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• Cast of Ocean's 11
• The voices of Monsters Inc.
• Drew Barrymore
• Joey Fatone
• Lance Bass/Emanuelle Chriqui
• Max Keeble and Friends
• Jennifer Aniston
• Leelee Sobieski
• Reese Witherspoon
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• Kirsten Dunst
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• Heath Ledger
• Backstreet Boys
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• Sarah McLachlan         and Lilith Fair
• 'N'Sync
• Will Smith
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• Spice Girls
• Britney Spears
• Justin Timberlake
• Oprah Winfrey
• Youngstown

Updated 12/15/01

JIMMY NEUTRON

Creating a Boy Genius

Our entertainment reporter Lynn b. got to talk to the talented people who made the new animated movie Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. This family film is about a kid inventor who lives in a modern town with hints of the 1950's atomic age. Unlike the popular Rugrats, "Jimmy" is the first Nick character being introduced in a film then later going on t.v. We learned all about how Jimmy started, where he's headed and how the film from Nickelodeon and Paramount Pictures was put together.

We spoke with John Davis, Director/Screenwriter and creator of "Jimmy", Steve Oedekerk, Producer/Screenwriter, Albie Hecht, Producer and Julia Pister, Nickelodeon Executive Producer.

AGW: What is the history of Jimmy?

John: In 1995 it was a short film, 40 seconds long. I tried to do it as a live action short but built the elements for a 3-D show. I prepared to pitch it as a series idea. I entered it in the film festival sponsored by the software we were using and it won awards and was written up in a magazine that Steve read. He called us and we partnered with him and took it to Nickelodeon. We did a pilot for a series in '98 but we launched it as a feature first.

Albie: We hooked up with Steve Oedekerk and John who brought us an amazing character that's half Einstein, half Bart Simpson. He's someone you instantly fall in love with. He has this amazing look. It's a CGI future-retro look.

AGW: Unlike Rugrats, Jimmy Neutron is coming out as a movie before being a t.v. show. Will there be a t.v. show?

Albie: We're in production on the t.v. series to start September 2002. The same 3-D CGI (computer-generated images) that you see in the film will be done for the series. We really wanted him to look as special as he does in the movie.

AGW: What will the t.v. show be about?

John: It will really concentrate on the day-to-day life of the kids. Homelife and school. Characters will be more fleshed out. You'll see their backgrounds, where they come from.

AGW: Did Jimmy always look the same?

John: No. He evolved. He grew up a little bit. He looked a little younger first. He was called 'Johnny Quasar'. He had the big head. The hairstyle wasn't as outrageous.

AGW: The music for this is great for teens. How did you get Aaron Carter, Britney, Nsync, Backstreet Boys, Lil' Romeo, No Secrets etc. together for the film's soundtrack?

Julia: Nickelodeon has a partnership with Jive Records. We both understand the movie really well and they worked with John to pick the artists.

AGW: Lots of kids don't do very well in Math and Science. Do you hope Jimmy will inspire them?

John: Yeah. That's what I liked as a kid growing up. To me Science was like magic. It's Jimmy's tool for doing wonderful things. I had a great sense of wonder about the universe. So many things were possible. I really wanted to open that up to kids and have them, through Jimmy, live out the possibilities. Science provides an answer. One of my favorite toys was an erector set so I could build things. Jimmy is an inventor.

AGW: Tell us about Jimmy's look. It's pretty different and not very realistic.

John: I'm more excited about doing things that aren't photo-real. If you want that, you might as well shoot the film live action. I'm more interested in creating worlds that can't be seen with a camera. Jimmy is very 'cartoony'. He's in 3-D with realistic shadows and reflections but it's not the real world. It's a world people haven't seen before.

AGW: What about the style of Jimmy's world?

John: It's a mix of styles. It's optimistic and timeless. High technology with a 1950's older design sense. What would a laptop computer look like in the 1950's? Retroville (Jimmy's town) has that sense to it.

AGW: John, is Jimmy like you as a kid?

John: He's everything I wish I could have been. I wanted to build a contraption to fly to school in. I'd try to design things but could never build them but what if a character could actually make it work?

AGW: What shows did you like as a kid?

John: I liked 'The Thunderbirds' and 'Stingray', all the Warner Brothers cartoons. They didn't talk down to you as a kid. I loved 'Johnny Quest', the gizmos and the action and all the Japanese monster movies and the Sinbad movies.

AGW: Why are the evil aliens chickens and eggs?

John: That kind of evolved. For one of the first movies I made in junior high with my parents' home movie camera, I made a spaceship out of a Leggs Eggs, pantyhose container. It was an egg ship in space. I wanted the Yokians to be a highly evolved race so advanced that they just atrophied into a puddle of goo that needed to be contained by something so they were encased in a shell. Once we got the egg we started all the jokes with chicken war ships and they worshipped a great chicken God and we'd weave this into Jimmy's home. It became fun to go with it.

AGW: When the kids are flying in space without helmets, that breaks all science logic.

John: I didn't want to be encumbered by the logic of space travel. I didn't want it to be like 2001 (the movie) where there's no sound. At some point you are breaking logic anyway to make it entertaining. I wanted it to be as friendly as possible. In space (for Jimmy) it's warm. You can wear your short-sleeved shirt. You don't need helmets. You can holler at a friend. It's a cartoon. One of my favorite visuals is the amusement park flying through space.

AGW: Jimmy's mom looks like a typical housewife but she's fixing things. Jimmy gets his mechanical skills from his mom. That's cool!

John: It was fun giving her this apron but have her work under the car doing performance modifications on the family vehicle and Jimmy's dad has no idea how it works. We flopped the roles.

AGW: Did a lot of people contribute to ideas for the film?

Steve: Everyone is coming up with new ideas for Jimmy. My (6-year-old) daughter Zoe saw a test screening. We were talking about jokes. Zoe is the one who brought up this 'burping soda' thing. Now it's in the movie.

AGW: Steve are you involved in ideas for the games too?

Steve: I love to review everything and toss in jokes. I love the gaming world. We're already talking about upping the comedy within the gaming world. We've done games for the website.

Albie: You can use a hypno-beam and a cloning device in a game and it's pretty neat.

AGW: Steve, you do a lot of things in the entertainment industry, movies, t.v., games, acting. How does this happen?

Steve: The last year and a half has been insane. It's a kid in the candy store. I get to do things I love to do and some of it happens at the same time. You get really good at changing hats. Everything is hubbed at my house. There's this clubhouse in the back and with high speed lines and internet access… you just change hats.

AGW: We get e-mails from him all night.

Steve: I'm working at home so I see my girls all the time so I can't get in trouble because I'm making it work. I'm rocketing forward until I have a nervous breakdown. For now I'm good.

AGW: Did you continue to have input into the characters throughout making the film?

Steve: Yes. Certain characters like Sheen (the fanboy character) I had an interest in and got involved but generally I left it to John (Davis). When you have stars like Martin Short andPatrick Stewart (Star Trek) coming in (doing a voice) playing a gooey egg guy, it doesn't get any better than that. Seeing Patrick revel in not having this logical ceiling he usually has to play was wonderful. He seemed to be having a great time.

AGW: Steve, do you consider yourself a big kid?

Steve: Probably entirely true. There are adults that still play with toys and adults who don't. When I first saw the (Jimmy) image in an animation magazine, Jimmy and Goddard (his dog) looked a little different but it leaped out at me. It seemed fun and I liked the idea of a genius kid. If there's a school bully he could put up a force field. I thought kids could really live through Jimmy and I'd want to do it too.

AGW: How old is Jimmy?

Steve: He's sort of ageless. Pre-puberty.

Albie: He's 11 or 12.

AGW: Why doesn't Jimmy have any brothers or sisters?

Albie: Actually one of the t.v. series spots is Jimmy wanting to have a little brother so he creates a robot brother and he super-charges him into this Mega-brother. He's more exciting and fun but he's also ten times as annoying.

AGW: A lot of the humor is also aimed at moms and dads. Is that important to you to have families see Jimmy?

Steve: It was a goal to take this a movie that parents would really enjoy on different levels. You see the spoofs in there. It was challenging and fun. We're doing a G-rated movie. We spent time making it work for adults too.

Albie: Like there's a campfire scene in the woods. One of the guys is telling a scary story. To kids it's just a scary story but to adults it's 'Blair Witch Project'.

AGW: What is one of the main messages in the film?

Albie: Needing your parents and recognizing that your parents are a big and important part of your life.

AGW: Will there be friendly aliens in the t.v. show or next movie?

Steve: I don't know. Aliens are rude. They come down here. They slap us on tables. they leave. They have all kinds of advanced knowledge and do they ever toss us something like, 'Hey, here's something that turns dirt into a cookie'? No. I think we should keep them rude.

AGW: This movie is kind of 'Revenge of the Nerds'. Jimmy's friends aren't the top popular kids.

John: I like that theme. I was a nerd growing up. I was always quieter in class, reading a science fiction book, wearing my 'Star Trek Lives' shirt and had people ridiculing me. A lot of kids feel awkward and to make them be the heroes was fun and satisfying.