Every time I read up on The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, someone eventually remarks on how much of a disaster this series was. And every time I still think “Really? This show was a disaster? In what sense?” All I can remember is sitting down every night in the summer, putting on Cartoon Network, and watching one of the best animated action series I’ve seen in years. Even years later when I garnered a DVD review copy from Hanna Barbera for a review, I fondly popped it in and was brought back to such an excellent TV series.
Granted, The Real Adventures is nowhere near being as iconic or fondly remembered as the original Jonny Quest. I mean, the original series title hero is voiced by a young Tim Matheson for crying out loud! However, The Real Adventures is such an excellent reboot of the series that I’m saddened it’s not more widely appreciated or revered. Come on, seriously? A disaster?
In any case, and I know this is considered blasphemy, I much prefer The Real Adventures over the original series. When Cartoon Network used to air classic Hanna Barbera around the clock, I never actually could sit through an entire episode of Jonny Quest. Granted, I love movie serials, and adventure shows, but I just didn’t connect with either of the characters or the animation style. The Real Adventures tries to bring Jonny Quest into the new millennium. Does it pander to the young audiences a bit? Sure, I’ll give you that. But that pandering makes for some of the most interesting sequences and episodes of the entire series.
The Real Adventures finds the entire crew from the original series now at least five or six years older. Johnny is a teenager going in to manhood who is anxiously trying throughout the show to break out on his own away from his adult chaperones. It becomes a constant plot element for Jonny to prove he can be his own agent which will inevitably cause him to become his own man. Hadji, his best friend is no longer a token but now the assistant to Jonny’s father who is amazing in technology and is a valiant and wise warrior.
During times of stress, Hadji provides a cool head and interesting advice that sets Jonny in to focus. In an effort to appeal to a more female audience, Race Bannon is now given a daughter to look after. Named Jessie Bannon, the strong and independent redhead spends most of the series on adventures with Jonny and Hadji, trying to learn from them and showing she can be a heroine. Race Bannon and Benton Quest are about the same as always, intent on guiding the children and going on new adventures. Bandit is still the trusty bulldog who helps the group quite often and even obtains immortality in one episode.
In an effort to modernize the series, Benton has concocted Quest World, a cybernetic wonderland where computer generated models of the characters from the show go on adventures and attempt to infiltrate the minds of enemies and terrorists. Most of the early show’s writing revolved around varying themes of terrorism, warfare, biological weapons, and the appearance of old enemies from the past series. Some enemies met their ends by being stomped on by elephants, impaled on animal bones, sometimes murdered, and others became mental vegetables. In this respect, The Real Adventures is a very adult oriented and violent series. It’s definitely not one that actually ends with a high spirited group hug, as the older animated shows did.
I guess where the series took a sudden right turn was when it began changing characters and reverting old elements to be more faithful. Benton got his red hair back as opposed to his dark gray doo, Race Bennon’s odd Southern accent from early episodes went bye bye as he became more of a military man, Jessie became less of a rival to Jonny and more of a damsel and love interest to Hadji, and the new writers introduced fantastic stories including vampires, ghosts, zombie pirates, and the like. Turner Broadcasting had some great plans for the series, marketing it to all the networks associated with Ted Turner, and even staged a merchandise campaign, all of which bombed, apparently.
Though it could be arguably considered a failed reboot of a classic show, I still think of The Real Adventures as an improvement over the original, in spite of its inconsistent tone and writing. For a long time there were plans for a Jonny Quest movie starring Zac Efron as Jonny, but thankfully that never actually panned out. I’d love to see this series appear again someday though.
