Believe it or not: as a young’un, I missed out on the whole Jonny Quest experience.
You see, I’ve mentioned before many times that I grew up in what was commonly called “a one-horse town in the middle of nowhere.” This was the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, so – television broadcasts being what they were – our humble home might’ve had six channels on a good day (with cooperative weather) all provided via antennae. (Yes, eventually, we had cable, but that’s another story.) While the other households may’ve had a few more spots on the dial, ours had to do with a bit less; and the vast majority of children’s programming wound up being heavily syndicated U.S. stuff interspersed with a good deal of foreign imports. This didn’t bother me back then – as a child, I really had no barometer with which to measure the good from the bad – and it wasn’t until I arrived in college, starting making friends, began comparing our backgrounds, and whatnot that I realized there was this vast catalogue of TV franchises that didn’t require dubbing from Japanese to American English.
Furthermore, unlike today’s youth, we didn’t have home video and/or streaming back in the day, so it isn’t as if something like Jonny Quest – which premiered on televisions in the 1960’s and then ventured into syndication – was accessible to audiences of the time. Either it was broadcast in your area at a reasonable time or it wasn’t, so there was no means with which to go and ‘catch up’ so you had a stronger foundation when chatting up your choices with your contemporaries. While I do recall catching an episode or two as part of some bundled programming with a popular children’s show broadcast out of Chicago, that was my only time spent with Quest, Hadji, Race, Benton, and Bandit. As such, that bug just never bit me, and I honestly never thought much about it.
Of course, some of that changed when the Cartoon Network added The Venture Bros. to its Adult Swim line-up. Once that phenomenon became a somewhat household name, I did a bit of research and learned that a great many of its best comic bits were directly descended from the concepts and characters Quest originally delivered. Indeed, there are some strong associations between the two properties, so strong that to speak about them separately might be challenging to fans of both; and I’m glad that I’ve had the chance to ‘bone up’ just a bit on my Quest exposure with Warner Archive’s latest release.
The Hanna-Barbera Double Feature Collection showcases two animated telefilms – Jonny’s Golden Quest (1993) and Jonny Quest Vs. The Cyber-Insects (1995) – that were completed before Hanna-Barbera was folded into Warner Bros. Animation. Because of this fact alone, I’ve read online that some consider them the last true iteration of the franchise: it would surface again in 1996-1997 in serial format under the name of The Real Adventures Of Jonny Quest, though I’ve read on Wikipedia.org that the show’s reinvention with a slightly older cast of young heroes met with great controversy behind and during its production. When it ended up largely as a ratings failure, Quest purists pointed back to these two movies as being the end to something special.
(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
You see, I’ve mentioned before many times that I grew up in what was commonly called “a one-horse town in the middle of nowhere.” This was the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, so – television broadcasts being what they were – our humble home might’ve had six channels on a good day (with cooperative weather) all provided via antennae. (Yes, eventually, we had cable, but that’s another story.) While the other households may’ve had a few more spots on the dial, ours had to do with a bit less; and the vast majority of children’s programming wound up being heavily syndicated U.S. stuff interspersed with a good deal of foreign imports. This didn’t bother me back then – as a child, I really had no barometer with which to measure the good from the bad – and it wasn’t until I arrived in college, starting making friends, began comparing our backgrounds, and whatnot that I realized there was this vast catalogue of TV franchises that didn’t require dubbing from Japanese to American English.
Furthermore, unlike today’s youth, we didn’t have home video and/or streaming back in the day, so it isn’t as if something like Jonny Quest – which premiered on televisions in the 1960’s and then ventured into syndication – was accessible to audiences of the time. Either it was broadcast in your area at a reasonable time or it wasn’t, so there was no means with which to go and ‘catch up’ so you had a stronger foundation when chatting up your choices with your contemporaries. While I do recall catching an episode or two as part of some bundled programming with a popular children’s show broadcast out of Chicago, that was my only time spent with Quest, Hadji, Race, Benton, and Bandit. As such, that bug just never bit me, and I honestly never thought much about it.
Of course, some of that changed when the Cartoon Network added The Venture Bros. to its Adult Swim line-up. Once that phenomenon became a somewhat household name, I did a bit of research and learned that a great many of its best comic bits were directly descended from the concepts and characters Quest originally delivered. Indeed, there are some strong associations between the two properties, so strong that to speak about them separately might be challenging to fans of both; and I’m glad that I’ve had the chance to ‘bone up’ just a bit on my Quest exposure with Warner Archive’s latest release.
The Hanna-Barbera Double Feature Collection showcases two animated telefilms – Jonny’s Golden Quest (1993) and Jonny Quest Vs. The Cyber-Insects (1995) – that were completed before Hanna-Barbera was folded into Warner Bros. Animation. Because of this fact alone, I’ve read online that some consider them the last true iteration of the franchise: it would surface again in 1996-1997 in serial format under the name of The Real Adventures Of Jonny Quest, though I’ve read on Wikipedia.org that the show’s reinvention with a slightly older cast of young heroes met with great controversy behind and during its production. When it ended up largely as a ratings failure, Quest purists pointed back to these two movies as being the end to something special.
(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
First up, Jonny’s Golden Quest …
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“Investigating reports of synthetic gold lead Jonny Quest and the Quest Team to a showdown with Dr. Zin!”
Even though I’d grown up largely unaware of the wider Quest mythology, I had very little difficulty stepping into this first experience, a somewhat hodgepodge of several separate plotlines linked solely by the team’s search to locate the evil Dr. Zin and stop him from changing life as we know it with his cloning technology. There’s plenty of action; and the various escapades really only service to give these adventurers a little something extra to do in order to fill the 90-minute running time that resembles the good old-fashioned good vs. evil construct of standard cartoon fare. Also, it’s largely kid-centric – meaning that Jonny, Hadji, and Bandit get in on far more action than do the adults – so I can only imagine that young’uns probably had a good time with this when it originally aired on television.
Still – as I pointed out – not all of these plotlines flowed together perhaps as seamlessly as they could’ve. These days, it hasn’t been all that uncommon for some superhero-style animated shows to plot out two- or three-episode arcs in order to weave a more complex story for their watchers who prefer a bit of longer-form narrative. In a few spots, Golden Quest feels more like it was conceived as three separate thirty-minute episodes strung together; and the action matches the usual breaks wherein the broadcast would be paused for sponsors’ commercials. Because it felt so obvious, I did have some trouble staying focused on the whole affair. It’s entertaining, yes; but the brazen fade-to-blacks kept reminding me it was all ‘just a show’ and not quite a major motion picture.
However, the writers rather effectively gave Jonny a modest bit of character development: after his mother is stricken down before his eyes, he grows increasingly incensed with the idea of exacting his revenge over Dr. Zin for his part in her demise. This is an idea that might be a bit dark for younger audiences, especially in today’s ‘cause du jour’ climate. Although it’s handled with some restraint, the script does allow for the young man to eventually achieve peace with what happened: his struggles to control his emotions make for a few smaller moments along the way, even giving pause to the fact that he’s growing up anyway and becoming more aware of the fairer sex, a development highlighted by the addition of Jessie Kenyon to the Quest team.
Why, audiences were likely even treated to young Jonny getting his first kiss … albeit one on-the-cheek!
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“Investigating reports of synthetic gold lead Jonny Quest and the Quest Team to a showdown with Dr. Zin!”
Even though I’d grown up largely unaware of the wider Quest mythology, I had very little difficulty stepping into this first experience, a somewhat hodgepodge of several separate plotlines linked solely by the team’s search to locate the evil Dr. Zin and stop him from changing life as we know it with his cloning technology. There’s plenty of action; and the various escapades really only service to give these adventurers a little something extra to do in order to fill the 90-minute running time that resembles the good old-fashioned good vs. evil construct of standard cartoon fare. Also, it’s largely kid-centric – meaning that Jonny, Hadji, and Bandit get in on far more action than do the adults – so I can only imagine that young’uns probably had a good time with this when it originally aired on television.
Still – as I pointed out – not all of these plotlines flowed together perhaps as seamlessly as they could’ve. These days, it hasn’t been all that uncommon for some superhero-style animated shows to plot out two- or three-episode arcs in order to weave a more complex story for their watchers who prefer a bit of longer-form narrative. In a few spots, Golden Quest feels more like it was conceived as three separate thirty-minute episodes strung together; and the action matches the usual breaks wherein the broadcast would be paused for sponsors’ commercials. Because it felt so obvious, I did have some trouble staying focused on the whole affair. It’s entertaining, yes; but the brazen fade-to-blacks kept reminding me it was all ‘just a show’ and not quite a major motion picture.
However, the writers rather effectively gave Jonny a modest bit of character development: after his mother is stricken down before his eyes, he grows increasingly incensed with the idea of exacting his revenge over Dr. Zin for his part in her demise. This is an idea that might be a bit dark for younger audiences, especially in today’s ‘cause du jour’ climate. Although it’s handled with some restraint, the script does allow for the young man to eventually achieve peace with what happened: his struggles to control his emotions make for a few smaller moments along the way, even giving pause to the fact that he’s growing up anyway and becoming more aware of the fairer sex, a development highlighted by the addition of Jessie Kenyon to the Quest team.
Why, audiences were likely even treated to young Jonny getting his first kiss … albeit one on-the-cheek!
Our second feature is Jonny Quest Vs. The Cyber-Insects …
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“Jonny and the team reassemble with the addition of Race's daughter, to battle another creation of Dr. Zin's.”
Unlike Golden Quest, Cyber-Insects both feels and works far more like a traditional motion picture experience.
The installment is cleverly bookended with a segment exploring Jonny and Hadji’s ascendancy to mature young adults – think ‘teens’ – as they’ve both been tasked with stealing a sacred jewel in some South American ritual meant to show they’ve come of age. Jonny’s recklessness curtails his gaining the approval of the Orinoco natives; so, alas, the boys are turned away with the instruction that our franchise’s lead must learn to both control his emotions and cooperate with others as a team, a motif that rears its head at several opportunities across this 90-minute adventure.
What endeared me more to this telefilm than the previous was the fact that it functioned as a true stand-alone throughout, delivering one major plotline around which all of the subplots remained in tandem. When A clearly leads to B which clearly sets up C and so on and so forth, viewers are taken on a journey with the key players; and there’s greater connectivity between the watchers and the ones being watched. Golden Quest – while entertaining – showed a bit of raggedness at its scenes, feeling all-too-often like something strung together not so much out of necessity as it was to fill time; that isn’t the case with Cyber-Insects.
Furthermore, this sequel dispenses with having to introduce new players – i.e. Jessie Kenyon becomes Jessie Banyon now that the truth of her heritage is out of the way – so the focus stays a bit more cleanly on plot and characters with the team committed to rescuing the captured Dr. Quest and the orbiting Quest Station from the hands of Dr. Zin. This time out, the mastermind is exploiting genetic technology to engineer massive intelligent bugs – along with a side order of weather manipulation – in a bid to have all the nations of Earth bow down and accept him title as emperor to our planet. Essentially, Jonny and the others engage in a race against time to both save his father, save the space station, and save the Big Blue Marble from the direst consequences.
And that impetuousness that Jonny felt in the opening?
Again, the scriptwriters introduce circumstances along the way that allow the young hero to face his shortcomings. While it might grow a bit predictable in a few spots – once you know Jonny’s prone to run off half-cocked, it becomes easier to anticipate when he’s apt to do so – the undercurrent of the action still evolves to show he’s confronting that dark habit and making strides to improve. Yes, he masters those temptations in the last reel; and he, Hadji, and Jessie all join hands in the second Orinoquian ceremony to show that we’re stronger together than we ever are apart.
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“Jonny and the team reassemble with the addition of Race's daughter, to battle another creation of Dr. Zin's.”
Unlike Golden Quest, Cyber-Insects both feels and works far more like a traditional motion picture experience.
The installment is cleverly bookended with a segment exploring Jonny and Hadji’s ascendancy to mature young adults – think ‘teens’ – as they’ve both been tasked with stealing a sacred jewel in some South American ritual meant to show they’ve come of age. Jonny’s recklessness curtails his gaining the approval of the Orinoco natives; so, alas, the boys are turned away with the instruction that our franchise’s lead must learn to both control his emotions and cooperate with others as a team, a motif that rears its head at several opportunities across this 90-minute adventure.
What endeared me more to this telefilm than the previous was the fact that it functioned as a true stand-alone throughout, delivering one major plotline around which all of the subplots remained in tandem. When A clearly leads to B which clearly sets up C and so on and so forth, viewers are taken on a journey with the key players; and there’s greater connectivity between the watchers and the ones being watched. Golden Quest – while entertaining – showed a bit of raggedness at its scenes, feeling all-too-often like something strung together not so much out of necessity as it was to fill time; that isn’t the case with Cyber-Insects.
Furthermore, this sequel dispenses with having to introduce new players – i.e. Jessie Kenyon becomes Jessie Banyon now that the truth of her heritage is out of the way – so the focus stays a bit more cleanly on plot and characters with the team committed to rescuing the captured Dr. Quest and the orbiting Quest Station from the hands of Dr. Zin. This time out, the mastermind is exploiting genetic technology to engineer massive intelligent bugs – along with a side order of weather manipulation – in a bid to have all the nations of Earth bow down and accept him title as emperor to our planet. Essentially, Jonny and the others engage in a race against time to both save his father, save the space station, and save the Big Blue Marble from the direst consequences.
And that impetuousness that Jonny felt in the opening?
Again, the scriptwriters introduce circumstances along the way that allow the young hero to face his shortcomings. While it might grow a bit predictable in a few spots – once you know Jonny’s prone to run off half-cocked, it becomes easier to anticipate when he’s apt to do so – the undercurrent of the action still evolves to show he’s confronting that dark habit and making strides to improve. Yes, he masters those temptations in the last reel; and he, Hadji, and Jessie all join hands in the second Orinoquian ceremony to show that we’re stronger together than we ever are apart.
I’d also be remiss if I failed to point out that Cyber-Insects resonated much stronger as the kind of storytelling upon which the aforementioned The Venture Bros. capitalizes on in order to deliver its manic mirth. It’s easy to see how this format has lasted so long in animation and survives to this day as an influence upon newcomers to the genre who want to tap the same sensibilities for a new generation of viewers. In a few spots, Cyber-Insects even reminded me of the 1980’s animated incarnation of Flash Gordon (from Filmation), one of the favorites I enjoyed in my teenage years. It’s all meant to be good clean fun – with heroes worth cheering and villains worth despising – and you just don’t get that all that much these days.
Jonny’s Golden Quest (1933) was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, USA Network, and Turner Program Services (TPS); while Jonny Quest Vs. The Cyber-Insects (1995) was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and TNT. DVD distribution (for this particular release) was coordinated by the fine folks at Warner Archive. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I found the sights-and-sounds of both productions to be exceptional from start-to-finish: the one warning I’d caution is that there are a few sequences in Cyber-Insects wherein the team is in extreme danger and the animation gets a bit too herky-jerky before settling down. It’s a bit overdone, but it doesn’t last too long, thankfully. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? Alas, the disc has nothing.
Recommended.
Hanna-Barbera animation fans have a bit to get excited about with the home video release of Jonny’s Golden Quest (1993) and Jonny Quest Vs. The Cyber-Insects (1995); and I suspect what legion of fans surrounding the Quest dynasty itself might be tickled pink as well. Though I can speak to how thrilled hardcore enthusiasts might be with this particular iteration of the intellectual property, both telefilms feature respectable animation (maybe a cut above some Saturday morning television fare), plenty of action, and a thrilling story with which to get lost in the mayhem. Personally, I enjoyed the Cyber-Insects flick more – Golden Quest really took the long way to get to a fairly elementary story – as it feels a bit more like the great toons of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s that captivated me as a viewer.
Gentle reminder: keep in mind, folks, that I'm coming at the Quest phenomenon almost entirely as a newbie. I can't evaluate how well these telefilms relate to the vastness of what came before. With fresh eyes and an open mind, I had fun with these, and I hope many would agree.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Warner Archive provided me with a complimentary Blu-ray of Jonny’s Golden Quest (1993) and Jonny Quest Vs. The Cyber-Insects (1995) – as part of their Hanna-Barbera Double Feature Collection – by request for the expressed purpose of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
Jonny’s Golden Quest (1933) was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, USA Network, and Turner Program Services (TPS); while Jonny Quest Vs. The Cyber-Insects (1995) was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and TNT. DVD distribution (for this particular release) was coordinated by the fine folks at Warner Archive. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I found the sights-and-sounds of both productions to be exceptional from start-to-finish: the one warning I’d caution is that there are a few sequences in Cyber-Insects wherein the team is in extreme danger and the animation gets a bit too herky-jerky before settling down. It’s a bit overdone, but it doesn’t last too long, thankfully. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? Alas, the disc has nothing.
Recommended.
Hanna-Barbera animation fans have a bit to get excited about with the home video release of Jonny’s Golden Quest (1993) and Jonny Quest Vs. The Cyber-Insects (1995); and I suspect what legion of fans surrounding the Quest dynasty itself might be tickled pink as well. Though I can speak to how thrilled hardcore enthusiasts might be with this particular iteration of the intellectual property, both telefilms feature respectable animation (maybe a cut above some Saturday morning television fare), plenty of action, and a thrilling story with which to get lost in the mayhem. Personally, I enjoyed the Cyber-Insects flick more – Golden Quest really took the long way to get to a fairly elementary story – as it feels a bit more like the great toons of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s that captivated me as a viewer.
Gentle reminder: keep in mind, folks, that I'm coming at the Quest phenomenon almost entirely as a newbie. I can't evaluate how well these telefilms relate to the vastness of what came before. With fresh eyes and an open mind, I had fun with these, and I hope many would agree.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Warner Archive provided me with a complimentary Blu-ray of Jonny’s Golden Quest (1993) and Jonny Quest Vs. The Cyber-Insects (1995) – as part of their Hanna-Barbera Double Feature Collection – by request for the expressed purpose of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
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