Crossovers are nothing new to television. In the early '60's there were crossover episodes of "Dr. Kildare" with "The Eleventh Hour." Often they're mistaken as spin-offs like "Hello Larry" when it had crossovers with "Diff'rent Strokes" or "Wings" was when it had a crossover episode with "Cheers." Both NBC and ABC had days dedicated to crossover programs. Some are quite unique like an episode of the animated version of "The Mask" which crossed over with an animated version of "Ace Ventura; Pet Detective," which occurred only because Jim Carrey played the live-action counterparts both shows spun-off from. This is not the first time Nickelodeon has had any of their shows crossover either, but it may be the best, and not just because of the surprising combination of standard 2-D & computer-generated 3-D animation.
Timmy Turner has no project ready for the upcoming Dimmsdale Elementary Science Fair, and is desperately seeking a passing grade. Having fairy godparents, he wishes for the best lab in town. Unfortunately that lab happens to be A.J.'s lab, which is obviously cheating, so he decides to go further...for the best lab in the universe. No, not Brookhaven National Lab, or the Mayo Clinic, or even the old RCA Transmission Base in Rocky Point, L.I., N.Y., but the lab of Jimmy Neutron. If you've ever heard the song "21st Century Digital Boy," by Bad Religion, you'll see a prime example when Timmy Turner goes to Retroville. Any of those previously mentioned labs would mesmerize and baffle him just as much as Jimmy's, but even with all these wonderful ideas for a project all he can do is put a violent video game into a computer tuning up Jimmy's cyber-pooch Goddard, and turning him into a monster.
Both are mistaken for one another when they enter Dimmsdale and Retroville, but Cindy is the first one in Retroville who knows that Timmy's not Jimmy. Jimmy's not as lucky, because the only people in Dimmsdale who eventually find out that he's not Timmy are Cosmo and Wanda, and they're lucky enough that he thinks they're super-intelligent holograms. Only when Cindy helps Timmy turn Goddard back to normal, and Mr. Crocker takes over Fairy World does the truth about the two boys come out. Mr. Crocker's conquest of Fairy World is not as Wagnerian as his previous global takeover in "Abra-Catastrophe," but Timmy's attempts to get Jimmy to stop Crocker prove almost as difficult at first. Fortunately, Timmy appeals to Jimmy's fondness for Goddard to bring out the empathy in him that we love, and which will be displayed in "Win Lose and Kaboom" later that summer.
I've already said too much, and I'm not going to reveal anymore than the first reviewer has. If you can't catch this special in reruns, I recommend either renting or buying the DVD.
