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Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius

(Animated)

Jimmy (voiced by Debi Derryberry) and his mechanical dog named Goddard must help save the parents in 'Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.'

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Jimmy first saw life in a 1995 40-second video short called "Runaway Rocket Boy," later expanded into "The Adventures of Johnny Quasar." Character has been popping up in various contexts on Nickelodeon all year, is central to some new Internet and videogames, is the basis for a many-tentacled merchandising effort and will be the subject of a television special next year in preparation for the launch of the "The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius" series in fall 2002. If they forgot anything, they're bound to think of it in the interim.

Moppet appeal of the present feature rests in three can't-miss concepts -- cool gadgets, the desire to see grownups disappear and space travel. Pic delivers on all three points and doesn't have to do a whole lot more.

Looking like Bob's Big Boy's long-lost twin brother with his swirled-and-peaked brown hairdo and head twice the size of his body, Jimmy (voiced by Debi Derryberry) is a precocious science nerd who's built his own rocket ship, gets around with a retractable jetpack in his backpack, has launched a toaster into orbit, owns a mechanical dog named Goddard made up of spare parts and has a basementful of technical gizmos his parents don't even know about.

Jimmy is, without question, the resident brain of Retroville, an Ozzie & Harriet community decked out in '50s style and conventional habits laced with contempo touches such as home computers. The smart-mouthed Cindy Vortex (Carolyn Lawrence) is his math-science rival, asthma-plagued best friend Carl Wheezer (Rob Paulsen) tries to keep up as best he can and Nick (Candi Milo) is the inevitable handsome badboy there to put rebellious notions into innocent little heads. Nick also scares the bejeesus out of the others when he tells them a campfire story about three filmmakers who get lost in the woods.

Driving the first-half action is the kids' common desire to attend the opening of the long-awaited Retroland Amusement Park. Thwarted by their parents' refusal to allow them out on a school night, the goody-goodies are challenged by Nick to sneak out, which is where Jimmy's incredible shrinking ray invention comes in handy.

Even cooler than Retroland, however, is the kids' discovery that their moms and dads have suddenly all vanished, abducted in true '50s style by gooey green people-eaters called Yokians to the latter's distant planet. The aliens, who are blob-like creatures confined to egg-like encasements, are led by the scarily unpredictable and petulant King Goobot (Patrick Stewart), who is seldom without his comically obsequious factotum Ooblar (Martin Short).

When it dawns on the kids that their parents actually are useful once in a while, the tykes blast off into outer space to rescue the hapless old folks. Jimmy takes the lead in his hand-crafted, open-cockpit spacecraft, and the most exciting shots in the picture are those of the rag-tag band of space rats being conveyed through the void aboard a variety of Retroland park rides, including a roller coaster and, best of all, a giant octopus with rotating tentacles. Needless to say, the parents don't end up on the eggs' plates, and Retroville is restored to its impeccable normalcy in preparation for the TV series and any sequel that might become necessary based on this film's profitability.

Script pops with vigor and enough diverting ideas to keep the craft aloft for the quick 83-minute flight, and the colorful visual style has the exaggerated look of '50s cartoons and puppetry given a hard CGI edge. Technical quality is first-rate, and John Debney's peppy score is abetted by more than a dozen tunes from the likes of such kid-friendly artists as Aaron Carter, Britney Spears, 'N Sync and the Backstreet Boys.

Editors, Jon Michael Price, Gregory Perler; music, John Debney; music supervisors, Jeff Carson, Frankie Pine; production designer, Fred Cline; art director/storyboard supervisor, James Beihold; character designer, Keith Alcorn; director of modeling, Sean Jensen; directors of animation, Alcorn, Davis; director of lighting and effects, Connon "Corndog" Carey; supervising sound editor (Dolby Digital/DTS), Christopher T. Welch; sound designers, Michael Jonascu, Paul Ottosson; casting, Paula Kaplan, Ginny McSwain. Reviewed the Plaza Theater, L.A., Dec. 7, 2001. MPAA rating: G. Running time: 83 MIN.