Alexventures (stylized as Alexventure$!) is an American animated television series created by Trevor Harrell for RKO Kids. The series follows the adventures of Alex Ventura, a 11-year-old billionaire orphan, and his best friend Lucas Chapman. The two live in the fictional city of Schulzburg, New York, where they often find themselves in various hijinks, usually revolving around Alex's fortune in one way or another.
Following its debut in 2002, Alexventures has received widespread critical acclaim, drawing in record ratings for RKO's Saturday morning block and RKO Kids alike. The series has won multiple Emmy Awards, Annie Awards, Sylvania Television Awards, and BAFTA Children's Awards, and is considered by many to be a cultural touchstone of Generation Z.
Synopsis[]
Setting[]
Alexventures takes place in the fictional American city of Schulzburg, New York, named after Peanuts creator Charles Schulz. The city is primarily modeled after creator Trevor Harrell's hometown of Rochester, in addition to other cities from upstate New York, such as Buffalo and Syracuse. In a 2005 interview with the Democrat and Chronicle, Harrell stated that "Schulzburg isn't so much Rochester as it is upstate New York in general".
Premise[]
- Main article: List of Alexventures characters
The series centers on the life of 11-year-old Alex Ventura, a billionaire orphan who lives in a giant mansion with exactly 1,001 floors. Despite his vast wealth, Alex is a regular kid; he attends school, is interested in video games and comic books, and is friends with plenty of kids his age. He is often accompanied in his shenanigans by his best friend Lucas Chapman, a slacker who goes to school with Alex and often attempts to become popular, with varying results. Other friends of Alex include Ben Douglas, a competitive yet respectful kid who’s into sports and games, Rusty McDowell, a Southern-accented farm boy with a genius level IQ, Shawn Wilcox, a dorky and somewhat sensitive kid who is a common target for fellow bullies and pranksters, and Molly Stone, an emo girl who Lucas has a crush on.
Other prominent characters within the show include Roy Ripley, a local businessman who attempts to sabotage Alex's businesses, Mr. Woodford, Alex's paranoid teacher who spends more time lecturing his class about conspiracy theories than actually teaching them, and Stuart Knox, the head of Alex's board of directors who tries to get him to take his business more seriously.
Production[]
Development[]
Growing up, series creator Trevor Harrell was heavily interested in comic books and newspaper comics, both of which would influence his later works. In 1986, he enrolled in the School of Visual Arts with the intent of later working for DC Comics, but he would soon shift his focus towards animation after seeing one of his younger cousins watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles while traveling back home for Thanksgiving one year. After graduating, Harrell worked as a cleanup artist on several shows produced by DIC Animation City, including The Real Ghostbusters and Super Mario World, before transferring to Film Roman in 1992. While working at Film Roman, Harrell created several short films which were later shown at Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation, including 1993's Homo et Felem, which was showcased on MTV's Liquid Television and brought him the attention of the animation industry as a whole.
Encouraged by the success of his short films, Harrell, alongside Mike Cash and Geno Davis, two of his colleagues from Film Roman, started developing a series bible for an animated sitcom entitled Matt's Millions in 1997, modeled after The Simpsons, the American version of Dennis the Menace, and Richie Rich. According to Harrell, the idea for the series came about when he and Cash were driving back from a Los Angeles Lakers game they had attended. During the drive, one of the two other people they were driving with brought up Richie Rich, which got Harrell to thinking about "how ridiculous it was that this kid acts like he's right out of The Great Gatsby just because he's got a billion dollars, when any kid with that much money would probably just blow it all on video games and pizza", before he turned to Cash and said "That's it. I've got our show."
After being rejected by Fox and Nickelodeon, the trio pitched the show to RKO Network, who gave them the go-ahead shortly afterwards to produce a pilot. It was around this same time during development that the show was renamed to Alexventures, as both Harrell and Davis felt the name Matt sounded "too douchey" and that Alex would resonate better with viewers. For the show's pilot, Harrell worked with Salt Lake City-based studio ZingZam, who had done sparse work on a few shows and commercials until then and expressed interest in assisting with the show's production. The completed pilot was screened to RKO executives in November 1999; less than a week later, the show was greenlit for one season consisting of 10 half-hour episodes.
Writing[]
Animation[]
Distribution[]
Broadcast[]
- Main article: List of Alexventures episodes
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | |||
| 1 | 10 | March 9, 2002 | December 21, 2002 | |
| 2 | 20 | May 17, 2003 | March 13, 2004 | |
| 3 | 20 | June 19, 2004 | April 2, 2005 | |
| 4 | 30 | October 22, 2005 | December 23, 2006 | |
| 5 | 26 | June 2, 2007 | March 22, 2008 | |
| 6 | 20 | July 19, 2008 | April 25, 2009 | |
| 7 | 20 | November 7, 2009 | July 10, 2010 | |
| 8 | 20 | June 11, 2011 | February 11, 2012 | |
| 9 | 20 | July 7, 2012 | October 26, 2013 | |
| 10 | 30 | January 25, 2014 | June 27, 2015 | |
Streaming[]
As of 2024, all 10 seasons of Alexventures are available to be streamed on RKO Universe, Hulu, and Disney+. The show was previously available on Netflix from 2009 until 2016, and can still be streamed on select international versions of the service.
Home media[]
Reception[]
Ratings[]
Critical reception[]
Since its debut in 2002, Alexventures has received widespread critical acclaim, with praise specifically going towards its animation, strong writing, and humor. In a 2003 review of the show, Encore's Drake Collen described it as "Charlie Brown for the kids of the new millennium", noting the similarities between the writing of Charles Schulz and Trevor Harrell.
Legacy[]
In April 2017, a statue of Alex was erected in Highland Park in Rochester, New York to commemorate the show's 15th anniversary.
Other media[]
Video games[]
Several video games have been released based on the series. The first of these games, Alexventures: Financial Crisis!, was released exclusively for the Game Boy Advance on December 1, 2003. This release was followed up by Alexventures: Roy's Revolting Rampage in 2004 for the Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, and N-Gage, Alexventures: Camped Out! in 2006 for the Nintendo DS, Alexventures: Close Encounters of the Stupid Kind in 2007 for the Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, Wii, and Xbox 360, and Alexventures: The Movie: The Game! in 2008 for the Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360.
In addition, several Alexventures characters have made appearances in RKO crossover video games.