Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius is a 2001 American animated science fiction comedy film directed by John A. Davis and written by Davis, David N. Weiss, J. David Stem, and Steve Oedekerk, from a story written by Davis and Oedekerk. Produced by Nickelodeon Movies and DNA Productions in association with O Entertainment, the film features the voice of Debi Derryberry as the titular character, a schoolboy with super-genius intelligence, who must save all the parents of his hometown from a race of egg-like aliens known as the Yolkians. The voice cast also includes Sir Patrick Stewart, Martin Short, Rob Paulsen, Jeffrey Garcia, and Carolyn Lawrence.
The film was initially conceived by Davis as Runaway Rocketboy!, featuring a character named Johnny Quasar. After being dormant for years, the concept was revamped into a computer-animated short and pitched to Nickelodeon, which led to the development of both a television series and a full-length film. Production for the film commenced in early 2000 and took 24 months, significantly increasing staff and studio space. Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius was the first computer-animated film to be created entirely with off-the-shelf animation programs, which included LightWave 3D and messiah:studio and Alias Maya. DNA Productions, Davis' animation studio, handled the animation for the film.
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius premiered at the Paramount studio lot on December 9, 2001, before being theatrically released in the United States on December 21 by Paramount Pictures. It was a critical and commercial success, grossing $103 million against a budget of $25–30 million. It was nominated for the inaugural Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 74th Academy Awards. It spawned an expanded franchise, including a television series, a spin-off series, video games, and a simulator ride at Universal Studios Florida.
Plot
Ten-year-old boy genius Jimmy Neutron lives in Retroville with his parents, Judy and Hugh, and his robot dog, Goddard. Jimmy's friends are overweight Carl Wheezer and hyperactive Sheen Estevez, and his long-standing rival intelligent classmate Cindy Vortex teases him for his small stature. After Jimmy launches a communications satellite into space hoping to contact alien life, he crashes his makeshift rocket into the roof of his family's home, upsetting his mother. The next day, Jimmy, Carl, and Sheen learn of the grand opening of Retroland, an amusement park. Popular kid, Nick Dean, convinces the boys to sneak out and attend. Jimmy's mother refuses to let him attend the park that night after his jetpack accidentally starts a fire in the house. Taking Nick's advice, Jimmy uses his shrink ray invention to sneak out, and meets Carl and Sheen at Retroland for a night of fun.
Meanwhile, Jimmy's satellite is intercepted by the Yolkians, a race of egg-like aliens from the planet Yolkus. Their leader, King Goobot, along with his bumbling assistant Ooblar, views Jimmy's message, and upon noticing a picture featuring Jimmy's parents, declares his search complete. The Yolkians arrive on Earth and abduct all the adults in Retroville except Jimmy's teacher Miss Fowl (due to having been shrunken down to a small size by Jimmy's shrink ray). As their ships return to space, Jimmy, Carl, and Sheen mistake their departure for a shooting star, prompting Jimmy to wish that their parents were gone. The next morning, all the children notice their parents are missing and party recklessly. At first, having no parents is fun for the children, but the following day they are miserable and realize they need their parents. Jimmy learns that his satellite has been found and deduces the parents have been abducted. He enlists the children to create rocket ships out of Retroland's rides, and they blast off into space after their families.
After braving a meteor shower and camping on an asteroid, Jimmy and the others eventually reach Yolkus and find the parents with mind control devices attached to their heads. When Jimmy tries to get the mind-control helmet off of his father, Goobot and Ooblar capture them and reveal that Jimmy had led the Yolkians directly to Earth to take their parents, whom they intend to sacrifice to their god Poultra. Goobot orders the children, Jimmy included, locked in a dungeon while having Ooblar take Goddard to the lab and have him destroyed. As the other children blame Jimmy for their predicament, Cindy, taking pity on Jimmy, confesses she and the other children need him and encourages Jimmy to fix things by helping them escape. Using a cellphone owned by Cindy's friend, Libby Folfax, Jimmy contacts Goddard, who escapes from Ooblar and frees the children.
Jimmy and company reach the Yolkians' Colosseum, where a giant egg hatches and releases Poultra, a gigantic three-eyed alien chicken. As Goobot arranges the parents to be eaten using a mind control remote, Jimmy rallies the children to storm the colosseum and battle the guards while Sheen retrieves an escape vessel, which knocks Poultra on the head upon his return. Jimmy steals the remote from Goobot and the children escape Yolkus with the parents. Goobot arranges a fleet to pursue them, which is all destroyed when the children fly their ship around the surface of the Sun, save for Goobot's vessel. When Goobot and Ooblar mock Jimmy's short size, Jimmy charges at Goobot's ship with Goddard in a flying bike form and uses his shrink ray to enlarge himself into the size of a planet. He then blows Goobot's vessel away into an asteroid, destroying it. Goobot survives and vows revenge. On the return trip to Earth, Jimmy reconciles with his parents, admitting that despite his intelligence, he still depends on them.
Meanwhile, the still-shrunken Miss Fowl is seen riding on an apple worm, named Mr. Wiggles, on her way to the cafeteria in the elementary school hall.
Cast
Debi Derryberry as James Isaac Neutron Sir Patrick Stewart as King Goobot V Martin Short as Ooblar Carolyn Lawrence as Cindy Vortex Rob Paulsen as Carl Wheezer, Ebenezer and Martha Wheezer, Kid in Classroom Jeffrey Garcia as Sheen Estevez Crystal Scales as Libby Folfax Frank Welker as Goddard, Poultra, Worm, Demon, Girl-Eating Plant, Oyster Candi Milo as Nick Dean, Britney, PJ Megan Cavanagh as Judy Neutron, VOX, Mrs. Vortex Mark DeCarlo as Hugh Neutron, Pilot, Arena Guard, Mr. Vortex Carlos Alazraqui as Harp Estevez Kimberly Brooks as Courtney Tyler, Zachery Jones, Angie Jenson Andrea Martin as Ms. Fowl Billy West as Bobby's Twin Brother, Butch Pakovski, Old Man Johnson, Robobarber, Yolkian Officer, Jailbreak Cop, Anchor Boy, Flurp Announcer Bob Goen and Mary Hart as Yolkian newscasters Dee Bradley Baker as NORAD Officer David L. Lander as Yolkian Guard, Gus Jim Cummings as Ultra Lord, General Abercrombie, Mission Control Paul Greenberg as Guard Laraine Newman as Hostess Jeannie Elias as Nissa, Camera Person Michael Hagiwara as Chris Keith Alcorn as Bobby, Kid, Control Yolkian Richard Allen as Digital Voice Brian Capshaw as Screamer Cheryl Ray as Screamer Mark Menza as Yolkian Incubator Operator Matthew Russell as Hyperactive Kid, Arena Yolkian John A. Davis as Guard, Bennie, Octapuke kid
Production Development The idea for a series about a boy with super-genius powers was first conceived in the 1980s by John A. Davis, who scripted and storyboarded a short narrative titled Runaway Rocketboy, centering around a character named Johnny Quasar (inspired by a facetious nickname that his summer co-workers had coined for him in his youth) who builds a rocket ship and runs away from his parents. Davis stated in an episode of the Nickelodeon Animation Podcast that he initially wrote the concept with the intention of creating it as a live-action film with special effects and matte shots, even going so far as to apply for a grant to fund the project, but found that getting such an investment was difficult since the film was not educational or informative. The idea laid dormant for several years until Davis came across the abandoned script while in the process of moving. Around the same time, Davis' Dallas-based studio, DNA Productions, had just begun experimenting with the use of computer animation after obtaining copies of LightWave 3D. In turn, Davis realized that the film would be fitting as a CGI film, since all of the science fiction set pieces could be entirely modeled in 3-D.
Davis, alongside studio co-founder Keith Alcorn, created a 40-second proof-of-concept demo film which depicted Johnny and his robot dog, Goddard, flying through an asteroid belt and greeting the viewers. Simultaneously, Davis and Alcorn worked to create a story bible outlining a potential television series. The demo short was shown off in 1995 at the SIGGRAPH CGI convention, where it was entered into a competition for LightWave films. The demo quickly garnered notability in the computer animation industry, receiving frequent press coverage in magazines and winning two "Wavey" awards- one for Best Character Animation and another for Best in Show. Among people who caught wind of the film was Steve Oedekerk, the founder of O Entertainment, who saw a still shot of Johnny and Goddard in a CGI magazine. Oedekerk, a strong backer of computer animation, was impressed by the characters' designs, stating in an interview that the image particularly stood out to him because it "seemed fun" compared to the mostly-photorealistic work being done with computer animation at the time. He cold-called Davis requesting to see a tape of the full short. After watching the demo, as well as seeing the show bible which Davis and Alcorn had developed, Oedekerk expressed interest in helping to pitch their concept to different networks.
After teaming up with O Entertainment, the company began working on developing a full-length episode for a TV series, titled The Adventures of Johnny Quasar, writing an expanded version of the original Runaway Rocket story and tweaking aspects of Johnny's design to make him look more like a child. In Fall 1995, the idea was pitched to Nickelodeon, who expressed immediate interest in the idea. Albie Hecht, the then-president of Nick, was particularly impressed, coining him to be "half Bart Simpson and half Albert Einstein", he strongly praised Johnny's blended personality as an adventurous and intelligent character and one grounded in the reality of childhood, which, according to him, made him "the perfect Nick kid". Following positive reception, Nickelodeon commissioned for a 13-minute pilot episode to be created. After several years of going through the review process, the episode began production in late 1997, and was completed in 1998. The name "Johnny Quasar" was changed at the request of Nickelodeon, who did not want the character to be confused with similarly named ones such as Jonny Quest and Captain Quazar, so Davis brainstormed other character names while walking his dog around the neighborhood block, eventually coming up with the final name, "Jimmy Neutron".