"You're right. To save you from shrinking away to nothing, I'll do anything. Even face a black hole!"
Ready Jet Go! Space Camp is an animated feature film based on Craig Bartlett's Ready Jet Go! series, making a comeback after ending four years prior. A co-production with Universal Studios' 1440 Entertainment division as well as
DreamWorks Animation, with most of the voice cast reprising their roles, it premiered on PBS Kids on July 20, 2023.
Jet and his friends Sean, Sydney, and Mindy attend a space camp, where they put their skills to the test. Along the way, Sunspot develops an allergic reaction that causes him to shrink. Team Propulsion must leave the camp and find the cure, "Dehshrinkulum," without Mitchell discovering just what they're doing.
Ready Jet Go! Space Camp contains examples of:
- Abnormal Allergy: Sunspot is allergic to comet dust. No such allergy exists in real life.
- Accidental Astronaut: An intergalactic hyperdrive that Jet built is taken by Mitchell and placed into one of the mock spaceships at the space camp. It accidentally launches Jet and the others into space.
- Air Quotes: Aurora does air quotes when she expresses grievances about Stella "has to be number one" not pulling her weight.
- Alien Invasion: At the beginning of the movie, Mitchell records a report to Dr. Chandra, saying that the Propulsions are planning an alien invasion to take over the earth and turn everyone into aliens. He later assumes that since Stella is also a Bortronian, she is part of the plan.
- Apocalyptic Log: Subverted in that he does turn out to be okay in the end, but in Galacto's spaceship on Mascarpone, he leaves behind his ship log, thinking he's doomed."I fear I'm done. No time to wait. I only hope I'm not too late. I'll search the caves before I'm doomed and hope that help comes to me soon."
- Applied Phlebotinum: Deshrinkulum is a rare element that will help Sunspot get back to normal size. It can only be found on Mascarpone, the fifth planet of the Double Vanilla binary star system.
- Animated Musical: There are several songs in the movie, which makes it a musical.
- Animation Bump: The animation is much more fluid and pretty than it was in the TV show, especially with the colors.
- Arc Words: "Impossible." The Great Galacto always talks about taking on the impossible. Jet wants to do the impossible by getting the deshrinkulum. During Jet's Despair Event Horizon, he laments that getting Sunspot back is impossible.
- Award-Bait Song: "Brother From Another Sunspot Mother" is a soft, emotional song about Jet and Sunspot's bond.
- Badly Battered Babysitter: Downplayed. During the Award-Bait Song, Jet recalls how Sunspot once bit a babysitter just because they ate Sunspot's popcorn.
- Beyond the Impossible: Face 9000 states that nothing can escape a black hole, yet Jet and co. manage to do just that.
- Big Budget Beef-Up: If the Animation Bump is any indication, the movie has a much higher budget than the TV show, thanks to it being co-produced by a major Hollywood studio. The scenery is more realistic, the movements are more fluid, and there are more character models than usual (which is significant because the TV show had a habit of recycling character renders, sometimes duplicating them in the same scene).
- Big Damn Movie: The movie has a more dramatic plot and higher stakes than the TV show, which was more Slice of Life.
- Big "WHAT?!": Jet yells "WHAT?" when Face 9000 tells him that Sunspot’s allergic reaction came from the comet dust from when the two when comet surfing.
- Big "WHY?!": Mitchell screams "WHYYYYYYY?" when he fails to prove that aliens exist once again.
- Binary Suns: The Double Vanilla Star System contains two stars that orbit each other.
- Book Snap: Mindy wants to read Galacto's ship log, but Stella slams the book in her face.Sydney: Wow. You really don't understand teamwork.
- Break the Cutie: Jet goes looking for some deshrinkulum in the caverns of Mascarpone, but Sunspot suddenly disappears and then he spills the water bottle that is needed to go with the deshrinkulum. He breaks down crying, a rare moment for someone who is normally The Pollyanna.
- Cannot Tell a Lie: Face reveals that he is programmed to answer honestly to any question he is asked. His attempts to disguise himself at space camp are laughable as a result.
- Character Development:
- Lampshaded by Sydney; when Sean decides to accompany Jet on the surface of Mascarpone, Sydney comments "When did you get brave?"
- Stella also goes through this. She starts off the movie as a jealous, self-centered jerk who takes credit for others' ideas, shows no sense of teamwork, and picks on Mindy for being small. Later on, she learns the value of teamwork and compliments Mindy at one point. Overall, by the end of the movie, she is kinder and more civil with not only Jet, but also her teammates, Mitchell, Aurora, and Houston.
- In the main series, Mindy sometimes felt bad about being the smallest, like in "Jet Shrinks the Kids." In this movie, she is happy to be small, and uses her size to help out.
- Chekhov's Gun: Mindy's water bottle. When she arrives at space camp, she's seen loudly slurping it and says that her mom always says "Don't forget to hydrate." Later, it comes in handy when water is needed for the deshrinkulum to work.
- Cool Board: Jet has a sort of surfboard that he uses to surf on waves in outer space.
- Conspicuous Trenchcoat: Jet sneaks Face into Space Camp by dressing him up in a trench coat and fedora.
- Credits Medley: The ending credits play the music from the Hard-Work Montage, "Super Hyperdrive," "Dear Great Galacto," and finally, the Ready Jet Go! theme song.
- Despair Event Horizon: It seems like Jet has lost Sunspot in the caverns. He breaks down crying, thinking that everything is his fault and that Sunspot is gone for good. Luckily, Jet's friends lift his spirits.
- Despair Speech: When Sean, Sydney, and Mindy find Jet in the cave and say they want to help him, Jet, who has lost all hope, delivers a speech.Jet: You can't help. I've messed everything up. I'm no hero. I'm just lost down here. And now I've gotten you lost too, and I've lost my best friend.
- Determinator: Jet, more than ever. He would do ANYTHING to save Sunspot, even face a black hole. Which he does, and lives to tell the tale.
- Don't Try This at Home: When Galacto meets Jet and his friends, he remarks that he should put a disclaimer on his videos about the stunts he does.Galacto: Aye. I should tell you wee kiddies not to try me escapades at home.
- Dramatic Drop: Aurora does this when she sees Stella's spaceship.
- Dramatic Irony:
- Stella accidentally left her personal spaceship on Earth, while her team's spaceship got launched into space. When it's activated, Aurora and Houston assume that Stella altered the spaceship they were creating to be her own. They never find out the truth.
- Dr. Chandra notes how the spaceship seems to have been "realistically stressed" and has "monster slime" on it, unaware that it really has been in space.
- Driven by Envy: All of Stella's actions in the movie are motivated by the fact that Jet is the number one fan of the Great Galacto and not her, which made her deeply jealous.
- Easily Forgiven: True to Jet's All-Loving Hero nature, he forgives Stella for her jerkassery the moment she says sorry.
- Expecting Someone Taller: When Jet and the others meet the Great Galacto, Jet remarks that he looks taller in his videos. As it turns out, Galacto had the same allergic reaction as Sunspot, and is also shrinking.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Mitchell tries to prove to Dr. Chandra that aliens exist, but when his evidence disappears (first when his phone is submerged underwater, then when Stella shrinks her spaceship), he once again fails to expose Jet (and Stella)'s alien identities.
- Fanboy: Jet is revealed to be a big fan of a TV show called the Great Galacto, to the point where he seems to have based his entire personality on the titular character.
- Fangirl: Stella was the number one fan of the Great Galacto until Jet replaced her.
- Faster-Than-Light Travel: The interstellar super hyperdrive engine that Jet creates easily tops the interstellar overdrive and interstellar superdrive seen in the main series. With the super hyperdrive, Jet and his friends can quickly travel to a planet that's thousands of lightyears away from Earth.
- Finale Production Upgrade: The movie, the conclusion to the series, has much higher-quality lighting, animation, visual effects, and rendering than the TV show.
- Finale Movie: Serves as the Grand Finale for the Ready Jet Go! TV series. Unlike previous specials, this one ups the ante in production and flair by being a Big Damn Movie instead of a 60-minute special.
- Find the Cure!: The movie revolves around Jet and his friends finding the cure to Sunspot's allergy - deshrinkulum, which is located in the "far reaches of the galaxy."
- Foreshadowing:
- When Stella arrives on Earth, she gets scared of Cody and calls him a "space monster." Later on, she runs away from a real space monster on Mascarpone, and says the same thing she did when she saw Cody: "Space monster!! RUN!!!"
- During the Hard-Work Montage, Stella accidentally drops her shrunken spaceship, but she puts it back into her pocket. Later on, she drops it again, and this time, she accidentally leaves it on Earth, much to her dismay.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: At the end of the movie, when Jet and his friends have dinner, you can briefly see Carrot finally wearing a proper chef hat, instead of the strainer he usually wears on his head.
- Friendship Moment: Sean, Sydney, and Mindy pull Jet out of his Despair Event Horizon by assuring him that they're his friends and they're in this together.
- Gasp!: Sean, Sydney, and Mindy all do a dramatic gasp when Jet reveals that Sunspot shrunk.
- Grand Finale: Serves as a proper conclusion to Ready Jet Go!
- Group Hug:
- Jet, Sean, Sydney, and Mindy all share one while they declare that they will find the deshrinkulum together.
- Stella, Mitchell, Aurora, and Houston also share one when they win telescopes for having the best spaceship.
- Hand Gagging: Dr. Chandra chooses Team Mitchell's spaceship as the best spaceship because it looks like it's been in space. Jet is about to say that it actually has been in space, but Sean and Sydney cover his mouth.
- Hard-Work Montage: In the movie, there is a montage of the kids at space camp each building their own spaceships.
- Horrifying the Horror: When the gang runs into a space monster, they try to form a squad so they can look bigger and scare it away. However, the monster turns out to be friendly, so they stop doing it.
- Human Ladder: Jet, Sean, Sydney, and Mindy do an "Earthie and Bortronian staircase" so they can climb a cavern.
- I Always Wanted to Say That: Sean, once again, says "There's not a moment to lose," and lampshades that he loves to say it.
- "I Can't Look!" Gesture: Sean does this gesture when Jet activates the interstellar super hyperdrive.
- If My Calculations Are Correct: Face says that if his calculations are correct, Sunspot will continue to shrink at a rate of 5% per hour until he shrinks away to nothing.
- Incredible Shrinking Man: Sunspot's allergy causes him to shrink.
- Just a Machine: Face wishes that he was programmed to be brave, but he laments that he is but a machine.
- Knuckle Cracking: Mitchell cracks his knuckles before going on the space rover simulator.
- Literal Metaphor: When the team is trying to reach the deshrinkulum, Jet says that he's still got something up his sleeve. Cue a very tiny Sunspot and Galacto coming out of Jet's actual sleeve.
- Mood Whiplash: After Jet's tearjerking song about Sunspot, it immediately cuts away to the other kids having fun at space camp.
- Musicalis Interruptus: The song "Super Hyperdrive" is interrupted by a Record Needle Scratch.
- Musical Number Annoyance: Stella is shown floating by, looking grumpy during the song "Super Hyperdrive."
- My God, What Have I Done?: Jet is horrified that his comet-surfing shenanigans triggered Sunspot’s allergies and caused him to shrink.
- Never Bareheaded: Finally subverted for Mindy. At the end of the movie, she, Stella, Sean, and Sydney perform a song praising Jet, in which they all tip their hats. We finally get to see Mindy without her hat (or in this case, a hat) on.
- Never Tell Me the Odds!: Face tells Jet that getting the deshrinkulum is not possible, but Jet angrily tells him not to say that, because he believes that he can still retrieve it.
- No Antagonist: Averted. Unlike the TV show, which didn't really have any antagonists, Stella serves as an antagonist of sorts for a good portion of the movie. However, she does a Heel–Face Turn and becomes a friend to Jet towards the end.
- Non-Malicious Monster: In the caverns, the crew comes across a "space monster." They think it wants to eat them, but it turns out to be friendly.
- Oh, Crap!: Face has this reaction when one of the mock spaceships gets launched with Jet and the others still inside it.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Sydney, Mindy, and Sean are deeply concerned that Jet doesn't want to go to Space Camp, since he loves space. He was trying to build an engine that would take him to Mascarpone, and didn't want to tell the others because he wanted to protect them.
- The Operators Must Be Crazy: Jet tries to call his parents, but the operator tells him that they are experiencing connection delays on Bortron 7 due to solar flares.
- Overcrank: Slow-motion is used when Mitchell accidentally drops his phone into the zero-gravity training tank.
- Palm-Fist Tap Jet does this gesture when he states that failure is not an option (in regards to curing Sunspot).
- Pep-Talk Song: Sydney, Sean, and Mindy sing "It Takes a Team" to motivate Jet after his Despair Event Horizon.
- Pedal-to-the-Metal Shot: During "Super Hyperdrive," there is a shot of Jet putting his foot on the accelerator pedal of the spaceship. During that scene, the characters even sing "Putting the pedal down to the metal."
- Plot Allergy: Sunspot's comet dust allergy, and the ensuing shrinking that follows, is the driving conflict of the movie.
- Plot Armor: Jet and his friends get past a black hole because they're the main characters of the movie. Notable because Face 9000 stated earlier that nothing, not even light, can escape from one.
- The Power of Friendship: When Jet had his friends by his side, he was able to find the deshrinkulum and save Sunspot. Also, friendship turns Stella into a nice person. It's even brought up in the music video at the end of the movie, "Space Hero."Jet's number one now
And once you realize
His superpower is friendship
It's no big surprise - Primp of Contempt: Stella is seen filing her nails while asserting that she had nothing to do with the engine.
- Record Needle Scratch: A record needle scratch when Jet mentions a giant black hole during "Super Hyperdrive." Sean says "Did you just say giant black hole?!?"
- Rock Bottom: When the gang finds Galacto, and discovers that he has shrunken as well, Sean comments "Well, at least things couldn't get any worse." Cue Stella running away screaming from a space monster. Fortunately for them, however, the monster is actually friendly.
- Save the Villain: Downplayed, as Stella is not really a 'villain,' but when she gets tangled up in some web thing, Jet and the others save her, even though she was mean to them.
- Scenery Porn: Because of the movie's higher budget, the environmental design looks beautiful and realistic. In the TV show, the trees looked like cardboard, but they look like actual trees in the movie.
- Series Continuity Error: The movie claims that Jet personally adopted Sunspot, but this contradicts the episode "Sunday Drive," where Sunspot was with the Propulsions when Jet was a baby. Furthermore, Jet doesn't look any younger in the flashback than he looks today.
- Share Phrase: Stella says "excelsior" much like Jet does, which leads Sean, Sydney, and Mindy to suspect that something is up.
- Shout-Out:
- The imagery of the "Space Hero" song, black silhouettes running on a red background, is quite similar to some of the James Bond opening sequences. Thunderball, The Man with the Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me, Licence to Kill, and Tomorrow Never Dies all come to mind.
- After Mitchell meets Stella, he records a voice note saying "There are two of them now."
- The space monster looks extremely similar to the Black Beast of Aaaaargghh, since they are both monsters with big lips and Extra Eyes.
- Show Within a Show: Jet is inspired to go comet surfing by his favorite TV show character, "Great Galacto." However, Jet's comet surfing causes Sunspot's allergic reaction.
- Smart People Play Chess: During his song-letter to the Great Galacto, Jet proclaims himself to be "mentally and physically fit" while playing chess.
- Social Media Is Bad: An implicit theme in the movie is the harmful effects of social media. The Great Galacto is an internet celebrity who shows dangerous escapades to his young audience, including surfing on a comet. Sunspot burns his tail as a result of the "Galacto Challenge," and starts shrinking. Galacto's stunts also ended up hurting himself, since he, too, has an allergy to comet dust. Galacto does apologize to Jet and Sunspot for what happened, though, and admits that he should tell the kids not to try his escapades at home. It's also
implied via Word of God that the public Galacto fan ranking is what made Stella competitive in the first place."yeah Stella’s very competitive for a Bortronian. I think social media is messing things up even on Bortron 7" - Speak in Unison: When the gang finds out that Stella is from Bortron 7, they all shout "YOU'RE FROM BORTRON 7!"
- Standard Snippet: Sunspot thought it was a good idea to play Fryderyk Chopin's "Funeral March" while the kids are in space.Sean: That is not gonna help.
- Stealing the Credit: A recurring theme with Stella in the movie. She repeatedly takes credit for other people's work. For example, when Jet finds the Great Galacto's ship log, Stella acts like she's the one that found it.
- Stock Rhymes: "Dear Great Galacto" uses chance/dance and you/do.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: At first, Jet decides not to go to space camp because he's more focused on helping Sunspot. When Jet's friends answer the door, and he tells him that he can't go to Space Camp, Sydney gets the feeling that something is up. Jet denies that anything is happening.
- Team Hand-Stack: Jet, Sean, Sydney, Mindy, and Sunspot all do a handstack during the song "It Takes a Team."
- Team Spirit: A major theme throughout the movie is teamwork. Stella doesn't behave like a team player with Mitchell, Aurora, and Houston. This contrasts with Sean, Sydney, and Mindy, who always work together. Jet initially wanted to try and get the deshrinkulum himself, but he realizes that he needed his friends to support him. And then they sing about it.
- That Reminds Me of a Song: After the spaceship is put into Interstellar Super Hyperdrive, Jet says that this would be a good time for a song. Sunspot decides to play "Funeral March" on his concertina, but it's too depressing, so he switches to the more upbeat "Super Hyperdrive."
- Theme Tuneless Episode: The movie does not open with the Ready Jet Go! theme song. However, it plays during the credits.
- This Cannot Be!: Mitchell screams "NOT POSSIBLE!!!!" when he drops his phone, containing the evidence that Jet is an alien, into a pool.
- Unrealistic Black Hole: There is a black hole on the way to Mascarpone. It almost sucks up the spaceship, but they manage to escape it just by resetting the backup switch.
- V-Sign: Stella does a V-sign in the zero gravity simulation tank.
- Vocal Evolution: Sydney and Mindy's voices are much deeper in the movie, most likely due to their actors aging. Averted with Sean and Mitchell, who have new voices.
- Watch Where You're Going!: After Stella arrives on Earth, she meets Mitchell after they bump into each other.
- What Would X Do?: After Jet finds out that Sunspot is shrinking and that the cure is on a planet that's thousands of lightyears away from Earth, he wonders what the Great Galacto would do. He concludes that he would take risks, and since Jet would take any risk to save Sunspot, he's up to the challenge.
- What Were You Thinking?: Sean says this line while reprimanding Jet for his insane plan.Sean: What are you thinking, flying a pretend spaceship to another star system?
- Whole-Plot Reference: To SpaceCamp, which has the same basic plot of five kids accidentally going into outer space while at space camp.
