The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius

The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius (sometimes shortened to Jimmy Neutron or commonly Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius) is an American computer-animated television series based on the 2001 film Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius created by John A. Davis and Keith Alcorn.[1] It originally aired on Nickelodeon for three seasons beginning July 20, 2002, and the final episode aired on November 25, 2006. The show follows a genius 11-year-old from Retroville, the eponymous character, as he goes on adventures with his best friends Carl Wheezer and Sheen Estevez.[2] 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), Jeffrey Garcia (Sheen), and Rob Paulsen (Carl) for the three main characters.[3]

The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius
Genre	Comedy Science fiction Action/Adventure
Created by	Keith Alcorn John A. Davis
Based on	Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius by John A. Davis Characters created by John A. Davis
Directed by	Keith Alcorn Mike Gasaway Kirby Atkins
Starring	Debi Derryberry Rob Paulsen Jeffrey Garcia Frank Welker Carolyn Lawrence Crystal Scales Mark DeCarlo Megan Cavanagh
Theme music composer	Brian Causey
Composer	Charlie Brissette
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	61 (122 segments) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Steve Oedekerk John A. Davis
Producers	Keith Alcorn John A. Davis Paul Marshal
Editors	Jon Price John Wahba Joe E. Elwood
Running time	22 minutes
Production companies	O Entertainment DNA Productions Nickelodeon Animation Studio
Distributor	ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks
Release
Original network	Nickelodeon
Picture format	4:3 SDTV
Original release	July 20, 2002 – November 25, 2006
Chronology
Preceded by	Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
Related shows	Planet Sheen

The series has been the recipient of various nominations such as Kid's Choice "Favorite Cartoon" in 2006 and 2007, and has won an Annie award for "outstanding achievement in animated television production produced for children" as well as a Motion Picture Sound Editors "Golden Reel award".[4][5][6] A spin-off, Planet Sheen, aired from 2010 to 2013.

Summary

The show follows an 11-year-old boy named Jimmy Neutron from Retroville, Texas[7] who is a scientific genius. He frequently goes on adventures with his two best friends Sheen and Carl, usually involving his inventions going awry.

Media

Episodes

Season		Episodes		Originally aired
				First aired	Last aired
	Pilots	2		September 7, 1998[8]	December 21, 2001[8]
	1	20		July 20, 2002[8]	September 5, 2003[8]
	2	20		September 19, 2003[8]	July 9, 2004[8]
	Specials	3		May 7, 2004	July 21, 2006
	3	21		November 11, 2004[8]	November 25, 2006[8]

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.

Pilot (1998–2001)

The pilot, named "Runaway Rocketboy," involves Jimmy 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" DVD. It was originally supposed to air as a short on KaBlam!, but the show got cancelled before the episode aired.

The pilot had a few differences from the main series. In it, Jimmy did not wear his signature red atom shirt, Judy's hair was darker, 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, in lieu of Frank Welker, Carl Wheezer resembled his father, Sheen Estevez was absent and the title card had a picture in the scene, not dissimilar to all the other Nicktoons.

DVD releases

Title	Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
Confusion Fusion	May 27, 2003	October 8, 2003	–
Sea of Trouble	October 7, 2003	March 24. 2005[9]	–
Jet Fusion	February 3, 2004	July 7, 2005[10]	–
Jimmy Timmy Power Hour	May 11, 2004	-	-
Attack of the Twonkies	November 16, 2004	–	–
Nick Picks Vol. 1	May 24, 2005	-	-
Nick Picks Vol. 2	October 18, 2005	-	-
Nick Picks Vol. 3	February 7, 2006	-	-
Jimmy Timmy Power Hour 2	March 14, 2006	-	-
Nick Picks Vol. 4	June 6, 2006	-	-
Jimmy Timmy Power Hour 3	July 25, 2006	-	-
Party at Neutron's	–	September 4, 2006	–
Nick Picks Vol. 5	March 13, 2007	-	-
King of Mars	–	–	July 5, 2007[11]
The Best of Season 1	September 16, 2008	–	–
The Best of Season 2	September 16, 2008	–	–
The Best of Season 3	September 16, 2008	–	–

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 identical to Jonny Quest.[12]

Writing

Victor Wilson was hired as the Story Editor. The main writers when the show was greenlit were Steven Banks and Jed Spingarn.

Animation

DNA Productions retooled their pipeline when moving from the film to the TV series, so they could 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.[13]

Theme

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.[14][15]

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."[16]

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominee	Result	Ref
2003	BMI Awards	BMI Cable Award	Charlie Brissette	Won	[17]
2004	31st Annie Awards	Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Television Production Produced for Children	Nickelodeon and DNA Productions	Won	[18]
		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	[19]
	BMI Awards	BMI Cable Award	Charlie Brissette and Brian Causey	Won	[20]
	Golden Reel Awards	Best Sound Editing in Television Animation	The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius	Won	[21]
2005	32nd Annie Awards	Outstanding Achievement in Directing in an Animated Television Production	Keith Alcorn	Nominated	[22]
		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	[23]
	2006 Kids' Choice Awards	Favorite Cartoon	The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius	Nominated	[24]
2007	2007 Kids' Choice Awards	Favorite Cartoon	The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius	Nominated	[25]

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.

See also

• Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
• Planet Sheen
• Dexter's Laboratory
• Johnny Test
• Phineas and Ferb
• Kiteretsu Daihyakka

References

1. Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 9. ISBN 978-1538103739.
2. Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 63–65. ISBN 978-1476665993.
3. Nick Animation (September 15, 2017), Episode 41: Jimmy Neutron Cast | Nick Animation Podcast, retrieved June 22, 2018
4. "Annie Awards". annieawards.org. Retrieved June 22, 2018.
5. "49th Golden Reel Awards Nominees Announced". Mixonline. Retrieved June 22, 2018.
6. "2006 Host/Nominee Release - Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards 2006 Press Site". www.nickkcapress.com. Retrieved June 22, 2018.
7. Season 3 Episode 3, "Stranded"
8. "The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius: Season 1". Zap2It. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
9. "DVD - Jimmy neutron: sea of trouble". Archived from the original on October 3, 2011.
10. "DVD - JIMMY NEUTRON: JET FUSION". Archived from the original on October 3, 2011.
11. "DVD - Jimmy Neutron: King of Mars". Archived from the original on October 3, 2011.
12. Frank Moldstad. "Making Jimmy Neutron, An interview with John Davis, Director and creator of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius".
13. Gruppetstudios (October 14, 2016), Cartoons VS Cancer Ep. 11 - (The One with John Davis!), retrieved November 24, 2017
14. "Randy Edelman, Merv Griffin, Eminem Among Honorees at BMI Film/TV Awards". BMI.com. May 14, 2003. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
15. "2004 BMI Film/TV Awards". BMI.com. May 12, 2004. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
16. Herman, Joly (July 20, 2002). "The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron Buy Genius review". Common Sense Media.
17. "2003 BMI Film/TV Awards".
18. "31st Annie Awards". annieawards.org.
19. Morfoot, Addie (March 28, 2004). "Namic names nominee names". Variety.
20. "2004 BMI Film/TV Awards".
21. "MPSE Announces Golden Reel Award Winners". ProSoundNetwork.com.
22. "32nd Annie Awards". annieawards.org.
23. "33rd Annie Awards". annieawards.org.
24. "Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards 2006 host and nominees". www.nickkcapress.com.
25. "Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards 2007 host and nominees". www.nickkcapress.com.

External links

• The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius at IMDb
• The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius at TV.com
• The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on August 31, 2015.