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STUDIO: Warner Brothers
MSRP: $24.98
RATED: Not Rated
RUNNING TIME: 266 min
SPECIAL FEATURES:

  • Featurette

The Pitch

Young man fights international crime with some ethnics and his dad’s friend. 

The Humans

J.D. Roth, George Segal, Robert Patrick, Jesse Douglas, Michael Benyaer

The Nutshell

Jonny Quest used to be eight shades of kickass. It was like The Venture Brothers without the all-encompassing sense of failure. This time around, Jonny is joined by his guardian’s daughter. Yep, they even decided to give Race Bannon a little daughter to make him seem more well-rounded. If that wasn’t enough, you get some horrible CG thrown in as the gang explores the VR claptrap that is QuestWorld.

I could bring it down safely. But, how many times do you get to see a Blue Angel impale Enrico Pallazzo?

The Lowdown

Robert Patrick was born to voice Race Bannon. I’ll give the show that in terms of wise creative decisions. But, these thirteen episodes that make up the first half of Season 1 are plagued with screw-ups. There’s no real direction given to the sudden push to have Quest as the central figure. In the old show, it was the adults that made the calls and pushed the story’s action forward.

The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest makes several more missteps. The overuse of the barely television grade computer generated animation was the first one. Hell, it looks like The Lawnmower Man threw up on TBS re-runs. But, the over-reliance on this kid cast keeps coming back to bite them in the ass. The focus on Jessie Bannon, Jonny and the Indian kid Hadji turns the show into a clone of every other animated show on the market.

The show’s push for a more realistic world for the Quests is a little much. I miss the giant spider eye robots that would follow the Quest family around the world. I miss angry natives and lusty wenches at ever port of call. Why did the 90s turn every villain into an eco-terrorist or a hacker that’s about a moment away from going all Goldeneye on your ass? Honestly, I blame Ted Turner.

If the purpose of the show was to make a new generation of kids seriously ponder animated international adventure…they failed. In all the noise of making cartoons a little grittier we ended up having nothing to show for it. Just a decade of shows dressing up and trying to be something they’re not. It’s almost a lesson in animated history to go back and re-examine these thirteen episodes. Most of the stories run together. Throw in a tech baddies or social ill and bullshit for twenty-two minutes.  

The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest comes to DVD
with a rather average offering. The decent A/V Quality helps to cover up the god-awful CG sequences. Plus, there’s only one supplement on the set. A fluff piece about how great the show was going to be from way back in 1996.

Behold what used to be considered high-tech.

The Package

Featurette –

There
is only one supplement on the DVD. A making-of piece called Jonny Quest Lives. It’s nothing more than fifteen minutes of the available talent and executives talking about how this is going to be the greatest show ever. History proved them wrong, but history makes a monkey out of us all. If you’re struck by nostalgia, pick it up.

Undead third world Pringles. Once you pop the top, you can’t stop from unleashing the undead. 

5.0 out of 10