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On Friday, December 21st, 2001, the world was graced with a CGI epic: Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. On the surface, it appears passe, outdated, cliche, and overstated, but this film is a lot deeper than you may take away from a casual viewing. Jimmy Neutron is a smart little boy. He spends his free time building whimsical inventions, but this alone is not enough to garner him the respect of his classmates. Everybody seems to have a bone to pick with our protagonist. The parents, the teachers, the military; any and all authority figures cause conflict for Jimmy. He can do anything his heart desires except, ironically, stay out past curfew. He rejects his parents’ notions of structured life, of rules, and in an act of youthful expression, he sneaks out after dark to attend the opening of a local theme park. After this night of magical bliss, he and his friends make a wish on a shooting star. To paraphrase, his wish is along the lines of, “My mom and Hugh are mean, I wish my parents were dead.” In a stunning twist unbeknownst to Jimmy, an alien race had just invaded Earth, and kidnapped all the parents so they can eat them. Jimmy wakes up the next day, and cannot find his parents; they are assumably dead. He does see an obviously forged message. All the other kids of Retroville have also found this same message, and Jimmy realizes his wish has come true. The poetic justice is unrivaled. But as we will soon learn, you should be careful what you wish for. The kids go insane.
