Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Written by John A. Davis, David N. Weiss, J. David Stem, and Steve Oedekerk
Directed by John A. Davis
Starring Megan Cavanagh, Mark DeCarlo, Debbie Derryberry, Jeffrey Garcia, Patrick Stewart, and Martin Short.

Features:

• Making-of featurette
  
• 2 music videos
  
• 12 promo spots
  
• Full-screen and widescreen versions of the feature
  
• Theatrical trailer and teaser trailer
  
• DVD-ROM content (7 games) (Windows-only)
  

Rating: G

Anamorphic: If you want it.

My Advice: Rent it.

Jimmy Neutron is a 10-year-old genius, and by genius we mean not simply "knows all his multiplication tables" kind of smart, but more like "built a functional sub-orbital rocket in his backyard" kind of smart. And he desperately wants to make contact with an alien civilization whose garbled transmissions he's been picking up on the satellite antenna in his treehouse. So after he launches a communications satellite (made from the kitchen toaster), he sits back to wait for first contact.

To pass the time, he and his friends sneak out for the grand opening of Retroland, the premiere amusement park in Retroville, against all their parents wishes. A good time is had by all, and Jimmy sneaks back into his house undetected, well after his bedtime on a school night. But when everyone wakes up the next day, they notice that the adults are all missing. Jimmy and his friends, along with his robotic dog Goddard, determine that their parents have been abducted by hideous aliens, bent on sacrificing them to their massive (and bizarre) chicken-god. So the kids build a fleet of interstellar battleships (out of amusement park rides), and take off for the far corner of the galaxy to rescue the adults. All in a week's work, right?

Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius makes for a pretty entertaining 82 minutes. A bit on the short side, really, given how much is going on most of the time, but the target market for this flick has the attention span of a fruit-fly. While the film is squarely "kid's stuff," it's not so dumbed down as to be impossible to enjoy for anyone that actually remembers what childhood was like. The scene following the childrens' discovery of their parents' absence is particularly amusing, as the kids run riot all over town enjoying all the silly things that their parents don't allow (clothes that don't match, ice cream and waffles for breakfast, popcorn dunes on the school lawn, what have you).

The animation is pretty stellar stuff, entirely computer generated, and drawn in a very "retro" style, with shiny chrome 50's appliances and cars with big fenders. All the people have humongous heads and teeny little bodies. The film is brightly colored and beautiful, and the animation has none of the glitches so common in CGI-laden movies of all stripes. The voice-acting is equally remarkable, with Stewart and Short being the real stand-outs as the evil King Goobot and his royal minister Ooblar.

The extras are decent on the disc, with a longer-than-standard "making-of" piece and some DVD-ROM games (most fairly mediocre, but more entertaining than the goofy "snitch" game on Harry Potter). Beyond that you have some promotional materials, and a couple of music videos for the terrible soundtrack tunes (all very squarely Nickolodeon musical artists that never get seen anywhere but the Kid's Choice Awards). No commentary track, no production stills, no storyboard comparisons, which is all pretty weak, if you ask me. Animated films, more than many others, generate tons of pre-production material that could easily be incorporated into a DVD, but too few companies bother.

So rent Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius for some solid all-ages entertainment, but don't go shelling out the long green unless you fall in love with the first viewing. There's not enough bonus material to sustain interest for very long.