The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius

''This article is about the TV series. For the 2001 film, see Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.''

The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius is an American computer animated television series created by Keith Alcorn and John A. Davis.[1] It originally aired on Nickelodeon for three seasons beginning July 20, 2002, and the final episode aired on November 25, 2006. Following the 2001 film Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, the show follows a genius 11-year-old from Retroville, James Isaac "Jimmy" Neutron, as he goes on adventures with his best friends Carl Wheezer and Sheen Estevez. 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.[2]

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".[3][4][5] 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[6] who is a scientific genius. He frequently goes on adventures with his two best friends Sheen and Carl, usually involving his inventions going awry.

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 Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. The pilot 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, the clothes were different, 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, like all the other Nicktoons at the time. Also, the DNA Productions logo with their original mascot, Helix the purple cat-like creature wearing a lab coat and a bow tie, was shown.

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. He 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 "Johnny Quasar" sounded too similar to Jonny Quest.[13]

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 DNA Productions 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.[14]

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.[15][16]

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.”[17]

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.