Product Details

• Actors: Tim Matheson, Don Messick, Mike Rhode, Danny Bravo
• Directors: Paul Sommer
• Producers: William Hanna, Joseph Barbera, Charles Nichols
• Format: Animated, Closed-captioned, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed: Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 4
• Rated: G (General Audience)
• Studio: American Broadcasting Company (ABC)
• DVD Release Date: May 11, 2004
• Run Time: 659 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (261 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0001MZ7J6
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,627 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Jonny Quest - The Complete First Season" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Baby boomers of a certain age, and anyone fond of classic Hanna Barbera cartoons, might find the 40-year-old episodes in Jonny Quest: The Complete First Season an exciting blast from the past. Five years before Hanna Barbera made a comedy about amateur youths solving exotic mysteries in Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, the animation giant captured a more serious spirit from a different era in Jonny Quest. The series played on primetime television--a very big deal for animation at the time--in 1964, and was infused with energy from sundry pop trends as well as cold war paranoia and a prevailing belief in limitless technology (largely inspired by America's race to the moon). Part intelligence thriller, part science fiction, Jonny Quest made a child's adventure out of thwarting international espionage and sabotage with super-computers, state-of-the-art transportation to every corner of the planet, an apparently bottomless budget for building fantastic weapons, martial arts, and more. The fact that schoolboy Jonny, as well as his best friend, Hadji, and canine companion Bandit, were having adventures akin to those of James Bond was terribly exciting.

Young Jonny (voiced by actor Tim Matheson, later a co-star of Animal House and The West Wing) is the motherless son of government scientist Dr. Benton Quest. The latter conducts all manner of research from a remote island, where he lives with Jonny, Hadji, Bandit, and chief assistant Race Bannon, a rugged fellow who tutors Jonny but also provides muscle when the group is on assignment anywhere from the Arctic to Calcutta. The original 26 episodes (on four discs) find the team battling conspirators amidst half-sunken pirate ships in the Sargasso Sea (in the pilot, "Mystery of the Lizard Men," sans Hadji), working undercover to stop a Jahilipur manufacturer of fake gold ("Riddle of the Gold"), and foiling an effort to steal an experimental, "mind-numbing" drug (and passing off a Race look-alike as the real McCoy) in "Double Danger." (The last introduces Race's hottie girlfriend, Jezebel Jade.) The slow, deliberate animation (even more stiff than Scooby) can get a little wearing, but the uniqueness of Jonny Quest as a genuine adventure-drama makes this collection a must. --Tom Keogh

Product Description

Unlike the outrageous fantasy plots of cartoons that preceded it, "Jonny Quest" drew on science and detective-style logic to solve mysteries and apprehend sophisticated villains. Viewers were transported to exotic locales as Jonny's dad Dr. Benton Quest tackled each new government assignment, aided by ex-agent "Race" Bannon, the Indian boy Hadji, family bulldog Bandit...and of course, his fearless 11-year-old son Jonny (voiced by actor Tim Matheson). Now all 26 classic episodes from Year One charting the fantastic exploits of brave and brainy Jonathan Quest are available for the first time ever, digitally re-mastered on DVD in a deluxe four-disc collectors set, featuring over 11 hours of classic original TV programming and newly-added enhanced content.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

454 of 463 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars REMASTERED means REVISED Jonny Quest DVD Box Set June 21, 2004

By Ron Comes

Format:DVD

When the JONNY QUEST DVD Box Set was finally released I was one of the first to buy it. The wait for these fantastic episodes was finally over. And what a long wait its been! What a shame it is then that the "politically correct" people at Warner Brothers found it their duty to EDIT, that's right, EDIT these classic cartoons! A typical EDIT from DISC ONE "Pursuit of the Po-Ho" A purple Race Bannon confronts the Po-Hos who have Dr. Quest held hostage with,"All right you ignorant savages, get a load of Aquizio you heathen monkeys!" The "REMASTERED" version is a watered down, "Get a load of Aquizio!" All the while Race's mouth is moving but no words come out! At least no words that some idiots at Warners find offensive. Who are they and how dare they think they can just EDIT someone elses work! What's even more outrageous is that for some reason they don't have a problem showing the UN-EDITED versions on their own CARTOON NETWORK! Get it together guys and RE-ISSUE the Jonny Quest Box Set UNTOUCHED, UN-EDITED, and truly REMASTERED as your packaging states! And the next time you think its "your job" to EDIT a classic cartoon, DON"T! Thank GOD your EDIT MONKEY kept his stinking paws off the LOONEY TUNES Box Set!

229 of 241 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars A Hacked, quicky transfer October 22, 2005

By Bryan

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

When I found out that all 26 episodes of the classic Jonny Quest were released on DVD I was stunned. I felt that finally the HB execs are getting it together and recognizing the good stuff. After watching the first two episodes I realized I had been DUPED! Editing dialogue to be PC, using the same ending credits for all episodes and no credit for Doug Wildey. A (...)release of the best classic prime-time animation of the 1960's.

After I finish watching all the episodes, I'm donating the DVD's to my local public library. I know better now to read the reviews before buying. I think Warner Brothers and Hana-Barbera owe all of us an explanation for this hack-job. WHY DID THEY HAVE TO DICK WITH IT?

When I pay for DVD's, I expect the real deal without edits and deception. I can only hope that they fix it with another release with everything intact except the insert commercials. And you can bet they know that we will buy it again. Greedy, corporate pigs!

(...)

67 of 69 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Adventures For Boys June 1, 2004

By Tim Brough TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

I was four years old when this was on Television, yet I remember several episodes plain as day. That was how exciting I found young Jonny Quest to be and how enveloping the inventions and science fiction to be, even as a preschooler. I also remember being excitedly scared by some of the more fantastic elements of the show...like "Turu the Terrible" and "The Invisible Monster!" This was the kind of stuff an eventual reader of Hardy Boys, Tom Swift and Danny Dunn books craved before books began to seep into my life. Now that these DVD's have been issued, it's a safe bet to say they will have a permanent space on my DVD shelf.

So why not a perfect 5 stars? We'll get to that. First the plusses. These were, more than anything else, adventures for boys. Jonny and Hadji were always there when the brilliant Dr. Benton Quest got a call to rush from Quest Laboratories in the Florida Keys to some far off country, travelling on the most recent invention. Lasers and Space Flight were frequent resources for story lines, and as a 4 year old want-to-be astronaut, it made it seem like anything was possible. Of course, this was the era of cold war politics, so the villains were often foreign guys with creepy accents. (Think Dr. Zin.) One of the frequent reasonings for Dr. Quest to have to go out on one of his missions was to make sure that these innovations didn't fall "Into the wrong hands."

But it also meant that Jonny (and, by proxy, I) were able to visit Tibet, the Arctic Circle, South American rain forests and other exotic (and real!!) locales before I even entered school. Looking at these 40 year old episodes anew, it's amazing that Jonny looks like he could be drawn today; an inquisitive eleven year old in black shirt, blue jeans and sneakers, he could be from anywhere USA even now. And who wouldn't want to have an extended family with a cool an adoptive brother as Hadji (one of animation's -- or, for that matter, all of prime time's -- minority main characters), a tutor as devoted as teacher/bodygaurd Race Bannon or a dad as equal parts brilliant to understanding as Dr. Quest? Add that the animation was far more real looking than the club footed dopiness of "The Flintstones" or the animals acting like people of "Top Cat," (Bandit never suddenly started to ask for treats...) etc, and the world of Jonny Quest was something that we all could slip in to.

In the pre PC world, Jonny could react exactly as a kid could when first confronted by an inquisitive girl (in "The Dreadful Doll"). No matter how you slice it, a kid his age would be flustered and annoyed by a female his age making inquiries. By the time the "New Adventures" came out, Jonny had to have a female foil, and my response was just what Jonny's would have been had he been a typical (read: real) 11 years old..."Ick!" And can you imagine a show today with a broad base of young watchers where the Father character smokes? (Dr. Quest enjoys a pipe in one of the episodes.)

Which leads to my short list of minuses. Coloration throughout the set is really good, but sometimes oversaturated, and in "The Werewolf of the Timberland," White Feather's skin is in two different colors! Also of dubious note, what happened to Doug Wildey's credit? It seems to only show up during "Double Danger," otherwise I seem to get the impression that the end credits were remastered from one episode then taped onto the end of all the episodes for DVD transfer.

And the worst offense...what heathen monkey was responsible for editing the dialog out of "Pursuit Of The PoHo"? Is this from the same brain trust that wiped out explosions and gunfire from classic Warner Brother cartoons and then blacklisting Speedy Gonzales for being stereotypical? If I emerged unscathed from that kind of language as a 4 year old, why am I expected to be offended by it now? If that was the root case, why not edit out the smoking, the shooting, the animal cruelty and the really obvious stereotypes from the Cold War era? It's enough to make me want to wave my hands while muttering "Sim Sim sala Bim" and to thusly wipe all of you ignorant savages of the face of the Cartoon Network.

OK, end of rant.

Those are all just me carping. If you were at all enthralled by "Jonny Quest" in 1964 or its countless repeats on Saturday Mornings, you need to have this. As soon as the exquisitely James Bond-ish musical theme comes up (Hoyt Curtain's music for this series was light years beyond most TV shows, and even today's), you'll be back in your PF Flyers and ready for more adventures for boys.