Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (film)
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| Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius | |
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| Directed by | John A. Davis |
| Produced by | John A. Davis |
| Written by | Steve Oedekerk John A. Davis David N. Weiss |
| Starring | Debi Derryberry Martin Short Patrick Stewart Rob Paulsen Andrea Martin Jeff Garcia Megan Cavanaugh Carolyn Lawrence Candi Milo Mark DeCarlo Crystal Scales Frank Welker |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | December 21, 2001 (USA) |
| Running time | 82 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | ~ US$25,000,000 |
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius is a 2001 computer-animated film, based on a few five-minute animated shorts shown on Nickelodeon in 2000-2001, which showed much promise[citation needed] (one about Jimmy wanting a cookie, Cindy and Jimmy's dogs competing, Carl messing with the cloning machine). The television series was supposed to begin before the release of the movie, but since there was not enough time, the animated shorts were created. It was produced by Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies. It was nominated for the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The film was produced using off-the-shelf software (LightWave 6) by DNA Productions of Dallas, Texas.
The film grossed around $80m in North America, and was followed by the television series The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, the following fall on Nickelodeon.
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[edit] Plot
The movie begins at an Air Force base somewhere in Colorado. Their radar picks up a UFO and they send planes up to see what it is. The pilots are surprised to find that it's a rocket carrying two boys and a robotic dog, Jimmy Neutron, Carl Wheezer, and Goddard to be exact. The reason they are up there is because Jimmy needs to launch a communications satellite (which is really the toaster) to communicate with an alien species who sent him a message that was garbled in the ionosphere. Unfortunately, the false rockets fail, and the rocket can't leave the atmosphere. So, Jimmy devises a plan. He tapes some soda to the toaster and throws it. The soda propels it into space. Just then, the rocket falls down to town. It eventually lands on his roof. He is reprimanded by his parents and gets ready for school. Unfortunately, his antics caused him to miss the bus. He then tests his latest invention, a form of bubble transportation, made from a special bubble gum. He catches up with the school bus, but the bubble pops when it hits a tree. In the classroom, Cindy Vortex, Jimmy's arch rival, is giving a report on dinosaurs. Jimmy proceeds to correct her with technical data and they argue. During show and tell, Jimmy shows the class a shrink ray. He attempts to shrink Cindy's head, but the ray malfunctions and doesn't work. When walking home, Jimmy, Carl, and their friend Sheen spot a poster for an amusement park. However, their parents won't let them go, so they sneak out. By now, the shrink ray is working again, so Jimmy shrinks himself to escape. He meets Carl and Sheen outside the park's entrance, and they have a wild time. Goddard poses as him under the covers so his parents won't know where he is.
Meanwhile, the toaster is found by an alien race called the Yolkians. They seem to be a green goo (or yolk, possibly) with eye stalks. They use pods with hovering capability and robotic arms to move, but they fly spaceships in space (that look like chickens). King Goobot and his assistant, Oobla, watch the message, but the king stops it when he sees Jimmy's parents, and says, "They look...delicious... The search is over!" Then, all the ships in the armada head to Earth. They take all the parents in the city and leave, putting notes on the refrigerators to tell the kids where they've gone.
On the way home, Carl spots a shooting star, so he, Jimmy, and Sheen wish for no more parents so they could have fun all the time. The next morning, Jimmy spots the note and reads, "Dear son/daughter, we have gone away to Florida for an extended vacation. Love, your parents." The notes are the same for everyone, so Jimmy has Goddard scan for adult life forms. When the report comes back (none within radar range), the kids celebrating and doing things they couldn't do normally, like running up the down escalator, and flooding the school to jet ski in it.
The next morning, the craze has worn off, and at home, Jimmy is upset that his parents didn't say goodbye. Goddard plays back what his parents said while Goddard was posing as him. Suddenly Jimmy notices that it ends with his mom saying, "Good night, Jimmy. Sweet dreams. We'll see you in the morning." Jimmy goes to his lab and compares the note the Yolkians left with notes his parents wrote. When the writing doesn't compare, Jimmy realizes that the notes are fake. Goddard finds evidence of aliens on the computer, and Jimmy tracks them to another system. He organizes the other kids in town to build rockets from the theme park rides to travel there.
While staying on an asteroid, everyone recalls what their parents did at bedtime before they were abducted by aliens. The next day, they reach the planet Yolkus, but are captured by Goobot. He says the parents are to be sacrificed to their god, Poultra. They're taken to the dungeon, but Oobla takes Goddard to his workshop to take him apart. Jimmy calls Goddard on another kid's cell phone and tricks Oobla into thinking Goddard will self-destruct in an explosion covering 30 square miles. Goddard frees the kids using a glitch in his obedience program (when told to play dead, he detonates in a small explosion, which blows down the door), and they make it to the arena were the parents will be sacrificed to Poultra. When they reach it, an unusual ceremony is finishing (with mind-control devices, the parents do the chicken dance!), and Poultra, a gigantic three-eyed chicken with reptilian legs, hatching from her egg. Jimmy quickly comes up with a plan: Sheen heads to an airfield to obtain a transport, he gets the mind controller, and the rest of the kids keep the guards busy. They escape, but Goobot follows them in his ship at the head of the Yolkus fleet. He orders the ships to open fire with a classic line: "Time to discipline the naughty children." Jimmy skims the surface of Yolkus's sun, and flares destroy all but Goobot's ship. The king sends a taunting message to Jimmy, who flies out with Goddard. He uses his shrink ray to make himself the size of a planet, and blows the ship into an oncoming asteroid. Goobot vows he'll be back. The kids are reunited with their parents, and they make it home without further incident.
[edit] Themes
A common theme in American children's entertainment is the "obliviousness" of parents. Usually, the parents of the child protagonist, while loving, demonstrate a humorous but releveant lack of understanding or even ineptitude with their children that all kids can relate to. In Jimmy's case, his parents continuously reprimand him for his inventions, often ignoring the utter brilliance thereof. Appropriately enough, the soundtrack features a cover of "Parents Just Don't Understand" originally by DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince.
[edit] Taglines
- Blasting into theaters this Christmas
- Blasting Into Theatres
- I can fix that...
- He may be small, but he's got a big brain!
[edit] Voice Cast
- Debi Derryberry - Jimmy Neutron
- Rob Paulsen - Carl Wheezer
- Carolyn Lawrence - Cindy Vortex
- Patrick Stewart - King Goobot
- Frank Welker - Goddard
- Martin Short - Ooblar
- Candi Milo - Nick Dean
- Jeff Garcia - Sheen Estevez
- Megan Cavanagh - Mrs. Judy Neutron
- Mark DeCarlo - Mr. Hugh Neutron
- Crystal Scales - Libby Folfax
- Andrea Martin - Ms. Winfred Fowl
[edit] Soundtrack album track listing
- Leave it Up to Me - Aaron Carter (2:59)
- Pop (Deep Dish Cha-Ching Remix) - *NSync (4:13)
- Parents Just Don't Understand (Teddy Riley Mix) - 3LW & Lil' Romeo (3:55)
- Intimidated - Britney Spears (3:17)
- He Blinded Me with Science - Melissa Lefton (3:15)
- A.C.'s Alien Nation - Aaron Carter (3:23)
- Kids in America - No Secrets (3:06)
- The Answer to Our Life - Backstreet Boys (3:17)
- The Chicken Dance - Stupid (1:32)
- I Can Count on You - True Vibe (3:46)
- We Got the Beat - The Go-Go's (2:31)
- Go Jimmy Go - Aaron Carter (2:38)
- Parents Just Don't Understand (Bonus Mix) - 3LW & Lil' Romeo (3:52)
- Blitzkrieg Bop - The Ramones (2:12)
- Jimmy Neutron Theme - Bowling for Soup (2:08)
[edit] Trivia
[edit] Cultural references
- In an early sequence, Jimmy rides his jetpack past a train labeled MJ12, coinciding with the extra-terrestrial theme.
- In the beginning of the message Jimmy sends to the aliens, he salutes them using the Vulcan salute.
- When Sheen takes the Ultra Lord oath in the amusement park, his right hand is doing the Vulcan salute.
- The Egyptian-style ride "Show me the mummy" is a parody of Jerry Maguire's catch-phrase "Show me the money".
- One of the rides has a scared kid's face with eyes wide open and his hands on his cheeks. That's the famous pose of Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone. (Which itself is a parody of the Edvard Munch painting The Scream)
- The alien's YT program is a parody of ET.
- During the scene when the kids are camping on the asteroid, Nick's story is from the 1999 film The Blair Witch Project
[edit] Other
- Another poster of this movie had Jimmy & Goddard on the front, looking through a hole from metal that they had blasted through. Next to the hole are the words I can fix that... and under the hole is the words Blasting into theaters this Christmas.
- This film was pushed from November 2001.
- Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius was nominated for Best Animated Feature in 2001. It lost to the Dreamworks blockbuster, Shrek.
- The plot was based upon a failed Jimmy Neutron show pilot, Runaway Rocketboy, While most of the footage from the failed pilot was used on the original teaser trailer, but in the end Nickoldeon finally accepted to create to television series, which turned out to be a hit, turning into Nick's third highest rated show.
- Retroville's paper updates incredibly fast. The headline of the day of the satellite launch was that a UFO (Jimmy and Carl) had been spotted over the town.
- When Jimmy points to his mom and dad on the tape on his satellite, he calls dad mom, and vice versa.
- There are some references to the Yolkians, the villains of the movie.
- Jimmy's refrigerator is filled with hundreds of eggs, a reference to the Yolkians.
- There are ceramics that look like chickens, the shape of the ships and the god of the Yolkians. These are seen at the last scene of the movie.
- All of the amusement park rockets were left on Yolkus when they escaped. Yet in the series, Jimmy and Sheen's ships are seen on Earth.
- A sequel is planned called Jimmy Neutron:Boy Genius 2:The search for Carl
- A game of the movie has been made.
[edit] External links
Categories: Articles lacking sources from November 2006 | All articles lacking sources | Articles with unsourced statements | 2001 films | American films | Best Animated Feature Academy Award nominees | Computer-animated films | Jimmy Neutron films | Paramount films | Jimmy Neutron | Nicktoon films | Films directed by John A. Davis | English-language films
