Invader Zim

Invader Zim is an American animated television series created by comic book writer/artist Jhonen Vasquez and aired on Nickelodeon. more...

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First broadcast on March 30, 2001 (the same day as The Fairly OddParents), the show's strange animation, quirky humor, and dark, cynical style gave it a devoted cult following, with an audience of an older average age than those of most of Nickelodeon's other cartoons. Because of this, ratings for Nickelodeon's core demographic, 2-11 year olds, were fairly low. Disappointed with its low ratings and high production costs, Nickelodeon cancelled the show. One and a half seasons of Invader Zim were completed. It can currently be seen in reruns on NickToons Network and MTV2's Sic'Emation lineup; and in Canada, YTV began airing the series on its Bionix programming block on September 8, 2006. Invader Zim DVD compilations have been released by Media Blasters. The series has since been translated into several different languages for foreign broadcast.

Plot

Zim is a member of the mighty Irken race, a species of alien life forms whose social hierarchy is based on height. The Irken leaders are the Almighty Tallest (during the course of the show, leadership of the Irken Empire is shared by two Tallest, Purple and Red, who are exactly the same height). Zim was banished to the planet Foodcourtia as a fry cook for the remainder of his life for destroying a sizable portion of the Irken home planet, Irk, with a giant robot, known as the Frontline Battle Mech. The robot was part of Operation Impending Doom I, a major galactic conquest venture by the Irkens. Zim was overeager (as usual) and activated his robot before leaving his home planet, much to the chagrin of his leaders.

Upon hearing of Operation Impending Doom II, Zim "quits" being banished and arrives at the Great Assigning where Irken Elite soldiers are chosen to become Invaders, special soldiers whose mission it is to blend in with the indigenous life forms of their assigned planet and collect intelligence. Zim pleads with the Tallest to assign him a planet, and in a desperate act to get Zim as far away as possible, they assign him to a "Mystery Planet", which turns out to be Earth.

The show features Zim trying to conquer the Earth while his arch-nemesis Dib tries to stop him. Technically, the show takes place in a world of its own, with a present-day Earth more technologically advanced than ours. Because the alternate universe aspect was never emphasized, the result is that the series appears to be set at some point in our own future.

A Nickelodeon Magazine Special printed a four-page Invader Zim comic that ended the series with Zim taking over the world while Dib wasn't looking, then inviting Dib to go into space with him and ride giant alien bunnies. Another possible ending showed Zim failing to take over the world in the final episode produced, "The Most Horrible X-mas Ever", which has a frame story two million years in the future, where humans are not conquered or destroyed. Aside from the Christmas finale, story editor Rob Hummel's "10 Minutes to Doom" script was planned for the series' conclusion. In the original script Zim did survive, but the ending would have been changed to show him disintegrate.

Read more at Wikipedia.org