Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius

***Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius*** is a 2001 Nickelodeon film directed by John A. Davis.

## Plot

James Isaac "Jimmy" Neutron is an extremely intelligent young boy who goes to elementary school in the fictional town and city of Retroville. Alongside his robotic dog, Goddard, he spends much of his time building complex inventions with the hopes of further advancing science, but is hampered by the protectiveness of his parents, Hugh and Judy Neutron. One day, Jimmy is attempting to launch a communications satellite made from his family's toaster into outer space after receiving a garbled radio signal from what he believes may be a message from extraterrestrial life. This irks Judy, who scolds him for trying to communicate with strangers. After school, Jimmy and his friends, Carl and Sheen, spot a poster for an amusement park called "Retroland." However, Hugh Neutron and Judy Neutron refuse to let him go that night because it is a school night, and he gets grounded for causing a fire with one of his inventions by sitting on the bed in the bedroom at night.

Meanwhile, Jimmy's communications satellite is picked up near the planet Yolkus, home to an alien race called the Yolkians, who commandeer their warships that look like a fleet of rubber chickens. King Goobot V and his assistant, Ooblar, watch a pre-recorded message from Jimmy, featuring him introducing himself and explaining about life on Earth, with Goobot declaring "the search is over". Jimmy, Carl, and Sheen subsequently choose to sneak out and visit the theme park on the advice of their popular classmate with cool personality and behavior boy named Nick Dean. As the three kids are at the amusement park, the Yolkians kidnap all the parents from all the houses in the suburban section of the city, leaving fake notes on the refrigerators in the kitchen to tell the kids that they have gone to Florida for an "extended vacation". Coincidentally, Carl spots a shooting star (actually a Yolkian ship), so he, Jimmy and Sheen wish for no more parental control so they be free and can have fun all the time and forever.

The next morning, the kids discover the parents have all disappeared and celebrate for the whole day. They eat tons of delicious junk food and do fun stuff whatever they want such as jumping on the bed and furniture, running up the down escalator in the shopping mall, and water skiing in the elementary school hall. However, the following day, all the children quickly begin to miss their parents by getting themselves hurt or sick such as tummy aches, broken bones, constipation, and bruises. After hearing a message from his parents that Goddard had recorded while posing as Jimmy last night, Jimmy becomes suspicious of the fact that his parents said that they would see him in the morning despite not being there. After discovering what has really happened, he rallies the town and city's other children to build intergalactic star space rocket ships from the Retroland amusement park rides to travel to Yolkus and get their parents back. While traveling in their intergalactic rocket star space ships made from Retroland amusement park rides, the kids are having to watch out for meteors from a meteor shower. After arriving on the asteroid for a safe place to sleep for a space camp, the kids tearfully recalled what their parents did every night at bedtime before they were abducted by aliens.

Upon arrival, they are captured by Goobot, who tells them that the parents are to be sacrificed to their goddess, Poultra. He shows the kids Jimmy's message video, thanking him for helping him find suitable species for their ritual, before having the children locked up in their cells, while Goddard is taken to a laboratory to be dismantled.

With Jimmy feeling guilty over the fact that his actions led to the Yolkans abducting the parents in the first place by crying like a baby, his classmate and rival next door girl named Cindy Vortex convinces him to buck up and stand up and think of an escape plan. After breaking out with the help of Goddard, the children (with the exception of Nick, as he turns out to be cowardly), in accordance with Jimmy's plan, manage to stop the parents from being sacrificed to Poultra, a giant space monster that looks a lot like a chicken. Everyone escapes aboard a Yolkian ship, but Goobot follows them in his ship at the head of the Yolkian fleet. With the exception of Goobot's ship, all of the Yolkian ships are destroyed when Jimmy baits them into flying too close to Yolkus' sun. Jimmy and Goddard then use an experimental shrink ray to grow to the size of a planet, and blow Goobot's ship into an asteroid: Goobot and Ooblar survive the explosion, and Goobot vows revenge. Jimmy and the rest of the human kids reconcile with their parents and head back home. On the return trip to Earth, Jimmy reconciles with his parents, admitting that despite his intelligence, he still depends on them.

The next day, Jimmy and Carl are having breakfast of eggs in an egg cup when Jimmy's parents drink one of his experiments (that causes significant belching), thinking it is real soda can, and they all laugh out loud funny while Goddard is seen outside flying to chase a bird by imitating like a bird. In the mid-credits scene, Mrs. Fowl, who is in ant size, is seen riding on an apple worm named Mr. Wiggles on her way to the cafeteria in the elementary school hall.

## Reception

*Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius* received generally positive reviews from critics and audiences. The film has a 74% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 76 reviews, with an average rating of 6.37/10. The critics' consensus reads: "What *Jimmy Neutron* lacks in computer animation, it makes up for in charm and cleverness.".