I’m always a sucker for the latest CGI film, so the second movie of our New Year’s triple-header (along with Beauty and the Beast IMAX and, of course, the phenomenal Lord of the Rings) was Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.
Produced by Nickelodeon, a kids’ cable channel in the US, I was a *little* worried that the humour would be too childish, but even the trailers seemed to show an understanding that the best way to make a kid’s movie these days is to include stuff for the adults too.
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius is about, umm, a boy, named Jimmy Neutron who, in a surprising twist, is a genius. Jimmy Neutron (James Isaac Neutron to his mother) is an inventor, of course, and we are treated to dozens of his crazy inventions throughout the movie — stuff that only a kid could possibly come up with!
After trying to make contact with an alien civilization, all the adults in the neighbourhood are kidnapped, and Jimmy and his friends have to use his inventions to go get their parents back. Definitely a kid-friendly (ie. simple) plot, with plenty of eye-candy and bright colours for the little ones, but never gets ‘dumb’ either. There are plenty of in-jokes for the adults, and heck, even a few for us science geeks. So get out there, borrow a kid for an afternoon and check out Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. Ignore that noise you hear off in the background, it’s just the sound of a sequel rushing to a theatre soon.
Rating: Riding the wooden roller-coaster at the PNE, 8/10