DVD Review: Real Adventures of Jonny Quest S1
Warner Bros.,Turner Network Update Hanna-Barbera Cartoon
Mar 20, 2009
Animation buffs of a certain vintage will remember the 1964 Hanna-Barbera animated series Jonny Quest. A Boys' Own adventure with an 11-year-old protagonist (voiced by Tim Matheson AKA "Otter" from Animal House), Jonny roamed the world with his scientist father, bodyguard Race Bannon, adopted brother Hadji and pet bulldog/comic relief Bandit, battling villains in exotic locales.
In 1996, Hanna-Barbera and The Cartoon Network rebooted the series as The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, recasting Jonny as a 14-year-old boy (voiced by J.D. Roth), modifying several characters (Race became a cross between John Wayne and James Bond) and adding - shock and horror! - a girl: 15-year-old Jessie Bannon (Jesse Douglas), Race's brainy daughter.
Also, to jump on the cyberpunk bandwagon, there were several adventures set in QuestWorld, a VR simulation developed by Dr. Quest and regularly hijacked by recurring villain Jeremiah Surd. Unfortunately, problems with the still-developing CGI – plus the fact that Hanna-Barbera cheaped out, hiring the less experienced CGI techs at Buzz/FX – made the whole VR angle more problematic than thrilling.
Fans didn't embrace the revamped Jonny Quest. After several retooling attempts, plus frequent personnel and cast changes, the series was jettisoned after 52 episodes.
Now Warner Home Video has brought The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest Season 1 onto DVD. Although the show was entertaining enough, there were compelling reasons why it didn't last long on network TV.
Hanna-Barbera, Cartoon Network Produced The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest
The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest also changed the tone of the series. The new show was more Jonny-centric: now that he was a teenager, he could do more than a 10-year-old, and was more likely to get into trouble. The reboot also upped the violence quotient, and featured several offscreen deaths. Jonny also battled a couple of recurring villains: doomsday preacher Ezekiel Rage, and mad scientist Jeremiah Surd who craved control of QuestWorld.
The biggest problem with The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest lay in the plots. The episode "Alien in Washington" was an incoherent The X Files clone (E.T.'s in the US government! Oooh!) while Rage's escapes from certain death not only pushed the boundaries of reality, but folded, spindled, mutilated, and mailed them to your mama.
Plus, the motion-capture-plus-CGI used in the QuestWorld scenes looked choppy and indistinct, killing what could've been the show's biggest whiz-bang factor. Apparently the ill-equipped and inexperienced Buzz/FX wrestled with poor lighting and jerky movements produced from mo-cap studio House of Moves. The result looked bad, even for 1990's CGI.
DVD Extras
"Jonny Quest Returns" is a behind-the-scenes look at how the reboot changed elements from the original series, and talks about several elements in the new show. Cartoon Brew's Jerry Beck chimes in with some information about the old series, and why it was so special.
There are also some trailers for Ace Ventura Jr., The Zeta Project Season One, and Ben Ten Alien Force Volume 2.
The Final Analysis
The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest had some definite potential: the show's creators were doing some smart updates on the classic series. However, the plots had a few holes in it, and they shot themselves in the foot by cheaping out on the CGI.
The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest Season 1 DVD ain't half bad, but it ain't half good either. 5/10
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