The Adventures of Johnny Quasar refers to two separate animated shorts. It is the prototypical version of what would eventually become Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.
The concept for Johnny Quasar dates back to the 1980s. In 1995, it was finally put into animation with a short demo animation. In the short 46-second animation, Johnny Quasar is riding in space with his robot dog. He notices an upcoming asteroid and rides off. The short was screened at SIGGRAPH in 1995.
In 1997, the short received a sequel of sorts. In it, Johnny deals with aliens trying to attack his spaceship. Johnny's hair is slightly different in this incarnation and is more similar to Jimmy's iconic "swirl". Early Concept Art for characters that would appear in Jimmy Neutron exist, however none are present in the short itself.
Johnny Quasar would later be revived for a 1998 short called Runaway Rocketboy. In that short, Johnny Quasar has already turned into Jimmy Neutron and the characters are near-finalized.
Both shorts were only known by word-of-mouth, screencaps, and short clips until they were uploaded to YouTube by Johnny's voice actor in 2017. The 1995 short can be seen here
, while the 1997 version can be seen here.
The Adventures of Johnny Quasar contain examples of:
- Art Evolution: Due to being 3 years apart, the '97 short has slightly better animation.
- Character Catchphrase: "Gotta blast!" for Johnny.
- Characterization Marches On: Johnny is more kiddy and less serious than Jimmy.
- Child Prodigy: Johnny is a super-smart boy and has his own secret lab.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference:
- Johnny's design is completely different from Jimmy's. He has short hair, a huge forehead, darker skin, and a different shaped head.
- Johnny's hair changed between the original short and the 1997 version.
- In Medias Res: The 1998 short gives no reason for why Johnny is being attacked by aliens. It was designed to be attention-grabbing so that the short would be made into a full series.
- My Brain Is Big: Due to being a genius with a large brain, Johnny has a huge head.
- No Fourth Wall: Johnny directly addresses the audience.
- Parental Obliviousness: The 1998 short begins with Johnny's father telling his wife that Johnny will be home soon and that he can't be that far from home. As this occurs, Johnny is heading into space on his homemade spacecraft.
- Robot Dog: Goddard is Johnny's robotic dog that he built.
