Starring: voice-overs by Debi Derryberry and Patrick Stewart. Starring Jose Dumont, Rodrigo Santoro
Director: John A. Davis
Rated: PG
JIMMY Neutron is the brightest but least popular boy in his class at Retroville Elementary School.
He spends most of his time in his vast underground laboratory where he has invented a robotic dog, a plant that eats ‘yicky’ girls and a communications satellite to speak with aliens.
The aliens read Jimmy’s signals, come to earth and abduct Jimmy’s and all his classmate’s parents.
Initially, the children are overjoyed, but after the hamburger and fairy floss binges subside they start to miss their mothers and fathers. Jimmy leads the class into outer space on a rescue mission.
This animation film has an old-style story told in an old-time way. Even the look animation director John A. Davis has created, appears dated when compared to Shrek.
Appearances, however, can be deceptive and they are here. Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius is technically first rate and Davis pushes the story on with energy and interest.
What is very old fashioned about this film is its political agenda. Even before September 11, no screenwriter could be unaware of the demonisation of Islamic nations. The right wing in the US regularly portrays Islam as an extreme religion at the service of a vengeful God. Things have hardly improved since September 11 in this regard.
In Jimmy Neutron the aliens are portrayed as “those creatures who want to sacrifice humans to the God of wrath”.
Even though this film has the king of the aliens speaking with a British accent and thereby continues Hollywood’s racist portrait of the evil Poms, there is a disturbing bigotry in this film which causes far greater concern. Jimmy’s town is not called Retroville for nothing! Our children deserve more sophisticated indoctrination than this. Give it a miss.
