Would you have liked to see Cartoon Network steal ZIM from Nickelodeon after its cancellation?
Yes
No
0voters
This forum is for all lovers of the IRKEN EMPIRE to post their thoughts on this remarkable seris that was cut down waaaaaayyy before its prime.
I’d like to start this discussion with the fairly controversial topic of why you think Nickeodeon cancelled the show.
Personally, I think they did it for these reasons:
1. 3D Effects+Heavily Inked Anime=$$$$$$$$ down the drain. Nick has always been after those greenback bills, which is why they always take their best series and rerun them into the ground - (it’s all a big pyramid scheme - really, look into Nick’s history… this is what they do… that’s especially evident with the way The Angry Beavers ended.)
2. Hot Topic sensibilities=angry Christian parents. There is no concept of ‘niche’ markets at Nickelodeon. It’s either extremely annoying pop entertainment or badly-drawn weird things with no story. ZIM was entirely foreign because it actually had a story that was beginning to develop over season two with the introduction of TAK.
But maybe I’m jumping on too much of a geek tangent here. Your thoughts?
In a word, no, I would not like to see Invader Zim resurface again, especially on another channel. Now don’t get me wrong, Zim is one of my all time favorite animated cartoons (along with Futurama) and I absolutely love every single one of it’s 27 episodes. But Jhonen vasquez said that there would be no way he’d return to work on Zim and that’s enough to convince me that no future rendition of Zim could possibly be as good without him. Do I think that Zim was cut down too soon? Of course it was, no ones arguing that. But you have to admit, Invader Zim really was waay too dark to be on Nickelodeon in the first place (I mean, did they even look at this guy’s previous line of work- “Johnny The Homicidal Maniac? Sounds like a fun kids book!”). I’m just glad that Nick even gave it a chance to really shine before they had to pull the plug.
Though it certainly was weird, I personally don’t consider “dark” to be the right word. The most disturbing material, to me, was generally simply stuff like exploding pimples (“Rise of the Zitboy”). While I acknowledge there WERE zombies in “FBI Warning of Doom” and other kinds of things in a handful of other episodes (i.e. Dib running into rat people in “GameSlave II”), it’s certainly nowhere NEAR as disturbing as Resident Evil, or even the Halo games, especially as Zim eventually figures out in the zombie example that they lack brains. XD
And yes, I am vaguely familiar with JtHM, and I must say, obscenity-wise, IZ is MUCH better for children, or at LEAST people who just get easily disturbed.
As for the poll, I’m not sure what to say, to be honest. But I WILL say this: the people who get offended by the kind of stuff Jhonen does are NOT limited to religious nuts; I, for instance, am agnostic.
While I do agree IZ was one of Jhonen’s milder works, there was still a lot of dark stuff in Invader Zim. To make a shot list: Zim rips the eyes out of a child and replaces them with robotic ones, Zim is shown on a dissection table with all of his organs splayed out, Dib is shown dying only to come back as a hideous mutant cyborg, a gang of mutant alien babies attempt to kill Zim and take his ship, and who can forget “Dark Harvest” where Zim steals the organs out of human bodies replaces them with objects and then puts them inside his own body. And that’s only in the first season!
Yeah, ‘Dark Harvest’ was pretty extreme. But I feel like Nick might have been annoyed that the tortured, always-smiling kid was named ‘Nick.’ Workplace commentary, perhaps?
Nick was hilarious (both the kid and the network at one point). But to me, nothing can be the awesomely dark subliminal mind image known as Bloody GIR.
Well…it HAS been a while since I saw IZ…yeah, I guess I was lucky that I never had the chance to see “Dark Harvest” on TV, which was when I was much younger. Though, I don’t recall the bit about Zim being on a dissection table. Which episode was that from?
That was his name, TS2? In all honesty, I didn’t know he was even given one!
takes a seat I’m going to love this thread considering that I am still a pretty big IZ fan (knd of realized this when I have about four IZ shirts, one of Dib, one of Zim, one of Gir, and of Gaz). Personally, I would love to see IZ return but only if Jhonen Vasquez is behind the reins, without him Zim just isn’t Zim and that is a fact. As for disturbing, please, IZ isn’t the first disturbing show considering that the first episode my mother watched with me of Ren and Stimpy was my last…overall, I would love to see someone take it over considering that it’s clear that Nickelodeon doesn’t know how to handle a show like this at all although they are stll making money off of it from my favorite store HT…as for the bloody Gir, I have a screenshot of it that was shown during one of the intros of the show but as far as the other suppossed sightings, haven’t seen or even noticed it at all but keep in mind, I saw the bloody Gir on my dvd set…also as a JTHM fan, there is more to the maniac than killing but if you don’t read the comics then in reality, you really don’t know…
But I WILL say this: the people who get offended by the kind of stuff Jhonen does are NOT limited to religious nuts; I, for instance, am agnostic.