In the fictional town of Retroville, a 10-year-old boy named Jimmy Neutron is responding to a message from Space. His close friend, Carl, is also in the rocket with him.

When Jimmy comes back home, he gets in trouble with his mom for launching himself off the house roof and talking to strangers. Then he gets ready for school using his inventions.

Unfortunately, the bus leaves right when Jimmy comes out. So, he creates a bubble that bounces on the street, hoping that he’ll get to school on time.

While at school, Jimmy discovers the opening of the new amusement park, Retroland. However, it’ll be opening on Thursday, which is a school night. Yet Jimmy comes up with ways to convince his parents to let him go to Retroland when it opens.

After he asks his mom, though, she says that he cannot go because it’s a school night. So, Jimmy decides to sneak out of the house using his shrink ray.

He meets Carl and his other friend, Sheen, at Retroland. They have lots of fun.

At some point. Jimmy and his friends discuss the idea of not having their parents around. That way, they could be free and do whatever they want.

Meanwhile, some aliens from outer space, called Yolkians, kidnap the adults in Retroville. They have plans for them.

The next day, Jimmy wakes up to find his parents missing. The same thing occurs with the other kids in town. They all get excited and celebrate by doing insane things.

Unfortunately, the next day, the children are miserable because they realize how much they miss and need their parents. Jimmy finds out that the adults were abducted by aliens. The kids decide that they need to get their parents back.

They all go to Retroland to prepare the rides for space travel. Once that’s completed, they go into outer space to find the aliens that took their parents away.

However, when they arrive at that planet, the parents are all wearing mind-controlling helmets. If that’s not bad enough, Jimmy gets arrested and locked up.

I enjoyed this movie ever since I first saw it in the theater at age 8. The world building is creative and the characters are fun and well-developed.

I admire how Jimmy uses inventions to solve his problems. I also love how much he knows about science. Some little scientific facts are even shared during this film. For example, human and monkey DNA differ only by 2 percent.

Carl and Sheen are also likeable, aside from Jimmy. I enjoyed getting impatient with the girls, Cindy and Libby. They weren’t always very nice to Jimmy. But I appreciated the amount of teamwork the kids put in together to rescue their parents.

And let’s not forget Goddard, Jimmy’s robot dog. He was loyal and there for Jimmy as much as possible.

One part that I found both hilarious and creative was how the Yolkians made the parents do the “Chicken Dance” right before their chicken god, Poultra, hatched. The aliens were fun to hate—especially when the king ate his pet. I will admit that that was gross and a bit too much for a kid-friendly movie.

But everything else about this film was great. The humor was strong, the pacing was quick, and the plot was easy to follow.

Many of you probably know that the was a TV show on Nickelodeon following this movie called The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. It aired in the 2000s and followed Jimmy’s life after the events of the movie.

Anyway, this movie was fun in every way. I have rewatched it several times. If you have kids, I think they would enjoy this film, too.

I give Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius 5 out of 5 stars.