Comments on: The Great Johnny Quest Documentary

The Great Johnny Quest Documentary

CharlesV42 — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:35:55 -0800

The Great Johnny Quest Documentary (YT Playlist Link) A two hour and twenty minute documentary on Hanna-Barbera's first foray into action adventure primetime animation back in 1963. Though the original authors of this detailed and meticulous documentary remain unknown, it was reportedly created for a one-time screening at a private event.. Rapidshare links at the poster's blog.
(Via Drawn.ca)

By: dunkadunc

dunkadunc — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:41:13 -0800

I'm surprised they didn't make a torrent out of it instead. Rapidshare seems really... sketchy, especially the whole 'reseller' business they have going on.

By: Artw

Artw — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:43:34 -0800

Ghost pirates!

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:58:29 -0800

has anybody else noticed that this post is awesome?

By: hippybear

hippybear — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:06:33 -0800

This is beyond awesome. There goes my afternoon... And this thread would not be complete without mentioning Toby Danger.

By: dunkadunc

dunkadunc — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:07:29 -0800

has anybody else noticed that this post is awesome? YES OMG And I'm eternally thankful for Johnny Quest inspiring the Venture Brothers. I only wish there were more shows like that.

By: hippybear

hippybear — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:08:27 -0800

Rapidshare is awful but wonderful. Music Blogs wouldn't be the same without it. I hate using it, but I love what it delivers to me. Maybe someone should download this and set it free into the torrentsphere.

By: champthom

champthom — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:19:53 -0800

JUST LET ME THROW A BARREL AT IT!

By: The Devil Tesla

The Devil Tesla — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:26:00 -0800

I was beginning to why I should care about this when the documentary started off with a gushing description of Hanna-Barbera, but then everything in the production started going wrong. I wouldn't have thought it, but the story behind this show is fascinating.

By: RogerB

RogerB — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:34:46 -0800

This is really great – but I wish the voice-over guy knew how to pronounce the words he was reading. Shouldn't you check the phonetics for words like "irascible" or "wunderkind" before you commit them to tape permanently?

By: Afroblanco

Afroblanco — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:44:19 -0800

You know, I absolutely love the Venture Brothers. I think it's one of the funniest, smartest shows on TV. I've occasionally thought about going back and watching some Johnny Quest episodes just so that I can catch more of the references. Unfortunately, every time I try, I come back to the realization that Johnny Quest was actually kinda bad and difficult to watch.

By: pantsrobot

pantsrobot — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:45:46 -0800

Sheesh get it right people. It's Jonny Quest, not Johnny Quest. Great first post topic CharlesV42. I'd spend long afternoons as a kid watching this and the Herculoids and the classic Space Ghost. Such great theme music

By: philip-random

philip-random — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:54:46 -0800

Words do no do justice to how cool I thought Jonny Quest when I was seven or eight years old. Though I have since come to wonder about the curious relationship between Jonny's dad, Dr. Quest and Race Bannen ... not that there's anything wrong with it. And just thinking about that Invisible Monster episode still sorta creeps me out today.

By: jamstigator

jamstigator — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:55:59 -0800

Aw man, dumb? I loved the episode with the mechanical spider thing creeping around!

By: spiderskull

spiderskull — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:56:38 -0800

I especially love how they literally brought in Jonny and (briefly) Race Bannon in The Venture Brothers. It's brilliant.

By: filthy light thief

filthy light thief — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:01:14 -0800

Also for your viewing pleasure:the whole classic Jonny Quest season (26 episodes in a YouTube playlist)

By: anazgnos

anazgnos — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:02:16 -0800

Venture Bros started out incorporating the actual Jonny Quest characters by name, but seemed to lose their rights to do so last season, and started referring to those characters by lame pseudonyms.

By: filthy light thief

filthy light thief — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:05:03 -0800

Jonny, Hadji and Race were in a couple episodes, though I don't think they ever called him Jonny Quest (seeing as the strung-out Jonny is not too kind to Hannah Barbara). The crew also appeared in Harvey Birdman as themselves, but in a custody case. Take that, doe-eyed nostalgia!

By: pupdog

pupdog — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:09:29 -0800

I saw this message from Evan Dorkin before I watched any of the vid, but I'm gonna have to agree, now that I have: "I like everything about Jonny Quest except actually watching the show." There have been great parodies, it inspired the Venture Brothers, the theme is great, this story is crazy interesting, heck it's a pretty cool concept even. But Afroblanco, I'm with you. The show is just not so much fun to watch. Even as a kid I'd get excited when I found out it was coming on next, and then lose interest partway through...

By: tkchrist

tkchrist — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:16:36 -0800

I feel like a crazy person. I've been trying to get a JQ/ Venture brothers viewing party together for over two years. I've been trying to explain the Venture Brothers to younger people. If they didn't see Jonny Quest in the early seventies or late sixties around it's hard to get all the in jokes. Especially with all the Nixon-ian and Kennedy era space age cultural references. My wife being seven years younger than me doesn't really get it. So lonely. So... so lonely.

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:22:32 -0800

*moves lips*

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:22:37 -0800

Nice post.

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:22:45 -0800

*lips stop*

By: hippybear

hippybear — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:25:06 -0800

But Afroblanco, I'm with you. The show is just not so much fun to watch. Even as a kid I'd get excited when I found out it was coming on next, and then lose interest partway through... Pacing, pacing, pacing. The show has AWFUL pacing. It's exacerbated by our MTV-trained minds seeking a kind of dynamism which anything produced before 1981 simply doesn't have. But even without that, the pacing is terrible. Love that movie's concept and script but hate it? Probably poor pacing. Think that comedy isn't as funny as it could be? Probably the pacing is bad. Went to see a production of a stage play which just didn't work despite find acting? Probably the pacing. It kills more good entertainment than any other single problem.

By: kurumi

kurumi — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:26:01 -0800

The Invisible Monster episode always reminded me of the final act of The Dunwich Horror -- and the sheer fun inherent in the idea that a mishap at the lab (or power station) can let loose a monster is something I haven't outgrown.

By: The Devil Tesla

The Devil Tesla — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:26:56 -0800

I've been trying to explain the Venture Brothers to younger people. If they didn't see Jonny Quest in the early seventies or late sixties around it's hard to get all the in jokes. Tell that to my entire college. I don't know anyone who doesn't at least have a passing familiarity to the show. But yea, if you really want to get converts just tell people it's a show about failure or mention Molitov Cocktease. No one can not want to see the show after that! Also, start them on a show a little ways into the first season, like Tag Sale You're It or something. At this point the show becomes less a parody of Jonny Quest and more its own thing.

By: rokusan

rokusan — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:47:13 -0800

I tried to find a video of the Harvey Birdman episode in question to link here, but gave up. That entire show is amazing, but that was an especially hilarious episode.

By: Artw

Artw — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:50:58 -0800

FWIW I got into the Venture Brothers entirely without having seen Johnny Quest (well, I might have seen some horrible 90s reboot of it or something) - so it's possible.

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:58:10 -0800

That is a great documentary. The reconstruction of the panoramic stills is especially awesome.

By: tkchrist

tkchrist — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:04:23 -0800

AIEEEEEEEE-EEEEEEEEEE!

By: gdav

gdav — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:06:17 -0800

At the risk of heresy, I loved the 90s, erm, "re-imagining". Ezekiel Rage!

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:27:57 -0800

This is the kind of awesome that makes me weep. I watched JQ in its original run as a child and it's a major touchstone for me. Great, great discovery.

By: steef

steef — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:54:23 -0800

This is probably as good a place to bring this up as any: does cortex's laugh remind anyone else of Barney Rubble? Awesome find. Thanks, CV42!

By: JHarris

JHarris — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:02:44 -0800

Let's not forget that Toby Danger short hippybear linked above. One of the best things Freakazoid ever did.

By: donpardo

donpardo — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:14:54 -0800

I loved Jonny Quest as a kid. The mechanical spider was The Best. But the best part of any episode was the theme song.

By: localroger

localroger — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:27:28 -0800

Awesome. I was gonna say something more complicated but I just hear trombones.

By: Trochanter

Trochanter — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:05:56 -0800

The stuff underneath the end credits was always better than the stuff in the show... the way that mummy would lean back when he was shot and then come on again -- I knew every frame. And yeah, the music was great. Must have been an influence on Michael Giacchino's work on Incredibles.

By: zerolives

zerolives — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:11:24 -0800

To Failure, gentleman and ladies.

By: MarshallPoe

MarshallPoe — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:26:31 -0800

Nothing but love for JQ.

By: The Bridge on the River Kai Ryssdal

The Bridge on the River Kai Ryssdal — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:32:23 -0800

Hey, right at the start of the Youtube part nine - it's the Post-War New World Map on Dr. Quest's wall! Odd mashup of forties political optimism and sixties techno-optimism, there. I realize it was added for the documentary, but it's still sort of fitting for the feel of the show, I felt. Oh, and tkchrist, don't forget about the kids who saw it on early-morning cable syndication in the nineties. There's some of us out here getting the references, too.

By: SPrintF

SPrintF — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:47:08 -0800

For me, as a child, regardless of the content of the episode, the best part was the menacing mechanical spider in the opening credits. Nothing says ADVENTURE! like a robot spider.

By: hippybear

hippybear — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:12:01 -0800

Nothing says ADVENTURE! like a robot spider. That doesn't always hold true...

By: hippybear

hippybear — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:26:33 -0800

Hoyt Curtin did the music (part 16 of the documentary) There's an interesting text interview with him about his work online, as well as a music blog entry for an album of Jonny Quest music. Find that mediafire link for pure mp3 gold!

By: omnidrew

omnidrew — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:26:54 -0800

Thanks TBitRKR for the link to that map! Has anyone found (or made) a torrent for this yet? 108 RS links is too many for me...

By: olaguera

olaguera — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:05:03 -0800

I think it would take 15+ hours to download the thing without a rapidshare membership. Anyone want to pool money for someone to get a 'premium' account, download it, and make a torrent?

By: olaguera

olaguera — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:18:13 -0800

Make that 27 hours. I'm working on it, though.

By: CharlesV42

CharlesV42 — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:18:34 -0800

Feel like an idiot with a typo on Jonny not in my first FPP... and olaguera, that was my secret plan in posting this, hoping we could crowdsource it to someplace better. Perhaps a dropbox share? Or I wonder if anyone's abused github for this sort of things yet :)

By: Kronos_to_Earth

Kronos_to_Earth — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:23:24 -0800

[remove from favorites] NO! NEVER! Thank you, CharlesV42. And the robot spider finally doesn't scare me anym oh no oh my god no i can't live with th well, maybe I can a little longer: Jonny Quest on flickr

By: olaguera

olaguera — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:34:32 -0800

Good god, I forgot about the 16min wait between downloads. That makes 56h, I think.

By: hippybear

hippybear — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:51:13 -0800

That's my favorite feature of rapidshare. It makes the whole process completely eponysterical.

By: OwlBoy

OwlBoy — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:34:34 -0800

I appreciate the effort of people to get this on a torrent!

By: CharlesV42

CharlesV42 — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:38:49 -0800

Eff it, this is my post, I should own it. 7eur later, i'm pulling all these at a pretty nice clip. I'll throw them on my dreamhost later, and we can all burn through it to seed via tpb :)

By: Pronoiac

Pronoiac — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:13:42 -0800

Dropbox & Amazon S3 are also helpful to get files out. S3 offers torrent tracking for hosted files, even after they're removed - though I'm not sure how the billing works there. If we were in a hurry, I'd suggest listing the files as you received them, to get a complete set amongst participants most quickly. Organizing that list here is probably not the best idea, though.

By: CharlesV42

CharlesV42 — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:46:11 -0800

I've got them all on my webhosting which should pull down at a quick clip... Unfortunately i'm leaving the country in about 48 hours so I can't really commit to seeding. If you'd like to grab them and start a torrent, mefimail me or regular mail at charlesv at gmail dot com and we'll work it out.

By: Sailormom

Sailormom — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:23:48 -0800

Cool.

By: hippybear

hippybear — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:23:24 -0800

CharlesV42: once we get 'em up and going, I can put them on Demonoid, too.

By: CharlesV42

CharlesV42 — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:44:29 -0800

We've got a few people downloading them to start seeding. Whenever that comes through I'll probably just mail everyone whose favorited this. So I guess favorite it if you want the torrent when it happens? :)

By: box

box — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:53:17 -0800

I just got around to actually watching this thing, and, I think it's a really interesting story, and one that encompasses a lot of the big themes and trends in tv animation. Thanks for your efforts, CharlesV42.

By: NewGear

NewGear — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:12:58 -0800

Cool. Glad to see everybody banding together to try and get this thing seeded out there. I was going to try and torrent it once I had downloaded all the HQ YouTube videos and concatenated them together, but after downloading most of them, suddenly noticed that two of the episodes had been pulled for copyright violations (one for Family Guy clips, not sure what the other one was for...) In any case, it's an amazing documentary, and I'm looking forward to downloading and sharing the torrent!

By: olaguera

olaguera — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:05:49 -0800

Torrent update: sorry about the 10GB size, someone should be getting a reasonably-sized torrent up by tomorrow.

By: CharlesV42

CharlesV42 — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:05:00 -0800

Here's the torrent, if you'd like to seed, mefimail me and I'll send you the download links. http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4971861 Thanks, olaguera!

By: silsurf

silsurf — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:24:30 -0800

For the sake of my own sanity, can someone help me understand what happened to my download of these RS files. I used JDownloader (which btw recently got a great face lift and makes rs download as painless as can be) and it was about three days for the first 56 100mb files. Now, in my downlaod folder I find 56 files all numbered sequentially as "QuestFIRSTHOURFinalH264.mov.001" etc. I change the prefix to the first one and voila I have a working QT .mov file in H264 high quality video. Then I try changing the suffix to the next and I get bubkus, an unreadable file. (All files are 100mb except the 56th one at 88mb) I try multiple players to see if I can find something that will play the following files, but everything says unsupported format. I then go to burn the .001 and see that it is a full 1:14:17 long? But it is only 100mb? It looks great, I just do not understand what happened here? I was going to make to authored DVD's and put them on Demonoid, but at this point I am dead in the water, before I delete the 55 100 files and I guess keep the one readable file and wait for part two to be authored and uploaded as a torrent, can someone give me an idea what I did wrong? On the original blog it is not very clear about the differenece between part on and part two? Part one files are all callled mov.001, but part two has them lsited as .rar files and that they will be needing unrar-ing. I am still a knucklehead and that is good news. Thanks and can't wait to see this darn thing! Henry

By: olaguera

olaguera — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:15:00 -0800

The poster of the files split the original mov into 50-some parts, so you'll need a tool that will digitally concatenate them back together. If you're using a unix variant, including OS X, that tool is 'cat *mov* > quest1.mov', otherwise, I think there's a utility suggested on the blog entry linked to in the fpp. The same goes for the 50-some rar files. For the life of me I couldn't get rar to open it as a multi-archive, but concatenating the parts worked.

By: olaguera

olaguera — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:28:32 -0800

Approximately 1GB re-encode can be found here: http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4973097

By: hippybear

hippybear — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:35:53 -0800

silsurf: I haven't downloaded the movie... but if you have some kind of UnRAR installed on your machine (my Mac is very happy with Stuffit expander)... you can make these work for yourself. Rename the first file to have a .rar.001 suffix... and then double click on it to expand the entire batch. Your computer will automatically process and fuze the entire group into one giant movie. Or at least, that's how it's worked for me in the past. As I said above, I've not downloaded the movie. Yet. *off to consort with pirates*

By: hippybear

hippybear — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:37:46 -0800

olaguera: there are no seeds for your torrent. :(

By: omnidrew

omnidrew — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:48:48 -0800

Seeding the 10GB version now via TPB. Thanks olaguera & CharlesV42.

By: hippybear

hippybear — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:18:51 -0800

Excellent. I have both torrents going now... I'm not sure what I'll do with the 10GB version... that's basically uncompressed DVD_VIDEO format? Probably has killer resolution. If I can figure out how to turn it into an actual playable DVD, I'll be doing that and possibly reseeding. That should reduce the download to about 4GB. Thanks, hive mind participants, for helping make this happen! I didn't think I'd care, but after watching on YouTube, I do, and now I get to help others care, too!

By: dunkadunc

dunkadunc — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:26:42 -0800

I'm actually happy it's so big, although it's going to take a few days. I could easily imagine the original getting lost and the low-res Youtube version being the only one to survive. I'll seed as long as possible.

By: NewGear

NewGear — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:53:08 -0800

FYI, for concatinating allthose .001, .002... files on OSX, I've always been a huge fan of MacHacha. Drop the first numbered file onto it, and it'll join them all back into the original movie file.

By: omnidrew

omnidrew — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:35:23 -0800

MacHacha is good -- 7zx is another useful OS X unarchiver/joiner/gadget/thingy.

By: hippybear

hippybear — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:02:59 -0800

Tiny torrent finished a while ago... Big torrent, well, it might be 2010 before my stupid CenturyTel DSL finally delivers the final byte to my computer. Still, persistence pays off, or so I hear. :)

By: Sailormom

Sailormom — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:50:16 -0800

Just finished the tiny torrent myself. i can seed for a little while. Thanks .

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:26:36 -0800

Basd on this post I just finished the first season of the Venture Bros and holy cow, what a pitch-perfect parody of Jonny Quest in spots.

By: acro

acro — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:04:31 -0800

If the piratebay link isn't working, isohunt has a copy.