I have a super-high tolerance for the weird and often seek out strange movies and TV shows, so my liking INVADER ZIM isn't a surprise. But what is surprising is that so many of the kids at the high school where I teach love this show! This probably means that Nickelodeon pulled the plug on this series way too quick AND I teach at a school for so pretty weird and twisted kids!!! After all, "normal" folks probably won't like this show as it's just so gosh-darn strange and makes no effort to appeal to the masses! The phrase "this isn't your daddy's cartoon" strongly comes to mind!
Zim is an incredibly dim creature from the Irken Empire--sent to Earth to conquer us stupid "meat puppets" (humans). The humans in the series are almost all universally stupid and oblivious to the fact that a hostile alien is living among them! In fact, the only one who recognizes this is the ultra-bizarre boy, Dib. He notices that the new kid at school has green skin and antennae, but everyone else hates Dib for being so insensitive to Zim's "skin condition". In episode after episode, Zim tries very unsuccessfully to either conquer the planet or at least beat his arch-nemesis, Dib. Fortunately, Zim is so brain-dead that the likelihood of his succeeding is nil--especially since his helper is the strangest and coolest robot ever invented, Gir.
The show has good production values, excellent and over-the-top voice acting and generally good writing (though a few episodes are a bit flat--it's just very hard to be so weird and so entertaining again and again). My personal favorite episode,...? Hmm,...it would be the one where all the main characters are on a TV show investigating the paranormal. I just LOVED Gir's rendition of what REALLY occurred!! So, if you are weird or want to become weird, then this show is for you. All others, watch it at your own risk---and don't say I didn't warn you!
