The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, Season 1

So glad to finally see The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest again. My father loved the original series growing up in the 60s and we would watch them together on Cartoon Network when I was young. I remember loving the Real Adventures when they came around, but the series doesn't get good until season 2, when the characters (and voices) were retuned to align more with the original series. If you're thinking of watching this for the first time, skip Season 1 and start with Season 2.

As I understand it, Jonny Quest was a work of art not previously seen in the cartoon world, when it hit the air in the early 1960's. I wasn't born until later in the 1960's, but by then, Hanna Barbera had turned the action format into much the same as they had turned the Saturday Morning Cartoon. Somehow, I missed this and watched primarily Looney Tunes on Saturday. While I was watching 20 and 30 year old re-hashes of Bugs, Daffey and Friends, Hanna Barbera was making new genres and making their old genres classics. When I would get home from school and catch weekday afternoon re-runs of Catch that Pidgeon and Space Ghost, I wondered where this came from. It clearly wasn't the high-end studio that made The Flintstones or even Top Cat. I watched as I grew up and grew out of cartoons. Then, thanks to cable and Cartoon Network (and Nick to a lesser degree) I started watching cartoons again as an adult!!! When in the mid-nineties, Cartoon Network started producing new material, driven perhaps by Captain Planet and the Planeteers, there was a great deal of excitement about Jonny Quest being re-vamped. I was hardly familiar with the original, but I enjoyed the The New Adventures very much. It has that feel of so much made in the 90's, as if we were all caught up in the X-Files, but including ALL of the characters and the backstories, if a little to simple, made it interesting. The virtual reality bits were cool by 1990's standards and, having now seen ALL of the originals and the various series and movies over the last 40 years, I think this is an excellent addition to any collection of Jonny Quest. I now get a big kick out of the various shows paying homage to the Quests from Toby Danger in Freakazoid to the entire Venture Bros. series (check [adult swim] rather than Cartoon Network). IF you are or ever were a fan of Jonny Quest, I highly recommend The Venture Bros. on [adult swim]. It supposes that all those superheroes from the 60's existed and you get to see what happen to their boy adventurer kids. Just to see "Action Jonny" again is enough to make you weep. 26th August 2013 Michael Adcock 天地

Finally!