The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2002)

The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius (or just The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron and often shortened as Jimmy Neutron) is an American animated science fiction and adventure television series created by John A. Davis for Nickelodeon. The series was produced by DNA Productions alongside O Entertainment and Nickelodeon Animation Studio. It was the first Nickelodeon cartoon to be animated in computer-generated imagery (CGI), as well as the first television series from the channel to be based on a film. Set in the fictional town of Retroville in Texas, and serving as a sequel and spin-off to the film Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001), the series follows the adventures of the title character, Jimmy Neutron, a boy genius who is frequently accompanied by his best friends, Carl Wheezer and Sheen Estevez, with Jimmy's various inventions often going awry.

The series originally aired from July 20, 2002, to November 25, 2006 on Nickelodeon for three seasons comprising 64 episodes total, including three crossover specials with fellow Nickelodeon series, The Fairly OddParents. The series won two BMI Film & TV Awards, two Annie Awards and one Golden Reel Award. A spin-off, Planet Sheen, aired from 2010 to 2013.

Premise

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

Episodes

The Fairly OddParents crossover episodes

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 too similar to Jonny Quest.

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.

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, 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 fewer episodes, while Gene Grillo took his place as story editor. In seasons 2 and 3 the show featured fewer freelance writers and Banks and Grillo wrote most episodes. 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.

Possible reboot

In 2016, Davis 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.

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."

In 2025, screenwriter Adam Pava unveiled that a potential new film project based on the character was in the works since December 2023.

Theme song

The theme song was originally written and recorded by Brian Causey of Man or Astro-man? 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.

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."

Awards and nominations

Home media

DVD releases

Spin-off

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

External links

The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius at IMDb

The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived[link removed] from the original on August 31, 2015.