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The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius

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This article is about the TV series. For the 2001 film, see Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.

The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius
Genre
Created byJohn A. Davis
Based onJimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
by John A. Davis
Directed by
  • Keith Alcorn
  • Mike Gasaway
  • Kirby Atkins
Voices of
Theme music composerBrian Causey
ComposerCharlie Brissette
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons3
No. of episodes61 (87 segments) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producerSteve Oedekerk
Producers
  • Keith Alcorn
  • John A. Davis
  • Paul Marshal
Editors
  • Jon Price
  • John Wahba
  • Joe E. Elwood
Running time11–73 minutes
Production companies
Original release
NetworkNickelodeon
ReleaseJuly 20, 2002 (2002-07-20) –
November 25, 2006 (2006-11-25)
Related

The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius (or just The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron and often shortened as Jimmy Neutron) is an American animated television series created by John A. Davis for Nickelodeon. Based on the 2001 film Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, the series serves as a sequel to the film. It originally aired on Nickelodeon for three seasons from July 20, 2002, to November 25, 2006. The show follows an 11-year-old genius from the fictitious town of Retroville, Texas, the eponymous character, as he goes on adventures with his best friends Carl Wheezer and Sheen Estevez.[1] Throughout the show, various mishaps and conflicts occur on these adventures, as Jimmy's various inventions go awry. The series features voices of Debi Derryberry (Jimmy), Rob Paulsen (Carl), and Jeffrey Garcia (Sheen) for the three main characters.[2] It was the first Nicktoon series to be animated in CGI.

Receiving mostly favorable reviews upon and since its release, the series has been the recipient of various nominations such as the Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Cartoon in 2006 and 2007, and has also won an Annie Award for "Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Television Production Produced for Children" in 2004 as well as a Motion Picture Sound Editors "Golden Reel Award".[3][4][5] A spin-off, Planet Sheen, aired from 2010 to 2013.


Jimmy Neutron was yet another Nicktoon that I used to watch a lot back in the late 00s. But despite remembering it being very good I never had that much motivation to revisit it entirely, but my conscience didn’t leave me alone when I gave Planet Sheen a full shot yet not to the original show. And by the coincidental set of the cards, it ended up being the last show for me to watch in 2020, making me hoping to end it before this infamous year ends. Thankfully I did, despite the show's inconsistent order and the amount of specials being quite a trouble to follow, and all I can say that it’s... not the most impressive way to end this year binge wise.

The premise of this show alone doesn’t offer any high exceptions, because there’s a countless amount of material with the same idea of gifted genius. But a premise like this definitely gets used so often for a reason: as it does open a lot of creative freedom for any direction. Not to say that this specific show has ideas THAT impressive, because you still can have blank scenarios like cloning, shrinking or body swap, but there’s definitely been some really interesting premises and even executions, like with alive pants, candy that drives the entire town mad, or even the duplicate of Earth that filed with evil clones of each human being (which is pretty much the highlight of Send in the Clones, as it was a set-up for this events). But regardless whether cliched the main idea or not, the show still shares a consistent flaw with being a little too predictable at times due to the same formula. It’s not hard to notice that a lot of episodes have the same idea of wasting a first minute on a specific invention that doesn’t have to do with the rest of the conflict... UNTIL the climax when it ended up being the only option to solve the problem. It’s a functional structure, but quite repetitive at that. But to give the show a big pro, it’s pretty funny on a consistent basis, not on a hysterical bar, but most episodes offer a fair amount of the jokes that made me chuckle, and at times even laugh. So even if plots can get way too average, humor is spot on in nearly every side of the show. Most of the episodes that failed entirely are the ones that aren’t even much about surreal invention, as just a slice of life tropes that don't do anything new with the ideas. Stuff like Battle of the Bands or A Beautiful Mine are predictable from the miles because they put the least of the creativity and conclusions made the entire progression pointless. Thankfully there haven't been that many episodes that were downright failures, but can’t say that they didn’t impact overall enjoyment to some extent.

Characters aren’t very complex either, in fact, they are all as smile as it’s possible to imagine. Jimmy himself is especially a very safe and bland protagonist, even if he is likable enough to be at worst tolerable. The one truly interesting thing about his character is the entire hell that he comes through school and how nearly everyone goes against his’ mind powers, which is a reaction that usually portrayed oppositely everywhere else. And that’s especially goes to his rivalry with Cindy, and as string as it may started, it’s ended up being the biggest show’s flaw halfway through. Show though that both of those characters had a potential to have a love interest between each other, which completely broke the chemistry that made both work in the first place. At first steps, it was just a one-note jokes like the ending of Trading Faces, but it escalated very quickly, and as expected, for all the worst meanings. From something that was dead on arrival, like Foul Bull and Stranded, there've been cases when premises have been very intriguing, but executions really needed to put cringeworthy love triangle conflict to soil the whole enjoyment, like in King of Mars, Win, Lose and Kaboom! and all 3 crossovers with Fairly OddParents. The last 3 were especially jarring, they had so much potential to be something truly amazing, but they wasted a lot of time to shipping Cindy and Timmy, making the entire picture looks like an fanfiction rather than a crossover. Thankfully there still were some remarkable qualities in those crossovers, especially climaxes, so I can’t say that they were a complete waste of time. Everything that relate to Betty doesn’t help either, her existence in show’s second half was very confusing, as Jimmy showed hints at him caring about Cindy, he ends up trying to simp for Betty at the same time, which also been a big irritation in Vanishing Act. Acknowledging heavy flaws of main 2 characters, the secondary cast is way better at what it was. Both Sheen and Carl were really good comic-reliefs that produced the bigger amount of the show's humor. But the best of all, the show knew when to give them a spotlight at the right place. Episodes themselves can be hit or miss, as for each Who's Your Mommy? there’s Carl Wheezer: Boy Genius, but neither of those characters overstaying their welcome, which is why it worked way better than the subpar spinoff. Libby also there... I guess. At the first season she was a very hollow character that never did anything remarkable other than the fact that she is Cindy’s friend, but starting at the second half of S2, the show decided to give her another chance to spotlight. Making her dating Sheen sounds like a terrible decision, but on the brighter side, it gave her way more traits and showed that she is way more nicer, restrained than Cindy. Besides those 4, show has some pretty funny supporting characters like Mrs. Fowl, Nick (who’s somehow way more chilled to Jimmy than in his movie’s debut), and of course Hugh, who’s the main source of the show's best comedy. He is a complete crackhead, but a friendly and reasonable type of crackhead, so he never managed to annoy me in any episode, even in the weak ones. Show also collected a fair amount of villains at the second half of the run, they can rank from pretty funny (Professor Calamitous) to very generic and forgettable (Eustace Strytch). At least The League of Villains was decent enough of a special that combined all of them at once.

The animation is easily the worst thing in this show. While it still can earn some status as the first CGI Nicktoon, it’s impossible to ignore how dated, poorly looking it is nowadays. From some very strange looking models, there can be a very cheap render of the backgrounds, and not to mention very noticeable errors like none of the characters having helmets in space or even underwater. At times I even noticed cutoffs with show reusing the same models to a completely different character, as baby model from Granny Baby was reused in Clash of the Cousins, and the design for Camp Leader from A Beautiful Mine was reused for Manager in Men at Work, with only difference being a different color of the hair. Sometimes animation can get so ridiculously bad that it ruins episodes to me. First it was Love Potion 976/J with its uncanny attempt at awkward expression, to One of Us at it’s entirety, the visuals in this episode were so off-putting and out of place that I literally cannot take it seriously, nor give it a proper rating. To give animation a bit of credit, it’s still really fluid, variable with elements and has stylization that makes most designs look natural, so even when technical quality isn’t my cup of coffee, it’s not effortless whatsoever.

Just like I said at the beginning, The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron wasn't the greatest choice for me to watch to close 2020. While the humor is definitely solid in all 3 seasons, everything else here was heavy lukewarm. Writing, characters and especially animation, while definitely not bad, manage to constantly be inconsistent and at times straight up bad when they get to the bottom of the cliches and shipping, but with some exceptions like Krunch Time, good elements overweight the mediocre ones. I can recommend this show to a small extent, as I can see a lot of people liking it way more than I did. At worst it’s an okay, harmless show, but it’s somewhat way worse than I remembered it being and don’t think that I’d ever return to it at any point. I’d rather watch the first 2 seasons of Dexter’s Laboratory, as both are way more interesting with its charmingly cynical humor and appalling visuals than Jimmy Neutron ever I have a history with not just one of these shows, but both. I watched Jimmy Neutron all the time when it was on netflix and I watched planet sheen a lot when it was still brand new. I didn’t like planet sheen but I kept watching the show anyway… rewatching these shows were interesting to say the least.

Jimmy Neutron… ah I loved this show so much. Sadly this show… aged a bit, not much but I does have some issues. The characters in this show are mostly fine, but I don't like it in certain episodes when they are written to be so unlikeable and a jerk. Luckily all of the characters have their moments and I don't really DESPISE any of them when admittedly they are really funny. My favorite characters from this show are probably Hugh and Sheen. Now for the animation….. Ok look, the animation was good for it's time… but it is very dated. The animation looks so cheap and to the point when it's so laughably BAD that the animation would be the highlight of some episodes only because of the ironic enjoyment. How are the episodes and the writing itself? It's alright! Most of the show have creative ideas and it doesn't ever feel like you're getting cheated on what you're in for. You're gonna get the weird stories and crazy hijinks. Animation and characters are flawed, but I think Jimmy Neutron is DECENT. The charm is still there it and I get why it has the name of being a nicktoon classic.




Premise

See also: List of Jimmy Neutron characters

The show follows a scientifically minded boy named Jimmy Neutron from Retroville, Texas[6] who frequently goes on adventures with his two best friends, Carl and Sheen, usually involving his inventions going awry.

Series overview

Main article: List of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius episodes
SeasonEpisodesOriginally aired
First airedLast aired
PilotSeptember 7, 1998 (1998-09-07)
FilmDecember 21, 2001 (2001-12-21)
119July 20, 2002 (2002-07-20)[7]September 5, 2003 (2003-09-05)
217September 19, 2003 (2003-09-19)July 9, 2004 (2004-07-09)
319November 11, 2004 (2004-11-11)November 25, 2006 (2006-11-25)
Specials3May 7, 2004 (2004-05-07)July 21, 2006 (2006-07-21)

The Fairly OddParents crossover episodes

Main article: The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour

There have also been three tie-ins with special episode crossovers involving the Nickelodeon hand-drawn style series The Fairly OddParents under the title "The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour" (the first alone, the second and third with the subtitles "When Nerds Collide!" and "The Jerkinators!," respectively); the five main characters from Jimmy Neutron meet with the main characters from The Fairly OddParents, Timmy, his godparents, and his two best friends Chester, and AJ, and often cross between each of their worlds of 2D and 3D animation.

Production

Development

Keith Alcorn and John A. Davis created Jimmy (then named Johnny Quasar) sometime during the 1980s and wrote a script titled Runaway Rocketboy (later the name of the pilot), which was abandoned. He later stumbled upon the idea while moving into a new house in the early 1990s. Davis re-worked it as a short film titled Johnny Quasar and presented it at SIGGRAPH, where he met Steve Oedekerk and worked on a television series of the short as well as the movie. Jimmy was still called Johnny Quasar before it was decided to name him Jimmy Neutron because the name sounded eerily similar to Jonny Quest.[8] The pilot involves Jimmy Neutron testing a rocket ship that he has invented, and later uses it when he inadvertently stumbles upon a Yolkian plot to conquer Earth. The pilot was aired in short mini-episodes on Nickelodeon before the film's release, and its plot was used for the film. It was later included as an extra on the "Confusion Fusion" and "The Complete Series" DVDs. It was originally supposed to air as a short on KaBlam!, but the show got canceled before the episode aired. [citation needed]

The pilot had a few differences from the main series. In it, Jimmy wore a red and white striped shirt and did not wear his signature red atom shirt, Judy's hair was darker, Hugh wore a blue suit (instead of a sweater vest and tie) and was a bit smarter, the Yolkians all wore grey suits and King Goobot's crown was a different color, the theme song was longer with a few lines that were cut later, Goddard was voiced by Kim Saxon instead of Frank Welker, Carl Wheezer had a very different design, main characters Sheen Estevez, Cindy Vortex, and Libby Folfax were absent and the title card had a picture in the scene.

Writing

The show began with Jed Spingarn as story editor and Steven Banks as head writer, though the series featured a variety of freelance writers as well. Midway through the first season, Jed Spingarn was promoted to Co-Producer and started writing less episodes, while Gene Grillo took his place as story editor. In seasons 2 and 3 the show featured less freelance writers and most episodes were written by Banks and Grillo. In addition, season 1 was more episodic and had mostly 11-minute episodes, while seasons 2 and 3 had serial elements and mostly half-hour episodes.

Animation

DNA Productions retooled their pipeline when moving from the film to the TV series, to reuse assets for the episodes. Some of the programming team at the studio programmed a special code that allowed the animators to animate scenes in Maya, which can then be rendered in Lightwave. This helped the team keep up with the deadline and avoid going over budget.[9]

Possible reboot/revival plans

In 2016, director John A. Davis has stated that he has a story for a Jimmy Neutron reboot feature that he would like to make, but he is waiting for the "right situation" to make it.[10]

When asked about a reboot in 2020, Rob Paulsen stated "Well, I've got to tell you, man. I go all over the world when we don't have the coronavirus, and people love Carl. They love Carl. I don't think it would be a bad thing at all to reboot Jimmy Neutron. I think that's one of those shows that a lot of people would love to see again. It was very good. Really smart. That wouldn't surprise me."[11]

Theme song

The theme song was originally written by Brian Causey for the pilot episode. Pop-punk band Bowling for Soup later revamped and extended Causey's theme for the film version theme. Ultimately, the original theme was kept for the TV series intro and outro.[12][13]

Reception

Critical reception

Joly Herman of Common Sense Media gave the series 3 out of 5 stars; saying that, "Jimmy Neutron has all the trappings of a Nickelodeon show: the preteen peer pressure, the gadgets, the spacey parents. But it's clever enough and funny enough to have earned a devoted following. The script is generally well written and well executed – the adults behind this show approach the project with apparent zeal. [...] Kids will enjoy this program, while parents might get a kick out of some of the gags as well. And though the computer animation may seem a bit freaky for old-school animation fans, it does allow for quality special effects."[14]

Awards and nominations

Year Award Category Nominee Result Ref
2003 BMI Awards BMI Cable Award Charlie Brissette Won [15]
2004 31st Annie Awards Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Television Production Produced for Children Nickelodeon and DNA Productions Won [16]
Outstanding Achievement Directing in an Animated Television Production Mike Gasaway Nominated
Outstanding Achievement in Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production Jeff Garcia as Sheen Won
10th annual NAMIC Vision Awards Children's MTV/Nickelodeon for The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius Nominated [17]
BMI Awards BMI Cable Award Charlie Brissette and Brian Causey Won [18]
Golden Reel Awards Best Sound Editing in Television Animation The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius Won [19]
2005 32nd Annie Awards Outstanding Achievement in Directing in an Animated Television Production Keith Alcorn Nominated [20]
Outstanding Achievement in Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production Carolyn Lawrence as Cindy Nominated
2006 33rd Annie Awards Outstanding Achievement in Writing in an Animated Television Production Christopher Painter Nominated [21]
2006 Kids' Choice Awards Favorite Cartoon The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius Nominated [22]
2007 2007 Kids' Choice Awards Favorite Cartoon The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius Nominated [23]

Home media

DVD releases

Main article: List of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius episodes § Home media
The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius home media releases
Season Title Region Release date
1 Confusion Fusion 1 May 27, 2003
2 October 8, 2003
Sea of Trouble 1 October 7, 2003
2 March 24. 2005[24]
Jimmy Timmy Power Hour 1 May 11, 2004
Nick Picks #2 1 October 18, 2005
Nick Picks #3 1 February 7, 2006
Nick Picks #4 1 June 6, 2006
Jimmy Timmy Power Hour 3 1 July 25, 2006
Party at Neutron's 2 September 4, 2006
King of Mars 4 July 5, 2007
Best of Season One 1 September 16, 2008
The Complete Series 1 October 26, 2021[25]
2 Jet Fusion 1 February 3, 2004
2 July 7, 2005[26]
Jimmy Timmy Power Hour 2 1 March 14, 2006
Jimmy Timmy Power Hour 3 1 July 25, 2006
Best of Season Two 1 September 16, 2008
The Complete Series 1 October 26, 2021
3 Attack of the Twonkies 1 November 16, 2004
Nick Picks #5 1 March 13, 2007
King of Mars 4 July 5, 2007[27]
Best of Season Three 1 September 16, 2008
The Complete Series 1 October 26, 2021

Spin-off

Main article: Planet Sheen

A spin-off series, Planet Sheen, aired from 2010 to 2013. The show focuses on Sheen Estevez, who accidentally crash-lands on the planet Zeenu in the pilot episode.

References

  1. ^ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 63–65. ISBN 978-1476665993.
  2. ^ Nick Animation (September 15, 2017), Episode 41: Jimmy Neutron Cast | Nick Animation Podcast, retrieved June 22, 2018
  3. ^ "Annie Awards". annieawards.org. Retrieved June 22, 2018.
  4. ^ "49th Golden Reel Awards Nominees Announced". Mixonline. Retrieved June 22, 2018.
  5. ^ "2006 Host/Nominee Release – Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards 2006 Press Site". www.nickkcapress.com. Archived from the original on July 18, 2013. Retrieved June 22, 2018.
  6. ^ Season 3 Episode 3, "Stranded"
  7. ^ "The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius: Season 1". Zap2It. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
  8. ^ Frank Moldstad. "Making Jimmy Neutron, An interview with John Davis, Director, and creator of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius". Archived from the original on February 21, 2017. Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  9. ^ Gruppetstudios (October 14, 2016), Cartoons VS Cancer Ep. 11 – (The One with John Davis!), retrieved November 24, 2017
  10. ^ Gruppetstudios (October 14, 2016), Cartoons VS Cancer Ep. 11 – (The One with John Davis!), retrieved November 24, 2017
  11. ^ "Jimmy Neutron Star Says a Reboot Wouldn't be Surprising".
  12. ^ "Randy Edelman, Merv Griffin, Eminem Among Honorees at BMI Film/TV Awards". BMI.com. May 14, 2003. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
  13. ^ "2004 BMI Film/TV Awards". BMI.com. May 12, 2004. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
  14. ^ Herman, Joly (July 20, 2002). "The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron Buy Genius review". Common Sense Media.
  15. ^ "2003 BMI Film/TV Awards". May 14, 2003.
  16. ^ "31st Annie Awards". annieawards.org.
  17. ^ Morfoot, Addie (March 28, 2004). "Namic names nominee names". Variety.
  18. ^ "2004 BMI Film/TV Awards". May 12, 2004.
  19. ^ "MPSE Announces Golden Reel Award Winners". ProSoundNetwork.com. March 2005.
  20. ^ "32nd Annie Awards". annieawards.org.
  21. ^ "33rd Annie Awards". annieawards.org.
  22. ^ "Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards 2006 host and nominees". www.nickkcapress.com. Archived from the original on July 18, 2013. Retrieved June 22, 2018.
  23. ^ "Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards 2007 host and nominees". www.nickkcapress.com. Archived from the original on March 20, 2007. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
  24. ^ "DVD – Jimmy neutron: sea of trouble". Archived from the original on October 3, 2011.
  25. ^ "The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: The Complete Series". Amazon. October 26, 2021.
  26. ^ "DVD – Jimmy Neutron: Jet fusion". Archived from the original on October 3, 2011.
  27. ^ "DVD – Jimmy Neutron: King of Mars". Archived from the original on October 3, 2011.
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