Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus Trailer Released

[Kari Kamiya]

Was fat unwashed neckbeard Dib just sitting there and staring at Zim's house for a decade a dig at the show's fanbase?

I've personally interpreted it as mocking ZADR shippers because it's "troo wuv" to obsessively study surveillance of your enemy's yard waiting for him to show his handsome ugly mug, even if it takes a decade for it to happen. Also Dib yelling he "loathes" Zim is going to be twisted into fangirls squeeing it's him admitting he actually loves Zim.

I don't have the stomach to go look up fan reactions, hope it's been civil for the most part.

 

[The Fair Lady]

Outside of Tallest Red (I think it's the same guy, but I don't think it is?)

Red was still played by Wally Wingert, his voice has just changed a bit with age it seems.

 

[Plunkie]

Those flash-animated sections were really jarring to me for some reason. Not a bad movie though, leagues above Rocko's.

 

[X-Shaped Weeaboo]

I find it interesting how, despite all the assumptions made about Zims fanbase being edgy fucks, one of the most universally spoken praises about the movie was Vazquez chilling the fuck out and going a bit soft.

Not that I'm complaining, the focus on being funny made the film especially hilarious, but it's an interesting turnabout nonetheless.

 

[FemalePresident]

You're just focused on the old show's look being all groady, Dib being a punching bag, and some episodes (see Dark Harvest). Reading the pitch shows Vasquez wanted Alien Meets Tim Burton Meets Looney Tunes.

Yeah, I was also thinking about Gaz being more sinister, the decadence of the city and weird and grotesque characters like the teacher, that fat bastard pizza hog and Sgt. Hobo... I mean, those things were magical lmao

 

[Lithos]

I enjoyed the movie. I remember stumbling home from a party one night and seeing the world premiere of the show... which was at Midnight. I was laughing so hard, then passed out in the chair. I thought I dreamed it but nope, was there the next night.

For me, Zim was like a large firecracker. Started out with a big explosion of funny, then fizzled out quickly, with only a few good moments here and there.

But one thing I have always loved is the design of the Irken Armada. I'd pay for DLC in space games that included their ships (so long as their ability is not just going in a straight line).

 

[Coelacanth]

Since other kiwis are talking about where they were when they first saw IZ, it won't hurt to share mine. I think I was about eight or nine when I first saw Invader Zim - it was being broadcasted on the Nickelodeon channel on Sky, and of course it was placed in the 9:00 PM slot so that most kids would be in bed by the time it aired. I remember it being the pilot episode and it was awesome. I loved the edgy humor, I loved the designs of the characters and I remember absolutely loving how dark it was compared to the stuff most other kids my age were watching. I made sure to watch it as often as I could - even sneaking downstairs to set the channel to Nickelodeon so I could watch it upstairs on my tv. I won't lie when I say it definitely helped to shape my morbid sense of humor.

As for Enter the Florpus? Well...

Spoiler

I fucking loved it.

I actually don't mind the edgy stuff not being as present this time around. I think the fact the show is so edgy often overshadows everything else the show did right, and it's all a lot of cartoon spergs seemed to focus on both when it came out and in retrospect. While the plot wasn't anything special it was still a fun ride, and seeing the Tallest finally get what was coming to them was more enjoyable than I anticipated. The focus on Prof Membrane's relationship with Dib was also really sweet (especially when Membrane tells Dib that he's proud of him, despite Dib thinking otherwise). I laughed at a lot of the jokes too, which is always a plus if you're asking me. Most of the voice acting was on point and Richard Steven Horvitz was an absolute joy to listen to as Zim.

A conversation I'll admit I like following in the animation community is the one about the CalArts style. I personally think it's become very generic, a bit like how a lot of modern anime shows have that typical style that's parodied so much. But the animation in Enter the Florpus brought a big smile to my face. It was absolute eye candy - and the thing is it isn't just good because they emulated the style of the show, but also because they improved on things such as the expressions, movement and so on and so forth. Of course I'm not leaving out the different styles they used for the bit where Earth is about to enter the Florpus - I saw it coming as soon as parallel universes were mentioned - but it was so enjoyable to just watch the animators have fun with the various styles. The use of colours were brilliant as well, and at no point did I think that the shades were overwhelming or too intense.

All in all Enter the Florpus was everything I could've hoped for. Something I don't think a lot of people realise is that a good reboot/remake isn't just about emulating what made the original so great - it is also about bringing something new to the table, something the original either didn't have or didn't have enough of - and Enter the Florpus hit that nail on the head perfectly. It was a satisfying watch and I honest to god hope it is used as a good example of what a reboot should be for anybody wanting to revive an old IP.

One last note - Clembrane was too pure and good for this world and the fact they made him so loveable gets a thumbs-up from me.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Oh others were talking about their first exposure? Lol well I never grew up with cable, but I had happened to spend the night at a friend's house and we had on Nickelodeon checking out Fairly Oddparents, and wouldn't you know it, Invader Zim was on after it. The episode was appropriately "Bestest Friend", and I think it scared us shitless when Keef's eyeballs were yanked out and replaced with those creepy-ass cybernetics that made him think a squirrel was Zim. We were weirded out and didn't know what to think of it, I don't remember if we continued with "NanoZIM" or if we changed the channel right afterwards, but we never saw more of it together.

But I never forgot that. I was always kind of a sucker for horror elements as a kid (grew up watching The X-Files and the like), so although I couldn't keep up with it, sometimes I would look something up about it on the Internet if I remembered to, then a few years later when I entered high school I was able to watch episodes on YouTube. I would fall in-and-out of love with it, though. I dunno, I tended to get wary and back away from it whenever I would come across some eccentric fans of it. And there are a lot of them. Zim, though, has a way of dragging me back in.

 

[The Fair Lady]

My first exposure was Dark Harvest. I’d been watching Nickelodeon and lo and behold, the most disturbing episode happened to be on. I specifically remember the part where Zim steals the hall monitor’s organs freaking the hell out of me. I didn’t actually get into the show until years after it had been cancelled, around 2007, because my best friend at the time loved it. I watched all the episodes online and later bought the DVDs.

 

[Sayon]

Yeah, I was also thinking about Gaz being more sinister, the decadence of the city and weird and grotesque characters like the teacher, that fat bastard pizza hog and Sgt. Hobo... I mean, those things were magical lmao

Gaz is more or less a failure to match what Vasquez wanted. She was envisioned as what the pitch called a sinister Dana Scully who was Dib's treacherous sidekick who still didn't want him to die since they were family in the end. I suspect she ended up being less involved in the show's going-ons since Zim and Dib's dynamic was enough for the show so there wasn't a need to have more characters be key in it.

 

[Clockwork_PurBle]

I guess I'm in the minority here when it comes to first viewings of Invader Zim. Invader Zim was actually before my time, or by the time I was old enough to be interested in it, it had ended a couple years prior. So, my first exposure to this was on Nicktoons which, *back in my day*, was entirely reruns of ended or canceled Nick cartoons.

Spoiler

The last time I checked it was showing Spongebob and Loud House, which are both active shows, constantly, as well as pretty much only the newer FOPS, with reruns of Jimmy Neutron, classic FOP, etc at like 2 AM. Sucks. Teen Nick is the fucking same. Oh, you want to watch reruns of Drake and Josh or like Zoey 101? Sorry you have to watch 9 hours of Henry Danger, because that's a teen show that teens like.

Invader Zim came on at a later time, but before Ren and Stimpy (which was shown at like 2 AM). I remember being confused by it and initially disliking it (which is weird because I normally like that stuff) but a few years ago I tried to watch it again and really liked it. I also remember an Invader Zim flash game online that scared the fuck out of me.

 

[Rotollo]

The first time I saw Zim was when I was like 6, at that point the show was kicked off of the mainline channel and was just shown on reruns on nick toons, somehow despite being a chicken shit as a kid zim never scared me to the point of turning it off. I remember watching it with my brother alot and only getting scared of the baloney episode due to it's ending, dark harvest wasn't that bad to be nightmare fuel imo.
Nowadays I'm just glad it's back in terms of both the movie and comics since Zim is still a weird throwback of how humor was in the early 2000's, alot of media I think forgot how to be funny sometime in the 2010's.
the weird thing about Zim was even though it was cancelled I still remember my local hot topic carrying that sort of stuff when I was 10 or some stuff, the franchise has staying power that's for sure even in death.

The last time I checked it was showing Spongebob and Loud House, which are both active shows, constantly, as well as pretty much only the newer FOPS, with reruns of Jimmy Neutron, classic FOP, etc at like 2 AM. Sucks. Teen Nick is the fucking same. Oh, you want to watch reruns of Drake and Josh or like Zoey 101? Sorry you have to watch 9 hours of Henry Danger, because that's a teen show that teens like.

what the hell, Viacom needs to either put more shows on streaming services or make their own because I swear alot of there stuff is harder to find then translating a langauge via a rossetta stone.

I also remember an Invader Zim flash game online that scared the fuck out of me.

Elaborate if you can remember it, nick flash games were weird as shit.

 

[RumblyTumbly]

I was in high school when Zim first came out (Yeah yeah, haha, laugh at the old guy) so I didn't watch it that much and I don't have the same attachment to it that I do shows like Ren and Stimpy and Rocko.

But I have seen a couple episodes here and there and I found it to be funny and completely unique among the NickToons.

Dark Harvest is one of the most darkly comic things I have ever seen put into a "kid's show". I was laughing at just how disturbing it got.

 

[Remove Goat]

He probably made some decent money from the DVD and merch sales from the show. Probably not millions of dollars because creators always get fucked over by the studios in some way. But enough to live comfortably and not have to worry about making ends meet? Yeah.

I know I'm late as hell, but Jhonen's admitted on a blog he never made a dime off the merch.

Not the exact post in question, but the whole thing is rather informative.

 

[XYZpdq]

The first time I saw Zim was when I was like 6

YOU KIDS GET OFFA MY DAMN LAWN

 

[From The Uncanny Valley]

I know I'm late as hell, but Jhonen's admitted on a blog he never made a dime off the merch.

Not the exact post in question, but the whole thing is rather informative.

That's fucking awful.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

I also remember an Invader Zim flash game online that scared the fuck out of me.

I don't think I ever saw this, and I used to browse Nickelodeon's website to play its Flash games. They were pretty weird, some of them were original games, too (I remember the lunch lady interactive one, like wtf). What was this game about?

EDIT: I'm going through the blog, and I just love the fuck out of this weirdo. All the stories he could tell about Nickelodeon, and he spins an elaborate tale of hiding the body of one of the executive's children. Brilliant.

 

[Manwithn0n0men]

I've personally interpreted it as mocking ZADR shippers because it's "troo wuv" to obsessively study surveillance of your enemy's yard waiting for him to show his handsome ugly mug, even if it takes a decade for it to happen. Also Dib yelling he "loathes" Zim is going to be twisted into fangirls squeeing it's him admitting he actually loves Zim.

I don't have the stomach to go look up fan reactions, hope it's been civil for the most part.

See what I liked is both Rocko and this started with the characters in Stasis

But in Rocko the stasis didnt serve the characters or the story. It was just "LOL Nostalgia"

 

[SherlockMexicano]

Yeah, I was also thinking about Gaz being more sinister, the decadence of the city and weird and grotesque characters like the teacher, that fat bastard pizza hog and Sgt. Hobo... I mean, those things were magical lmao

I think Gaz in the show was more of a force of nature than an actual character. She was basically invincible whenever she actually cared about doing something, but keeping with the depressive nature of the show, she was uncaring about anything that wasn't a videogame, and she was also supposed to be a scary girl. Remember, in the show, there was no indication she even cared about Dib that much.

Gaz in the movie, and I assume the comics, is far more human. Heck I don't think she even cared about videogames at all in the movie. Something that would be out of character for tv Gaz

I am not complaining, but movie Gaz is very different.

 

[Dunsparce]

Gaz in the movie, and I assume the comics, is far more human. Heck I don't think she even cared about videogames at all.

She is like that in the comics, but she definitely still is obsessed with videogames, as seen in some of the comic issues that focus on her. Both her personality and wardrobe were changed in the comics that was seen in the special, the former is because Jhonen Vasquez wanted her to be more of an actual sister for Dib(and thus have more personality), while the latter it's because he thought in retrospect that "no 10-year old girl would wear clothes like that". Same thing with Dib's slightly different haircut. He thought it was more appropriate for a kid his age.