that threatens to swamp the expedition on another planet. If the trailer hasn't given you goosebumps yet, they're likely to rise here.

The film opens in IMAX theaters in the US on November 5 and moves into wide release in regular theaters in the US, UK, Australia and elsewhere within days after that.

"Interstellar" comes at an interesting time when discussion of climate change is all over the news and scientists are actively sorting out how we might able to establish a human settlement on Mars. It's those sort of ties, hovering in the backs of our minds, that ground the trailer in our current reality and make it so fascinating to watch. If the movie lives up to its promise, we could all be in for quite a journey through space, along with an examination of our own fears for the future of humanity.

Amanda Kooser Freelance writer Amanda C. Kooser covers gadgets and tech news with a twist for CNET's Crave blog. When not wallowing in weird gadgets and iPad apps for cats, she can be found tinkering with her 1956 DeSoto. See full bio

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Civilization: Beyond Earth trailer marks a new beginning for civilization

A 10-minute gameplay trailer for Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth has hit, and it looks like the space-age take on the classic series makes some interesting changes to the formula.

Firaxis/2K Games

The latest Civilization game from developer Firaxis does something interesting. It's as much a spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri as it is a sequel to Civilization V, and from the newly released trailer, it looks like Beyond Earth breaks the mould in all the right ways.

It has the same turn-based 4X (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate) gameplay from the earlier Civilization titles. Pick a unique faction -- now led by expedition sponsors instead of historical personalities -- and build your empire from the ground up, managing cities, your military, diplomatic relations and technological growth. But instead of guiding your people from the Stone Age to the present day, you're now watching over space-faring colonists on a distant alien world.

The new theme means there's been an overhaul of some of the familiar Civilization elements, given you're starting out as a technologically advanced society instead of pre-agrarian cavemen.

Core to all of this are the new 'affinities' -- a system shaping your people's attitudes towards colonization and alien lifeforms, the appearance of your cities and units, even your victory conditions. (No more cultural victory, sadly. Looks like they didn't send a poet after all.)

Other tweaks teased by the trailer include: replacing the traditional top-down technology tree with a branching, centre-out style web that's impossible to fully research in a single game; an upgraded espionage system with the ability to send your spies on a variety of missions; and an overhauled diplomacy system that lets you trade favours with the other leaders, to be collected after a deal is made.

Firaxis has discussed all this and lots more at great length in gameplay videos on its YouTube channel, but this new trailer is an excellent place to start.

Check out the trailer below, and get ready to keep clicking that 'just one more turn' button in the far-flung future.

Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth is released on October 24 for Windows, OS X and Linux.

Luke Lancaster Luke Lancaster is a Copy Editor with CNET, based out of Australia. He spends his time playing games (both board and video), watching movies, reading comics, and trying to get bitten by radioactive spiders. Occasionally, he writes things. See full bio

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