Robert Rodriguez to direct Jonny Quest movie, Variety says

Race Bannon about to rescue Jonny Quest

Robert Rodriguez will direct and co-write a live-action Jonny Quest movie, VARIETY REPORTED.

Here’s an excerpt:

Rodriguez has made a name for himself for his violent action pics, but his most successful films to date have been the family-friendly “Spy Kids” movies. That franchise comes from the same mold as “Jonny Quest,” making him seem like the perfect fit for the adaptation.

There are have been three versions of the cartoon, but the most popular among fans is the original, The Adventures of Jonny Quest. That consisted of 26 episodes that aired in prime-time on ABC during the 1964-65 season. Jonny Quest was the only son of important scientist Benton Quest. As a result, U.S. intelligent agent Race Bannon was assigned as combination tutor and bodyguard.

The cartoon was created by cartoonist Doug Wildey for producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. It was Hanna-Barbera’s answer to James Bond and development began after Barbera saw Dr. No. Hanna-Barbera initially intended to adapt the radio program Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy, but went with original characters instead. The Hanna-Barbera cartoon brand was later absorbed by Warner Bros.’s animation unit.

UPDATE (8 p.m.): If you want to check them out, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER and DEADLINE: HOLLYWOOD have stories on this subject.

Jonny Quest’s 50th: espionage gets animated

Race Bannon about to rescue Jonny Quest

A half-century ago, one piece of spy-related entertainment involved a villain planning to use a laser beam to shoot down a U.S. rocket being launched to go to the moon.

A mix of Dr. No and Goldfinger? Sort of. It was the debut of The Adventures of Jonny Quest, later shortened to just Jonny Quest.

The Hanna-Barbera cartoon debuted on Sept. 18, 1964, with The Mystery of the Lizard Men on ABC’s prime-time schedule.

The series chronicled the adventures of Jonny, only son of key American scientist Benton Quest. The importance of Dr. Quest, a widower, was such that U.S. intelligence operative assigned agent Roger “Race” Bannon as bodyguard and tutor.

According to AN ONLINE DOCUMENTARY, the project originated when producer Joseph Barbera saw Dr. No, the first James Bond film. Barbera knew it was a genre he and partner William Hanna had to develop a cartoon for.

The producers initially thought they could revive the radio series Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy. A test cartoon was made and, the Quest documentary states, part of it was incorporated into the start of Jonny Quest’s end titles.

Hanna and Barbera soon dropped that idea and opted to develop their own characters. They enlisted cartoonist Doug Wildey, who ended up doing much of the heavy lifting of devising characters. Much of the finished product was Wildey’s. One major exception, according to the documentary, was Jonny’s pet dog, Bandit. Wildey wanted a more exotic pet while Bandit ended up an obvious cartoon dog.

In the opener, ships are being destroyed in the Sargasso Sea by mysterious means. Thus, Benton Quest is called in to investigate with his son and Bannon in tow. Soon after, Jonny, Race and Bandit are soon in peril and stumble upon the conspiracy by an unnamed foreign power headed by an unnamed villain.

The story — written by Wildey, Hanna, Barbera and Alex Lovy — reflected its Bondian influences. The plot’s McGuffin resembles Dr. No. The villain’s main gadget, a laser gun, was part of Goldfinger, which was debuting in the U.K. at the same time (and wouldn’t reach the U.S. until December).

Quest was different than previous H-B productions. Characters (with the exception of Bandit) were drawn realistically, including shadowing.

The series was helped significantly by composer Hoyt Curtin, especially the debut episode. According to the Quest documentary, Curtin wrote the signature theme in such a way that trombone players couldn’t actually play it correctly. It was Curtin’s way of getting back at the musicians who playfully complained that the composer’s music was too easy to perform.

The credits on Jonny Quest downplayed the significance of Wildey and Curtin. Wildey wasn’t created as the show’s creator. On some episodes, he was listed as “supervising art director,” in others it was stated the show was “based on ideas created by” Wildey. Curtin was credited for “musical direction.” Meanwhile Hanna and Barbera got a “produced and directed by” credit in larger type for each episode.

Quest wasn’t a big hit. It ran only season in prime time. It would later be rerun on Saturday mornings. In the 1980s and ’90s, there would be Quest cartoon revivals. But it was never the same.

In the 2000s, there was a DVD release of that first season. But there were changes. Some politically incorrect lines were taken out. Also, the end titles from two episodes were used over and over. The writing credits for each episode were in the end titles. As a result, the viewer doesn’t really know who penned the episodes.

In any case, for people of a certain age, Jonny Quest still resonates, especially Curtin’s theme. Quest’s golden anniversary, understandably, will be overlooked because of the 50th anniversary of Goldfinger. Still, for some, will look back at the series with great fondness.

1964: ABC promotes the debut of Jonny Quest

A half-century ago, U.S. television networks would air extended promos for their upcoming program offerings. So it was for upstart ABC (which was once part of NBC until U.S. regulators began to apply pressure).

ABC aired a program-length promo for its 1964-65 lineup. For Friday night, the promo included an extended promo for the upcoming debut of The Adventures of Jonny Quest. The show originated when Joseph Barbera, the “Barbera” half of Hanna-Barbera, saw an early print of Dr. No. The promo doesn’t exactly match up to the series debut (the Hoyt Curtin music doesn’t match the same scenes of the premier episode), but it’s interesting to watch (it begins at the 0:35 mark of this video):

UPDATE: Joseph Barbera, in an interview for the Archive of American Television, discusses the origins of Jonny Quest:

1967: Tom and Jerry exploit the spy craze

In the 1960s, it seemed like everybody wanted to exploit the spy craze — even Tom and Jerry.

The cartoon cat and mouse made their debut in a 1940 MGM theatrical cartoon, Puss Gets the Boot. The featurette marked the first collaboration of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and the duo would concentrate their efforts on Tom and Jerry for the next 15 years, until they took over control of MGM’s cartoon department at the end of 1955. They still directed Tom and Jerry shorts until MGM shut down the department in 1957. MGM later thought better of the move and hired contractors to do cartoons but Hanna and Babera moved on, starting their own company in 1957 to make cartoons for television.

MGM ended up hiring acclaimed cartoon director Chuck Jones to do a new series of Tom and Jerry shorts in the 1960s. By tht time, spies were a big deal in movies. So Jones & Co. in 1967 made The Mouse From H.U.N.G.E.R., a takeoff on MGM’s The Man From U.N.C.L.E. television series in which agent Jerry-akin tries to steal a refrigerator full of cheese from villain Tom Thrush.

Here it is. For this cartoon, Jones was producer only, leaving the directing chores to Abe Levitow.

James Bond’s influence on Jonny Quest

We came across an excellent documentary on The Adventures of Jonny Quest, the Hanna-Barbera prime time cartoon that debuted in September 1964. There’s a lot of fascinating behind-the-scenes information, including some James Bond ties to the series.

Producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera hired cartoonist Doug Wildey to spearhead the project. It was originally intended to be an adaptation of the radio show Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy but that was scrapped for an original series. One notion behind the show involved Barbera’s happening to view a certain gentleman agent with a license to kill, as evidenced in this clip starting around the 23-second mark:

The title character of Jonny Quest was the young son of a scientist cosntantly in peril. The show’s Bond surrogate was Roger T. “Race” Bannon, a U.S. agent assigned to protect the Quests. Here’s Race’s origins:

To see the entire documentary, you can CLICK HERE and get instructions how to download it. You can also CLICK OUT THIS BLOG for more Jonny Quest information, art and commentary.

You can also see the entire documentary on YouTube, where it’s divided into 27 parts. Here’s part one, and you should be able to navigate to the others. Again, it’s excellent and takes a critical look at events where it’s warranted:

1966: Fred Flintstone’s entry in the spy craze

By 1966, everyone wanted to get a piece of the spy craze and cartoon producers/directors William Hanna and Joseph Barbera were no different. So H-B did a movie featuring The Flintstones becoming involved in a spy adventure. And in 1966, there wasn’t going to be a new James Bond movies so it was a good a time as any.

Here’s the start of the movie, released by Columbia Pictures (and with Wilma Flintstone subbing for the “Columbia Torch Lady”), with the voices of the original Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble, Alan Reed and Mel Blanc, not to mention the grand dame of cartoon voices, June Foray, and Harvey Korman.