Out of Jimmy's Head is a Cartoon Network live action/animated sitcom, acting as a continuation of the 2006 TV Movie Re-Animated. The series lasted for twenty episodes, running from September 2007 to May 2008.
The series follows the misadventures of Jimmy Roberts (Dominic James), a middle schooler who received the brain of beloved cartoonist Milt Appleday after a train accident, which has resulted in him being able to see all of Milt's creations in the real world. With the help of his best friend Craig and his crush Robin, Jimmy must learn to navigate the perils of adolescence while trying to handle whatever wacky antics his new animated mental roommates are up to that day, with said roommates including the egotistical Golly Gopher (Paul Reubens), Golly's kind girlfriend Dolly Gopher (Ellen Greene), the slow-witted Crocco the Alligator (Brian Posehn), stand-up comedian Tux the Penguin (Tom Kenny), and the silently violent Pickles and Prickles.
Meanwhile, Milt's least favourite and only child, Sonny Appleday, wants his father's brain so he can create cartoons like his father and rule the world after being ousted from the company for his own lack of creativity, and has taken up residence in Jimmy's home under the thinly-veiled guise of a local college student as a means to that end. Rounding out the cast is Jimmy's dimwitted guidance counselor father Ken, his mother Louisa who is regularly off-planet working as a 9-to-5 astronaut, and his alien older sister Yancy. Yes, even when the cartoons aren't around, it's that kind of show.
The movie and the series is notorious for being among the first of Cartoon Network's experiments with original live-action fare. Despite mixed critical reception, the show performed well enough to lay the foundations for future live-action projects at the network, such as the reality show programming block CN Real and scripted series such as Tower Prep.
BAM! I didn't see that train, now I got tropes coming out of my brain:
- Adaptational Personality Change: A few characters changed between the movie to the series to some extent, but the biggest example is Robin, who goes from just being Appleday's biggest fan to the Voice of Reason for Jimmy whenever he starts acting like a dingleberry. She's also not afraid to join in on any fun Jimmy might be having, and she is shown to not like it when she's treated differently due to being a girl.
- Art Shift: A few episodes have Jimmy completely going into the cartoon world briefly to solve a problem.
- Ascended Extra: Kevin (the Friend to All Living Things kid), the Easily Excited Kid, Becky, and Logan from the movie. While they didn't make main character status, they appeared in recurring roles and got more screen-time than they did in the movie.
- Award-Bait Song: Parodied during a skating lesson in the cartoon world in the episode "Skate Night". Turns out Crocco was singing it.
- Butt-Monkey: Tux, whose entire schtick is that he's a terrible stand-up comedian, with his attempts at comedy often ending with audience jeers and tomatoes thrown at him.
- Cast of Expies: The most of the core cartoon group that Jimmy sees are parodies of the Classic Disney Shorts characters. Golly and Dolly Gopher are Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Crocco the Alligator is Goofy, and Tux is Donald Duck. Meanwhile, Prickles and Pickles are send-ups of Tom and Jerry.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Jimmy's parents, who are additionally the only ones within the main cast who don't realize that Sonny is an evil mad scientist out to get their son.
- Clueless Aesop: "Bad Fad" says that it is totally wrong to partake in younger kid things, because there's no happy medium or moderation between reconnecting with your inner child and acting like a bratty toddler 24/7.
- Commuting on a Bus: Unlike the rest of Jimmy's family, Louisa (his mom) only appeared on a recurring basis. The explanation was that she was away at work, being an astronaut who is regularly visiting other planets.
- Companion Cube: Sonny has Mittens, a bag of cash he often talks to.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Despite being a Mad Scientist, Sonny evidently needs his father's brain to take over the world rather than simply use his other inventions.
- Deranged Animation: Thanks to the cartoons' redesigns for the series, some of their movements and expressions can look downright strange at times.
- Didn't Think This Through: Discussed. In the episode where Sonny creates a pair of clones, the two of them discuss the most glaring hole in Sonny's overall plan; even if he were to get his hands on Jimmy's brain, he'd most likely get arrested shortly afterwards for killing a child. The two clones proceed to enact their own plan that'll leave someone else to take the wrap, whilst they swipe the brain in all the confusion.
- Disproportionate Retribution: At the end of “Mascot”, Jimmy gives his dad a Golly version of the Crocco suit that nearly got him killed, all because he embarrassed him in gym class.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Golly first briefly appeared in a Space Jam-inspired poster for “Astro Slam” in the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends TV Movie Good Wilt Hunting, with creators Adam Pava and Tim McKeon having worked on the show as regular staff writers.
- Elephant in the Living Room: The fact that Yancy is an alien is rarely brought up by anyone other than herself.
- The Flapping Dickey: Tux's vaudeville style of comedy is seen in his design in that a) being a penguin his "tux" consists only of the dickey, and b) the dickey hits him in the face on a regular basis.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: One of Sonny's many insane plots. As a result, he gets to switch with Jimmy's body, while Robin is switched with her piano teacher, and Jimmy's dad trades places with a parakeet.
- Girls with Moustaches: One episode revealed that Mike once made a comment about how Yancy needed to start shaving as she was starting to look like his uncle.
- Green Gators: Crocco (who is an alligator despite his name) has dark green skin and a lighter belly.
- Groin Attack: In "Talent Show", Becky's grandfather gets a cannonball straight in the crotch.
- Hypno Trinket: The Crocco suit Jimmy wears in “Mascot”, and the Golly suit his dad wears.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: Tux's specialty.
- Inner Thoughts, Outsider Puzzlement: A variant. In one episode, Jimmy does a talent show performance with Tux, complete with music, animated flowers and special effects and all sorts of wacky imagery... which only Jimmy can see, hear or interact with. The audience is left watching him singing and dancing with nothing and no music in the background, and they're as confused as you'd expect them to be.
- Laugh Track: Episodes began making use of these starting the eighth episode, "Skate Night", with them also being added into the reruns of earlier ones. Averted in foreign dubs, which completely lack it.
- Live-Action Cartoon: Outside of the cartoon characters themselves, you have things like Jimmy's mom casually going on missions to other planets, aliens and werewolves being real, and a mad scientist constantly cooking up new inventions every week such as a cloning machine.
- Mad Scientist: Sonny Appleday, Milt Appleday's evil son.
- Mr. Alt Disney: Milt Appleday, a deceased world-renowned cartoonist, and the one Jimmy got his current brain from.
- Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Even though it was stated the toons can't interact with the world outside of Jimmy's imagination in the commentary for the pilot film, they do this several times throughout the series proper. Examples include "Detention", where Golly digs a tunnel to help the kids escape school, and "Sleepover", where Crocco bites Yancy's arm. Try not to figure out how any of that is possible.
- Only Sane Man: Yancy and Jimmy tend to fill this role, though the latter is Not So Above It All.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Yancy dates one named Mike, who isn't that aggressive (or frightening) as werewolf lore states.
- Produce Pelting: The usual response to Tux's jokes.
- Race Lift: Craig and Robin were Japanese-American (played by Chinese-American actors) in the movie, but in the series they were changed to African-American.
- Roger Rabbit Effect: The animated characters were added during post-production, being done in Adobe Flash and animated in-house at Cartoon Network Studios.
- Rubber-Forehead Aliens: Yancy, who is green and has antennae.
- Same Character, But Different: Craig and Robin. In the movie, Craig was desperate for popularity and willing to do whatever others asked of him, while Robin was an Appleday fangirl. In the show, Craig is a snarky troublemaker and schemer, while Robin is a comically serious overachiever.
- Shout-Out:
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Parodied. Dolly losing her bow and Golly putting it on is treated as a Gender Bender plot among the toons.
- Tomboyish Name: Yancy, which is usually an Always Male name.
- Too Dumb to Live: Basically everyone except Jimmy and Yancy fall into this at one point or another.Sonny: Never buy a monitor from a fruit stand.
- Took a Level in Dumbass: Jimmy's dad arguably got even dumber in the transition from film to series.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Craig and Golly are now jerks with a heart of gold, following from the events of the movie.
- Toon Town: The world inside Milt Appleday's childhood drawings, as seen in the Halloween Special.
- Toothy Bird: Tux has teeth in the series, but not in the pilot movie.
- With Friends Like These...: Craig often gets Jimmy into trouble and often talks down to him, though he's usually punished for it if it goes too far. Also, Golly regularly abuses a blissfully unaware Crocco.
