Johnny Test (Seasons 1-3)

Johnny Test

"Just another day in the life of a boy."

Genre:	Comedy Adventure Action Science fantasy
Running Time:	22 Minutes
Country:	United States Canada
Release Date:	September 17, 2005 – July 29, 2006 (Season 1) October 28, 2006-May 12, 2007 (Season 2) September 22, 2007-March 1, 2008 (Season 3)
Network(s):	Cartoon Network (US; Seasons 4-6) Disney Channel (Spain & Scandinavia) Kids’ WB (US; Seasons 1-3) Nickelodeon (Belgium, Germany, Italy, France, Israel, & The Netherlands) Teletoon (Canada) Disney XD (Poland, South-East Asia, The Netherlands, & Scandinavia)
Created by:	Scott Fellows
Distributed by:	Warner Bros. Television Distribution Cookie Jar Entertainment DHX Media WildBrain
Starring:	James Arnold Taylor Louis Chirillo Trevor Devall Brittney Wilson Ashleigh Ball Maryke Hendrikse Ian James Corlett Kathleen Barr Lee Tockar
Seasons:	6
Episodes:	117 (234 segments)

Johnny Test is an American-Canadian animated television series produced by Warner Bros. Animation for the first and second seasons and by Cookie Jar Entertainment for the second season onwards. It premiered on Kids' WB on September 17, 2005, which continued to air the series through its second and third seasons, later reruns of those seasons and the final three seasons then aired on Cartoon Network in the United States, It also aired on Disney XD in Poland, South-East Asia, The Netherlands, & Scandinavia and Nickelodeon in Belgium, Germany, Italy, France, the Middle-East, & The Netherlands, as well on Disney Channel in Spain & Scandinavia. It airs on Teletoon, Family Channel, and Family CHRGD in Canada.

Summary

The series revolves around the adventures of the title 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, both of whom are scientists and best friends with each other, and a talking dog named Dukey.

Why These Seasons Rock

The hand-drawn animation in season 1 is pretty good and you can tell an amount of effort was put into it.
The humor can often have its own style, which often involves the Test sisters' experiments.
Edgy yet calm and focused atmosphere, with the backgrounds being pretty smooth.
Clever writing, notably when the mole people's weaknesses are light, stopping the sea animals from attacking people, and numerous more experiments gone wrong.
Good voice acting, notably from James Arnold Taylor, Louis Chirillo, Ashleigh Ball, Maryke Hendrikse, and more.
Generally likable characters. Johnny himself wanted to have some fun, Dukey gives good morals to Johnny, the Test sisters interesting experiments, and creative antagonists.
Cool soundtrack (including its catchy and original theme song).
Pretty interesting plots which make good use of conflicts.
Entertaining action scenes which don't go overboard.
Teaches good morals after the conflicts of each episode have been resolved.
Some of the character designs are good, if not cool-looking such as Johnny himself, Dukey, and Brain Freezer.
Eugene AKA Bling-Bling Boy is a hilarious and relatable villain, even if he's not really villainous.
Many funny parodies of other media such as "Scooby-Doo" (Johnny Dukey Doo) and "Pokémon" (Johnny'mon).
The upcoming seventh and eighth seasons are looking to be improvements over seasons 4-6, as these seasons will be Toon Boom Animated instead of flash animated like in seasons two through six, creator Scott Fellows is returning, the new character designs by Stephen Silver (who also did the character designs of The Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom, Kim Possible and Clerks: The Animated Series) look great, and it also has most of the crew from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic working on the new seasons.
Hugh Test was a bit of a firm but fair parent in the first three seasons. The running gag of nobody liking his meatloaf debuted in the first half of the series premiere (and the second half supposedly had them eating foods other that meatloaf). Hugh somehow realizes that nobody in his family likes his meatloaf in the end of the Season 2 episode "Johnny's Got a Brand New Dad".
- His role of being a "stay-at-home dad" might have broke the stereotype of doing all the housework is lady's work by showing that even men can do housework, as well as Lila being the workaholic businesswoman like Mac's mother from Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends. In fact, according to the wiki, Hugh was based off of Scott Fellows' mother (which could be implied she did all the housework) while Lila was based on Fellows' dad (who was said to be a businessman), showing that it was indeed meant to show that anyone can do anything.

Bad Qualities

It went downhill after the 3rd season, read here for more information, but as mentioned above, the upcoming seventh and eighth seasons seem to be improvements.
The flash animation in seasons 2 and 3, while not terrible and close to the first season, is pretty lackluster at best and isn't as good as the first season's hand drawn animation.
The Canadian spacemen in the episode "Johnny Gets Mooned" and the Canadian Mountie in the episode "Johnny Mustache" all kept saying "Eh?" at the end of every sentence they said, which is one of the stereotypes of the Canadian people that involves them saying "eh" in almost every sentence they say, when in reality, not every Canadian does that. In fact, anyone can say "eh" in the end of a sentence at any time, but not every time. (Ironically the show was co-produced in Canada).

Reception

The first season was the highest rated season on IMDb, scoring a 6.6/10. The second season received a 6.5/10, while the third season received a 5.8/10. In total, the entire series scored a 5/10, thus making it a divisive series.

Trivia

There was a short on YouTube released on YouTube May 2020, but it was privatized 2 days later.
- However, Wildbrain has explained that Netflix picked up the series for 2 more seasons and a 66 minute interactive special releasing on 2021, with Scott Fellows returning to the series as executive producer.
Fellows himself was also co-executive producer of The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (2018) alongside Jay Ward's daughter Tiffany Ward.
On Netflix and reruns of season 1 on TV, instead of using the original theme, they use the theme song for Seasons 2 and onward, probably due to copyright issues.
This is the longest-running Teletoon show that isn't targeted towards teens or preschoolers (e.g. Totally Spies! & Caillou) having run for right about 9 or 10 years.
- It's also the third longest-running Cartoon Network show behind LEGO Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitsu and Ed, Edd n Eddy.