Writing Jimmy Neutron was a lot of fun. This is the first pass of the script. Usually, the comedy police come in and take everything that's funny out of your draft. Luckily, that wasn't the case with this show. This was also our first 3D animation project and it took a little getting used to. This was from the early days of the technology. Characters couldn't hold each other's hands, change clothes (the still can't) and llamas couldn't sit down. (I'm not kidding) The models they had for Carl's favorite animal were designed to stand and that was it.
THE ADVENTURES OF JIMMY NEUTRON: BOY GENIUS
“Granny Baby”
First Draft
FADE IN:
INT. FRONT HALL – DAY
3 or 4 SUITCASES by the back door. HUGH takes some preparatory weightlifter breaths, bending to lift them.
JUDY (OS)
Oh no you don’t, Mister Muscles!
JUDY looks disapprovingly on.
JUDY
If you hurt your back lifting those you’ll be no use to me tonight on our third honeymoon when I want all the hotel room furniture rearranged.
JIMMY and Goddard stand by the cases.
JIMMY
Goddard! Fork-lift!
Goddard’s lower jaw lowers to the floor like a forklift, scoops up the cases, backs up – BEEPING - and trundles the cases out the door.
JIMMY
Don’t couples usually go on second honeymoons?
JUDY
We had one of those but thanks to a certain young genius and his Forgetto-Blaster it was wiped out of our brains.
JIMMY
Oh yeah.
JUDY
Along with the entire fifth year of our marriage.
INT. KITCHEN – DAY (FLASHBACK)
The Neutrons, looking dazed and brain-dead, are shown around the kitchen by Jimmy, holding his FORGETTO-BLASTER. As if to a 2-year-old:
JIMMY
And this... is toast.
HUGH
Toast.
Hugh puts his foot through the toast like Frankenstein putting on a pair of pants.
INT. FRONT HALL – DAY
Hugh chuckles at the memory.
HUGH
I just hope to darnation we didn’t have any other children.
JIMMY
Da-a-ad! I woulda told you that!
JUDY
You told us your allowance was four thousand dollars a week.
Jimmy flashes a busted smile.
EXT. DRIVEWAY - DAY
Minutes later, at the car, packed for the trip. Judy writes on a slip of paper for Jimmy.
JUDY
If you need us here’s where we’re staying: Wild Animal Land, in the Dead Zebra Carcass Suite. Granny Neutron’s coming over while we’re gone.
JIMMY
Mo-o-om! Don’t you remember my theorem proving mathematically I don’t need anyone to watch me?
INT. LIVING ROOM – NIGHT (FLASHBACK)
Jimmy stands before a blackboard full of equations, which all boil down to the last line, “∑ a2 ≠ babysitter.” He concludes, triumphantly:
JIMMY
... ergo, “Sigma Alpha-squared” does not equal babysitter!
Judy and Hugh sit with their bound copies of the theorem.
HUGH
The math does seem to be in order.
EXT. DRIVEWAY / FRONT LAWN – DAY
JUDY
She’s not watching you, you’re watching her. She’s an old lady who’s been through a lot, even if you don’t include raising your father -
On the lawn Hugh pretends to be a tiger snapping at a BUTTERFLY.
HUGH
Grrr! I’m a wild tiger! Snap!
JUDY
- so don’t try any more of your tonics or crazy brain rays on her.
JIMMY
Whatever do you mean?
Jimmy pushes a button on his belt. A metal HALO raises from his collar over his head. Judy pushes it back down.
JUDY
Don’t play Mister Innocent with me! At her age the last thing you want, besides an overabundance of cheese in your diet, is excitement.
With a screeching of tires a CAB hurtles down the street and careens to a stop against the Neutron’s trash cans. GRANNY NEUTRON gets out of the driver’s seat and addresses the terrified CABBIE cowering in the back.
GRANNY
Told ya I could get here from the airport in under fifty cents!
She flicks two coins in the window and goes to the cab trunk.
GRANNY
Jimmy, you tote my clothes...
She hands Jimmy a small valise.
GRANNY
... and Hugh, you carry my pills, syrups, salves, serums, girdles, ointments, medical devices and miscellaneous supports.
She takes 4 BIG cases from the trunk and drops them in Hugh’s arms. CRACK! his back goes out. Judy shakes her head.
JUDY
Tst tsk. Sounds like the 5th cervical vertebra again.
EXT. DRIVEWAY – DAY
TIGHT ON Hugh’s face, trying to be brave and reassuring.
HUGH
I’m sure I’ll be okay by the time we get there, Sweetie-Doodles.
The car lurches; Judy drives away. Hugh is stretched on the roof, roped to a back-support board.
INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY
Jimmy (holding a cookie) turns to the cases in the living room. From one of them he gingerly half-lifts A DEVICE with bolts, straps, elastic bands.
JIMMY
Why do you need all these weird contraptions?
Jimmy takes a bite of his cookie, not looking as Goddard’s eyes pop WIDE and his SCREEN flips out, playing a pre-record:
ON GODDARD’S SCREEN (FISH-EYE): Granny rambles:
GRANNY (b.g.)
... some mornings my bones pop like a fat guy diving onto bubble wrap! Then there’s this thing dangling from the back of my knee...
ON THE SCREEN Jimmy leans close and whispers a memo to himself:
JIMMY
“Urgent Reminder: never ask Granny about her health!”
BUT BACK IN THE ROOM it’s too late:
GRANNY
Why do I need ‘em? If it wasn’t for those supports I’d be touching the ground in eight places! Lemme tell you about my bursitis...
Jimmy stands with one bite out of his cookie, mouth open.
FLIP TO:
EXT. NEUTRON HOUSE - NIGHT
Establishing that night.
GRANNY (OS)
... my osteotometrist says I’ve got something called Pauntlett of Scrugg...
INT. LIVING ROOM – NIGHT
Jimmy listens to his Granny, his mouth still open over the uneaten cookie.
GRANNY
... I’ll spare ya the details but it has to be emptied of Scrugg twice a month. And there’s a hair in my ear they think might go right through to my foot.
She pulls A HAIR in her ear – up and down, up and down - and her foot lifts and falls. Jimmy stares in open-mouthed horror.
INT. JIMMY’S ROOM - NIGHT
Jimmy lies awake in bed, with Goddard lying on his feet in a metal nightcap. Jimmy sighs. On his nightstand, next to a photo of his parents, is a framed photo of Granny when she was YOUNG.
JIMMY
Age is a cruel thing, Goddard. In a short 65 years you completely lose your ability to tell when people want you to stop talking.
INT. LIVING ROOM – NIGHT
Downstairs, Granny keeps going.
GRANNY
And my eyesight! I can’t even see things I hit in the car any more, I only hear ‘em scream.
REVEAL she’s talking to a DUMMY of Jimmy, also holding a cookie to its open mouth.
INT. BEDROOM – NIGHT
Inspiration! Jimmy picks up the photo.
JIMMY
I bet if I made her young again she’d stop complaining. What a perfect opportunity to try my Anti-Ageing Tonic on a willing human subject without her knowing.
(remembers)
But I promised mom I wouldn’t experiment on Granny. Especially after that time I made her magnetic.
EXT. DRIVEWAY – DAY (FLASHBACK)
Granny stands with her bags at the curb, with Jimmy’s parents.
GRANNY
I had a wonderful tiiiiiiii - !
A BUS goes by. Granny flies up and sticks to it. It drives away with her splayed on the side like a fridge magnet.
INT. JIMMY’S BEDROOM - NIGHT
Pondering this, Jimmy orders Goddard:
JIMMY
Analyze mother’s exact warning, with subprogram search for potential loopholes.
Goddard’s oscilloscope re-traces Judy’s words “don’t try any more of your tonics or crazy brain rays on her” and PRINTS something out. Jimmy rips it off and reads:
JIMMY
“A: She wasn’t talking to me.” Not bad. “B: She was joking.” Mom never jokes. “C: She was talking about my other Granny.”
(Bingo!)
Perfect!
INT. JIMMY’S LAB - DAWN
A bleary-eyed Jimmy naps on a lab table. Some flasks boil over heaters, with a 3-D MOLECULE rotating on the monitor above them. The molecule on the monitor FLASHES RED: finished! A mechanical ARM comes out and taps Jimmy’s shoulder, awakening him.
A small flask at the end of this process upends a few CCs of glowing fluid into a test tube. Jimmy grabs it.
JIMMY
She’s awfully old, I hope this is enough.
INT. HALLWAY – DAY
Jimmy runs down the hall with the Youth Tonic. HOLD ON a framed print of “American Gothic” on the wall; it gets a few drops of the Youth Tonic sloshed on it as Jimmy runs by. The farmer and his wife morph into a yuppy-handsome YOUNG MAN and WOMAN.
INT. LIVING ROOM – DAY
Granny sits across from the Jimmy Dummy, trying to open a small bottle, as the real Jimmy enters with the Tonic behind his back.
GRANNY
Good morning.
(points to the dummy)
I was just telling you over there about my deviated spatchum. On cold mornings it rattles like the Tin Man throwing up a hoagie full of wood screws.
JIMMY
What’s in the bottle?
GRANNY
Tongue De-Furrer. Your tongue gets furry when you’re old.
INT. OTHER LIVING ROOM – DAY (FLASHBACK)
PAN UP Granny’s sleeping body on a couch.
GRANNY (OS)
Sometimes I wake up and the cat’s chewing on it.
Reaching her head: The CAT paws languidly at Granny’s tongue.
INT. LIVING ROOM – DAY
Jimmy helpfully offers:
JIMMY
Let me open that for you.
Jimmy takes the bottle, turns his back - and when he turns back granny’s medicine is GLOWING and his flask is empty.
JIMMY
I think you’ll feel much better – and quieter - after you drink this.
She up-ends it and smacks her lips distastefully.
GRANNY
Tastes funny. Of course, what do I know – after sixty your sense of taste completely disapp-
KA-ZING! She disappears, leaving just a pile of clothes on the armchair.
JIMMY
Granny?!
There’s a LUMP under her dress. A diapered BABY crawls out.
JIMMY
Granny! You’re a babe!
GRANNY BABY
You shoulda seen me at 16. When I walked down a beach lifeguards swallowed their whistles.
JIMMY
No, I mean you’re really a babe.
Goddard turns one shiny metal side to her. She sees her reflection and gasps.
GRANNY BABY
Holy ga-ga.
JIMMY
This isn’t good.
(puzzled)
Where’d you get the diaper?
GRANNY BABY
I was already wearing it. Waaaaa! I need my blankie!
JIMMY
No problem! 3-D modeler!
A DEVICE like a steroidal laser printer raises from the floor.
JIMMY
Import generic security blanket design and output using couch cushion material.
The device vacuums the cover off a couch cushion, screams like a dot-matrix printer and spits out a BLANKIE. Jimmy hands it to Granny.
GRANNY BABY
I need my binkie!
JIMMY
No problem! Import binkie prototype and output using rubber from dad’s shoes.
The device sucks in a LOAFER, whirrs and spits out a PACIFIER.
GRANNY BABY
I need my didie changed.
SHOCK ZOOM on Jimmy.
JIMMY
Problem.
(inspiration)
Goddard!
ANGLE ON Goddard, who really doesn’t want to change a diaper. Goddard’s FRONT LEGS FALL OFF. He smiles sheepishly.
GODDARD
Sorry.
GRANNY BABY
Change me NOW!
JIMMY
(to Goddard)
Who can change a diaper?
Goddard’s screen shows: an icon of a NURSE.
JIMMY
I don’t know any nurses.
On screen: icon of his MOTHER.
JIMMY
No way. I love and respect Mom far too much to let her know I disobeyed her
3rd icon: CINDY!
Jimmy swallows and looks out the window. HIS POV: CINDY runs a garage sale in her driveway: racks of clothes, open boxes.
JIMMY
Uh-uh, no way no how! I’d rather die than ask Cindy for a favor!
GRANNY BABY
So change me yourself.
JIMMY
Then again, some things are worse than death.
EXT. CINDY’S DRIVEWAY – DAY
The garage sale in progress: “CINDY & LIBBY YARD SALE.” CINDY and LIBBY are at the folding table with the cash box.
LIBBY
I’m starving. Could I take my half of the profits and get a fajita?
CINDY
Libby, Number One we haven’t sold anything. Number Two, whereas my family has provided fifteen years of priceless heirlooms for the delectation of our customers, the only thing you brought to the Cindy And Libby Yard Sale...
Cindy holds up an unclothed fat doll with one arm missing and a raggedy piece of blue cloth.
CINDY
... was a fat broken doll and a handkerchief with two holes in it.
LIBBY
I’ll have you know that handkerchief has great sentimental value.
CINDY
Why, did your great-grandfather blow his nose in it?
SHEEN (OS)
Hey!
SHEEN stands up inside the cardboard box he’s been rummaging through, a bra on his head.
SHEEN
You got any UltraLord game cartridges?
CINDY
No.
SHEEN
Any UltraLord soundtrack CDs in quadraphonic Smash-O Sound?
CINDY & LIBBY
No.
SHEEN
Any UltraLord movie-themed recreational clothing?
CINDY
Do I look like the kind of pathetic self-deluded dweeb-case who’d have any UltraLord anything?
SHEEN
You mean it’s at the bottom?
(looks down)
ULTRALORRRRR... !
(reads the label)
naw, ultralarge sweat pants.
Sheen dives back down into the box. Jimmy walks over hiding Granny behind his back, nervous. Cindy scowls.
CINDY
What are you doing here?
JIMMY
Fine, thanks. So, say! Great stuff! Aaaaaa, I was wondering where your mom is.
LIBBY
At the Five-and-Dime buying more cheap stuff she can pretend she’s sacrificing at bargain prices.
CINDY
She is not!
(to Jimmy)
Why?
JIMMY
I need some help with –
(no way around it)
this.
He thrusts Granny/Baby forward. The girls qvell.
CINDY & LIBBY
Ooooooo! Ahhhhhhhhhh!
(then; sniffing)
Ewwwwww! Ahhhhhhhhgh!
They back off.
JIMMY
I think she might need changing.
The girls wave their hands in front of their faces.
LIBBY
What was your first clue?
JIMMY
So you’ll do it?
CINDY
As much as I detest helping smug pseudo-brainiacs, my nurturing female instincts will not let me leave a helpless infant in your care. Where’s the new diaper?
JIMMY
What’s wrong with the one she’s wearing?
Libby laughs. Cindy can’t believe Jimmy’s that dumb.
CINDY
It’s full of POO! I thought you were a genius!
GRANNY BABY
Hey he’s a guy.
Cindy and Libby are shocked.
LIBBY
She talked.
JIMMY
Cindy, Libby; granny Neutron.
CINDY
You turned your own grandmother into a baby??
JIMMY
I have a loophole, I mean an explanation! This could have happened to anyone with a genius I.Q. and access to unstable chemicals!
GRANNY BABY
Could we hurry up? I’m teething and I’m getting dizzy from my own fumes here.
CINDY
How long is she going to be a baby?
JIMMY
I’m not sure.
CINDY
Well how many diapers do we need?
Granny makes a pooting sound.
GRANNY BABY
I’d err on the side of hundreds.
Jimmy hands over some cash and a piece of paper.
JIMMY
So, great! So here’s some money and a list of things I need for the antidote, I’ll see you when you get back from the store.
CINDY
Oh no you don’t.
Jimmy turns to high-tail it but Cindy grabs him back.
CINDY
Libby, you run the yard sale while Doctor Spock and I go shop.
LIBBY
But I’m hungry!
Cindy, Jimmy and Granny go off. HOLD ON the box Sheen is in.
SHEEN (OS)
UltraLords’s nose! No it’s just my elbow.
PAN BACK to Libby, who says to a YOUNG WOMAN eating from a box of fries and examining a bedroom lamp.
LIBBY
That’ll be two dollars.
(inspiration!)
Or... I’ll trade you for those curly fries.
INT. STORE – DAY
Jimmy picks up bottles of DANGEROUS CHEMICALS (labeled as such). Cindy looks at a shelf, carrying Granny, who holds a rattle.
ANGLE on Cindy and Granny.
GRANNY BABY
I’m bored! Pull a funny face and let me hit you with the rattle.
CINDY
No.
In the b.g. some adults look in their direction.
JIMMY
Granny, quiet.
Carl comes around a corner holding a soda.
CARL
Hey Jimmy! I was just buying this soda to trade with Libby for a CD rack and - whose weird-looking baby?
JIMMY
Uhhhhh Cindy’s!
CINDY
Is not!
GRANNY BABY
Hey farm boy! I’d check your reflection in the wienie rotator before ya call someone weird-looking.
CARL
Did that baby talk?
JIMMY
Shh! No!
CARL
Did you invent it? Hey everybody my friend invented a talking baby!
Curious PEOPLE gather in the aisle. Jimmy sees them.
JIMMY
Carl’s imagining things. Everyone knows babies can’t talk.
GRANNY BABY
That’s right, cos if we could the Videotubbies’d be cancelled so quick it’d make their head aerials spin.
ANGLE ON the faces of the amazed crowd.
EXT. STREET – DAY
5 minutes later, Jimmy and Cindy run from the clamoring mob. Cindy carries Granny Baby and the diapers. Jimmy carries a bag of stuff.
GRANNY BABY
Slow down, I need to be (BUUUUURP) never mind.
BEHIND THEM, on CROWD MEMBER # 1, running, with a camera.
CROWD MEMBER # 1
Someone call that reality show, World’s Most Amazing Infants Who Weren’t Eaten On “When Pets Attack”!
BACK ON JIMMY, running with his store purchases.
JIMMY
Luckily I’ve got 36 hours to make the antidote before my parents return.
RING RING! - his cell phone.
JIMMY
Hello.
INT. NEUTRON’S CAR – DAY (TRAVELING)
Judy drives home alone.
JUDY
Honey it’s mom, I’m coming home.
JIMMY (OS, phone)
No! I mean, great. I mean why?
JUDY
Oh your father was plucked off his safari mule by a mother eagle and I need my Wounded Lamb Puppet to distract her so he can avoid being fed to her ravenous nestlings.
EXT. JIMMY’S STREET – DAY
Jimmy and Cindy and Granny run.
JIMMY (into phone)
Could it wait a coupla days?
JUDY (OS phone)
Time’s of the essence, honey; eaglets eat their weight in your father every day. See you and Granny soon.
HOLD ON the Vortex residence as Jimmy and Cindy run by. Almost all Cindy’s stuff is GONE. Libby has the remains of a huge MEAL on the folding table in front of her: dessert, fruit, chicken bones. She tells a browsing customer:
LIBBY
Sorry, that’s not for sale, I’m stuffed.
The CROWD runs by.
INT. LIVING ROOM – DAY
Jimmy madly throws ingredients from the store bag into some beakers on the coffee table. Cindy looks out the window.
CROWD (OS)
We want the talking baby!
We want the talking baby!
JIMMY
Goddard! Compare antidote completion with mother’s return time!
Goddard calculates then says:
GODDARD
Your butt is grass.
GRANNY BABY
I’m bored! Can’t someone go
(fingers between lips)
blrblblr! or pretend to eat my toes?
Sheen runs in, accusing Cindy:
SHEEN
Aha! You said you didn’t have any Ultralord toys; what do you call this?
He produces a one-armed DOLL with a blue handkerchief tied over its face like a mask, the holes serving as eyeholes.
CINDY
Libby’s doll with her handkerchief over its head.
SHEEN
Wrong! It’s UltraLord from the episode where he disguised himself as a Sumo Wrestler.
CINDY
When exactly did Libby tell you that?
SHEEN
When she saw my ice cream sandwich.
CINDY
It’s a doll.
SHEEN
It’s UltraLord!
CINDY
Doll!
SHEEN
UltraLord!
Cindy grabs the string in the doll’s back and pulls it out.
THE DOLL
Give me a cuddle.
CINDY
Is there something about UltraLord we should know?
SHEEN
That’s to make the enemy drop their guard before he pile-drives his fists into their evil larynxes.
CINDY
(to Sheen)
You are a pathetic delude-o.
JIMMY
A doll! That’s it!
(re: antidote, to Cindy)
As soon as that turns blue pour it in a baby bottle and bring it outside!
He grabs Granny and her empty DRESS and runs out.
EXT. FRONT LAWN – DAY
Jimmy stands in front of the rapt camera-toting crowd with Granny in his arms.
JIMMY
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the amazing talking baby!
CROWD
Oooooh!
He looks down the street; his mom’s car TURNS THE CORNER.
ANGLE: Jimmy pulls a talking doll-type STRING rigged to Granny’s back. He WINDS IT UP with his hidden fingers. She recites:
GRANNY BABY
Give me a cuddle. And a diaper change while you’re at it.
CROWD MEMBER # 1
There’s a string in her back!
JIMMY
Oh no I have been found out!
CROWD MEMBERS
Fake! / It’s a doll! / Let’s go back to our humdrum lives.
The crowd leaves. Jimmy is relieved. Cindy walks out and grudgingly hands Jimmy a baby bottle full of BLUE LIQUID.
CINDY
Here. Anything else you’d like? Your slippers and a pipe maybe?
Jimmy stuffs the bottle in Granny’s mouth and throws her DRESS over her. SPROING! Granny’s standing there normal-sized, in her dress, as the family car pulls in the driveway and Judy gets out.
JIMMY
Hi mom! Nothing unusual here, just me and Granny, obeying all your rules, yes ma’am!
CAWING, OFF, and WHAM! Hugh falls on the roof of the family car.
HUGH
Oof!
JUDY
Hugh! There you are!
(checks her watch)
If we race back we’ve got just enough time to catch the early-bird honeymoon buffet.
HUGH
(stunned, scared)
B-b-bird?
Judy gets back in and DRIVES OFF with Hugh still on the roof.
CINDY
I’d love to stay and help you narrowly avoid even more consequences of your stupid actions but Libby just traded my parents’ china cabinet for an antacid. Libbyyyyy!
Across the street: Almost all the sale items are GONE. A couple carries a china cabinet away. Libby looks sick.
NEUTRON LAWN: Carl runs up, panting and sweaty, holding COINS.
CARL
Jimmy you forgot your change. I ran all the way from the store, and... oh I forgot my soda.
GRANNY
Drink this.
Granny hands Carl the baby bottle.
JIMMY
No!
ON JIMMY as we hear a SPROING! Feebly:
JIMMY
Carl! You okay?
ANGLE: Carl, bottle to lips, has turned into HIS FATHER.
OLD MAN CARL
My eyes hurt, my hair’s gone, and I have a powerful urge to dance badly!
GRANNY
I’ll take a piece of that!
Granny kicks Goddard, a SPEAKER comes out of the dog’s head and as DISCO blasts and Granny and OLD CARL boogie on the Neutrons’ lawn...
JIMMY
I’ll go get a bucket for your Scrugg.
He sighs and heads inside as Sheen steps outside, boogeying.
FADE OUT.
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