"Book learning now, Judo later." - Bodyguard/Tutor Race Bannon to His Young Charge, Jonny Quest
Jonny Quest: The Complete First Season DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
The United States' super-secret spy agency, Intelligence One, keeps a hefty dossier on one of its greatest assets: the brilliant scientist Dr. Benton Quest. Based out of Palm Key Island off of the coast of Florida, the multilingual Dr. Quest has invented many complicated computer systems and defense devices for the agency. Because of his vast knowledge of scientific technique, Dr. Quest is also dispatched around the world to help solve mysteries that have left his colleagues stumped.
Dr. Quest helps to ensure the security of his country, but if pressed, the widower would probably say that his most important job is being a father to Jonny, his blond haired eleven year-old son. Worried that enemies might kidnap Jonny and use him as leverage to influence Dr. Quest, Intelligence One has assigned tough, imposing agent Race Bannon to be Jonny's "tutor, companion, and all around watch dog."
The family is completed by Hadji, a young Calcutta orphan adopted by Dr. Quest when the boy saved his life, and Bandit, Jonny's miniature bulldog. Together, the Quest team travels the globe to investigate strange phenomenon, defeat villains, defend the helpless, and complete Dr. Quest's Intelligence One assignments.
This animated adventure series from Hanna-Barbera first appeared on ABC's Friday night schedule on September 18, 1964. Because the series aired in primetime, Jonny Quest has higher production values than animated Saturday morning fare. Supervising Art Director Doug Wildey helped to infuse the series with a richly designed visual style reminiscent of classic adventure comic strips. Rather than the flat, colorful style of The Flintstones and similar animated shows, Jonny Quest makes extensive use of shading and shadow, giving the series a sense of detail rarely seen in TV animation. Musical Director Hoyt Curtin adds to the sophistication, giving the series a muscular, throbbing sound.
The animation and the music lend the series a strong sense of reality, even when the plots veer toward the fantastic. It also helps that the scripts for Jonny Quest are much sturdier than those for other Hanna-Barbera shows. The mysteries in Scooby-Doo, for example, are never very mysterious, and they never quite make sense. The villains in that show often perform physically impossible feats that are then explained away once Fred or Velma solve the case using non-existent clues. The ghost "flew" using wires and pulleys? Amazing how no one noticed that when the "ghost" chased them throughout the episode. In JQ, however, even the notion of a rampaging mummy seems realistic because of the seriousness with which it is taken. On Jonny Quest, solving mysteries is a process. Dr. Quest and his gang solve their cases using a careful blend of logic and action, thus lending credibility even to the incredible.
The series also benefits from a lack of Hanna-Barbera's trademark cartoonish sound effects. In most Hanna-Barbera cartoons, actions like falling down, tiptoeing, and peering around a corner are accompanied by specific sound effects that stay the same from cartoon to cartoon. With the exception of "Mystery of the Lizard Men" and a few other early episodes, these effects are thankfully missing from Jonny Quest.
"Mystery of the Lizard Men" is interesting for another reason. Although he appears in the opening credit sequence, the entire episode's biggest mystery is Hadji's absence. It is as if he does not exist. Since this is the first episode in the set, it at first seems safe to assume that this was the first episode produced and that the character of Hadji was added to the series afterwards. Watching the supplemental materials, however, it is revealed that "Mystery of the Lizard Men" was NOT the first episode produced. That honor falls to broadcast episode nine, "Double Danger." "Danger" DOES include Hadji, thus deepening the mystery of "Lizard Men," a topic not addressed in the supplemental materials. Surely this is a conspiracy plotted by Quest villain Dr. Zin.
Watching these episodes as an adult, it is easy to see why they hold much kid appeal. Unlike most TV preteens - animated or otherwise - Jonny is not a helpless kid who exists merely to get in trouble and then get reprimanded once his father bails him out. Instead, Jonny is a trusted member of the Quest team, and he is usually able to take care of himself. Both Dr. Quest and Race are quick to give responsibilities to both Jonny and Hadji, thus presenting kids watching at home with a unique vision of strong, empowered young heroes.
The series does have its faults. At times, it is at least mildly xenophobic and trades in cultural stereotypes. The crew meets face-painted jungle savages who want nothing more than to sacrifice whites in brutal pagan ceremonies, a German baron who cannot quite grasp that WWI is over, and other nasty foreigners. Hadji also has the ability to charm not only snakes using his magical flute, but ropes, too. Still, the show was produced in 1964, our views have changed since then (or at least we have the good taste not to talk about our more base views now), and nothing here is overtly offensive.
John Stephenson, who through the years has provided his vocal talents to everything from Help! It's the Hair Bear Bunch to Fraggle Rock, performs the voice of Dr. Benton Quest in only five episodes. His replacement is Don Messick, who also provides Bandit's barks and growls. Messick also gave voice to Scooby-Doo, Scrappy-Doo, and a host of other kid show favorites. Mike Road (The Fantastic Four, The Herculoids) voices Race Bannon. Tim Matheson, the future star of Animal House and The West Wing, brings Jonny to life. Hadji is played by Danny Bravo
Although the packaging of this set pegs this as Jonny Quest's "Complete First Season," it should be noted that this is the original Jonny Quest's ONLY season. The series was cancelled by ABC after a single season when it proved to be a ratings disappointment against shows like Rawhide and The Munsters. Saturday morning reruns of the show's twenty-six episodes became so popular, however, that the series became the first cartoon to run on each of the three major networks. The show last appeared on NBC's Saturday morning lineup in 1981. Because of the show's continuing popularity, Hanna-Barbera produced thirteen new episodes in 1987, with only Don Messick returning to voice Dr. Quest. In 1996, Ted Turner, who at that point owned Hanna-Barbera's library, began production on The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest for his TBS, TNT, and Cartoon Network cable channels. This incarnation considerably changed the JQ back story, much to the disappointment of fans. (For years, fans have relished the semi-gay subtext of the Dr. Quest/Race Bannon relationship. This was even cemented by a Cartoon Network poll that named Race their "Mother of the Year." The writers of Real Adventures, however, seemed to go out of their way to specifically change any elements of the original that contributed to Quest and Bannon being construed as gay.) The first episode of Real Adventures is also available on DVD.
Jonny Quest: The Complete First Season's twenty-six episodes are divided onto four discs. The discs are housed in a foldout digipak. Each of the four discs is decorated with striking images of one of the show's human stars. The digipak slides into a plastic sleeve. The sleeve and digipak are imperfectly designed. The digipak is hard to remove from the sleeve, and the spine of the digipak containing the name of the set is concealed by the closed side of the plastic sleeve, thus leaving the blank side of the digipak exposed. Dr. Zin is at it again!
The nifty menus are designed to resemble a computer terminal or control panel. Viewers can play all of a disc's episodes or choose an individual one. There are no chapter stops.
