The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest

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.

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.

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.

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.