| Jonny Quest | |
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| Created by | Doug Wildey |
| Owners | Hanna-Barbera (Warner Bros.) |
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| Comics | 1 ongoing, several one-shots and limited series |
| Films and television | |
| Television series |
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| Television film(s) |
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| Direct-to-video | Tom and Jerry: Spy Quest (Tom and Jerry crossover, 2015) |
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Jonny Quest is ascience fiction–adventuremedia franchise created byDoug Wildey forHanna-Barbera. It follows the character Jonny Quest, a young boy who joins his scientist father on various extraordinary adventures. The franchise started with a1964–65 television series of the same name, and has come to include two sequel television series, two television films and three video games. It is currently owned byWarner Bros. after Hanna-Barbera was absorbed byWarner Bros. Animation and succeeded byCartoon Network Studios.
Jonny Quest, also known asThe Adventures of Jonny Quest, is the original American science fiction/adventure animated television series that started the franchise. It was produced byHanna-Barbera Productions forScreen Gems. It was created and designed bycomic-book artistDoug Wildey. Inspired byradio serials and comics in the action-adventure genre, includingDoc Savage,Tom Swift,The Adventures of Tintin andJack Armstrong, the All-American Boy, the series featured more realistic art, characters, and stories than Hanna-Barbera's previouscartoon programs. This show closely parallels the juvenileRick Brant series. It was the first of several Hanna-Barbera action-based adventure shows, which would later includeSpace Ghost,The Herculoids, andBirdman and the Galaxy Trio, and ran onABC in primetime on early Friday nights for one season from 1964 to 1965.[citation needed]
Hanna-Barbera released an LP titledJonny Quest in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in 1965. It is a 29-minute radioplay with Dr. Quest, Race Bannon and Jonny, in aJules Verne-inspired sea adventure.[1]
After two decades in reruns, during which it appeared on all three major United States television networks of the time, new episodes were produced for syndication in 1986. Subsequently,telefilms, a comic-book series, and a modernized revival series,The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, were produced in the 1990s.
Thirteen episodes were produced in 1986 (some sources state 1987) to accompany the originals in theFuntastic World programming block. These episodes were referred to simply asJonny Quest in their opening title sequence, and were noticeably less violent and more "kid-friendly" than the 1960s originals, and introduced the new regular character Hardrock, (also called the Monolith Man), a living being made of stone. Hardrock would not return in any later versions of the program.
Jonny's Golden Quest, a feature-lengthtelevision movie was produced by Hanna-Barbera forUSA Network in 1993, again pitting the Quest team against Dr. Zin, who in the film murders Jonny's mother.Jonny's Golden Quest reused the storyline of the recent series' episode "Deadly Junket", in which a little girl named Jessie Bradshaw, the daughter of a missing scientist, asked the Quest party to help find her father. Here she is revealed to be lying about her parentage at Dr. Zin's behest, and to Race's surprise is actually his and Jade's daughter. Jessie would appear as a character in all subsequent versions of theJonny Quest property. A second telefilm,Jonny Quest versus The Cyber Insects, was produced forTNT in 1995, and was promoted as being the final iteration of the "ClassicJonny Quest".[citation needed]
All three of these productions featured the voices ofDon Messick andGranville Van Dusen as Dr. Quest and Race Bannon, respectively. Messick also reprised performing the "voice" of Bandit in the series, but the features had this done byFrank Welker.
The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest premiered on all three majorTurner Broadcasting System entertainment cable channels (Cartoon Network,TBS, andTNT). This Quest redux returned in the late 1990s onCartoon Network, as part of the originalToonami rotation when the block launched on March 17, 1997, and aired consistently on Toonami until September 24, 1999. It then continued to air sporadically until December 14, 2002. Almost seven years later (February 17, 2009), the first thirteen episodes of "season one" became available on DVD. Characters Jonny, Hadji, and Jessie are now older teenagers, and Dr. Quest's compound has moved from TK[clarification needed] to a rocky island off the coast of Maine.
Rumors of a problem-laden production surrounded this series since 1992. When finally broadcast, it featured two different versions of its own Quest-ian universe: the first batch of episodes (referred to as the "season one" episodes) gave the team a futuristic look; while the second batch (referred to as "season two") harkened to original episodes from the 1960s. Several "season one" - and a few "season two" - adventures in this series took place in a cyberspace realm known as "Questworld", depicted using3-Dcomputer animation. Both "seasons" aired during the same 1996–1997 television season. The show was canceled after 52 episodes (26 of each season), and plans for a live-action movie (to debut following the series premiere) never materialized.[2]
Dr. Zin never appeared or was mentioned in Season 1, the series instead focusing on new recurring villains Jeremiah Surd and Ezekiel Rage mostly. However, the creators felt this series failed to capture enough of the spirit of the original, so they brought Zin back[3] (second-season, episode "Nemesis"), revealing himself very much alive to Quest, as he holds a NASA station hostage amid the launching of a new satellite.
In the late 80s following his work onThe Gate,Michael Nankin was hired to write a script for a big budget adaptation ofJonny Quest.[4]
In the early 1990s, Turner planned a "Year ofJonny Quest" marketing campaign to feature a new television series, the release of classic episodes on VHS, the creation of two new animated movies in classic continuity (Jonny's Golden Quest andJonny Quest versus The Cyber Insects), and the production of a live-action film.[5][6][7] DirectorRichard Donner, producerLauren Shuler Donner, andJane Rosenthal optioned the rights for the live action film, having expressed interest in the property soon after Turner's acquisition of Hanna-Barbera.[2][5][8] Slated to begin production in mid-1995 with a screenplay written byFred Dekker, and a screen test trailer video[9] was made as an audition for improving the interest but filming was pushed back to 1996 and ultimately never began.[8] By early 1996, the project had alreadyfallen well-behind development of other films, such as a live-actionJetsons movie.[10]
Zac Efron andDwayne "the Rock" Johnson were reported in 2009 to have been cast as Jonny Quest and Race Bannon in an upcoming live action movie, respectively, according to a Moviehole.com interview with Johnson.[11]
In May 2015, it was announced thatRobert Rodriguez would direct a live-action version from a script co-written by Rodriguez andTerry Rossio.[12] Adrian Askarieh has stated to IGN that the film will beIndiana Jones meetsJames Bond with a PG rating.[13][14][15]
In July 2016, Forbes reported that the film would start a franchise with the script written by Rodriguez and Rossio and with eitherJoe Cornish,Justin Lin orScott Derrickson as director. The film will position Jonny as a "Harry Potter inside an Indiana Jones movie" and specifically set up the potential for spinoffs. The script also took inspiration from a few specific stories and elements in the original 1960s TV show. The site reported that the studio was considering actorsIdris Elba,Bradley Cooper andWill Smith for the role of Race Bannon.[16]
In November 2018, Warner Bros. announced that the movie would be directed byChris McKay.[17] In 2021, McKay said that a script for the film has been turned in, but the studio has yet to given the film the greenlight.[18][19]
AJonny Quest comic book (a retelling of the first TV episode, "Mystery of the Lizard Men") was published byGold Key Comics in 1964.Huckleberry Hound Weekly included originalJonny Quest stories from 1965-1967.[20]
Comico began publication of aJonny Quest series in 1986, with the first issue featuringDoug Wildey's artwork. The series was written byWilliam Messner-Loebs and ran for 31 issues, with 2 specials and 3 "classic" issues drawn by Wildey retellingQuest TV episodes ("Shadow of the Condor", "Calcutta Adventure", and "Werewolf of the Timberland"). Wildey drew several additional covers, as didSteve Rude andDave Stevens. The series also spun off a 3-issue series namedJezebel Jade – drawn byAdam Kubert – which told the story of Jade's relationship and adventures with Race Bannon.
Jonny and the gang (including Dr. Zin) returned to comic book form in May 2015 when they joined the Mystery Machine gang in DC Comics' 10th newsstand edition ofScooby-Doo Team-Up.
In 2016, DC comics announcedFuture Quest, a series featuring Jonny Quest and a variety of other Hanna-Barbera characters.[21] Jonny Quest has a crossover withAdam Strange inAdam Strange/Future Quest Annual #1 on March 29, 2017.[22]
On October 13, 2023, it was announced a newJonny Quest comic fromDynamite Entertainment is in the works.[23] The series released its preview issue on May 4, 2024 forFree Comic Book Day, and it ran for five issues from August 14, 2024 to December 18, 2024. The series received generally positive reviews with an average critic score of 8.8/10 according toComic Book Round Up.[24] A sequel series,Space Ghost / Jonny Quest: Space Quest, crosses over withSpace Ghost and began release on May 7, 2025. It is also receiving generally positive reviews with an average critic score of 8.3/10 as of August 2025.[25]
In 1991, Hi-Tec Software publishedJonny Quest in Doctor Zin's Underworld, a licensedJonny Quest platform game for theZX Spectrum,Amstrad CPC, andCommodore 64 home computers.
In 1993, Hollyware Entertainment publishedJonny Quest: Curse of the Mayan Warriors, a licensed DOS title available only on 3.5" floppy disk. The pre-release title wasJonny Quest and the Splinter of Heaven.
In 1996, Virgin Interactive publishedJonny Quest: Cover-Up at Roswell forWindows 3.1 andWindows 95.
In January 2009, IGN namedJonny Quest as the 77th best in its "Top 100 Animated TV Shows".[26]
Powerglove covered the theme song toThe Real Adventures of Jonny Quest on their albumSaturday Morning Apocalypse.
TheReverend Horton Heat performed a version of theJonny Quest theme music (paired with the tune "Stop That Pigeon") onSaturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits, which is a tribute album of songs from Saturday morning children's television shows and cartoons (mostly) from the 1960s and 1970s, released in 1995 byMCA.[27]
The music group "The Swingtips" recorded a version of the originalJonny Quest series theme for their 2007 albumRoswell.
On June 23, 2015, characters fromJonny Quest starred in a crossover animated direct-to-video film withTom and Jerry entitled,Tom and Jerry: Spy Quest.[28]
The fanzineJonny Quest Adventurezine was published in 1979 by Cornell Kimball.[1]
The characters and setting ofJonny Quest have frequently been the subject of brief parodies, especially in later animated programs, some of which have aired onCartoon Network'sAdult Swim late-night programming block.WarnerMedia owns both Cartoon Network and the rights to the entire Hanna-Barbera library, includingJonny Quest. In addition, there have been several substantial references to the show:
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