TheLittleSongbird I have made no secret of loving Hanna-Barbera, Scooby Doo Where Are You?, The Flintstones and Tom and Jerry are three of my all-time favourite shows, animated or non-animated. Jonny Quest is among their best, it is such a great show, cool and original and definitely a must watch.The animation may be dated by today's standards, but I think the drawings, character designs, backgrounds and colours are still very good and attractive. The music is one of the show's coolest assets, I love how funky it is, while the writing is intelligent with some very strong humour and the story lines are original and fun. And I love the characters, Jonny is a wonderful protagonist and you can't help but love Bandit. The best though is Race Bannon who is so strong, suave and sexy, I have to agree with anyone who says any small boy would want to grow up to be like him.Overall, wonderful and a must for animation or Hanna-Barbera fans! 10/10 Bathany Cox

DAW-8 Jonny Quest reflects mid-60s adventure kid entertainment at its finest. He goes around the world with his research-scientist dad, always to exotic locales ranging from Egypt to the Amazon, to Africa, to fictitious remote islands. To catch the bad guys standing in their way, Jonny, Dr. Quest, Jonny's buddy Hadji, Race, and Bandit travel through air, land, and sea using all kinds of James Bond-esquire gadgets--special scuba gear, rocket packs, etc.But another fascinating aspect of JQ is its reflection of the culture of its time. Particularly the depiction of racial and ethnic characters. The high quality animation really shows the detail to which the animators/creators went to try and depict authentic natives--from grass skirts to specifically drawn body and face paintings. At the same time, most of the natives in JQ are almost all villains and stereotypically represented: evil-intentioned voodoo kings, despotic village headmen, blow dart shooting thugs, savages ready to fight. Their ambiguous origins can't help but make you wonder where the creators came up with them. Most of them do have specific referents, probably somewhere in eastern South America or the Amazon, but needless to say being specific about that is not important to the show itself.And it's not only non-whites that are interestingly depicted in JQ. There are a host of other characters--Frenchmen living in what we might suppose are the French Antilles; Portuguese sailors who have been living at sea their whole lives, Ex-patriates who have been corrupted or live hermit-like existences in faraway places. JQ reflects the typical colonial ethnoscape of these parts of the world that most films and TV never do, either for fear of complexity and alienating the audience, or because they themselves are unfamiliar with them. Probably the only other major series that does so would be James Bond films with their international, exotic mix of nationalities and characters.Another cultural element of the time that sneaks into JQ is the Cold War. Either Dr. Quest works for the US government, or he is "doing research" for some or another scientific program. In one episode, he is trying to get a rare metal which is essential to the space program. Could it be more obvious? Of course, there are is the standard violence of that time period--against both animals and humans--that came to be criticized after the 60s. In one episode, Jonny and the rest of the gang when on a boat are threatened by crocodiles in the water, so they each grab a rifle and start killing them off. The scene lasts about 10 seconds, where they are just killing crocodiles. And of course, nothing is thought of beating an evil native over the head with a wood plank, killing a bad guy with an oxygen tank, and other quick ways to get the bad guys out of the way. All in all, Jonny Quest represents a really interesting historical moment, the mid-1960s, when racial and ethnic stereotypes still went unquestioned, internationalism was in, the cold war was raging, and kids all over America and even the world were tuning in for the most sacred time slot of a pre-teen: Saturday morning.

jfgnford Yessir, this was one of my favorite cartoons 40 years ago,and I could still watch it today. I believe my 4 yr. old daughter might even watch it. It was about as realistic as a cartoon could get. One of Hanna-Barbera's best. I've seen previews of an updated Jonny Quest, but somehow I don't think it would interest me like the original.Back in 1982 my wife and I took a first anniversary trip to Big Meadows Lodge on Skyline Drive in Virginia's Shenandoah Nat. Park. When we went to the lounge we saw on the sign that the featured singer was a lady named Debbie Zinn. We both looked at each other and immediately knew where we'd heard her last name before:The Evil Dr. Zin!! Yep, both of us remembered Jonny Quest's arch enemy. My wife had watched the show when she was growing up too. Funny how that popped up.I am not a huge fan of many of the action cartoons today, but you mention an old one like Jonny Quest and I'm in that conversation.

Brian Washington This is one of my favorite animated series. I loved the fact that this went to exotic locations and all the wild villains they fought. This also was one of the first cartoon series that featured lots of action and even was fairly violent for its time. No wonder this was originally shown in prime time. Too bad the reruns aren't shown on Cartoon Network anymore. This show is truly a classic.