The Must-Watch Nickelodeon Sci-Fi Animated Movie Streaming For Free

Nickelodeon spent the better part of the early 2000s adapting some of its most popular animated series for the big screen. Out of this initiative came larger-than-life adventures for "The Wild Thornberrys," "Spongebob SquarePants" and "Rugrats." Among this roster, however, is also a Nickelodeon movie that proved so successful, it opened the door for the network's first fully CG-animated series to follow in its wake. Those of you looking for a nostalgia trip should be happy to learn that 2001's "Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius" is now available to stream for free on Tubi.

11-year-old Jimmy Neutron (Debi Derryberry) may be capable of constructing a robot dog (Frank Welker) and a homemade rocketship that can outrun the military, but it doesn't make him any more popular at school. The hyper-intelligent pre-teen can count on his friends, the Ultra Lord-obsessed Sheen Estevez (Jeffrey Garcia) and the llama-adoring Carl Wheezer (Rob Paulsen), to stick by his side, especially when his schoolyard adversary Cindy Vortex (Carolyn Lawrence) attempts to humiliate him. But when one of his interstellar inventions inadvertently inspires an egg-based alien race to kidnap all of the parents in town, it's up to Jimmy to concoct a daring rescue plan.

When you put it like that, "Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius" sounds like a pretty insane concept for a kids movie. But thankfully, the 2001 feature film has held up pretty well since its theatrical release on account of its memorable characters, hilarious script, and sci-fi twists.

In spite of "Jimmy Neutron" being a staple of the early to mid-2000s, the boy genius was initially conceived by writer-director John A. Davis as far back as the '80s. During that time, the character went under the name Johnny Quasar. The goal was to make a highly ambitious live-action feature, but Davis realized that funding the project would prove to be difficult. In the midst of developing DNA Productions alongside co-founder Keith Alcorn, the "Johnny Quasar" concept was revitalized with the intention of bringing the character to life through computer-generated animation. A proof-of-concept short later caught the attention of writer-producer Steve Oedekerk, who helped the pair develop a series of tests for Nickelodeon.

Not only was Quasar turned into Neutron, but the network was so enamored with the pilot that Davis and Alcorn made for a potential TV series that the concept of a feature film to accompany it was born. The leaps in animation technology since then unfortunately make "Jimmy Neutron" look dated now, but to the film's credit, it was the first CG-animated feature film to use programs like Lightwave and Messiah. Doing so meant giving the characters very cartoonish-looking features to make the process smoother. It was a wise decision, as it essentially gave every character an easily distinct identity that could be carried over into the television series.

"Jimmy Neutron" still holds up because it's largely a kids' empowerment fantasy in which appreciating science leads to an interstellar adventure, and nowhere is that more apparent than the film's standout sequence.

About halfway through "Jimmy Neutron," the kids of Retroville decide that their supposed utopia of doing whatever they want without parental oversight gets old pretty quickly. Going off to fight a yolky tyrant named King Goobot (Patrick Stewart) off in deep space seems like it would be a bit of a challenge for a bunch of pre-teens. But Jimmy comes up with a solution that only a kid could feasibly think of: retrofitting the amusement park rides of Retroland into fully functioning spaceships. 

It's one of those ideas that's so ridiculous that it circles back around to being awesome, especially with the launch sequence underscored by No Secrets' spirited cover of "Kids in America." Imagine being a kid watching a ferris wheel, an eyeball tram, and a spinning octopus ride take to the stars. It's impossible to not throw a shoutout to the set of roller coaster cars zipping in every conceivable direction among the cosmos with people seated inside them.

That none of the kids wear spacesuits or helmets in outer space lends to the escapist absurdity that "Jimmy Neutron" proudly wears on its sleeve. These kinds of cartoonish concepts carry over into the television series, which has gone on to become one of the best Nickelodeon shows of all time. Over the course of its three-season run from 2002 to 2006, "Jimmy Neutron" expanded its bizarre world with a rotation of outlandish villains, creative gadgetry, and a surprising amount of character development, in addition to the bizarre stuff that only adults will notice.