The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius

The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
Format	Animated television series
Created by	John A. Davis, Keith Alcorn, Steve Oedekerk
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	61
Production
Executive producer(s)	Steve Oedekerk Keith Alcorn
Distributor	Nickelodeon
Running time	22 minutes (11 minutes per segments)
Broadcast
Original channel	Nickelodeon (United States)
Original Air Date	September 10, 1998 (pilot) July 20, 2002 – November 25, 2006 (series)

The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (often shortened as Jimmy Neutron) is an American television series, based on the film, serving as a direct sequel.

The series first aired on July 20, 2002, and the final episode aired on November 25, 2006. The series spawned three seasons (61 episodes), it also did a crossover with The Fairly OddParents in a special called the Jimmy Timmy Power Hour which aired on May 7, 2004, during the show's second season. It was so successful that it spawned two sequels: When Nerds Collide and The Jerkinators, which aired on January 16, 2006, and July 21, 2006, during the show's third season respectively. The series was critically acclaimed with viewers and TV critics alike.

Episodes

Main article: List of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius episodes

Cast

• Debi Derryberry as Jimmy Neutron
• Rob Paulsen as Carl Wheezer
• Jeffrey Garcia as Sheen Estevez
• Carolyn Lawrence as Cindy Vortex
• Crystal Scales as Libby Folfax
• Candi Milo as Nick Dean
• Frank Welker as Goddard
• Mark DeCarlo as Hugh Neutron
• Megan Cavanagh as Judy Neutron
• Phil LaMarr as Bolbi Stroganovsky

Production

The early prototype of Jimmy was "Johnny Quasar: Boy Genius". John A. Davis produced a short film of the character in early 1995 and was pitched at SIGRAPH 1995. However, since the name sounded too much like Jonny Quest, he changed the name to "Jimmy Neutron".

Then, John met Keith Alcorn and Steve Oedekerk and they decided to work together and revamp John's idea for the series.

The pilot, "Runaway Rocketboy!" was produced for Nickelodeon and was supposed to start the series. However, since CGI was becoming popular for movies (as well as the roaring reception for the pilot), they made the film, and the show was made afterwards. The producers had a mere three weeks to slam together an entire episode once the series was picked up.

Reception

Since its premiere date, Jimmy Neutron has become one of the most iconic Nicktoons of all time. To this day, it has remained one of the most popular 2000s Nicktoons along with Danny Phantom, Invader Zim and Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Even though the film was popular while in theaters and being shown on Nick, many consider the show to be better. Also, due to the film playing often on Nickelodeon long after it had left theaters, some people believed that it was released during or after the show.

The series had the most-watched television premiere on Nickelodeon at that time with 4.3 million viewers.

Cancellation

A fourth season was planned, but plans for this season were scrapped after DNA Productions went bankrupt, due to the lackluster performance of The Ant Bully. Cancelling the series was a big loss for the company, so producing the fourth season would have been too costly and Nickelodeon couldn't purchase the company to continue the production. Four scripts were finalized for this season, but two of them have yet to be revealed. Another reason was because an executive claimed that the show had been doing well in syndication.

Spin-Off

Planet Sheen

A spin-off series called "Planet Sheen" ran from October 2, 2010, to February 15, 2013, with only one season and 26 episodes. It focused on Sheen getting stranded on another planet after stealing Jimmy's experimental rocket ship. The series was panned by both critics and audiences.

Broadcast

Nickelodeon (original run July 20, 2002-November 25, 2006, reruns (November 26, 2006-December 15, 2012) (May 10, 2015, if you count the Jimmy Timmy Power Hour crossover specials) (December 8, 2020, If you count the Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001) movie)

Nicktoons (January 6, 2003-October 2, 2021)

NickRewind (TeenNick) (January 9, 2019-July 26, 2020)

Trivia

• The characters received several design changes for the series after the original film:
  • Jimmy now wears blue jeans and white sneakers.
  • Judy no longer wears an apron.
  • Cindy now wears a green halter top, beige khakis, a single ponytail and her eyelids are now grayish purple. This became more well-known by fans.
  • Carl doesn't wear suspenders anymore. However, in Season one, his pants look like they're still pulled up. This goof was corrected in Make Room for Daddy-O (though still present in some senses in later episodes).
  • The ends of Sheen's sleeves and collar become lighter.
  • Libby kept her old outfit until Beach Party Mummy, where she received Egyptian dreads and in the next episode, she changed her blue dress to a pink striped shirt, blue flared trousers, brown shoes and her eyelids became darkish pink.
  • Nick kept his blue jacket officially up to Operation: Rescue Jet Fusion, starting in Jimmy for President, he started wearing a black leather jacket. However, his original blue one did make two last appearances later in the two holiday-themed episodes, Holly Jolly Jimmy and Love Potion 976/J.
  • Britney no longer wears bracelets.
  • Sasha Vortex now wears a purple dress.
  • Courtney Tyler regularly wears her normal outfit and never wears a pink and red short-sleeved sweater dress and magenta shoes with white stripes.
  • Nissa now wears a yellow shirt with blue edges and "Daddy's Little Girl" written in the middle and dark blue shorts.
  • Wendel now wears a white shirt with blue sleeves and has the number 15 on it.
  • It should be noted that despite Nick and Libby's design changes, they still have their original designs in storybooks.
• Some characters also either have voice changes or have been recasted for the series too:
  • Jimmy and Nick's voices become more deep and clear.
  • Carl and Sheen's voices become noticeably higher-pitched starting in Beach Party Mummy.
  • Martha Wheezer's voice changed from a soft high-pitched voice, to a more deep and gruff voice. However, in The Eggpire Strikes Back, she is briefly voiced by Carolyn Lawrence, who voices her in a more normal lady voice.
  • S. Scott Bullock and Paul Greenberg replaced Patrick Stewart and Martin Short in the roles of King Goobot V and Ooblar respectively in the TV series. Bullock and Greenberg also reprised their roles for the characters from the original 1998 test pilot episode Runaway Rocketboy!. However, Ooblar only appeared once in the episode The Eggpire Strikes Back, though he is mentioned by Goobot in the series finale, that Goobot traded him for sulfer butter.
  • Rob Paulsen replaced Billy West in the role of Butch Pakovski and Oleander Svalsbord.
  • Joe Lala replaces Carlos Alazraqui in the role Harp Estevez. He also now speaks in a Mexican-accent.
  • Mark DeCarlo replaces Jim Cummings in the role of General Abercrombie.
  • Debi Derryberry replaced Jeannie Elias in the role of Nissa.
• The series was actually supposed to be released before the movie and that the movie was going to be based on the series, but there wasn't enough time, so the shorts were created, and the film spun the series a year later.
• Although all the episodes had completed their run by 2006, production was completed by mid 2003.
• Jimmy, Carl and Sheen are the only characters who appear in all the episodes.
• Debi Derryberry, Crystal Scales, and Daran Norris all previously appeared in the main cast of Oswald.
• There were two themed week premiere marathons with five episodes from the series, these were "Jimmy Neutron-A-Thon", that included Sheen's Brain, Maternotron Knows Best/Send in the Clones, The Great Egg Heist/The Feud, Out, Darn Spotlight and The Junkman Cometh, and "5 New Jimmys", that included The Incredible Shrinking Town, One of Us/Vanishing Act, The Trouble with Clones, The Evil Beneath/Carl Wheezer, Boy Genius and Who Framed Jimmy Neutron?/Flippy.
• When Pants Attack, Party at Neutron's/Ultra Sheen, and Holly Jolly Jimmy were not included on any digital platforms, until the full series was released on Paramount+.
  • But those episodes got removed from Paramount+ on March 24, 2021, for some reason. It is unknown when or if they will be added again.
    • However, these episodes were made available on The Complete Series (DVD) released on October 26, 2021.
    • However, Holly Jolly Jimmy was later added back on December 19th, 2021.

Gallery

Prototype designs for Jimmy, Carl, Sheen, Cindy, Nick and Goddard.

Concept art.