In the early 90's someone made the great choice to revive a cult classic animated series, Jonny Quest. The new series aired on Cartoon Network and ran for a total of 52 episodes over the course of two seasons. Jonny and Hadji are now teenagers and still travel the world on new adventures with Dr. Quest and Race Bannon! Warner Brothers has just released the first volume of a 90's classic animated series, The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest.
This series took the original characters from the Jonny Quest series and gave them a modern update. Jonny of course returns with his best friend Hadji, his protector Race Bannon and his father Dr. Benton Quest. This time however, they are joined by Race's daughter Jessie! In this series Dr Quest has invented a new high tech virtual reality simulation called "Quest World". Dr. Surd, an old foe of Race Bannon, becomes interested in this new technology and wants to control it by himself. Now the Quest team must face off against this newly enhanced villain!
The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest featured some great voice talent including Frank Welker (Transformers) and Robert Patrick (Terminator 2 and X-Files).
Episodes
This set contains the first 13 episodes of the series:
-The Darkest Fathoms- An old school style story with Pirates!
-Escape To QuestWorld – One of the best episodes of the season and introduces QuestWorld to the Jonny Quest Universe. If every episode had been like this, the series would have lasted a lot longer.
-In The Realm Of The Condor- Jonny Quest and the city of El Dorado
-Rage's Burning Wheel- For some reason Jonny and Hadji go into space but end up in trouble when bad guys take over mission control
-Ndovu's Last Journey- Another classic adventure involving poachers
-Manhattan Maneater- The Quest team must track a tiger that is loose in NYC. Isn't this what Animal Control is for?
-East Of Zanzibar- Sea monsters attack! The Quest team must find a way
to stop these creatures before they can hurt anyone.
-Assault On Questworld- Dr Surd attacks QuestWorld while Dr. Quest and Race are out of town. Now Jonny and Jessie but take their father's places and try to stop Surd before he can harm Hadji!
-Ezekiel Rage- A new villain takes the stage as Rage takes revenge against Race.
-Alien In Washington- Ahhh! Aliens have landed on Earth. Transmissions from extraterrestrials are received warning to stop space
experiments…will we take their advice?
-Return Of The Anasazi- Dr Quest receives a package from and old friend named Alice Starseer…which leads to all sorts of trouble for Jonny and Jessie as someone else wants what the package contains!
-The Alchemist- Dr Quest has been sent to find the Philosopher's Stone
-Trouble On The Colorado- Alice returns and Dr Surd wants to have a chat about her recent experiences…
Special Features
The only special feature on the set is called “Jonny Quest Returns: Modernizing a Classic for a New Generation of Fans.” It is a great making of documentary and is a nice featurette about the series.
Overall
Many people didn't like this new interpretation and had issues with the writing. I felt that the series was a fun homage to the original and was a great new take on some classic characters. When I heard that WB was going to be releasing this series on DVD I was very excited. I remember trying to find the episodes on TV and eagerly looked forward to each weekly installment. The minds behind this series had a lot of fun and did capture the elements that made the original enjoyable. I look forward to the future releases from the Real Adventures of Johnny Quest.
ComicsOnline gives The Real Adventures of Johnny Quest 4 out of 5 cartoons featuring Frank Welker.
