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Quests Galore

Jonny's Final Quest: Prepare to say farewell to Jonny Quest as you know him. That's because Turner Entertainment and Hanna-Barbera Cartoons are launching a revised version next year with new designs, new music and yes, new voices.

But first, TNT will air a two-hour TV movie of Jonny in his "last" appearance as an 11-year old. It's a sequel to Jonny's Golden Quest, the 90-minute TV movie that premiered in April 1993. Originally Jonny's Global Questions, the title changed to Jonny's Global Impact, and now it's Jonny Quest vs. the Cyber Insects. It was actually made more than a year ago and scheduled to air last fall to precede the new Quest series—but production problems delayed the new Quest until 1996. Thus, the TV movie's broadcast was delayed well.

In Cyber Insects, Jonny (Kevin Michaels) goes to outer space for the first time as arch-fiend Dr. Zin (Jeffrey Tambor) threatens humanity with weather-altering satellites and killer insects. Reprising their roles are Don Messick as Dr. Benton Quest and Bandit, Sonny Granville Van Dusen as bodyguard Roger "Race" Bannon, Rob paulsen as Hadji (will he pronounce "Sim sim, salla bim" correctly this time?) and Anndi McAfee as Race's daughter Jessie. A surprise guest star is Tim Matheson, the original Jonny Quest, as the comptuer, 4-DAC.

Other voices include Teresa Saldana as Belage, Olivia White as Scientist 426, Victor Love as World Leader, Hector Elizondo as Atacama and Robert Ito as Scientist 427. The film was written by David Bennett Carren and J. Larry Carroll, based on a story by producer/director Mario Piluso.

TNT will premiere Jonny Quest vs. the Cyber Insects at 7 p.m. EST on Sunday, November 19, followed by encores at 9 and 11 p.m. Repeats will be broadcast November 23, 24, 25, 26 and December 1.

The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest begin in fall 1996. As this preliminary concept illustration shows, there's an all-new look.

Jonny Gets Virtual: Coming your way next fall is The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, which will air 21 times a week on three Turner networks: TNT, TBS and the Cartoon Network. Hanna-Barbera is currently producing 65 episodes using studios in three continents. In the States, H-B handles the writing, storyboarding and designs. In Japan, Pacific Animation Corporation utilizes computer technology to enhance lighting, mood, special FX and camera movement. In France, Toon's Factory adds FX and digitally colors the episodes.

The new series has Jonny and his Indian pal Hadji as teens, with Race Bannon's daughter Jessie adding female companionship. Stories will focus more on these characters and less on Dr. Quest and Race, but all will continue facing danger around the world in what's described as "an evocative mystery-adventure." The Quest team will take on supernatural occurrences both in the realw orld and in the virtual reality domain of "Questworld". In the VR environment, the team uses superpowers to combat various "supernatural" evil-doers. An ad states, "Questworld may be virtual, but the danger is definitely real!"

The redesigned main characters have also been recast. J.D. Roth is now Jonny, veteran actor George Segal replaces Messick as Dr. Quest, Robert (Terminator 2) Patrick is Race Bannon, Michael Benyaer is Hadji, Jessie Douglas is Jessie Bannon and Frank Welker now articulates the bulldog, Bandit. (In the original series, Bandit had real dog barks, with Messick providing whimpers and whines.)

Peter Lawrence and Takashi Masunaga, who worked together on Peter Pan and the Pirates, share producer-director credit. Story editor is Mike Ryan, who has a couple of What a Cartoon! shorts in the works: Hillbilly Blue and Gramps. Writers include Art Brambledt, Glenn Leopold (Swat Kats), Michael Maurer (Gummi Bears), Michael Rann, Ben Schwartz and Peter Lawrence.

Expect to see a major blitz in promotion, merchandising, home video, publishing, interactive and video games. For those who want to see the "real" Jonny Quest, Hanna-Barbera authority Earl Kress is preparing a laserdisc set compiling all 26 episodes of The Adventures of Jonny Quest from 1964-1965, with a special box cover by Steve Rude.

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