The Rise and Fall of Invader Zim: What Happened?

The Rise and Fall of Invader Zim: What Happened?
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SERIES SUMMARY
The Alpha Jay Show reviews animation episodes, animated TV movies, cartoons, and other things as a main series. I have reviewed many things from Fairly Oddparents to SpongeBob to Teen Titans Go to The Amazing World Of Gumball and many more. Expect a fair, open-minded and non-pandering review of whatever episode I use. Bear in mind while I do use copyrighted material, it is highly likely that my content falls under the legal defense of fair use.
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TITLE SUMMARY
Self-explanatory.
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▶ ALL OPINIONS ARE OF MY OWN AND NOT OF ANY OTHER COMPANY, SPONSOR OR PLATFORM ◀
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[TheAlphaJayShow]

What are your thoughts on Invader Zim?

[mr.bazinga]

He decided to sit in a toilet and laugh maniacally for several years.

[ciscomartinez]

*to evil and out of character for zim*
Bro have you seen dark harvest

[Giantalfe]

Whats the matter?... scared of BEANS SPACE BOI!

[raviaviaviavioli]

It's kinda odd Nickelodeon saw a comic about a homicidal maniac and thought: "Hey, this guy would make a great kid's cartoon!" it was obvious the guy was going to create something that an older audience would like.

[MrGeorgeFlorcus]

Invader Zim was so far ahead of its time. It was to children's animation what The Simpsons was to 80's sitcoms. Here was this edgy, subversive, unique series that really pushed the envelope for what was considered appropriate for television. 18 years later, it holds up in every aspect, from its art style, direction, writing, humor, even its animation holds up and in my opinion puts many contemporary animations to shame. Had this show been produced 10 years later, in an era where 2D-3D hybrid animations were more prevalent, and older teens and young adults were more keenly interested in animation than they may have been in the day, Invader Zim would have thrived. Instead of being the sort of underground cult classic that it is, it would have become a mainstream cultural phenomenon; again, I would put it on or near the level of The Simpsons. But as it was, it was released a little too early on a network that didn't support them, to an audience that largely wasn't ready for it.

And maybe that's okay. The one benefit, at least in hindsight, of "failed" projects like Invader Zim is that being dropped before it could really catch on just meant that it didn't stay long enough to lose steam and focus, and devolve into a run-of-the-mill, overly commercialized piece of mediocrity. It didn't outstay its welcome, and fans may decry its perceived preemptive cancellation as unfair and unjust, but there's no denying that it's cancellation went a long way towards elevating it to its cult status. Endless talks about how the show "died before its time" doubtlessly created untold amounts of word of mouth advertising for it, priming it for a resurgence in popularity during the late 2000's. All without having to make a single new episode.

[aptspire]

Invader Zim has fallen?

NOT SCIENTIFICALLY POSSIBLE!

[butterpie]

Also, Invader Zim is now officially 18 years old, having premiered 18 years ago on this day.

[toesnatcher]

We need to raid Area 51 to free zim and get back the show

[tigerfestivals]

The time travel episode where he kills dib is great. It shows just how evil zim is and that despite his incompetence he is a legitimate threat when he actually pulls off a scheme. Though I don't think killing off dib for good would have been good for the show itself, since the Dib/Zim rivalry is the core of the conflict.

[ftgwynn]

Just a heads up for y’all, Netflix picked it up.

[notrealyBea]

Two things I find interesting about this show.

The first is that Zim, in his perspective, is not a bad person. He was raised in a culture that invading planets is a good thing and it gives him respect. He thinks that the altissimos love him and that his mission is something given specifically to him and that makes him not want to ruin things like the last time.
In the film it is clearly seen how much he lost confidence in himself when he discovered the truth, showing a more insecure side of Zim.
Another interesting point is Dib. The series makes it very clear that everyone hates and avoids the boy because they think he's crazy. No one, not least Gaz who knows the truth, is on his side, but that doesn't stop him from continuing to save the world from Zim's plans. I mean, he could let Zim take over the world to teach everyone a lesson, but still, he chooses to fight despite everything. This is something, in my opinion, very heroic on his part.
An optimistic part of me wanted to see the two become friends, since both are people who, surprisingly, have several aspects in common.

[captainhorrible]

Let's all be honest here, Zim never really fell.

Us: Where's the Inavder zim movie
Nickelodeon: Dora?

Netflix: Hold my stonks

[JamesLacroixx]

This isn't really that well researched. It might just be that this show was slightly outside your generation, I'm not sure. Just owning the DVDs is enough to know more than what's revealed here. So just to post a few corrections;
It's pronounced 'Vas-Kez' not Vasquwez, Jhonen hates his name being mispronounced lol
On that note, it's Kevin MANthee
Watching the commentary on the DVDs reveals tons of information about the creation of the show and the demise of it, to put in some more info...
Actually the original version of the destroyed city in door to door WAS going to have a statue of liberty in it but the joke was that 'New York always gets destroyed in movies' which it does, 9/11 or not.
The episodes weren't 'self contained' to that extent, the things in the previous episodes DID happen, but it was sitcom formula rather than plot arc formula, so in Bad Bad Rubber Piggy, Dib had in fact already become Zim's arch rival. Yes, Zim is evil in that episode. He's... an evil character, that's the point of the show. He's working for an evil alien race that wants to take over the universe. Duh, he's evil.
In the Christmas episode the character they show that wasn't introduced on air was Minimoose. In fact it was lampshaded in the show by Zim saying 'yep, he's been here the whole time'.
And last but most importantly, it was actually the Halloween special that started to lead to the cancellation of Zim. There were tons of these more lore-heavy science fiction episodes that were animated and aired as part of season 2--I'm guessing you didn't see them because Season 2 continued on with the Tak ship story and then some, but by that point Nick was starting to do their usual 'time slot jerk-around' trick to force shows into being cancelled because they don't like it anymore.
The Halloween special led to a number of complaints from pearl-clutchers and this caused a great deal of back and forth between Nick and Jhonen about how much creative control he could have and it was his constant attempts at telling a cynical dark humor science fiction story instead of a lolsorandom cute robot dog screamy children story that led to them putting it in the ever-changing garbage slots until the ratings dropped and they could be justified in canceling it.

I'm posting all this because I watched the movie today and this video disappointed me in its ignorance.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[Sanguinerose]

I would almost literally be willing to kill for a continuation of the series.

Yes I know about Enter The Florpus. But I mean as a regular series.

[eclipsaaddams]

Invader Zim probably would have been better off on ADULT SWIM.

[InvaderLuis]

Wait, so your telling me that all the merchandise that i buy from Hot Topic back in my jr. high school years actually helped on something?

[umamorinha]

“Not for this show, not for this show’s logic” dude did you watch the show?

[infiniteoctopaw]

You talked about deleted content from the show and said nothing about bloody Gir. I’m impressed.