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Jimmy Neutron:  Boy Genius is a partnership between Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies. The animation technique known as Computer Generated Images (CGI) makes the characters resemble  claymation figures. Jimmy's hairstyle looks like a dab of chocolate sauce on his head.

Despite the hairstyle, Jimmy is a boy genius and uses anything and everything he can put his hands on to invent things. He has space travel, a room literally dresses him and brushes his teeth, and an adoring robot dog named Goddard. Jimmy's parents don't have a clue that he is doing anything other than play in his room or romp with his friends.

The premise of the film has Jimmy trying to contact space aliens and eventually he does. The evil Yokians are green egg-yolks sitting in glass shells. The Yokians kidnap the town's parents and after 24 hours of doing what they want, the kids decide parents are pretty great, after all. In another great sequence, Jimmy takes the rides from an amusement park, adds rockets, and travels to the Yokians' planet. You see a Ferris wheel and roller coaster cruising across the galaxy with Jimmy in command.

The humor works for children and adults. One clever part has Jimmy accidentally reducing his teacher in size. She has to contend with the worm from an apple much like the Freman's contend with sand worms in Frank Herbert's classic science fiction book, Dune. Jimmy's rival in class is Cindy Vortex, who flies her own rocket ship. I believe my favorite part was a classroom scene where the hapless teacher had to deal with two child geniuses trying to out do each other. The theme is universal. Children learn to make friends, ignore each other's faults, and though you travel across the universe, home is the best place of all.

Copyright 2001 Marie Asner 1/6/2002