So here we have another Jimmy Neutron collection. If Paramount's recent SpongeBob SquarePants history is any indicator, we'll see perhaps five more of these light compilations before we finally start seeing full-season sets. Sigh. At the very least, though, these Jimmy Neutron collections (this is the second of two) seem to be sticking fairly closely to the order of the original airdates (at least, compared with the SpongeBob sets). They aren't exactly right, but at least they're not a random selection across seasons.

James Isaac Neutron, pint-sized kid genius with the wild pompadour and the robot dog Goddard, is a weirdly marvelous creation in this age of brain-dead Saturday mornings. His vocabulary is consistently challenging—even for some adults—and his ideas are insanely intricate and fun, and yet he retains that aura of silliness and ridiculousness so vital to kids' programming. The show's Retroville setting is a perfectly vivid and colorful environment for Jimmy to thrive in. Characters interacting with Jimmy include his pie-obsessed dad Hugh Neutron, his loving 50s-TV-show-patterned mom Judy, and his friends—Far Side-inspired Carl, Ultralord-obsessed Sheen, and Kirsten Dunst-soundalike Cindy. It's a fun ensemble whose actions appeal to the kiddie set but whose words often aim for the parents. You get fart jokes combined with quotes from Shakespeare and words like "exacerbate."

The animated series debuted on Nickelodeon in late 2002, following the release of the feature film Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. Collected on this DVD are 10 episodes from the series' first season. Here they are:

1) Raise the Ooby Scab (9/27/02)—Jimmy, Cindy, Carl, and Sheen search for treasure on the high seas, all in the name of a science project.
2) Phantom of Retroland (10/30/02)—Nick relates the ghost story of the Phantom of Retroland, who lives at the amusement park. Jimmy decides to investigate.
3) Hypno Birthday to You (11/1/02)—Jimmy needs a new chemistry set, so he decides to hypnotize his parents into believing tomorrow's his birthday.
4) Hall Monster (11/1/02)— Jimmy is chosen as hall monitor and the power goes to his head. I think every kids show is obligated to use this plot at some point.
5) Trading Faces (10/14/02)—While Jimmy is reading Cindy's mind, he inadvertently switches their personalities.
6) Journey to the Center of Carl (1/31/03)—Jimmy makes everybody sick so they can get out of school. But the sickness gets out of control. .
7) I Dream of Jimmy (9/27/02)—Jimmy finds a way to explore Carl's dreamscape.
8) Substitute Creature (11/15/02)—Jimmy's teacher accidentally swallows a seed from Jimmy's DNA-accelerated spinach plant. The result, of course, is that the teacher becomes a giant plant creature running amok.
9) Broadcast Blues (3/14/03)—Jimmy becomes the host of a TV show, but the show fails. Guess who his replacement is?
10) Professor Calamitous, I Presume (3/14/03)—Evil Professor Finbarr Calamitous plots to take over Retroville.

Paramount presents Jimmy Neutron: Sea of Trouble in a vivid full-frame presentation that mirrors the image quality of the previous release. Although the series lacks the full three-dimensional depth of the feature, this image is pretty impressive. Detail is spectacular, and colors are warm and vivid. I noticed virtually no edge halos. Like the first disc, this presentation can't avoid a few instances of digital artifacting, in the form of aliasing and shimmering along hard lines, especially during pans.

The disc's Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track is full and fairly active. Dialog is accurate and lively, and the low end gets a workout.

The disc's extras emphasize quantity over quality. It might look like a decent array of supplements, but there's really not very much here.

The promising-sounding Behind the Scenes is actually just a handful of minute-long glimpses of character sketches that played as interstitials on Nickelodeon.

In Storyboards, you can view the two episodes Raise the Oozy Scab and I Dream of Jimmy in storyboard format.

The Inventions Gallery shows pictures of Jimmy's various inventions.

Finally, you get the usual irritating array of Nickelodeon Previews.

Jimmy Neutron is a fun ride, filled with nostalgia-laced 50s-era stylings and aggressively silly and loud humor—not to mention oddly sophisticated writing that only the most precocious children would understand. Jimmy Neutron: Sea of Trouble is a mildly appealing DVD, but I can't help but anticipate the eventual release of season sets.