The Adventures of Johnny Quasar (found prototype "Jimmy Neutron" animated shorts; 1995-1997)

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Jntrn b.gif

The first screenshot showing Johnny Quasar.

Status: Partially lost

Johnny Quasar, also known as The Adventures of Johnny Quasar is a 40 second demo that is a precursor for Jimmy Neutron. It was created sometime in 1994-95 by John Davis and his partner Keith Alcorn, based on an idea Davis had in mind since the 1980s. The demo was first shown publicly at the 1995 SIGGRAPH conference, and won two Wavey Awards there- Best in Character Animation and Best in Show.

Impressed with the demo, Steve Oedekerk promptly partnered with DNA Productions and helped with the production of a new, 13 minute pilot to pitch to Nickelodeon. The new pilot (titled Runaway Rocketboy) was apparently based loosely on the original demo, and it marked the first appearance of Jimmy Neutron. Apparently, his name was changed to avoid parallels being drawn to other popular characters Jonny Quest and Captain Quasar.

Current status and search

Despite how notable it was at the time, only the first 11 seconds of the 40 second demo have surfaced to this day, and what has surfaced is in very poor quality. The first 3 seconds lack original audio, and were found on a 1994 VHS demo reel for LightWave 3D. The following 8 second clip came from the old DNA Productions website, from sometime after 1995.

In addition, several poor quality stills featuring Johnny Quasar were also on the old DNA website. They are often presumed to be part of the original demo animation but it is still unknown if that is actually true. It's worth noting that the assumption isn't entirely unjustified; the plot of the later pilot Runaway Rocketboy was supposedly based on this demo loosely and has many of the same settings and concepts shown in the stills.

Somewhat recently, several magazine articles have been discovered talking about this animation to varying degrees of detail, sometimes accompanied by images from the demo, scans are avaliable below.

For a time, it was thought the media might've been on a rare CD-ROM from the 1995 SIGGRAPH conference, but it has since come out that this is- in fact, false. (It was confirmed by redditor /u/siliconclassics)

Fortunately, Youtube User LSuperSonicQ has apparently made contact with co-creator Keith Alcorn, who talked to Davis briefly about the demo, and found that he believes it is in a particular large file storage area. Alcorn also said that he'll look in when he has the chance, so there may be hope yet of the full demo surfacing, someday.

Footage, stills, and artwork

3 seconds of footage at 1:10 (without the original audio.)

8 seconds of footage following the 3 second clip.(with the original audio.)

Magazine and booklet scans

Scans courtesy of computerarchive.org and redditor /u/siliconclassics.