''Jonny's Golden Quest'' is an

animated Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...

made-for-television film produced by

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ; formerly known as H-B Enterprises, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. and H-B Production Co.), simply and commonly known as Hanna-Barbera, was an American animation studio and production company, which was acti ...

in 1992, and originally aired on

USA Network USA Network (or simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was launched in 1977 as Madison Square Garden Sports Network, one of the first national sports ...

on April 4, 1993. It is a follow-up to the 1964–65 ''

Jonny Quest ''Jonny Quest'' is a science fiction–adventure media franchise created by Doug Wildey for Hanna-Barbera. It follows the character Jonny Quest, a young boy who joins his scientist father on various extraordinary adventures. The franchise sta ...

'' cartoon series, and its 1986 revival '' The New Adventures of Jonny Quest'' from ''

The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera ''The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera'' is an American animated syndicated programming block produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions that ran on a weekly schedule and was performed in live action. The program ran from 1985 to 1994. Overview The ...

''. ''Jonny's Golden Quest'' reunites the voice talents of

Don Messick Donald Earle Messick (September 7, 1926 – October 24, 1997) was an American voice actor, known for his performances in Hanna-Barbera cartoons. His best-remembered voice roles include Scooby-Doo; Bamm-Bamm Rubble and Hoppy in ''The Flintsto ...

as Dr. Benton Quest, Granville Van Dusen as Race Bannon, and

Rob Paulsen Robert Frederick Paulsen III (born March 11, 1956) is an American voice actor and voice director, known for his roles in numerous animated television series and films. He received a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Pro ...

as Hadji from the 1986 series. The film also features Will Nipper as Jonny Quest,

JoBeth Williams Margaret JoBeth Williams (born December 6, 1948) is an American actress. She rose to prominence appearing in such films as '' Kramer vs. Kramer'' (1979), '' Stir Crazy'' (1980), ''Poltergeist'' (1982), '' The Big Chill'' (1983), '' The Day After' ...

as Jade Kenyon, Anndi McAfee as Jessie, and

Jeffrey Tambor Jeffrey Michael Tambor (born July 8, 1944) is an American retired actor. He is known for his television roles such as Jeffrey Brookes, the uptight neighbor of Stanley and Helen Roper in the television sitcom ''The Ropers'' (1979–1980), as Hank ...

as Dr. Zin. It is set after and references the continuity of the previous two ''Jonny Quest'' series.

Plot

Team Quest, working as associates for international spy operation Intelligence-One, are given an assignment to investigate occurrences of mutated animals and plant life in Peru. Dr. Benton Quest and his bodyguard "Race" Bannon bring along Benton's sons Jonny and (adopted from India) Hadji, and their dog Bandit. Also coming along is Benton's biologist wife Dr. Rachel Quest, who usually does not come along on their adventures. Upon arriving in Peru, Race runs into his ex-wife Jade Kenyon, who was sent by Intelligence-One as their civilian contact for the investigation. Just after Jade's arrival, Benton and Rachel are kidnapped by Dr. Zin, who has caused the mutations while perfecting processes to bring monsters called "replicants" to life. Zin has also been working on cloning technology, and manages to successfully clone himself before Race, Jonny, and Hadji arrive to save Benton and Rachel. However, Rachel is taken hostage by Zin's clone and, after Benton freezes while attempting to shoot down Zin in his hovercraft (as he would have shot Rachel as well), both Rachel and Zin's clone are killed in the erupting volcano. Rachel's murder causes Benton to quit I-1, and drives a wedge into his already strained relationship with Jonny. As he begins shutting down the Quest compound in Mexico, an American girl named Jessie turns up with a mask made of synthetically pure gold, which she tells Team Quest she was to deliver to an associate of her

alchemist Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

father, Dr. Victor Devlon. When approached by Intelligence-One to discover the whereabouts of Dr. Devlon and the secrets to his alchemy process, Benton reluctantly accepts. Team Quest and Jessie begin a globe-trotting search for Jessie's father and his associates, pursued at every turn by Dr. Zin and his operatives, one of whom is revealed to be a reluctant Jade. Dr. Quest uses a sentient supercomputer, 3-DAC, to help him, the rest of his team, and Jessie follow the trail of Devlon from

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, and then to

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. During the trip, Jonny and Jessie begin to grow fond of one another, while Jonny's relationship with his father continues to deteriorate. Convinced Benton could have taken the shot and saved Rachel, Jonny swears to kill Zin in revenge, avenge his mother's death, and show up his father. Later that night, after a quick coffee break at the cafe, Team Quest and Jessie enter the catacombs of Rome, where Devlon is hiding out in a makeshift lab. It is revealed Devlon was an employee of Zin's who ran away with an alchemy formula he'd helped invent, as 100% pure gold was the key ingredient to improving his cloning process. However, Devlon got greedy which is the reason he stole the formula for himself. Everything Jessie had told Team Quest about her father and the mask were lies to have them help Zin find Devlon, as Zin had kidnapped Jessie's mother - Jade - and forced them to play parts in his schemes. Dr. Zin kills Devlon and kidnaps Race with a tentacled robot, taking him to a compound in the

Australian Outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass ...

to use Race's DNA to improve the vitality of Zin's own clones. When Zin's intelligent replicant bodyguard Snipe prepares to execute the rest of the group himself, Hadji attempts to hypnotize him into letting them go, but Snipe is unaffected by hypnosis, so Hadji brings the mummies to life. They attack and kill Snipe, allowing Team Quest, Jessie and Jade to get away. Jade later reveals to Jessie that Race is her father. The group arrive at the Australian compound to save Race and destroy Zin's robot along with the remaining replicants, but when Zin captures Benton and Jonny is faced with the same dilemma of whether or not he can take a shot at Zin while he is holding Benton hostage, Jonny freezes as well. However, he is able to use a dolphin communicator his mother had given him to get a pair of dolphins to bump Zin away from his father. Jonny tried to fire at Zin; however, Zin escapes to a getaway submarine and sends a missile to destroy the compound. This plan backfires when Zin's sub ends up trapped beneath falling debris, and he is left to die. As the plant begins to explode, Jonny is separated from the rest of Team Quest in their escape, but his dolphin friends lead him safely out of the compound underwater. Jonny and Benton reconcile, Jonny realizes that what happened to his mother wasn't Benton's fault, and Benton makes a full-fledged return to Intelligence-One work. Race, who now knows Jessie is his daughter, joins Jessie and Jade on a sea cruise vacation - but not before Jessie gives Jonny a goodbye kiss. As the Bannon-Kenyon family sets sail, one of Dr. Zin's clones is revealed to be floating in the ocean waters in a tube, having survived the explosion of the Australian compound.

Relation to previous works

The main plot of ''Jonny's Golden Quest'' repurposes the storyline of "Deadly Junket," an episode of ''The New Adventures of Jonny Quest''. In that episode, a little girl appears to ask the Quest party to help her find her missing father, a scientist kidnapped by Dr. Zin. Here, the girl, Jessie, is ultimately revealed to have been lying about her identity, and her parents are really Race and his romantic interest from two episodes of the original series, Jade.

Voice cast

* Will Nipper - Jonny Quest *

- Dr. Benton C. Quest, Bandit * Granville Van Dusen - 'Race' Bannon *

- Hadji *

- Dr. Zin * Anndi McAfee - Jessie Kenyon *

- Jade Kenyon *

Meredith MacRae Meredith Lynn MacRae (May 30, 1944 – July 14, 2000) was an American actress, singer and talk show host. She is most remembered for her roles as Sally Morrison on ''My Three Sons'' (1963–1965) and as Billie Jo Bradley on ''Petticoat Junction ...

- Dr. Rachel Quest *

Ed Gilbert Ed Gilbert (born Edmund Francis Giesbert, June 29, 1931 – May 8, 1999) was an American actor, with extensive credits in both live-action roles and voice work in animation, although he was better known for the latter. He is also credited, under ...

- Commander *

George Hearn George Hearn (born June 18, 1934) is an American actor and bass-baritone singer, primarily in Broadway musical theatre. Some of his Broadway credits include Albin in '' La Cage aux Folles'', the title role in '' Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barb ...

- President * Peter Renaday - Dr. Victor Devlon *

Pepe Serna Pepe Serna (born July 23, 1944) is an American actor and artist. Career Serna's first break in films came in 1970 on the Roger Corman-directed film '' The Student Nurses''. Over the years, Serna has appeared in over 100 films. In the blockbust ...

- Agent Menendez *

Marcelo Tubert Marcelo Tubert (born February 11, 1952) is an Argentine-born American actor. Biography Early life and career Born in Córdoba, Argentina, Tubert's mother, Miriam Tubert, is an actress who did a great deal of stage work and had her own children ...

- Chef * Betty Jean Ward - 3-DAC *

Frank Welker Franklin Wendell Welker (born March 12, 1946) is an American actor who specializes in voice acting. He began his career in the 1960s, and held around 850 film, television, and video game credits as of 2020, making him one of the most prolific v ...

- Snipe, Replicants * Whitby Hertford

Production crew

*Mario Piluso - Producer *John Debney - Music *Mark Young - Story, Co-Executive Producer *Sean Roche - Teleplay *

William Hanna William Denby Hanna (July 14, 1910 – March 22, 2001) was an American animator, voice actor, and musician who is best known for co-creating ''Tom and Jerry'' and providing the vocal effects for the series' title characters. Alongside Joseph B ...

- Executive Producer *

Joseph Barbera Joseph Roland Barbera ( ; ; March 24, 1911 – December 18, 2006) was an American animator and cartoonist, best known as the co-founder of the animation studio Hanna-Barbera. Born to Italian Americans, Italian immigrants in New York City, Bar ...

- Executive Producer * Don Lusk - Director *Paul Sommer - Director

Production

Home media

On August 9, 2011,

Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, Inc. (doing business as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment; formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the American home video distribution ...

released ''Jonny's Golden Quest'' on DVD in region 1 via their Warner Archive Collection. This is a manufacture-on-demand release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and only in the U.S. The film was released on Blu-ray on September 24, 2024 as part of a double feature with '' Jonny Quest vs. The Cyber Insects''.

References

External links

* {{H-B films Jonny Quest 1990s adventure films 1990s mystery films 1993 television films 1993 animated films 1993 films USA Network original films Hanna-Barbera animated films 1990s American animated films Television series reunion films Films scored by John Debney 1990s English-language films Animated films about orphans American mystery television films Films directed by Don Lusk English-language adventure films English-language mystery films