The Mandela Effect has opened up the eyes of many and even made them rethink everything they new about the media that they grew up with. This effect has become known as a large group of people collectively thinking something that turns out to be a false fact, with the main example being of the time of Nelson Mandela’s death, which my believe to be earlier than it actually was. Through parody and over-exposure, this happens with several media brands as well, with strong names like Star Wars, Snow White, and even The Berenstain Bears, but it takes a next step from a simple misread of a line, to believing a show existed before its feature film. This brings in, The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: A Nickelodeon show which premiered in 2002 and ended in 2006. Though people seemed to find Jimmy Neutron to be a fun show, they fail to remember that the cinematic movie, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, was not only made in 2001, but was also made as a tester for the show itself. Set in the fictional town of Retroville, a boy genius named Jimmy Neutron (voiced by Debi Derryberry) recklessly tries to contact an alien civilization against the word of his parent, who Jimmy believes he doesn’t need. The situation groves ironic as an egg-based alien species known as the Yolkians find his message and abduct every adult in the area to feed to their chicken god, Poultra. Missing their parents, the kids of Retroville plan to travel across the stars and reach the alien planet to save their parents from becoming chicken dinner. Originally beginning life as a script idea in the 80s before it was shelved and picked up a decade later, a pitch demo drafted to Nickelodeon proved successful and was issued a show and a movie to be made. The creators decided to create the movie first so assets from the film could be reused later. For a sample of what the show would have to offer, the movie does a pretty good job showing the pros of this idea and how it was going to work as a regularly scheduled tv show.

The show Jimmy Neutron wasn’t a property known for its complexity or its over-arching stories, but rather was loved for its creative visuals and idea that called back to several sci-fi films and concepts. The movie honestly does a pretty decent job setting up that atmosphere as well. The entire idea of parents being abducted by aliens isn’t anything that special, but with the presence that they give the aliens in the movie, it feels very classic sci-fi in its presentation, tone, and atmosphere. Despite what could be a pretty generic kids movie, the film has enough creative visuals and fun colorful inventions that it doesn’t feel like its hindered by its less-than-fantastic plot. Honestly, the weakest part of the narrative is the section that’s trying to be more down-to-earth and ‘relatable’ is when it starts to show its basic colors. There’s a random issue about jimmy being small which doesn’t feel like it should be a big deal, and while the whole ‘’not needing parents’’ story is pretty generic, they at least go about it in the typical awful kid way; with them actively enjoying the time like little brats until they genuinely start to miss them. Its not an overly long movie, it’s pretty easy to grasps what the main goal is, and despite not feeling overly cinematic, it has enough of a budget and good pacing behind it that it doesn’t feel it shouldn’t work as one.

The character designs are one of the most infamous elements of the show as a whole for looking very bobble-headish in nature. This choice of design was mainly done to avoid having to make the characters look realistic and instead become engrossed with whatever strange creations are shown. This choice of look does give the world they create more of an identity as everything looks over-the-top and, most importantly, distinct. Whether you’re a fan of the designs or not, it’s hard to pretend like everybody isn’t going to know who that character is and what show they come from. Most of the characters aren’t anything that special; however, feeling like pretty basic archetypes of kids show tropes and sci-fi tropes. The main three leads are pretty boring and nothing that special; Jimmy as a main character isn’t awful but isn’t anything that special either. Having a genius kid is nothing special and its hard to make a character that aloof likeable, but they do still connect him back to being a real kid with kid problems, so it doesn’t get too troublesome. There’s a robotic dog that’s a pretty memorable figure in the movie; his design is simple but memorable and things like his version of playing dead is literally exploding are nice funny touches. The cast overall is pretty good, taking roles that don’t offer much and making certain unfunny lines better through their delivery. Some of the characters are at least given some changes to their standard roles that make them a bit better. The bully character, for example, isn’t just a one-note bad guy, they give her some nice moments near the end where they can show her as a friend and even love interest, and she’s also a bully because she’s not the smartest kid in school anymore, that’s something that not usually done with the female bully and adds a whole new dimension to their relation. The best characters in the movie are easily the villains. The design of them is classic strange sci-fi and is really creative as well; this floating ceramic egg-like design with green substance functioning as their matter and means of expression is really fun and visually memorable. Also, the two lead bad guys played by Patrick Stewart and Martin Short gets some legitimately good lines throughout the movie, they work well as threats for this kind of movie; never being too imposing and mostly funny, but they aren’t pushovers either. The movie also had the task of making a gigantic chicken alien look threatening, and to be fair, they did a pretty good job not only making it look pretty creepy, but also pretty unique.

The effects are actually pretty decent CG technology for the time. Though the designs can make some of the background characters look really ugly and soul-less, the main characters never look too distracting because the textures on them look pretty smooth and not so blocky. It’s a fairly colorful movies as well and with its creative visuals, it keeps the movie from looking dull and uninteresting. The technology and the gadgets created in the movie call back to that kiddish attitude of creating random things that sound cool in theory but don’t usually affect anything, and a lot of the devices are pretty cool and lead to some fun visual gags. Having the kids travel through space on rocket-powered theme-park rides is really inventive and leads to a great visual. Like the already mentioned character designs, the aesthetics of this world are much more over-exaggerated and weird looking than a typical environment from a cartoon show like this would turn into. While they don’t show it off too much, everything looks a lot larger and less restricted by structure due to how weirdly proportioned every character is. It gets to a point where Earth looks so strange in this universe, that the alien home planet doesn’t look that impressive by comparison, just looking like any typical futuristic alien planet even though their obsession with eggs and chickens is pretty funny, especially when its part of their ships. The movie is actually pretty funny from time to time. Even though its not the most clever writing, the writers have enough of a tongue-and-cheek understanding of their genre and audience to know what they can get away and they have a decent amount of good material between its verbal and visual humor. The movie unfortunately suffers from its age with its soundtrack; there’s ton of rock and pop songs from the 90s and 2000s and they all sound terrible. Some are passable in the right moment (mainly when the ships are taking off) but overall, they do nothing but date the movie horribly.

For what it could have resulted in, Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius knew what to show off and how to portray its ideas and concepts in a fun, inventive and visually nice way to the point where people would want to see more of it. This did lead to the show’s creation and seeming success as it has made its way into 2000s kids’ nostalgia. The movie does offer up a lot of what people liked about the show; it has some fun creative sci-fi inspired ideas, the cast for the characters is really good, the visuals are strange yet memorable, the writing is pretty decent, and even though it shows a bit of its Nickelodeon routes with its dated bad music and pretty shallow message, it’s still functions as a pleasant kids film based on what would become a pleasant kids show. This proved that the show was Gonna Blast off pretty effectively, check this film out and see for your self in this is the right amount of cheesy sci-fi for you.