Jimmy, Cindy, Libby, Carl, and Sheen enter a screenplay writing contest, where the winning script will be turned into a movie by director Quentin Smithee. Jimmy's script wins and he and his friends are cast into the main roles, though they quickly notice something is off when they almost keep getting killed during the filming. At the same time, Jimmy's dad Hugh thinks the movie will be about him and his escapades as "Donut Boy", much to the annoyance of Smithee.
This episode provides examples of:
- Actually Quite Catchy: At one point, Hugh creates an entire theme song for Donut Boy, complete with thematic lighting and an instrumental. Cindy, Libby and Carl are baffled about the whole thing while Sheen finds himself getting caught in the rythym.
- An Aesop:
- If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
- No one can be good at everything.
- Batman Gambit: Professor Calamitous' whole plan pretty much counted on the very beginning of the episode, where a conveniently placed flyer promoting the fake contest would even catch Jimmy or his friends' interest, and even then, Jimmy only ends up entering because they make fun of his previous attempts to do things outside of science.
- Big Damn Heroes: Hugh as "Donut Boy".
- Big Damn Kiss: For the Lord of the Rings-inspired scene, Cindy will have to kiss Jimmy. Jimmy stops her before she can do it.
- Body Wipe: With Carl, as he, along with the others, jump off the sabotaged rollercoaster onto the landing pad.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: While compiling movies to create his screenplay, one of the quotes heard is Jimmy himself saying "gotta blast!", leading Jimmy to smirk at the camera knowingly.
- Brutal Honesty: Jimmy's friends make it perfectly clear that he is the worst artist ever. Even Sheen and Carl don't even try to pretend he isn't.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Quentin Smithee arrives to film Jimmy's movie, Hugh begs Smithee to let him appear in the movie. Smithee gives him a job as a "donut boy", where he's supposed to provide food for the people on the set. Hugh immediately thinks Smithee's casting him in the starring role of "Donut Boy", an undercover cop that plays by his own rules. Throughout the episode, Hugh continues to assume Smithee's orders, such as to "take a hike" and "get lost", are meant for his "character's" scenes.
- Foreshadowing: A few examples. Despite The Reveal already happening halfway through, it still builds up to Jimmy Spotting the Thread for an Internal Reveal:
- When they start filming, one character complains that they can't turn on the camera. Quentin dismissively tells him to keep pressing buttons until something happens.
- Near the end of the first part, the kids realize they've never even heard of Quentin Smithee, and when Jimmy tries having Goddard find some data on him, nothing comes up.
- Carl asks Quentin if he's going to finish the croissant he was eating, and Quentin just tosses it over to him.
- The beginning of the final act has Jimmy discuss with Quentin the changes made to the script, such as not having an ending.
- Jimmy's script was chosen despite the fact that it's completely incoherent, suggesting Quentin had some kind of interest in Jimmy specifically. (Though Jimmy doesn't bring this one up during his "Eureka!" Moment)
- Genre Roulette: Jimmy's movie turns out like this, as it's essentially just the scripts for a bunch of other successful movies bolted together. It goes everywhere from action to romance to musical, and the setting and plot turns on a dime.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Quentin Smithees' numerous attempts at killing Jimmy Neutron and his friends through film accidents.
- Mobile-Suit Human: Quentin Smithee turns out to be a robotic disguise for Professor Finbarr Calamitous.
- Pretentious Pronunciation: When Carl asks Quentin if he can have his croissant he pronounces it in the French way.
- Running Gag: Hugh popping in as "Donut Boy".
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The kids sans Jimmy quit the film after they've been almost killed one too many times. While they agree to come back to finish it, Jimmy ends up putting together how and why they were right all along.
- Suddenly Shouting: Smithee after Hugh asks to and sings the "Donut Boy theme song"...Quentin Smithee: Eh... no, this is the scene where you (smacks a box of donuts out of Hugh's hands) GET LOST!!!
- Tempting Fate: Jimmy's first attempt at writing a screenplay falls victim to this.
- Jimmy: I'll show those guys! How hard can it be to write a "Screen play"? (stretches his fingers in preparation)A time card appears reading "6 hours later"Jimmy: (still hasn't typed anything, bashing his head against the keyboard spouting Angrish)
- Terrible Artist: Though Jimmy's logic of amalgamating aspects of box office smash movies to create a "perfect movie" is sound, in practice what you end up with is a meandering hodge-podge of nonsensical referential scenes with no connective tissue or real plot at all akin to a Seltzer and Friedberg parody without the parody. The only reason his screenplay was accepted was because it was a scam by Professor Calamitous trying to kill him.
- Whole-Plot Reference: In-universe; Jimmy's script appears to be an amalgamation of several box office hits, including (but not limited to) The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, and the Harry Potter films.
- Wish-Fulfillment: Despite ribbing him for his lack of imagination, most of Jimmy's friends turn in screenplays that are blatant wish-fulfillment stories.
- Libby: A Blaxploitation Parody about a Hip-Hop singer by day, Fashion Designer/FBI Agent by Night named Cappuccino Jones.Carl: A Romance about a "handsome buff llama rancher who's in love with a beautiful older woman named Judy".Cindy: a script that seems to have no plot other than a blatant self-insert of herself who gets perfect grades and is super popular.Sheen: Ironically enough given his leanings, the only one who doesn't write a script like this. Instead he got bored, stapled a bunch of phone book pages together and is passing it off as a B-Movie titled "Attack of the People Named Frank Johnson".
