The Adventures Of Jimmy Neutron: Attack Of The Twonkies

As the title suggests, Jimmy Neutron (v. Debi Derryberry) is a boy genius whose inventions and schemes tend to get the him, his friends, his family, his hometown and sometimes the whole darn planet in danger. He’s aided and abetted by his robot dog Goddard (v. Frank Welker) and his two best friends, the timid and hyper-allergic Carl (v. Rob Paulsen) and the obnoxious and super-excitable Sheen (v. Jeff Garcia).

In "Attack of the Twonkies" the show takes a tip from the Gremlins films and the Star Trek episode "The Trouble with Tribbles". Jimmy unintentionally brings the cute and furry Twonkies back from an asteroid, discovering too late that Twonkies multiply rapidly and, even worse, turn into horrible destructive monsters when they hear someone sing.

The forty-four minute episode is predictable but entertaining. This show is more about the details, the side stories and the visual gags than the main plot. All of the minor characters are well defined and have some great scenes with their own pet Twonkies. Even Jimmy’s Twonkie-less father Hugh (v. Mark DeCarlo) has a wonderfully ridiculous sub-plot involving a wooden dummy.

Unfortunately the shows strengths can also be its greatest weaknesses. Some of the best jokes are old pop culture references and sly asides that may slip past a younger audience.

There are three other episodes on the disc, "Send in the Clones", "A Beautiful Mine", and "The Junkman Cometh". In them, Jimmy clones himself to avoid chores, takes his friends to mine priceless gems from an asteroid, and lives out a ‘Boy Who Cried Wolf’ scenario with a former invention of his named BroBot. These episodes are about on par with "Twonkies", although "Clones" lacks an ending and relies very heavily on references its target audience might not get.

The only features are a large batch of previews that initially play whether you want them to or not. The show is a 3D animated affair, so there’s no loss of quality in the transfer and the audio is clear.

This disc has a good selection of episodes and should appeal to the established Jimmy Neutron fan. But the show won’t gel for everyone, so if you or the person you’re buying for has never seen the show, it might be best to try to catch an episode on TV before making a purchase.

Review By Marilyn Campbell

twonkies (119569 bytes) 

Image:

Full Frame

Sound:

English: Stereo

Features:

Previews (A Series of Unfortunate Events; All Grown Up! Lucky 13; SpongeBob SquarePants Second Season; Secret Central; Duel Masters; Tak 2 - The Stuff of Dreams);

Rating Marks:

Image: ***

Sound: ***

Features: 0

Storyline/Interest: ***

Overall Rating: ***out of 5