Johnny Test: The Lost Web Series
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 You thought the last three seasons of the original series were bad? Well, you haven't seen what this pile of crap has to offer.
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Johnny Test: The Lost Web Series is a short-lived Canadian web series that is the online revival of the American-Canadian animated series, Johnny Test. It was first announced on March 15, 2019 when the official Johnny Test YouTube channel revealed that a new animated season of the series would be coming soon with no official release date.
On May 1, 2020, over a year after the announcement, a countdown began on the Johnny Test YouTube channel which led to the premiere of the first (and only) episode of the revival, League of Johnnys, on May 2, 2020.
Plot
Johnny and Dukey find Susan and Mary building a portal to different dimensions, so after Susan and Mary leave the lab, Johnny and Dukey mess with the portal only to find different versions of Johnny exit out, JNE-TST, Donnie Test, and Joni West (who previously appeared in the season 5 episode of the original series, "Johnny Alternative"). But when an evil version of Johnny sneaks out and kidnaps Susan and Mary, Johnny, his alternate versions, and Dukey, go on an adventure to rescue Susan and Mary and stop Evil Johnny. After they rescue Susan and Mary, at the end, it was revealed that Evil Johnny kept the blue prints of the portal, revealing that Evil Johnny will return in another episode.
Why This Test Experiment Failed
NOTE: This will only tackle the first episode as the others were unreleased and probably will never make it to the public.
- To get Dukey out the doghouse: The flash animation from SmashBits is downright awful as it's incredibly stilted, choppy, slow paced and a ridiculous downgrade from the first season's hand drawn animation from Digital eMation, the flash animation from Collideascope in seasons 2 and 3 and even the flash animation from Atomic Cartoons in seasons 4-6.
- None of the voice actors from the original series returned and were replaced. While the new voice actors do a decent job, it still doesn't feel the same and it's also pretty jarring to listen to at times as they sound almost nothing like the original voice actors with Tom Wayland doing a pretty poor Trevor Devall impression.
- Most of the characters here are either unlikable, one dimensional, stereotypical, bland, or completely forgettable.
- Johnny's flanderization from the last three seasons of the original series is still present here as he messes with the portal even after Susan and Mary told him not to and is responsible for Evil Johnny escaping and stealing the portal.
- JNE-TST is completely one-dimensional and forgettable as he's tossed to the side without getting to do much and is also pretty pointless, you can remove him from this "episode" and nothing would change.
- Donnie Test (while likable) is an offensive Italian stereotype with the only joke about him being that he is Italian (even if it can be entertaining).
- Joni (while also still likable) is still an incredibly bland love interest for Johnny like in "Johnny Alternative" and their crush on each other is still really cringey and uncomfortable to watch as they're both the same person which can be seen as SELFCEST!
- Evil Johnny is an incredibly weak and generic antagonist as he's a generic "doomsday villain" and for some reason, the writers decided to make him British which was a really weird choice on their part.
- All of the other characters from the original series don't make an appearance nor are they mentioned (aside from Gil) such as Bling Bling Boy, Hugh, Lila, Sissy, Bumper, Mr. Mittens, Albert, Dark Vegan, Brain Freezer, Wack-O, Gil (despite being mentioned), The Beekeeper, Mr. Black and Mr. White, Montague, etc. which can be seen as wasted potential.
- The "episode" is way too short, lasting only 5 minutes with scenes dragging on way too quickly and don't spend enough time on character development.
- The majority of the comedy is really poor with them only relying on internet culture, and racist stereotypes. For example, in one scene, Joni makes a GIF on Johnny with a pretzel swinging around his nose.
- Some really laughable and confusing dialogue like "Ha, there's no way this won't be awesome!" and "Hey, Johnny, I GIFed you."
- Like with Teen Titans Go!, Alvin and the Chipmunks (2015), The Powerpuff Girls (2016), Bob the Builder (2015), the CGI era of Fireman Sam, The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder, Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go, the Netflix era of VeggieTales, and Caillou's New Adventures, it tries way too hard to modernize the Johnny Test franchise, even more so than the last three seasons of the original show and the 2021 reboot with way too many references to memes and internet culture to the point where it becomes annoying.
- Like with the last three seasons of the original series, it overuses a lot of sound effects, especially the whipcrack, which is still pretty grating to listen to.
- The plot can also be seen as a reversed version of "Johnny Alternative" as instead of Johnny and Dukey entering a portal to another universe, clones of Johnny travel to his universe.
- Despite continuing where the original series left off, it has absolutely no impact of the franchise whatsoever, you can watch the original series (yes, even the bad seasons) and the 2021 Netflix reboot and skip this one entirely and miss absolutely nothing. So it can be seen as non-canon.
- Some of the character designs are extremely lazy, most notably Evil Johnny who is just Johnny but with black hair, red eyes, a red jacket, and red pants.
- Sequel Baiting: At the end of the episode, it was implied that Evil Johnny would return in a future episode, but due to the show's really quick cancellation, the episode being privated on YouTube (though it can still be found on other websites such as Internet Archive and Vimeo) and with the release of the 2021 Netflix reboot, the episodes were never released to the public, thus, leaving the show on a cliffhanger without the main plot ever being resolved.
- Overall, while the last three seasons of the original already ruined the reputation of the show, this one FURTHERED IT with it making people hate the original show even more to the point where people found the show even more awful because of this show.
Redeeming Qualities
- Dukey, Susan, Mary, and Joni are still likable characters (despite Joni still being a bland love interest).
- Donnie Test, despite being an Italian stereotype, is also quite likable and arguably the most entertaining part of the episode with most of the funniest jokes coming from him.
- The title card at the beginning is admittedly cool looking.
- The partly found new theme song is quite catchy.
- Despite the plot being a rehash of "Johnny Alternative", it's still not a bad idea but it was executed horribly.
- The character designs and art-style are still cool looking, especially with Johnny, Dukey, and JNE-TST.
- Despite not being as good as the original voice actors, the new voice actors do a decent job with the material they were given.
- The 2021 Netflix reboot that came out a year later after this reboot is a vast improvement over the web series due to the animation switching to Toon Boom Harmony instead of Flash in seasons 2-6 in the original series, the characters reverting back to their original personalities, creator Scott Fellows, as well as the original cast returned, the new character designs from Stephen Silver (who also did the character designs of The Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom, Kim Possible and Clerks: The Animated Series) look great, and it also has most of the crew from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic working on it.
Reception
Johnny Test: The Lost Web Series was met with mixed-to-negative reviews with lots of people criticizing it for the lazy animation that's even lazier than in seasons 4-6, unlikable and bland characters, still having the creepy romance between Johnny and Joni, and being a reversed version of the season 5 episode, "Johnny Alternative".
History
On June 11, 2013, the original Johnny Test television series had been renewed for a seventh season to consist of 13 episodes and a three-part special. However, the season was never produced. Johnny Test's voice actor, James Arnold Taylor, responded to a tweet on June 25, 2015, in regards to the seventh season, stating that he was unaware of plans for a seventh season.
On March 15, 2019, the official Johnny Test YouTube channel released a video confirming the show would inspire a series of web-shorts by WildBrain Spark, a subsidiary of WildBrain that produces original content for online distribution. The announcement video was made private in October 2019 for unknown reasons.
The first episode was released on May 2, 2020, on YouTube, but two days after the release it was privatized, and the rest of the episodes went unreleased, and still are to this date, and are also lost media.
Trivia
- None of the original cast members of the TV series returned for the web series, as mentioned above.
- A countdown titled "countdown.mp4" started on the Johnny Test YouTube channel on May 1, 2020, leading up to the premiere.
- Animation was completed by December 2019, but it is unknown if all episodes went through post production. Some clips are available in various reels by animators contracted by SmashBits.
- Being shorts, these episodes will likely all be around 5 minutes in length.
- The episodes can be found listed on the director's website.
Videos
Comments
- Reboots
- Revivals
- Web series
- 2020s programs
- YouTube
- Short-lived shows
- Shows that lasted only one season
- Shows that only lasted one episode
- "It's made for girls/boys"
- Cartoons
- DHX Media shows
- Canadian shows
- Flash animated shows
- Shows that ended on cliffhangers
- Boring shows
- Internet memes
- Abusing the franchise
- Cash cows
- Aware of how bad they are
- Bad media