James Isaac Neutron is the titular and main character from the Nickelodeon computer animated television series . Created by show runner John A. Davis, he is voiced by Debi Derryberry since the premiered in 1998. The character originally rooted from the 1980s by Davis and series co-creator Keith Alcorn under the name of Johnny Quasar, with a 13-minute long short film pitched to SIGGRAPH sometime in 1997 with production beginning in that year. However, since the name sounded eerily identical to Jonny Quest, Davis brain-stormed various other monikers before coming up with his current name. Characterized by his distinctive gravity-defying hairstyle and ridiculously high IQ of two hundred ten, Neutron is considered one of the most intelligent people in Retroville. Throughout the series, he was almost never seen without his companion, a silver-gray robot dog named Goddard and a rocket ship nicknamed the Strato XL which he uses in the opening sequence. Furthermore, Neutron has a perennial rival with Cindy who usually makes fun of him of his height.
Jimmy Neutron is an intelligent 11-year-old boy, lives in Retroville with his parents, Judy and Hugh, and his robot dog, Goddard. Jimmy's friends are overweight Carl Wheezer and hyperactive Sheen Estevez, and he has a long-standing rivalry with his intelligent classmate, Cindy Vortex, who teases him for his small stature.
Character
Conception and creation
In the 1980s, Keith Alcorn and John A. Davis created the character when he was originally named, Johnny Quasar (inspired by a facetious nickname that his Summer co-workers had coined for him in his youth who builds a rocket ship and runs away from his parents. He later stumbled upon the idea while moving into a new house in the early 1990s. He re-worked it as a short film titled Johnny Quasar and presented it at SIGGRAPH, where he met Steve Oedekerk and worked on a television series of the short as well as the movie.In Fall 1995, the idea was pitched to Nickelodeon, who expressed immediate interest in the idea. Albie Hecht, the then-president of Nick, was particularly impressed- coining him to be "half Bart Simpson and half Albert Einstein," he strongly praised Johnny's blended personality as an adventurous and intelligent character and one grounded in the reality of childhood, which, according to him, made him "the perfect Nick kid." Following positive reception, Nickelodeon commissioned for a 13-minute pilot episode to be created. After several years of going through the review process, the episode began production in late 1997, and was completed in 1998. The name "Johnny Quasar" was changed at the request of Nickelodeon, who did not want the character to be confused with similarly-named ones such as Jonny Quest and Captain Quazar, so Davis brainstormed other character names while walking his dog around the neighborhood block, eventually coming up with the final name, "Jimmy Neutron."
Appearance
A young male of average height with a disproportionately large forehead, Jimmy has brown hair gelled in a large cowlick, which has been easily mistaken for a soft serve ice cream cone, huge blue eyes, and a fair complexion. His apparel since the /series consists of a bright red T-shirt with a yellow atom graphic, sapphire blue jeans, and white sneakers. Sometimes, on a few Season 1 episodes he takes hold of a black watch on his arm. Because of the aforementioned hairstyle, he has earned the following nicknames such as Whippy Dip from Cindy and Señor Fudge-Head from Cosmo as a 2D character. Instead of sleeping in pajamas, he opts for a pair of orange-red boxers.
Personality and abilities
An extremely intelligent genius with an intelligence quotient of 210, he is defined as one of smartest people in the town of Retroville. Throughout the series, as explained in the theme song, he is described being “a kid with a knack for inventions.” Despite this quote, said inventions may go haywire. Still being on that intellectual on a difficult situation, he had quick memory banks dubbed Brain Blasts. Lastly, because of these he is the manly man parallel to Carl’s sensitive guy while Sheen is the in-between.
Portrayal
Jimmy Neutron was played by female voice actor Debi Derryberry, who would continue to play the character in the TV series and film. Derryberry's biggest acting role at the time, as previously she had mostly provided minor roles in films and TV shows. This is the second Nickelodeon character she voiced after Weenie from Oswald.
