Film Notes

Jimmy Newtron: Boy Genius
Can a Wunderkind be this normal?

 

Who knew that the next great scientific mind of our age would have a "short" complex, hate girls and sport a Bob's Big Boy hairdo?  Computer-animated Jimmy shares the same troubles as all other kids struggling for independence -- well, sort of.  I.e., when Jimmy is scolded by his parents early on in the film for being out of the house without permission, it's because he's been rocketing through the earth's orbit in a successful attempt to launch a homemade communications satellite (made from a 1950's-era toaster, no less).

It's this satellite, and the contact it makes with a menacing fleet of chicken-shaped alien ships, that starts Jimmy and his friends on the film's big adventure, though it is at this point that the fun seems to lag slightly.  The real entertainment here is the way in which the filmmakers fuse technology and character development to create such a clever cadre of personalities around their hero.  Jimmy's classmates are an amalgamation of all our school-age memories -- the cool kid, the superhero worshiper, the sweet but nerdish kid with the inhaler in his pocket.  And as for Jimmy's parents, it's as if the Cleavers, the Nelsons and the Bradys had been melded together in some weird DNA fusion device of Jimmy's making.  (Also, be on the lookout for Jimmy's hilariously macaw-like school teacher.)

All in all, Jimmy Newtron is a cleverly crafted, fun film for children and teens, as well as parents who would like to do something at a kid's movie besides catch up on their sleep.  (Jimmy Newtron: Boy Genius, Paramount Pictures Production, rated G, opens 12/21/01)  

 

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