Detective Jenny: The Third Movie (Johnsonverse)

Detective Jenny: The Third Movie is a 2001 American animated/live-action hybrid film written by Tammy Jo Johnson, produced by Johnson and Timothy Hill, and directed by Craig Johnson, and the third in the Detective Jenny franchise. It stars Tara Strong (in her first film as Jenny, having taken over the role after the 1999 suicide of Mary Kay Bergman), Alanna Ubach, Hynden Walch, Cree Summer, Kristen Schaal, Melissa Fahn, Shane Rimmer, Patti Yasutake, Ben Stein, Mako Iwamatsu, and Ben Gazzara.
The film follows Jenny representing the team on the round-the-world maiden flight of Skyship One, a futuristic airship. The flight soon becomes a fight for survival, when the airship is hijacked by the Bambino Crime Family, seeking to lure the team, capture their aircraft, and sell their technology to Black Scorpion. Meanwhile, Kristen's efforts to design a new vehicle for the team collide with fate when Skyship One is damaged and its occupants' only salvation seems to be her old Tiger Moth biplane. The film is an adaptation of the 1968 film Thunderbird 6, using ample stock footage.
During the production of Detective Jenny: The Movie (1997), the Johnsons wrote story treatments for further films and seasons in the series. They started pre-production on the film in early 1999 before the release of Detective Jenny: The Second Movie, with live-action filming taking place throughout the spring and summer of 2000 and effects work in late 2000 and early 2001. It was released on July 13, 2001, receiving widespread praise for its story, acting, and effects. It won three Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Visual Effects, and Best Sound Design.
==Plot==
Having given Kristen an open brief to design their latest project, executives of the New World Aircraft Corporation attend a meeting to hear her proposals. They are astonished to hear that in an age of high technology and speed, she thinks it would be a good idea to build - a 21st-century airship. The committee room descends into hysterical laughter at her suggestion, and Kristen has to restrain herself from calling Louise in to kill the entire board.
Following her return to Bergman Manor, Kristen is informed by Joe that it's time for her to design and build a new high-tech vehicle to complement the others, although he admits he doesn't know what form this new craft should take. Kristen, though, is reluctant to work without a specification, after her bad experience with NWAC. Joe isn't unsympathetic: "Yes, they laughed - and then, they built it..."
Jenny is to be a guest aboard the new luxury airship Skyship One, as the representative of Team Jenny, on its epic maiden voyage around the world. No one else is able to attend due to Makayla having to stay behind and lead in Jenny's absence, something that makes Jenny very uneasy, as she is very nervous to be in a crowd of strangers without Makayla. Kristen has purchased and restored an old de Havilland Tiger Moth biplane in which she flies Jenny to London in for the airship launch. Back at Bergman Manor, Kristen works up several possible vehicular prototypes, but she throws them all out, either because their proposed application is already filled by an existing vehicle (such as the Megatank or Neptune's Trident), or its design is impractical; at one point, she tries having Louise design a vehicle, but all she comes up with is a tank with a beam that gives the victim gonorrhea.
Before the launch, the crew of Skyship One are murdered and replaced by associates of the Bambino Crime Family, led by Captain Foster. Because the ship is automated, it maintains a crew only in the event of an emergency, so the impostors' lack of knowledge goes unnoticed.
Their intention is to record Jenny's conversations during the trip and edit her speeches to make a false distress call to transmit to Makayla, sending Team Jenny to a disused airfield (10 miles south of Dallas), where they can capture the Silver Bullet and Big Bertha, sell them to Black Scorpion, and use the profits to capture territory from the Vincenettis and Camino Cartel, both still reeling from their war in New York in 1999. Onizuka is shown waiting for confirmation of the capture, planning to use Team Jenny's technology to hijack the American and Russian nuclear arsenals and use them to hold the world hostage until all nations surrender to him. During the flight, the guests become suspicious that the crew are not as knowledgeable as they ought to be. After noticing a number of bugging devices in many of the rooms, Jenny reports her suspicions to Makayla via secret code while investigating the reasons for the spying. Eventually, she manages to piece together the "distress call", and transmit it to Bergman Manor, resulting in the launching of Silver Bullet (piloted by Makayla, as Kristen is still busy designing a new vehicle), and Big Bertha (piloted by Louise). After establishing the crew's intentions, Jenny informs Joe of their suspicions, confirming that Makayla and Louise were heading for a trap. Joe orders Makayla and Louise to destroy the Bambino base, which they accomplish using the guns on both aircraft. However, Black Scorpion springs out from hiding, and comes at them with several tanks. Louise anticipated this, and reveals she brought the pod for the Megatank, which she deploys in and destroys the tanks and their associated support vehicles.
Meanwhile, Jenny confronts the crew, leading to a shoot-out in the engine room. A stray bullet hits the gravity compensator, causing the ship to slowly descend towards a huge missile base in Dover.
After the ship crashes onto a radio transmission mast, Silver Bullet and Big Bertha must hold the ship in place to prevent it falling on the base before the ship, and the base below, can be evacuated. As Skyship One is balanced precariously on the tower, a light-weight aircraft is required for the rescue, so Kristen flies her vintage Tiger Moth onto the top deck of the airship with Terry. However, the crew are holding the passengers at gunpoint, and Captain Foster commandeers the plane. Once in the air, a shoot-out occurs, in which Foster and the other conspirators are killed. Terry is forced to take the controls, following instructions from Kristen. This results in a number of near misses, including almost landing on a motorway and narrowly missing a chimney.
Meanwhile, the tower holding Skyship One begins to collapse, and Jenny is left hanging precariously from an exterior guardrail. Makayla sees this from Silver Bullet, and leaves Ronnie to take control. Jumping out of the aircraft, Makayla activates her jetpack, and catches Jenny just as her grip gives out. The tower finally collapes, causing it to crash spectacularly onto the missile base below. Terry attempts to land the biplane, but it runs out of fuel and crashes into some woods. The crew are unharmed, although they initially think they left Jenny on the plane, their concerns are immediately alleviated when she and Makayla land nearby (they decide to leave them be so Makayla can help Jenny calm down after the harrowing experience).
Back at Bergman Manor, Team Jenny gather in the launch bay for the official unveiling of the new vehicle. Joe, though, can't understand how, since he never approved a design, and too little time has passed for its construction. Finally, Kristen introduces the vehicle - "built, tested and approved!" And as the bay concealing Big Bertha's hangar majeticlly pivots aside, what should emerge, but - none other than the Tiger Moth biplane! As the team laughs, Joe agrees that the plane shall indeed become their newest vehicle, which Kristen has named Old Reliable stating its design is sound and has certainly proved its worth. The plane is designated for use as a stealthy scout plane (as nobody will suspect an old biplane), and for landing where the other aircraft can't.
==Voice cast==
* Tara Strong as Jenny G. Denver
* Alanna Ubach as Makayla Gómez
* Hynden Walch as Terry Clampett-Jones
* Cree Summer as Kristen Smith
* Kristen Schaal as Louise Savage
* Melissa Fahn as Ronnie Hinton
* Shane Rimmer as Joe Quill
*Patti Yasutake as Dr. Michele Yamashita
* Ben Stein as Dennis Leonard
*Mako Iwamatsu as Onizuka
*Ben Gazzara as Salvatore "Sal" Bambino
*Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Kuromiya Itō
*Mark Hamill as Captain Foster
*Tom Kane as New World Aircraft CEO
*TBA as crew members
*TBA as civilians
== Production ==
=== Development ===
During production of Detective Jenny: The Movie (1997), director Timothy Hill and franchise creator Tammy Jo Johnson began writing story treatments for future films. On August 12, 1997, before The Movie was released, two sequels were announced, set for release in 1999 and 2001, respectively. 
The decision was made early on to adapt one of the two Thunderbirds movie, if only to make the film on a lower budget than the first two. It was decided to adapt Thunderbird 6, due to Thunderbirds Are Go involving space travel and aliens (the space plot had already been used in the first movie, and aliens were seen as "too unrealistic" for an already-unrealistic franchise). 
=== Casting ===
All of the series' voice actors reprise their roles. The Third Movie is notable for being the first film with Tara Strong as the voice of Jenny, as she had taken over the role after the suicide of original voice actress Mary Kay Bergman in 1999. 
=== Animation ===
Animation services are provided by Toei Animation, like in the first film.
=== Live-action filming ===
Filming for the live-action sequences took place at Soundstage 33 in the Johnson Studios lot in the spring and summer of 2000.
=== Soundtrack ===
All original music is composed by Cal Johnson and performed by the Johnson Philharmonic Orchestra, with existing music cues from John Williams, Johnny Douglas, Akira Ifukube, and Barry Gray being used as well.
== Release ==
The film premiered at the San Jose Theatre on July 10, 2001, before beginning its worldwide rollout three days later.
== Reception ==
=== Critical response ===
Upon release, the film received widespread acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 95% critic score and a 98% audience score. Its critic consensus reads "Detective Jenny: The Third Movie is a thrill ride that has you at the edge of your seat throughout". Roger Ebert gave the film four stars, writing "TBA", and he and Gene Siskel gave the film "two big thumbs up" on Siskel & Ebert. Leonard Maltin wrote "TBA".
=== Box office ===
The film grossed over $500 million in its opening weekend.
=== Accolades ===
At the TBA, the film received TBA.
== Home media ==
In November 2001, the film was released on DVD and VHS by Johnson Home Video. It features commentaries from Hill, Strong, Ubach, and Johnson, as well as deleted scenes, storyboards, behind-the-scenes footage and a "making of" documentary. In 2004, to commemorate the franchise's tenth anniversary, the 2001 DVD was re-issued with a new label design. It was among the first films released on Blu-ray in 2005, and was re-released on DVD in 2007 with new menus, during the franchise's fifteenth anniversary. The 2005 Blu-ray and 2007 DVD were reprinted in 2012.
Category:Johnsonverse