Jonny Quest - The Complete First Season

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I remember JONNY QUEST in first run when it was a prime time show in 1964. I can even remember watching TOP CAT (another Hanna-Barbera prime time cartoon show) as a fledgling in 1962. JONNY QUEST was different --- it was revolutionary for its time --- for while TOP CAT had anthropomorphic cats doing what amounted to animated reenactments of episodes of THE PHIL SILVERS SHOW (right down to Arnold Stang as Choo-Choo), and H-B's THE FLINTSTONES and THE JETSONS were two plays on family sitcoms, JONNY QUEST was a mostly serious, colorful, scientific adventure show that could have almost as easily been done as a live-action show.Yes, it was geared a bit for kids (boys especially in those days). Jonny was a clever eleven year old (voiced by Tim Matheson, later of ANIMAL HOUSE and THE WEST WING), the bright son of the brilliant Dr. Benton Quest, who worked for the U.S. Agency Intelligence One, using his many inventions to fight off evildoers. Although Dr. Quest jetted around the world he always seemed to take Jonny with him. He was a fine father, seemingly wise, and interested in seeing his son grow up knowledgeable and exposed to many different cultures.The Quests were always accompanied by Roger T. "Race" Bannon, the white-haired, physically fit bodyguard / teacher / sensei who was responsible for Jonny's education. Bannon is admittedly based on James Bond, and the whole series was first conceived of after the 1962 release of DR. NO (there are other interesting trivia bits among the Extras on Disc Three).Early in the series, the Quests befriended Hadji, a waif Jonny's age from the streets of Calcutta who was thoughtful, kindly, and gifted with the kind of psychic abilities one might find in a guru. Hadji was the first regular character of color to appear on American television. Hadji, we are told, was educated by a U.S. Marine; in one episode we meet his friend Pasha Peddler who has an American accent and speaks in jazz-tinged American slang. Was Pasha Peddler Hadji's generous Marine turned "native"? The show doesn't say.For comic relief, the producers included the character of Bandit, a slightly anthropomorphized dog who couldn't seem to stay away from scapegrace situations. Every week the Quests faced exotic enemies such as the Mummy of Anubis, a robot spider, Turu The Terrible, a pteranodon, and a series of (mainly Eurasian) spies, the chief of which was the evil Dr. Zin.In re-runs JONNY QUEST was relegated to Saturday mornings where it was hacked apart by way of editing and some episodes never aired (like the one about the hallucinogenic plants Dr. Quest was experimenting with). Parents' groups concerned about television violence (now known to be front groups for extremist religious sects, mostly Christian) fought to have the show removed from TV (and were at times successful).On this Blu-Ray the episodes have been fully restored and are full of brilliant colors and intense action scenes. Unlike the earlier DVD release, the episodes in this set are uncut. While there have been complaints that the episodes are not "PC" (and one or two frankly are not) there is something wonderful about them nonetheless --- Jonny uses science, he uses wit, and he uses his brain to get out of trouble. Dr. Quest's inventions are always presented as being "for the good of all mankind". The Bad Guys, whoever they are, are always described as *selfish* and using their own inventions and own brilliance "for selfish ends". Clearly in 1964, greed was *not* good, and selfishness was not a cultural virtue as it is today.JONNY QUEST is classic, intelligent, television.

I remember this cartoon from the late 1960's. The TV sets back then were not any good. Now I watch this Johnny Quest cartoon on a big 58 inch LED television. The colors and the animation in these DVD's are excellent. I also bought a full set of those Bullwinkle cartoon shows which ran from 1959 to 1964. The animation on the Bullwinkle shows was done in Mexico to keep the costs down. The reason Johnny Quest only lasted one season is because it was to expensive to produce.The story lines on these Johnny Quest action cartoons are dead serious but a lot of humor is provided by the dog Bandit in the cartoon. The imagination and creativity put into these cartoon episodes is off the charts and could never be recreated again in such high quality for a TV series. The people that worked on this cartoon series were all brilliant and made this a must see cartoon for generations to come.

Some of you may remember reruns of the TV show, Jonny Quest on the television machine.Jonny Quest was made in the early 1960s; the greatest years of american civilization. The tailfin years. The world of Jonny Quest is a world filled with super technology; they all have special secret agent gadgets, hovercrafts are how scientists get around land, they fly around in a supersonic jet; everything is tailfinned and jet powered. America had just conquered the atom and beat the stuffings out of the Nazis a mere 19 years before, and had turned the Empire of Japan into the empire of nice cameras and Godzilla movies. It was the time of the first generation of supersonic jet aircraft; every barrier that nature put up seemed breakable. This was the apex of the machine age. The age of optimism that built the Saturn-5 rocket that took americans to the moon. It was the age of chrome grilles and preposterous consumer items like 500 horsepower Plymouth Max Wedge engines.The Johnny Quest adventures happen in the wilds of the world. To the western mind of the early 1960s, there were still wild lands where one could experience high adventure. Places with poisonous snakes, quicksand, animated mummies, villains in submarines, booby-trapped ivy-covered hidden temples, levitating hindus and bone-through-the-nose cannibals. Places like Bali might as well have been the dark side of the moon to an american in those days. This is completely bizarre to modern sensibilities, but it is quite true. Even in the early 1970s, being able to make a few minutes telephone call from Vietnam to America was insanely difficult. Getting to Yemen was still an adventure; people actually wrote adventure travel books which simply involved going some place weird and far away.The animation is shockingly good. Apparently, this wildly popular show had to be canceled because the production quality was too high: it simply couldn't make enough money to justify itself. This is too bad, as amortized over its lifetime, I am sure it more than paid for itself. But people didn't have the concept of using films like high yield bonds the way the studios do now a days. Those were more innocent times, indeed.One of the more interesting things about this show is Hadji. Hadji was the first serious kids show character in america who was from another culture. I remember being very confused why it wasn't called the "Hadji and Race Bannon show" -they were more interesting and sympathetic characters than Johnny Quest (who was the type of oafish kid who would give me noogies when I was younger) and Dr Benton Quest (who was a helpless wimp, really, always getting into trouble). Hadji by contrast was very well educated, and extremely composed. Not only that, but he was simply a lot smarter than Johnny. Plus he could do magic tricks, which was awesome. Since I was young when I watched this show, I identified best with Hadji. I wanted to be a sikh or a hindu or whatever he was supposed to be, so I could levitate, jump around magic jars, and pick bones out of dogs ears. Apparently, Hadji is the american soldier nickname for natives of Afghanistan and Iraq. All things considered, it seems to be a high compliment.Race Bannon was also a great character. Back in those days, a hero could have grey hair. George Clooney aside, that doesn't exist any more. Now the hero has to have striations on their abdomens. While Dr. Quest was supposed to be the smart one, it was generally Race Bannon who knew important stuff, like what the Sargasso sea was all about, how to do judo throws, or how not to get kidnapped. I never quite figured out who Race was supposed to be, but I knew he was bad to the bone. Upon re-watching the show as an adult, I realize he was a CIA man; spies were often considered universal men in the early 1960s. He was an american James Bond sent to look after the hapless Dr. Quest and his high spirited lad.I see this show (recently rereleased) as a sort of last ultimate embodiment of a certain kind of adventure entertainment. Men's adventure magazines died around the time Johnny Quest died; they were cut of the same cloth. Early Dr. Who was something similar, though it was more British; a kids adventure show that teaches a bit of history and geography. It's fortunate such things still exist in video form; they embody something which is really great. Will you be offended by its anachronisms? I suppose many people who calibrate their exquisitely sensitive moral barometers with a protractor made from recycled tofu, a straight edged icon with Germaine Greer's photograph in it, graph paper and a copy of the New York Times Editorial section will be offended. But such people are born to be offended. Those folks miss out on many of the great things in Western culture, like Mr. Moto movies, and the fact that they don't live next door to cannibals. I think modern kids will love it. It's not jaded, or wretched and denatured like modern kids entertainments; just wholesome adventuring.

A fun cartoon to see with your kids/grandkids . Done long before Woke was an idea is great entertainment

My favourite Hanna Barbera studios production. Loved it as a kid, love it now. Never realised that the always consistently good actor Tim Matheson was young Jonny. Nor did I notice his dad had a different voice after five episodes. And Dr Zin was a perfect 60'x villain. A live action version of the original, with a young and reasonably obedient J Q would work even now

if you like action and adventure cartoons then this is a must well worth the money i have fond memories of watching this cartoon in the 1970s

I have never read any of Anne Rice's books, unlike other reviewers, so perhaps that is why I enjoyed it as much as I did. Stuart Townsend is very easy on the eye and Aaliyah is excellent as the Queen of the Damned -there is added poignancy knowing she died soon after making the movie. The music, the wonderfully sumptuous and dramatic settings and sensual themes all combine to make a highly entertaining and visually satisfying movie. I would most definitely recommend it.

Brought back great memories!

every episode was great to see. For a 2nd season they did very well for an animated t.v. show in the 80's as the title says. I do have 1 thing you should know about the season & i'm not sure why this is but in the 1st season JONNY QUEST'S expression looks right for the MANY! situations he & his team come across. but for this season it looks like he always has a angry face. don't know why. maybe it's just me. tell me if you see it too. P.S. everyone else though is fine with their facal expressions.