02.06
When initially planning this review, I was planning on dedicating my opening to the original Jonny Quest, to discuss it’s impact in the world of televised animation and why it’s remembered so fondly to this date. Due to issues of length and the sake of the article’s pacing, however, I may likely save what I had planned to say about the series at a later time and focus on the show for only two sentences. When Hanna-Barbera’s adventure-based series Jonny Quest debuted on ABC on September 18, 1964, it was an animated series unlike anything before it. Containing well-plotted science fiction and adventurous stories, solid designs by comic book artist Doug Wildey, and an overly dark and creepy atmosphere on par with fellow adventure films at the time, Quest set the standard on how the action cartoon should be made, and for many years remained the definite Western action-adventure animated experience.
That changed in 1992, however, when Bruce Timm, Alan Burnett, and Eric Rodomski’s Batman: The Animated Series premiered on Fox, continuing in a series of new, top-of-the-line animated programs from Warner Bros. Taking similar advancements Quest made on the genre into mind and multiplying them, replacing Hanna-Barbera’s trademark limited animation with professional Japanese animation studios, making way for the innovative Dark Deco animation technique, and taking time to flesh out character, as well as keeping a brilliant score thanks to Shirley Walker’s musical direction, Batman proved that it is possible to make a children’s program that is on par, if not above, the quality of more mature entertainment and still be able to appeal to children. Add this to the success of The Simpsons on prime time(such advancement wouldn’t of been able to happen without Hanna-Barbera’s contributions to prime time, most notably The Flintstones and Quest itself), Disney’s resurgence with audiences of all ages in both it’s films and television, Nickelodeon deciding to make creator-driven cartoons, and a little cartoon based on the 80’s blockbuster Ghostbusters with the talent of then-newcomer J. Michael Straczynski as story editor, now sparked a new era of cartoons, one where it was possible to entertain more than just the children and explore upon animation’s advances.
Also occurring in 1992 was another milestone to fans of animation all over: The debut of Cartoon Network. At the time of it’s premier, Turner allowed it’s excessively large library of Hanna-Barbera, MGM, and classic Warner Bros. cartoons to fill a 24-hour-slot. Acknowledging that only repeats cannot fill a successful cable network, however, the newly renovated Hanna-Barbera Studios got hard on working on new cartoons to spark an interest in all audiences. While the plan was mainly to create new characters to stand along the likes of their classics, the studio wasn’t above giving some of their original classics new spins around the block, giving us the brilliant Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, as well as new Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, and Jonny Quest features. The Quest one, Jonny Quest vs. the Cyber Insects, was heavily advertised as the last classic Quest adventure, and with a good reason so.
Around the time of Cyber Insects and a small collection of classic Quest adventures video releases, Hanna-Barbera Studios was hard at work on a new Quest series meant to bring the iconic characters to a new age of technology and advancements. Spending nearly a year advertising it with one of the most promising pitches in recent memory, Hanna-Barbera and Cartoon Network seemed very interested in making sure the then-titled New Adventures of Jonny Quest would be a success. Enough so that fellow Turner networks TNT and TBS planned to air it as well, a plan CN has laid to rest ever since until recently when TNT added Star Wars: The Clone Wars to it’s schedule.
Around Fall 1996, The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest debuted on the three networks to short-lived success. After two seasons and a modestly successful toy line, CN added Real Adventures to it’s action block, Toonami, where it stayed long enough to make a lasting impression as one of the block’s first classic series. In the height of a new live-action movie based on the show’s classic adventures, and mid-90’s nostalgia becoming more popular as the days go by, Warner found it appropriate to release half of the first season of Real Adventures on DVD. Being a long-time fan of the Jonny Quest, Hanna-Barbera, and Toonami franchises, I decided to pick this up. Does it hold up?
Honestly, not really.
Now once you pop in an episode, you’ll be sure to notice quite a few differences from the original, starting with it’s opening. Collecting clips from various episodes of the series in pretty neon colors, the music rings a tune similar to that of the original’s iconic opening. While this new tune doesn’t come quite close to matching the original or even Batman‘s in familiarity, it’s still a good track to listen to, and sets you up for some awesome stories.
Then we get to the actual show itself. Despite the appealing designs that ring close to Wildey’s classic drawings, you’d be surprised at how poorly animated the show it. Batman did admittingly have it’s fair share of episodes with poor framing, hideously off-model shots, and shoddy attention to movement, but from what we’ve received here in Real Adventures, it seems as if it’s staff never looked twice at their rough sketchs and sent everything to layout fine and dandy. In one episode, a fire is let loose, with people actually burning in it. The impact this scene could of had is lost as the fire is mostly lifeless. Just standing there, hardly any motion at all, while innocent people burn to their deaths. This is only one example of how poorly the show’s animation consistently proves to be.
But let’s delve more into the deigns themselves. Ringing close to the original’s, what in turn separates both series is that the kids, Jonny and Hadji, look older and more developed than they did when we last saw them in Cyber Insects. No longer meant to be 11-year-olds, the boys look like they logically would if we were to catch up on them a few years later, which is what the staff seems to be aiming for. Dr. Benton Quest, Race Bannon, and good old Bandit also look impressive with their slight redesigns.
Probably the most shocking and remembered new addition to the show was Jessie, Race’s daughter. Although not entirely new to the Quest cannon(she was around in Cyber Insects and in an episode of the short-lived 1980’s revival of the classics, the Quest clan save a young girl with a design similar to her’s from the diabolical Dr. Zin), Jessie was mainly added to Real Adventures to add a feminine touch to the generally boys-only Quest clan. While not quite as bold as Jonny, Jessie shares his love of adventure and often accompanies Jonny and whoever else on his adventures, but unlike Jonny, who often puts himself and his loved ones at risk, Jessie mostly falls under Mary Sue territory.
The rest of the characters work more or less the same as they always have. Jonny still, for the most part, acts as carelessly as he did at age 11. but now let his extra years of experience add to the excitement, allowing him to control veichles and machinery that your typical 15-year-old wouldn’t be able to pilot. Hadji, on the other hand, seems to of matured a bit more as the years went by. While he’ll always be there to help Jonny in and out of a jam, he appears to be a bit wiser than before, now also giving advice when necessary. Race Bannon still shows that he cares for these boys dearly while also having his own little girl join the team. A little older now, Race proves less frequently to be the action hero he was in the original and appears less, but still shows to be a highlight. And Dr. Quest is still the ever-busy professor who cares for his son, but is hardly ever there when he needs him most. One aspect about the show I really liked was seeing Quest prove to be lonely and flirt with a fellow adventurer on the show, but the lack of development in their relationship saddened me. If there’s more to be done with the two in later episodes, my interest is peaked.
The stories themselves vary. Combining science-fiction-like plots like you’d see in the original with a modern twist, Batman: TAS-inspired villain-based stories, and real-world issues that fortunately never reach Captain Planet‘s level of moronic preachyness, Real Adventures takes some interesting concepts that more often than not doesn’t deliver on them. There are some standout episodes where these stories prove to be very entertaining but a lot of the time the writing runs on weak twists or cheap additions to make up for underdeveloped stories.
Speaking of cheap additions, let’s get down to Questworld, the most talked-about aspect of Real Adventures. Apparently created by the kids, Questworld is a virtual reality system in which the kids often enter when they’re called to it, sort of like Code Lyoko, but actually watchable. Rendered in supposedly groundbreaking computer graphics animation, this aspect of the show looks incredibly dated by today’s standards. Comparing it to Pixar is a bit unfair, but even looking at Mainframe’s shows at the time, it’s hard to believe what sold.
In Questworld, the kids(mainly Jonny, but Jessie and Hadji do often appear) battle our villain of the episode, usually with lasers and often on awesome-looking motorcycles meant to sell awesome-looking toys. More often a nuisance than a logical aspect of the show, the Questworld segments typically weren’t much to write home about, and when we don’t log into QW in the day’s adventure, we’d often get a brief lesson about the mythology behind this world near the end of an episode, most of which admittingly appear to be rather interesting.
Questworld certainly seemed to be a hit or miss aspect of the show to more than just me. While the network wanted Questworld to be a bigger aspect of the show, the creators wanted to tone it’s usage down. Despite the show’s success, this signaled the series end, while it still remained a part of CN’s schedule for some time.
On this set, we get one bonus feature, a 13-minute retrospective feature on the show, meant to explain the thought process behind it’s creation. Brought together by animation historian Jerry Beck and the series’ creators, the feature opens up as a love letter to the original Quest while explaining some of the key aspects of the show. While this is certainly interesting to see, at the end of the day, pretty much everything you’d discover from the feature you just read here, so if this was a draw for you to buy the set, I’d say it’d be best to skip it for said purchase.
Since this is only 1/4th of the series, I can’t help but feel as if I’m being a bit too harsh on the show. It does have it’s merits as well as it’s good episodes, and it does feel like the next logical step in the Quest clan’s lives. While it may not be fair to compare Real Adventures to the original, one would expect a continuation to improve upon it’s source material, which I feel that Real Adventures doesn’t. The original Jonny Quest, despite it’s not-so-solid animation, still holds up for me to watch today; Real Adventures doesn’t.
Is it a bad show? No. Is it a great show? Again, no. Do I intend to buy it’s next release? Honestly, I don’t think so. I made my contribution for the series to continue it’s DVD releases, but that’s likely all from me. I recommend this to diehard fans of the original curious to see a different take on the classics, as well as those who grew up on it to see if it still holds up. It’s about time I picked up the original’s set, however.
Avaitor out.
Originally posted on Tuesday, February 24, 2009.