Johnny Test
Johnny Test is an animated comedy television series created by Scott Fellows, originally produced in the United States by Warner Bros. Animation and later produced in Canada by Cookie Jar Entertainment. It premiered on Kids' WB on September 17, 2005, which continued to air the series through its second and third seasons. The series aired on Cartoon Network on January 7, 2008, in the United States, and ended its run on December 25, 2014. In Canada, the show premiered on Teletoon on September 3, 2006.
The series revolves around the adventures of the titular character, Johnny Test, an 11-year-old suburban boy who lives with his parents, his "super-genius" 13-year-old twin sisters, Susan and Mary, who are scientists and best friends with each other, and a talking dog named Dukey. They reside in the fictional town of Porkbelly, which is somewhere in the United States. Johnny is often used as a test subject for his genius twin sisters' inventions and experiments, ranging from gadgets to superpowers. Their experiments often cause problems that he must resolve, and he must sometimes fight villains in the process. He occasionally saves the world with his sisters' inventions.
On June 11, 2013, Teletoon announced that the series had been renewed for a seventh season, to consist of 13 episodes and a three-part special. However, the show was cancelled and the planned season was never created; in response to a tweet on June 25, 2015, regarding a seventh season, voice actor James Arnold Taylor stated that there were "no plans for it". In spite of this, WildBrain confirmed that a revival series has been picked up by Netflix for two seasons and a 66-minute interactive special on May 6, 2020. The revival series was released in 2021 with Fellows returning as showrunner and executive producer.
Premise
Crafty 11-year-old Johnny is part of the Test family, consisting of his 13-year-old genius twin sisters, Susan and Mary, and his over-the-top parents. His mother, Lila, is a super busy businesswoman, and his father, Hugh, is an obsessive-compulsive househusband. Hugh's two biggest obsessions are cleaning and cooking meatloaf. Susan and Mary frequently use Johnny as a lab rat for their various experiments and inventions in their laboratory filled with highly advanced technology built over the Tests' household attic. Most of them involve trying to impress their pretty boy-next-door neighbor, Gil, for whom both harbor a deep love and obsession, although their attempts to come up with some way to attract his attention usually fail.Johnny is a mischievous and unpredictable boy who causes many problems. His best friend is his anthropomorphic talking pet dog, Dukey, who Susan and Mary gave human-level intelligence and the ability to speak in an experiment. With Susan, Mary, and Dukey by his side, Johnny can live any kid's dream, only to find that most dreams don't turn out as hoped. Johnny is very hyperactive and often messes with his sisters' inventions, causing trouble and mayhem, but just as often proves himself to be clever, such as frequently tricking his sisters or saving the day from whatever danger happens to show up. He is also stubborn, and like many kids, he doesn't like school; if anything, he will often go to great lengths to avoid any work, often using his sisters' inventions to do so, resulting in himself and others in trouble. Despite this, he shows compassion often and always realizes and tries to fix his mistakes.
One of Johnny's main nemesis is Eugene
Characters
- Johnny Test
- Dukey ; Trevor Devall
- Susan Test
- Mary Test ; Ashleigh Ball
- Hugh Test
- Lila Test
- Gil Nexdor
- Mr. Black
- Mr. White
History
Origin and development
On February 16, 2005, Kids' WB's unveiling of its new fall schedule for the 2005–2006 television season was announced by The WB Television Network, featuring its returning series Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon, The Batman, and Xiaolin Showdown, alongside four new series: Loonatics Unleashed, Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island!, Transformers: Cybertron, and Johnny Test. The aforementioned schedule was announced by The WB/Kids' WB Entertainment President David Janollari, Kids' WB Senior Vice President and General Manager Betsy McGowen, speaking to advertisers and the media press during the Kids' WB upfront sales presentation in New York. Johnny Test was created and executively produced by Scott Fellows, who also created the Nickelodeon live action series Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide and would later create Big Time Rush, and 100 Things to Do Before High School; Fellows had also served as the head writer for The Fairly OddParents. The show premiered on September 17, 2005, on Kids' WB's Saturday morning lineup of its weekly fall schedule, alongside Loonatics Unleashed and Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island!. The episode pair "Johnny to the Center of the Earth" and "Johnny X" marked the series premiere.When the show first aired on Kids' WB, it performed very well in the Nielsen ratings. It ranked as the #1 broadcast program in Boys 2-11, ranked as the #2 broadcast series in Kids 2-11 and Girls 6-11, and ultimately ranking #3 in Kids 6-11. Its second season averaged slightly more viewers in the United States: 2.6 million per episode. Its 3rd season's average number of viewers in the United States was 3.1 million viewers. Its 4th season got an average number of about 4.3 million viewers per episode in the United States. Its 5th premiere attracted over 4.7 million viewers in the United States.
The series was developed for television by Aaron Simpson, with a brief, slightly longer pre-existing pilot short produced by Simpson as well, before the show was picked up as a full series by Kids' WB. Based on Episode 1A "Johnny to the Center of the Earth", the pilot episode was animated roughly in Adobe Flash, but retaining the same plot, used the same color schemes as the aforementioned episode, and was recorded with an American voice cast instead. The original production design was created and provided by Matt Danner and Marc Perry, and later refined by producer Chris Savino and art director Paul Stec at season 1. Fellows, the creator of the series who had interested the network in the series' premise, based the titular character on himself when he was a young boy; he based Johnny's twin sisters, Susan and Mary, on his own two sisters, also named Susan and Mary. In the original pilot and early promotional material of the show, Dukey was referred to as "Poochie".
James Arnold Taylor said that he was not Fellows' original choice for the role of Johnny Test; he had previously voiced the lead character in the initial test pilot. After the show got picked up by Kids' WB! as a series, he was initially going to be replaced by a different voice actor, with a Canadian voice cast instead, but the studio had trouble finding Johnny's initial voice convincing for the first six episodes, so they gave Taylor back the role to redub his dialog for the rest of the first season and managed to keep him on the cast for the rest of the series. Aaron Simpson, who had developed the series and produced the pilot, was the creator and executive producer's first choice to serve as the producer of the show before he turned it down.
Production
The remainder of the first season was produced in-house by Warner Bros. Animation, but since the show was a U.S./Canada co-production, some of the animation production work was outsourced to Canadian animation studios Studio B Productions and Top Draw Animation, as well as South Korean animation production company Digital eMation, which also provided the original main title animation opening. Storyboarding of some of the episodes was done by Canadian animation studio Atomic Cartoons.Many of the original crew of the series' first production season consisted of alumni of well-known animation studios such as Cartoon Network Studios and Nickelodeon Animation Studio, as well as artists from the comic book industry, including Chris Savino, Marc Perry, Paul Stec, Matt Danner, Joe Horne, Mike Kazaleh, Brian Larsen, Jun Falkenstein, Scott Shaw!, Nora Johnson, Milton Knight, Ray Leong, Chris Battle, Casey Mitchum, Pat Ventura, John Derevlany, J.C. Cheng, Aliki Theofilopoulos, George Cox III, Frederick J. Gardner III, Allan Penny, Justin Schultz, Christopher D. Lozinski, Dane Taylor, and Rita Cooper. The original version of the show's theme song and all of its underscores were both written, composed, and conducted by Kevin Manthei, with creator Scott Fellows having written and provided the lyrics to the theme song. Voice recording was provided by Voicebox Productions, with voice direction by Terry Klassen.
The merger of UPN and The WB into The CW Television Network resulted in significant budget cuts for the show, placing it on hiatus. Cookie Jar Entertainment, another Canada-based entertainment company, under their then-new action-adventure brand Coliseum, who previously had production assistance in the first season, decided to take control of the series' production. Due to this change, the writers, storyboarders, and art crew who worked on the first season were let go, resulting in an entirely new crew managing the show. As the budget of the show dropped dramatically, seasons two and three of the show were animated in Adobe Flash by Collideascope Digital Productions. The show's opening theme was later changed for the rest of the series, with it being made of recycled episode footage. Fellows himself would leave after season 3 in order to create Big Time Rush for Nickelodeon, though he would still retain his creator and executive producer credits. On March 1, 2008, the episode pair "Johnny X: A New Beginning" and "Johnny X: The Final Ending" aired. It was originally intended as the series finale; however, the series was renewed for a fourth season. Although Warner Bros. left the series' production, the trademark of Johnny Test still remains at Warner Bros.
The fourth season was animated at Atomic Cartoons with animation assistance from Seventoon Inc. and Philippine Animators Group Inc., which are both located in the Philippines. It finally premiered in high-definition on Teletoon on September 10, 2009, and on Cartoon Network in the U.S. on November 9, 2009. Later, on August 24, 2010, it was announced that the Johnny Test was renewed for a fifth season. As the fourth season before it, it would be a full set of 26 episodes with a 27th episode added to the end; the renewal brought the series total to 92 episodes. The fifth season premiered on Cartoon Network in America on June 13, 2011, along with a new theme sequence with the same song used from seasons 2–4. Starting with the fifth season, Trevor Devall would become the new voice of Dukey, due to Louis Chirillo leaving the series. Similarly, Ashleigh Ball retired as the voice of Mary, Sissy, and Missy at the end of the 4th season, due to her work on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic as the voice of Applejack and Rainbow Dash; as a result, she was replaced by Brittney Wilson, Mary's original voice.
On March 12, 2012, it was announced that the show had been renewed for a sixth season. Like the fourth and fifth season before it, it would again be a full set of 26 episodes; the renewal brought the series total to 117 episodes. Ashleigh Ball also returned for the roles in this season. The sixth season premiered in the United States on Boomerang on April 3, 2013, and on Cartoon Network on April 23, 2013. With this season, the show reached its 100th episode, making it one of Teletoon's longest-running original series.
Revivals
Web shorts
On May 1, 2020, over a year after the announcement, the Johnny Test YouTube channel premiered the first episode of the web shorts "League of Johnnys" on May 2, 2020. Currently, 15 episodes have been revealed.TV series
In May 2020, the show was picked up by Netflix for two additional seasons, along with an interactive special. The series has an updated look, provided by Stephen Silver, and was released on July 16, 2021.Release
Broadcast history
Johnny Test premiered in the United States on September 17, 2005, on The WB's Saturday morning block, Kids' WB. One year later, it aired on Teletoon in Canada on September 8, 2006. During the second season, The WB and UPN merged into The CW, which aired the second and third seasons; the latter season premiered on September 22, 2007, and concluded on March 1, 2008 in Kids' WB's final day of broadcast. On January 7, 2008, the show debuted on Cartoon Network, which aired the remainder of the series, and ended on December 25 2014. The show aired on Boomerang from April 3, 2013 to December 19, 2013, before returning on December 19, 2014, December 24, 2014 and December 25, 2014, before returning on September 7, 2015 to June 26, 2016.DVD releases
Although Johnny Test never got a DVD release from Warner Home Video, NCircle Entertainment has released five DVDs. Johnny Test: Johnny & Dukey and Johnny vs. Bling Bling Boy were released on December 23, 2008. Johnny X and Super Pooch was released on August 11, 2009, Extreme Johnny was released on December 1, 2009, and Game Time was released on May 4, 2010.On February 21, 2008, Liberation Entertainment released the complete first season on DVD in the UK, but as of 2012, no more seasons have been released in a Region 2 format.
On January 4, 2011, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment had acquired the rights to the series, under license from DHX Media. They have subsequently released the first four seasons on DVD in Region 1. The fifth season was released on May 5, 2015, and the first five seasons were released on September 1, 2015.
Reception
Critical
Johnny Test received positive critical reviews throughout its run.Joly Herman of Common Sense Media had written and posted a review of Johnny Test on Go.com, at the time of the show's original debut on Kids' WB. In the review, Herman indicated that the series "is an age-appropriate choice for kids" and was "surprisingly inventive and not as violent as other cartoons in this genre", adding, "The only thing worth mentioning: All the experiments Johnny undergoes are unattended by adults, which allows all types of zany plots to unfold." Herman gave the show three stars out of five.