Animated Atrocities: The Trouble with Clones

Show: The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius
Episode: 54
Year: 2006

Writer(s): Gene Grillo
Director(s): Mike Gasaway

Wow, this episode has so many problems I don’t know where to begin. I guess I'll start with Cindy and Libby's play, granted they may have been bullshitting to piss off Jimmy, but even he should know Leonardo da Vinci wasn't an inventor at the age of 11. He's smart, but I don't think he's that smart. Also, maybe it isn't a good idea to shut yourself out from your friends and life just to beat a fake invention record. You really haven't learned from your last clone excursion, have you, Jim-Jam? The worst part of him wanting his evil clones assistance in becoming a shut in is that he plans to "de-evilize" him. Uh, Jimbo? Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't SUPERVILLAINS usually use morality changing on people? This was a big problem with the MLP: Friendship Is Magic episode “Keep Calm and Flutter On” as well: Twilight planned to use a "reforming spell" on Discord if Fluttershy failed; fortunately, she never got the chance to, since Discord ate the spells. By the by, Jimmy's "de-evilizing" formula includes moisturizer and lemon scent. I thought you wanted to make the clone good, not make him SMELL GOOD, there's a big difference! Also, it's a washing machine.


Fortunately, (I think) Evil Jimmy removes the "de-evilizing" formula from the mixture and tricks Jimmy thinking he's reformed. And honestly, him hypnotizing Jimmy's friends and family is the highlight of this episode, although he's still annoying as ever, like an evil Bubsy. He's also smart enough to clog Jimmy's rocket with watermelon so he can't chase him down. Jimmy had invented a camera that can duplicate matter, thus making the old method of cloning obsolete. Unfortunately, the original copies fade into oblivion due to their electromagnetic fields being disrupted. Yeah, you can see where this is going, Evil Jimmy steals the camera and clones the Earth, somehow making it evil as well, and Jimmy only has 90 minutes before the world fades out of existence. He uses a magnetic doohickey to temporarily solidify the rocket–wait, stop. Shouldn't the magnet itself also be fading as well? And fading objects have stuff pass through them, even other fading objects. Yep, it's an ass pull.


The evil Earth itself is nothing special: it's just dark and everyone on it is evil. Carl is a bully; Sheen worships Robo-Fiend (which is weird because he's still wearing an Ultra-Lord T-Shirt even though he's an evil clone); and Jimmy's parents are complete monsters. By the by, Jimmy's logic of having his evil parents protect him from an angry mob makes no sense. These ain't your parents, they're clones; at best, they're your nephews since they're from your evil clone, I don’t know, it's really fucking confusing. Also, somehow Evil Jimmy made the Earth evil by installing a dark matter power chip. I'm no scientist, so somebody please help me out. But I don't think dark matter or antimatter makes things evil; I think it makes them combust. Also, I don't think dark matter can be contained since it's basically a black hole (again, I'm no scientist).


I wouldn't normally rant on logical issues unless they're really severe and within the show itself since its a cartoon, but Jimmy Neutron is supposed to be a science fiction series. SCIENCE is in the name; fiction or not, I expect the staff to at least try to do some research. By contrast, Futurama, one of the most popular sci-fi cartoons ever made, is able to use its fictional science with real science very well; many of the writers on that show have PHDs in various fields! One of the biggest problems with bad Jimmy Neutron episodes is purely logic, and not just science but basic facts. For example: in "Stranded", Jimmy and Cindy argue whether the equator can be seen from space which any grade schooler knows it's an imaginary point of reference; then at the end, they argue whether Australia is a real continent, with Jimmy saying IT'S NOT.* And then there's everything with "Sorry, Wrong Era" which will be a future review. I don't expect this cartoon to be educational, but I expect it to get its facts correct at least, or try to anyways. Blah, blah, blah, Jimmy saves the day and the clone vows vengeance from within a black hole. The show ended before that could happen. So moot point.


* Though, as  recently pointed that out for me, Australia by itself is technically not a continent. The continent in question is Australasia (Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighboring islands in the Pacific Ocean). So that probably explains Jimmy’s argument.

Cringe-Inducing Audio: 5
Cringe-Inducing Visuals: 2
Lackluster Writing: 4
Annoyance: 3
Disturbing Content: 5
Unnecessary Cruelty: 0
Rancid Morals: 0
Low Production Values: 0
Unfortunate Implications: 7
Character Derailment: 2

Final Score: 28/100

The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius is owned by Nickelodeon and Viacom.

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