Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius

Stylish 3-D computer animation, good characters.

Like a rollicking adventure from the fevered boyhood imagination of Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes: the gooey aliens, the boy-genius gadgetry. Except with Jimmy it's real.

As frothily entertaining as this caper is, it's unlikely to prove as popular with grown-ups as Shrek and the Toy Story movies.

Jimmy Neutron just doesn't have enough power to sustain itself to feature length, though children -- the movie's real audience -- may be so dazzled by the spectacle of Jimmy flying through space with his robot dog that they won't notice.

For all their rambunctious energy and rebellion, these kids are innocents out of a 1950s sitcom and the film steers clear of the adult in-jokes and bodily function humor that litters so many recent family films.

Lacks sufficient sophistication to appeal to adults. The "wow" factor of CGI animation has long since diminished.

...[an] engaging and entertaining animated feature.