When I read “Movies that rocked my childhood” it is inevitable that a whole ocean of movies comes to my mind, from Disney or Pixar classics to the small but flashy first steps of Dreamworks.
However, if I had to choose a single example, the film that rocked my childhood would not be any of those created by those production houses, on the contrary, it would be an offbeat piece from Nickelodeon that totally shaped my interests and taste for a considerable portion of my life: Jimmy Neutron - Boy Genius.
Directed by John A. Davis and released in 2001 under the Paramount Pictures label, Jimmy Neutron is a fairly simple and fun film that knows how to bring the MTV philosophy to a child audience: irreverent, fast-paced and full of lots of imagination.
Its mere existence is nostalgic to me, serving as a reflection of a time when computer animation was seen as "less than anything else" Jimmy Neutron managed to land an unexpected Oscar nomination (Which being honest, it's not that he deserved it but that they hadn't enough options to nominate films of better quality) premiering the new category of “Best animated film” together with Shrek (Who took the award) and Monsters Inc.
Jimmy Neutron reminds me of simpler times, begging my grandmother to let me go rent (Again) his VHS to laugh at the jokes I already heard hundreds of times, every frame, every dialogue, every plot point of this movie is etched in my brain.
But really, what is it that produces this effect on me?
Well, for those who have never had the pleasure of seeing it: in fairly short terms, the plot of this film shows us how the parents of all the kids in Retroville are kidnapped by a strange alien race, who decide to use these adults for their own entertainment.
For Jimmy (A young man of about 10 years old who is fascinated by science and inventions) and his friends, this begins as great news: they do not have to deal with the responsibilities that adults impose on them and they are free to do what they please. Do you want to pee in the shower? Go ahead, do you want to stay awake doing pranks? Go ahead, do you want to eat ice cream without stopping? go ahead… the first portion of Boy Genius exists as a utopian show that can appeal to any child, but progressively the walls of this fantasy begin to crumble.
For such a simple and "dumb" movie, Jimmy Neutron is not afraid to make his characters deal with the consequences of their own actions and desires, in the first instance, of course, the boys of retroville succumb to their most primitive pleasures, totally ignoring that the rules established by adults exist for a reason... and that is the point of the rest of the film.
The children decide to go to space to rescue their parents from the aliens, while they understand that the limitations they imposed on them were absolutely necessary.
For me it is a surprisingly effective way to transmit a lesson, without the need to fall into boring sermons that end up alienating the little ones.
Its animation is quite simple (and I admit that it has aged badly), its plot goes through several very predictable points and there are certainly many more quality stories within the same genre.
Ironically, it is in this simplicity that I find my absolute passion for this film, a work that manages to reconnect me with my childhood, while giving us a story that we can enjoy regardless of our age. A window to the early 2000s with all the good and bad that it entails.
All the screenshots in this post were taken from Movieclips on Youtube
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