Often shorten to just Jimmy Neutron, Jimmy Neutron is Nickelodeon’s first fully CGI show. It’s a spin-off showed based off the original Nickelodeon movie Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. The show follows the adventures of a boy named Jimmy who is a boy genius and invents all kinds of crazy gadgets and devices that usually get him into trouble but also get him out of trouble. At first glance this show looks like it was Nickelodeon’s answer to Cartoon Network’s Dexter’s Laboratory, the only problem is Dexter’s Laboratory was starting to end when this show debuted. In fact, if I’m being really honest around this time Dexter was losing its audience because of the terrible last season. Both Dexter and Jimmywere geniuses but Dexter was overlooked or looked down upon because of his genius while Jimmy on the other hand is acknowledge by his peers, parents and everyone in town for his genius (he still gets picked on for it but he still is acknowledged as a genius). Both characters had a laboratory with Dexter’s being bigger and more secretive while Jimmy’s lab was smaller and just a clubhouse in his backyard that wasn’t a secret from anyone. While the two shows had similarities plot and story wise there were a few differences mostly in the character. Jimmy was more out-going, he acted like a kid, had a love interest that span throughout the run of the series, multiple enemies, and often made his inventions for the betterment of the world rather than for himself. Dexter on the other hand was more of the anti-social guy, he rarely acted like a child, interactive with the outside world to a minimum, had a few love interest but only one-episode crushes, only had one major enemy, and mostly used his experiments for the betterment of himself rather than the world. Yep these two shows were alike but different enough to tell the two apart.
As far as stories go there’s really not that much to say about them, as I said before it’s pretty similar to Dexter’s Laboratory, Jimmy makes something to help him or his friends out and it usually backfires on him so he has to create something else to stop it. The only story that does seem different and original in the show is where Jimmy teams up with his favorite action movie star who is actually a secret agent working for the government which I liked. The characters in the show are also enjoyable. We have Sheen and Carl, Jimmy’s two idiotic friends who always get a good laugh out of me, Libby the black girl with attitude who was hip and cool and would later go on to date Sheen, and Jimmy’s love interest/rival Cindy. I do like the way the show advanced the relationship between these two characters. In the first two seasons the two don’t like each other, are constantly arguing with each other, and are trying to 1up each other in everything they do just like regular kids there age but when the third season comes the two finally realize that they have feelings for one another. The parents are also likable, they know their son is a genius and don’t try to stop him but they will assert their parental authority over him when he steps out of line and doesn’t do what he’s supposed to do. There’s even a foreign kid who’s just plain weird and funny. The show was decent with the only major flew being the animation. The animation for this show wasn’t all that good, it was tolerable but it wasn’t Toy Story level but I can’t be too hard on them on account of this was Nickelodeon’s first attempt at creating a CGI show and they did have a much smaller budget than Pixar as well. So while not the best CGI it was good enough to get you through the show and as the seasons went on it got better. If I had to decide which show I liked more Dexter or Jimmy I would have to say Dexter because it left more of an impact, lasted longer, came out first, and had a little more originality than Jimmy but I will say that Jimmy was a decent show to watch and a good replacement for me when Dexter started to go downhill near the end of its run.