The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest

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.

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.

I always enjoyed Hanna Barbera cartoons when I was young. They gave so many great cartoons.

Along with SWAT Kats, this was another great show from them in 1990s. I didn't care for First Season with the exception of few good episodes with Ezekiel Rage in it (written by Glenn Leopold who later became Story editor/writer of second season). I love the second season. Most of Second Season crew of this show came from SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron. There are wonderful second season episodes like More than Zero, Ghost Quest, General Winter, and many others. My favorite episodes are Undersea Urgency, Village of the Doomed, Other Space, and The Dark Mountain.

Glenn Leopold and Lance Falk are brilliant writers. They also wrote many episodes of SWAT Kats.

One of the things I love about Jonny Quest Real Adventures Second Season is the limitations of the characters just like in SWAT Kats. Dr. Quest is an excellent scientist. But he doesn't have fighting skills and military experience of Race Bannon. Race Bannon doesn't have the scientific skills of Dr. Quest although he is an excellent fighter and has great deal of military experience. Jessie Bannon follows the footsteps of Dr. Quest in Science and has great deal of knowledge in Music. Hadji has great deal of philosophical knowledge. He also knows a lot about the field of technology especially with the computer and follows the footsteps of Dr. Quest in the field of technology.

With Jonny Quest, he is a central character to the show due to the fact that he learns a little bit of everything from everybody around him. Although he can be impetuous, still his inquisitive mind and clever decisions often solve the problems. That is what I loved about the Second Season of Jonny Quest Real Adventures.

When I first saw "The Matrix," I was immediately reminded of the opening graphics of this high-quality cartoon show. This show never disappointed me with its smart writing, very good animation, and its storyline. . .it has a more or less continuous plot, at least towards the end. My favorite two episodes were "Less than Zero," where the team seeks after ghosts in a huge Venetian island mansion (kind of a fusion between "Ghostbusters" and "The Shining") and an episode where the team lands on an island that has, again, a haunted house. Johnny and Jesse become possessed by two dead lovers, and in a very cute scene, find themselves kissing as the spirits leave their bodies. It's a shame that the lowgrade animation and lowest common denominator catchphrase spewing humor of shows such as Powerpuff girls and Dexter's Laboratory are what we get these days. P.S. It may be sacrilage, but I daresay that "Real adventures" was BETTER than the original Johnny Quest.

The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest was killed off right before it got the chance to realise its potential. Yes this was a 90s remake of a cult classic, and yes you could argue that nothing beats the original Jonny Quest; however, as an 80s born kid growing up as a teen in the 90s, the only version of this show that I was practically familiar with, was this one, 'The Real Adventures of...'.

Plot-wise, the story revolved around a teenager named Jonny Quest- a computer whizz kid, who battles international criminals with the help of a computer generated program, known as 'Questworld'. Joining Jonny on his quest are Jessie Bannon and her father Race Bannon, his Indian friend, Hadji and Jonny's father, Dr Benton Quest.

The voice cast were made up of some of the most recognisable names in TV and film; Rob Paulsen, Frank Welker, Robert Patrick (he of The X-files and Terminator 2 fame), George Segal (Just Shoot Me)and Mark Hamill (Star Wars)to name.

I remembered seeing at the time a few promos of The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, on Cartoon Network's part, courtesy of Hanna Barbera in the lead up to its debut on the channel in 96'. Design-wise, the character designs had more of a dimension to them, in contrast to its 60s counterparts. The use of computer generated effects really brought this show to life almost. At times, it looked very flashy- although I have to say that whilst the computer graphics looked impressive back then, these days, I personally think they look rather dodgy. In addition, a female character by the name of Jesse was introduced in this particular series- although she was not an original member of the 60s Quest team.

I still don't understand why this cartoon series was cancelled; in fact, the best post- 60s Hanna Barbera cartoons which were cancelled, such as 'The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest', 'Johnny Bravo' and 'The Pirates of Dark Water' to name, were all short-lived and were brilliant shows in their own right.

The stories in this show were inventive, interesting and well written; the dialogue was superb, the animation was spot-on and the music was great too. I cannot really compare this Jonny Quest to the 60s version, given my unfamiliarity with the latter show, but The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest ranks up there with the very best.

Such a shame however that it never really got the respect it warranted.