The Junkman Cometh

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The Junkman Cometh

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The Junkman Cometh
The title card for The Junkman Cometh.
Episode	15
Season	2
Airdate (US)	March 12, 2004
Airdate (CA)	October 15, 2004
Previous	Out, Darn Spotlight
Next	Foul Bull

"The Junkman Cometh" is the 15^th episode of the second season of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.

Synopsis

Jimmy, Carl, and Sheen are kicking back and watching wrestling on TV when Brobot appears onscreen. He tells them that he and his robot parents are being attacked by "Moonie Men" and then he begs Jimmy to come and help. Carl and Sheen insist that he needs to go save his robot brother, and Jimmy decides to help, as long as the two of them come with him. At first, Sheen and Carl refuse, but they change their minds once Jimmy tells them that they can’t use the TV while he’s gone, and they agree to leave. Then Jimmy, Carl, Sheen and Goddard get into the rocket and start to drive off to the moon. Carl and Sheen also try to convince Jimmy to let them stay in the rocket, but he refuses.

Once on the moon, the four spot a strange figure approaching in the distance. They are scared, and then they hide behind rocks as the figure comes towards them. But it turns out that it's only Brobot wearing a mask. Jimmy then annoyingly asks where the Moonie Men are, but it turns out that Brobot only made them up because he wanted to play with Jimmy. Jimmy insists that they're going home, and then he starts to walk back to the rocket. Brobot acts sad and wins Jimmy over.

While Brobot leaves to get his pail and shovel, Jimmy, Carl, Sheen and Goddard collect crystals on the moon as Jimmy complains about Brobot. Suddenly, a dark space cloud appears. Brobot arrives and then he says that the space cloud came from the horrible and scary Junkman who took his parents. Jimmy drags Carl, Sheen and Goddard off the moon, thinking that Brobot's crying wolf again. On the way home, they happily talk about how they can still catch the last few minutes of the wrestling tournament. Suddenly, the space cloud appears again, and then an eerie green light sucks the rocket into it.

It turns out that the Junkman is real, and they're stuck on his spaceship. He introduces himself to the boys while playing dramatic piano music and laughing manically. The Junkman reveals that he runs a shady business by collecting space junk from across the galaxy. He scans the boys and declares them to be relatively worthless. However, he's impressed by the rocket, saying that he can use it to make toilets. Then Junkman's dog Roxy comes into the room, and Goddard's smitten by her. He tries to flirt with her, but the Junkman notices and then he imprisons the boys and Goddard.

On the way to the cell, Jimmy and his friends see Brobot's parents, who're quite friendly and oblivious about their fate. Once inside the prison, Sheen plays the harmonica and then Jimmy shows remorse for not believing Brobot. At this moment, Brobot appears; he hid on the bottom of Jimmy's rocket and came to bust the boys out. He busts them out and asks them if they're now going to help him save his parents. Carl and Sheen don't really want to, but Jimmy agrees with him. They sneak around the spaceship as Jimmy tells everyone the plan: They're going to save Brobot's parents and Goddard, find the spaceship, and leave.

The scene switches to the Junkman trying to figure out what to sell Goddard for. He gets a call from Gortox the Irritable, who's wondering where the Gravadisc's the Junkman promised him are, since the Junkman's planning to use Brobot's parents for toys, and then he puts them on a conveyor belt, asking them if they have any last words. The boys and Brobot come to the scene. They try to think of what to do, and they finally agree that Brobot should distract the Junkman, something he's quite adept at. While the Junkman chases after Brobot, Carl and Sheen grab Brobot's parents off the conveyor belt and make a run for the rocket.

Meanwhile, Goddard has finally won over Roxy's heart. The Junkman gets angry by this, and the fact that the boys have escaped. He tells Roxy to get them, but she turns on him, allowing Brobot's parents to tie him up. The Junkman tries to attack them while tied to a rolling chair, but he ends up knocking the steering wheel off his ship, which it careens into space. The Junkman insists that he's the only one who can save them and then Jimmy unties him under the condition that he'll just save them and leave. But then he breaks his promise and runs into an escape pod with Roxy while laughing manically. While Jimmy tries to get the ship under control, Brobot insists that he can help, and he's able to save them and defeat the Junkman.

Afterwards, everyone enjoys a snack of moon pies on the moon, while Brobot and Jimmy play several games of Moon-Tennis together.

Gallery

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Home Media

DVD

• Attack of the Twonkies
• The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: The Complete Series

iTunes

• The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: Season 2

Goofs

• After Sheen tells Brobot the Boy Who Cried Wolf, Brobot says "That wasn't a very good story." Jimmy responds by saying "Neither was yours, Brobot!" This response is not parallel to Brobot's line and thus has no real point as Brobot was referring to the story and not the boy's lie. The proper response would be "Neither was this, Brobot!" or possibly none at all.
• Brobot lies in this episode, despite stating in his debut that he is programmed for honesty only.

Trivia

• This episode premiered in the U.S. as the fifth and final episode of the Jimmy Neutron-A-Thon! marathon event in March 2004.
• The photo Carl pasted on Hugh's face is of his original design from the movie and shorts. You can tell by the suspenders.
• After leaving the moon, Jimmy makes fun of the Junkman, saying, "The Junkman sounds like a villain on a lame TV show that people watch because they have no real lives."
• Sheen breaks the fourth wall by asking Jimmy why they can breathe in space without helmets or space suits and why they are able to get to and from space within a matter of minutes. As Jimmy is explaining this to Sheen, his voice is drowned out by the sound of Carl's terrible and annoying singing. This is likely a meta commentary on people who complain about the show’s scientific inaccuracy.
  • On the commentary for the movie, John A. Davis and Keith Alcorn said that the real reason the characters don't wear space suits is because space suits and helmets would cover up their faces and make the characters too hard to animate. Oddly enough, Sheen is wearing a helmet when trying to blast home in the Planet Sheen pilot episode and there was a shield on the rocket. Jimmy most likely put it there so the driver wouldn't fly out if he crashed, since there is no seatbelt.
• This is the second of the three episodes Brobot appears in.
• This is the second time Goddard got dog-napped, the first was in "Professor Calamitous, I Presume".
• Cindy, Hugh, Judy, and Libby don't appear in this episode, although Libby was mentioned at some point and there was a picture of Hugh and Judy.
• This marks the second instance of characters admitting to secretly hating Sheen, a running gag which began in "Journey to the Center of Carl", with Ms. Fowl. It continues here with Carl and Brobot.
• This and "Fundemonium" are the only 22-minute episodes where Cindy and Libby don't appear.
• The Junkman is repeatedly distracted or taken by surprise by events happening behind him, despite clearly being depicted with eyes on the back of his head in his first scene in the episode.
• The episode's name comes from "The Iceman Cometh", a play by Eugene O'Neill.
• In this episode, Brobot is shown to be more mischievous and less annoyingly perfect.
• Although this episode was released in 2004, you can actually see "Copyright 2003 Viacom International, Inc." at the end of the credits. This means that the episode was produced in 2003.
• This episode premiered on Frank Welker's 58th birthday.
• During the sequence when Carl and Sheen are arguing while traveling from the Earth to the moon if one were to look closely in the background, the edge to a flat plane 3D model textured with the Earth and stars can be seen pulling away from Jimmy's Rocket, as the stars do not align with the rest of the stars of the 3D skydome model. This was likely done to save on animation resources, as modeling and rendering a detailed Earth would be too time consuming and expensive. The workaround being a simple texture on a flat plane surface, and then animate it slowly away from the ship to give the camera a forced perspective look of motion.
  • Additionally on the trip back from the moon to the Earth right before capture by the Junkman, the edge of yet another 3D sky card space model textured with stars can be seen briefly behind Carl when he begins singing, as there is a black void off to the right before it disappears when the model animates into place to simulate perspective motion.