1st November 2004, 7:10 PM
After several months of mentally ignoring it, I finally decided to give Invader Zim a chance and get the first volume on DVD. I had been reluctant to spend my hard earned moneys obtaining it because of the Nickoldeon logo that was prominently displayed on the cover. Anyway, I got it and took it home and watched the first episode. I was pleasently surprised by what I saw/heard. It was not the mainstream, braindead writing-filled kids show I had hoped it wouldn't be.
The premise of Invader Zim is the shortest invader in the Ergon army is sent to Earth because the leaders want to get rid of him. It seems that in Operation Impending Doom 1 he made a big mess of things. Anyway, they send him off with his trusty, though completely unintelligent, robot Gir who has brains made out of a few coins and a paper clip. Zim believes the Ergons are depending on him to conquer earth and the Ergon leaders are hoping the never see Zim again. On Earth the only person who knows that knows Zim is an alien is one of his classmates named Dib, but everyone else in the class thinks Dib is crazy even though Zim has green skin and no ears.
One thing I noticed fairly early about this series was that it was very different from the Nickoldeon norm. For one thing there were a number of episodes that were down-right disturbing, although mainly in comparison to what you usually get in afternoon cartoons. Another thing was that the creators were not above brutilizing the various characters in the series for a laugh. One episode in particular, called Dark Harvest, had Zim stealing the other student's organs [and replacing them with..."stuff"] so that the school nurse wouldn't find out that he was an alien, because as we all know the more organs you have the more human you are.
Anyway, don't be fooled by the Nickolodeon logo, Invader Zim is a great series; one that was ultimately cancelled while such shows as Rugrats, Rocket Power, and Hey Arnold live on. According to the creator, Jhonen Vasquez, he's never going to do anything involving animation again, which is really dissapointing given how great his one animated series was. You can get the first nine episodes of IZ for about $15 at just about anywhere that sells DVDs, so go out and get it. Or you can watch reruns on Nick.
The premise of Invader Zim is the shortest invader in the Ergon army is sent to Earth because the leaders want to get rid of him. It seems that in Operation Impending Doom 1 he made a big mess of things. Anyway, they send him off with his trusty, though completely unintelligent, robot Gir who has brains made out of a few coins and a paper clip. Zim believes the Ergons are depending on him to conquer earth and the Ergon leaders are hoping the never see Zim again. On Earth the only person who knows that knows Zim is an alien is one of his classmates named Dib, but everyone else in the class thinks Dib is crazy even though Zim has green skin and no ears.
One thing I noticed fairly early about this series was that it was very different from the Nickoldeon norm. For one thing there were a number of episodes that were down-right disturbing, although mainly in comparison to what you usually get in afternoon cartoons. Another thing was that the creators were not above brutilizing the various characters in the series for a laugh. One episode in particular, called Dark Harvest, had Zim stealing the other student's organs [and replacing them with..."stuff"] so that the school nurse wouldn't find out that he was an alien, because as we all know the more organs you have the more human you are.
Anyway, don't be fooled by the Nickolodeon logo, Invader Zim is a great series; one that was ultimately cancelled while such shows as Rugrats, Rocket Power, and Hey Arnold live on. According to the creator, Jhonen Vasquez, he's never going to do anything involving animation again, which is really dissapointing given how great his one animated series was. You can get the first nine episodes of IZ for about $15 at just about anywhere that sells DVDs, so go out and get it. Or you can watch reruns on Nick.