The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest

TBS in the nineties aired some pretty cheesy shows like "Captain Planet" but in 1996 it reinvented itself with this outstanding television show. Like the title says it, this were the REAL adventures because in the original Dr. Quest and Race Bannon seemed to be doing all the work. While in this show Jonny and Hadji were the stars. This was also a much superior show with outstanding plots and characters! Too bad the show was canceled so soon.

The best Jonny Quest... at least so far!

I've had the opportunity of going through all the incarnations of Jonny Quest, including the original, but nothing beats the latest offering.

Old timers might disapprove Jesse or the new Dr. Zinn, but I totally liked them. The most awesome thing about the new show is how it had adapted itself to the 90's – superb animation with breathtaking CGI, fast paced action with a cool soundtracks and excellent voice characterizations – just the thing that will not only attract a whole new generation of teen age carton watchers, but also the old fans of the Quest family too!

Too bad it didn't last too long… guess that's life.

Hoping for yet another Quest reincarnation.

I loved this show and was <i>so disappointed</i> when it was cancelled after only two seasons. I loved the plots of each episode, and the characters were far more interesting than they had been in previous versions of the show. I'm so glad to be able to enjoy it on DVD since my old recordings of the episodes are incomplete and wearing down. I can only hope that there will soon be a new incarnation of Jonny Quest's adventures because they get better each time, especially with the inclusion of Race's daughter, Jessie, and the addition of Quest World, which would be far more interesting and cheaper to produce with today's technology. Oh well, I do miss it.

Don't get me wrong, the show had some excellent episodes and overall was reasonably good. There were only 2 nails in the coffin that eventually killed it and then 1 small one.

The smallest nail would be the fact that, in the credits, there are 2 people listed for each of the major roles. When you get right down to the continuity of it that is not good for a show, especially when it is syndicated.

By far the largest problem of the show was Jeremiah Sird. He was an interesting character at first but then he came back and he came back again. I have not seen a character overused that much after this show until Scott Wallace on The Practice. I mean honestly, how much of a threat can a guy with the physical abilities of Steven Hawking really be? The overuse of the character destroyed the reasons why he was so interesting to begin with.

And in about half of the episodes with Ezekial Rage, there were major plausibility issues. The most egregious and offensive one was the episode with time travel where he ended up fossilized after melting the polar icecaps. Again, an interesting character who ended up being used too much.

Overall though, it was a reasonably good series. They managed to capture the essence of the older Jonny Quest without the homoerotic overtones of the first series.

As I had watched a few episodes of the original Jonny Quest cartoon and had liked them, I decided to give this new series a try. I was completely blown away by the quality of "The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest". The stories were intelligent and interesting, while the characters were totally believable and likeable. This is one of the few shows that does not adhere to any tired cliches commonly found in other children's toons and does not "dumb down" to viewers. I disagree with some fans of the original series who dislike newer characters like Jessie Bannon. Jessie is an excellent role model for young girls because she is strong, assertive, intelligent, and Jonny and Hadji's equal instead of the stereotypical female "airhead" sidekick or "damsel in distress".

This cartoon ranks up there with other smartly-written children's cartoons like WB's Batman, Batman Beyond, and Superman animated series, The Tick, Power Puff Girls, and Transformers: Beast Machines. It's too bad that something like "Real Adventures of Jonny Quest" would not survive in today's TV market.