An animated series is a set of animated television works with a common title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main heroes, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can have either a finite number of episodes like a miniseries , a definite end, or be open-ended, without a predetermined number of episodes. They can be broadcast on television, shown in movie theatres, released on the internet or direct-to-video . Like other creative works, animated series can be of a wide variety of genres and can also have different target audiences : both males and females, both children and adults .
75-450: Invader Zim is an American animated science fiction dark comedy television series created by comic book writer and cartoonist Jhonen Vasquez for Nickelodeon . The series centers on the titular character Zim (voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz ), an extraterrestrial from the planet Irk. His mission is to conquer Earth and enslave the human race along with his malfunctioning robot servant GIR ( Rosearik Rikki Simons ). However, Zim
150-670: A ghetto with Mexican music playing in the background and a banner reading "Welcome to Mexico". Feeling that it would come off as racist, Nickelodeon denied this and the scenery was changed to a vaguely Mexican-looking, but still filthy town, the music was changed to disco music and the banner was changed to say "CARNE", which translates into "MEAT". Originally, the episodes "Dark Harvest" and "Bestest Friend" were supposed to air together, but Nickelodeon would not allow this, saying that those two episodes are "too twisted" to air together. So instead, "Dark Harvest" aired with "Germs" and "Bestest Friend" aired with "NanoZIM". Additionally, "Dark Harvest"
225-406: A "secret mission" intended to prevent interference with the invasion; the target "mystery planet" is on the outskirts of the known universe and is not confirmed to exist. He is issued GIR ( Rosearik Rikki Simons ), an ineffective and erratic Standard Issue Information Retrieval (SIR) unit hastily made from spare parts found in a trash can. After a six-month journey across the universe, Zim arrives at
300-461: A chance by approaching Kevin Manthei with the idea. Kevin took a chance in trusting his music to someone he only knew from e-mail. My friend Tom took a chance too, okaying a show with music from an American cartoon series instead of a Japanese Anime. These chances definitely paid off! The "Zim-phony Special" broke every Anime Stuff R ratings record, thanks to the overwhelming response to this show from you,
375-518: A child-friendly show, shifted its target group to ages 12 and up, resulting in a darker and more mature storyline. Animated film theatrical series include all early animated series: Animated Weekly (1913), The Newlyweds (1913 — 1915), Travelaughs (1913, 1915 — 1918, 1921 — 1923), Doc Yak (1913 — 1915), Colonel Heeza Liar (1913 — 1917, 1922 — 1924), Kapten Grogg [ sv ] (1916 — 1922), Les Aventures des Pieds Nickelés (1917 — 1918),
450-455: A fellow Irken seeking revenge against Zim; Lard Nar ( Fred Tatasciore ), the leader of a resistance group called The Resisty who wants to overthrow the Irken Empire; and Sizz-Lorr ( Jim Wise ), Zim's former employer from Foodcourtia who attempts to recapture him. There was no way I was gonna say 'no'. The fact that they took a chance on someone a lot of people wouldn't have given a kids show to
525-491: A few different voices for his audition for GIR, including one where he was trying to imitate his mother-in-law, but decided it was too "shrieky". He then remembered when he used to play with hand puppets with his father as a kid and tried to do one of those voices. Simons was also a colorist on Invader Zim and in November 1998, the same month he auditioned for GIR, he also helped color the pilot episode. Vasquez said he gave Simons
600-477: A frame-by-frame viewing. Otherwise, it will be a flash, or, in some cases, blended into the movements of the animation. Bloody GIR is never animated and will always appear as a still image. However, the opacity and size of the Bloody GIR is varied. The kids who loved SpongeBob were not fans of Zim . SpongeBob was Nick's flagship show [and] Invader Zim [wasn't popular with the same audience, thus it]
675-429: A green complexion (which he claims is caused by a "skin condition"). The show follows his attempts to conduct espionage by attending a local school (spelled "Skool") and planning to conquer and enslave the world at his base. Opposing Zim is his classmate Dib ( Andy Berman ), a paranoid young boy who is obsessed with the paranormal and supernatural and the only human (besides his sister) who sees through Zim's disguise. Dib
750-593: A local station of a television network broadcasts an animated series as a part of its own programming, the time-slot will vary by region. All early animated television series, the first being Crusader Rabbit (1950 — 1959), are comic cartoon series. However, later series include sports ( Speed Racer , Captain Tsubasa , Slam Dunk ), action ( Hajime no Ippo , G.I. Joe ), science fiction ( Mobile Suit Gundam , Tenchi Muyo ), drama ( Neon Genesis Evangelion ), adventure ( Dragon Ball ), martial arts ( Baki
825-470: A plethora of official merchandise, including video games, toys, clothing and accessories, among many other products. Despite its early cancellation and short run, due to increasing popularity and above-average merchandise sales it has been widely regarded as a cult classic . A monthly comic book series of the same name was released on July 8, 2015, as a continuation of the television series and published by Oni Press until August 4, 2021. A film based on
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#1732855352260900-455: A set time period in "segments", including several such shorts. When advertising is taken into account, the cartoon itself may be only 15 — 20 minutes of the half hour, although Netflix and many other streaming companies do not show commercials. There are also series with a very short episodes lasting approximately five minutes; they have recently become more common in Japanese animation . If
975-445: A single frame of the episode "Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy". Post-production supervisor Jason Stiff has confirmed that the image does indeed appear in that episode, and Ressel also confirmed its existence in interviews. The image of Bloody GIR was reportedly scattered throughout the "last fourteen episodes" of the series by Ressel and Graham. Bloody GIR can be seen the most clearly during the intro to the episode "Mortos der Soulstealer". Although
1050-457: A trench coat in the show. Later, Nickelodeon wanted to cut Dib from the show outright because they did not think he was funny or interesting enough. Vasquez fought back with a project called "God Save the Dib", which involved making slight changes to Dib's character to make him more funny and interesting in order to avoid Nickelodeon cutting him from the show. One notable change that came out of "God Save
1125-558: A zany alien misunderstanding Earth customs and ultimately, learning a lesson at the end. Vasquez said that while this idea probably would have found more success on Nickelodeon, he quickly dropped the idea, believing it would not fit his style of writing. Vasquez came up with the entire premise for Invader Zim in about an hour, while sitting in bed when he could not sleep. He was inspired by the idea of an alien who came from an incredibly advanced race and has access to such powerful and advanced technology that he could easily take over or destroy
1200-447: Is 5 hours, 26 minutes, and 28 seconds long and includes music from every episode of Invader Zim , except for "The Most Horrible X-mas Ever". The broadcast was extremely popular, so Anime Stuff R (temporarily renamed "Anime Stuff Z" for the special) decided to release a CD of the broadcast. However, due to financial reasons, they only made 100 copies of this CD. There are 325 tracks on the CD and
1275-575: Is an American voice actor , writer, cartoonist , and animator. He is best known as the voice of GIR in the Nickelodeon animated series , Invader Zim . Simons has also written a number of novels and comic series, often working with his wife, Tavisha Wolfgarth-Simons. Simons was the color designer for the animated TV show Invader Zim , and also voiced the robot character GIR. Show creator Jhonen Vasquez wanted someone with no experience in voice acting to play GIR, to reflect how broken and messed up
1350-452: Is antagonized by Dib ( Andy Berman ), a young paranormal investigator who is determined to stop Zim from succeeding. Nickelodeon contacted Jhonen Vasquez about pitching ideas for an animated series for their older demographic and Invader Zim was the first thing he pitched. In Vasquez's words "it went from pitch to series without hardly any waiting". As the series went on, ratings declined and budgetary issues became more frequent. Before
1425-454: Is determined to expose and thwart Zim, despite the hostility and mockery he receives from his oblivious peers for doing so. Supporting characters include Dib's cynical and apathetic sister Gaz ( Melissa Fahn ); Zim and Dib's demonic teacher Ms. Bitters ( Lucille Bliss ); and Dib and Gaz's famous, but neglectful father Professor Membrane ( Rodger Bumpass ). Later in the series, other alien characters begin to appear, including Tak ( Olivia d'Abo ),
1500-458: Is one of the coolest things that ever happened to me in my life. — Jhonen Vasquez Prior to the creation of Invader Zim , Nickelodeon desired a series to suit its 11–15 year old demographic. Nickelodeon producer Mary Harrington was searching for something that had a similar "edge" to The Ren & Stimpy Show , when she came across a comic book called Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and
1575-483: Is stylized with sharp edges, thick black outlines, big heads, small or elongated bodies, and big eyes for the characters. Invader Zim' s art-style was initially difficult for the animators to learn. Director Steve Ressel even admitted that it was the hardest style he had ever worked on, citing the characters' heads as the most complicated aspect of their designs. Invader Zim was one of the first animated television shows to merge 2D animation with CGI animation . When
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#17328553522601650-752: The Tom and Jerry cartoon short films released in movie theatres from 1940 to 1967, and many others. Direct-to-video animated series include most Japanese original video animations (OVAs). The first OVA series (and also the first overall OVA) was Dallos (1983 — 1985). Almost all hentai (pornographic) anime series are released as OVAs. Animated web series are designed and produced for streaming services . Examples include Happy Tree Friends (1999 — 2023) and Eddsworld (2003 — present). They can also be released on YouTube , such as Asdfmovie , which debuted in 2008. Rosearik Rikki Simons Rosearik Rikki Allen Simons (born September 8, 1970)
1725-545: The " Invader Zim " fans. Of course, the "Zim-phony" is all about the excellent music of the remarkable Kevin Manthei. I certainly owe Kevin more thanks than I can ever hope to articulate for his terrific support during this once-in-a-lifetime experience. This Mini CD you're holding is proof that some chances are definitely worth taking. Thank you for listening! Invader Zim would frequently find itself at conflict with network censorship. In The Medium-Sized Book of Zim Scrips Vol. 1 , series writer Eric Trueheart would characterize
1800-401: The "mystery planet" which turns out to be a dark, dystopian , and satirical version of Earth centuries into the future, with rampant mindless consumerism , although it appears that humans have abolished all wars . A delighted Zim quickly goes to work and sets up his base in a random suburb ; The Tallest are dismayed by his success. A short-statured Zim disguises himself as a human child with
1875-474: The 1990s, more mature content than those of traditional cartoon series began to appear more widely, extending beyond a primary audience of children. These cartoon series included The Simpsons , South Park , Family Guy , Futurama , The Ren & Stimpy Show , Rocko's Modern Life , Beavis and Butt-Head , King of the Hill , and Duckman . Canadian computer-animated series ReBoot , which began as
1950-549: The CGI animation services and Sunwoo Entertainment in South Korea providing the 2D animation services. Salami Studios provided the post-production and sound services for most episodes of the series, and Encore and Hollywood Digital provided the post-production services for a few episodes in season one. In season two, the animation style became slightly more stylized and pronounced in motion than in season one. Invader Zim ' s art style
2025-571: The Dib" was making Dib's head bigger than his body, which became a reoccurring joke throughout the series. The original name for Gaz's handheld game console was going to be "Game Slave Advanced", a spoof of Nintendo 's handheld game console, the Game Boy Advance . However, the people at Nintendo did not like this parody and threatened to sue Nickelodeon if the name was used. So the name was changed to "Game Slave 2" instead. Vasquez wanted to add some red blood splatters to certain violent scenes in
2100-479: The Earth single-handedly, but instead he decides to stay in school all day, never even thinking to sneak out. A pilot for Invader Zim was pitched to Nickelodeon in 1999, which led to the series being green-lit . Vasquez indicated that very little of his writing style was changed over the course of Invader Zim , other than restricting certain language and visuals that may not be suitable for children. Vasquez cited that
2175-454: The Grappler ), and other genres. The first animated sitcom was The Flintstones (1960 — 1966), produced by Hanna-Barbera . It was followed by other sitcoms of this studio: Top Cat (1961 — 1962), Jonny Quest (1964 — 1965), The Jetsons (1962 — 1963, 1985, 1987) and Wait Till Your Father Gets Home (1972 — 1974), an adult-oriented animated series in
2250-599: The beginning of the series the position is jointly held by two equally tall individuals ( Wally Wingert and Kevin McDonald ). Zim is an outcast; he is delusional, very short, overzealous, narcissistic, and megalomaniacal. An absentminded Zim nearly destroyed Irk and the Irkens during the empire's first invasion, Operation Impending Doom I . He was punished by exile to the Irken food court planet Foodcourtia, although he failed to recognize
2325-448: The biggest change for himself was going from working alone on a comic to working with thousands of people at Nickelodeon, saying "it's an absolute misery". However, he said the experience of working on Invader Zim was "incredibly gratifying", but also "fiendishly frustrating". Invader Zim was produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studios in Burbank, California with Nick Digital providing
Invader Zim - Misplaced Pages Continue
2400-492: The biggest problems Nickelodeon had with the show before it premiered was with Dib's design. Vasquez wanted Dib to wear a trench coat, but Nickelodeon opted against this because they feared Dib's clothing would remind people of the Columbine High School massacre , in which the two teenagers responsible for the shootings both wore trench coats during the attack. Nickelodeon ultimately lost this fight and Dib ended up wearing
2475-415: The character is. Vasquez was disappointed with actors who auditioned for GIR, saying they were "good actors" who just did a "stock crazy robot voice". Simons was Vasquez's friend and was working on I Feel Sick with him, and he asked him to try to audition for GIR, saying he "couldn't screw it up anymore than anyone else". Simons did a few different voices for his audition for GIR, including one where he
2550-524: The data canister and draining humans, but this directly contradicts Ressel's statements on the matter. Many people believe that Bloody GIR was the reason behind the cancellation of Invader Zim . However, Vasquez has revealed that Nickelodeon did not find out about the image's inclusion until after the show's cancellation. Vasquez also stated that when it was discovered by Nickelodeon, they were not particularly bothered by it, since kids would not notice it anyway. Certain images of Bloody GIR can only be seen in
2625-514: The development on Invader Zim was first getting started, Steve Ressel consulted with the crew of Futurama to figure out how to integrate 2D animation with CGI animation, as Futurama was one of the first animated television shows that merged the two mediums. When the Futurama crew saw the show they were very impressed by how seamlessly the Invader Zim crew integrated both mediums, specifically in
2700-432: The end of an episode, but Nickelodeon would not allow any characters to be killed off and demanded the crew add certain details suggesting that they survived or in some cases, rewrite the episodes to where they would not die. They complied but did so in an intentionally forced and sarcastic way to purposely convey their disagreement and reluctance toward the decision, such as the sarcastic "No animated characters were harmed in
2775-490: The episode "Bestest Friend", but Nickelodeon forbade this. Also, at the end of "Bestest Friend", Keef was originally going to fall off of a building and onto a power line, which would have electrocuted him, but Nickelodeon was worried that kids might try to imitate this behavior and demanded that it be changed. The next idea was that Keef gets run over by a car, and spins around on the tire as it drives away, but Nickelodeon denied this scene too, this time for being "too violent". In
2850-407: The episode "The Wettening". While the average episode of an eleven-minute animated television show usually has around 80–120 pages of storyboards per episode, Invader Zim ' s storyboards were around 250–350 pages per episode. This is because Invader Zim has a very dedicated attention to detail outlining every ounce of a character's movements and method of acting, which is something Nickelodeon
2925-473: The episode's writer, Eric Trueheart, has stated that this was only meant to be taken as a joke, and that "Jhonen at no point thought he would actually kill off one of the lead characters in the series." In "Door to Door" the virtual reality world that Zim shows people was originally going to involve a demolished city that resembled New York, but Nickelodeon demanded that this be changed due to its similarities to 9/11 . On reflection, Vasquez said that he prefers
3000-451: The executives treated the show, stating that "Nickelodeon probably looked to Rugrats as the model of what a cartoon should be ... Invader Zim was none of these things." Ultimately, "There was a just a conflict in personalities, intentions, and modus operandi ... The reality was just not a great fit, and yes, it was a problem." In some episodes, it was originally intended for certain characters (such as Keef and Iggins) to be killed off at
3075-545: The filming of this production" end-card message at the end of the episode "Hamstergeddon" where many background characters "died" onscreen. In the DVD commentary for the episode "Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy", Jhonen Vasquez reveals that the original idea for the episode was for Zim to kill Dib off permanently, and for Dib to be replaced with a new kid named Louie. But once again, Nickelodeon would not allow any characters to be killed off permanently and so this did not end up happening. However,
Invader Zim - Misplaced Pages Continue
3150-403: The final version, Keef gets attacked by a squirrel and falls off of a building, which Nickelodeon was fine with. In the episode "Hobo 13", Skoodge was going to be shown eating his own skin to survive, but Nickelodeon denied this scene and even the Invader Zim crew admitted that they thought it was "too much". In the original ending of the episode "Walk of Doom", Zim and GIR were dropped off in
3225-474: The idea for Bloody GIR was confirmed by Ressel not to have surfaced until the episode "Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy", some claim to have found it in earlier episodes of the series, such as "Dark Harvest" and "Attack of the Saucer Morons". Additionally, some people have claimed that Bloody GIR was meant to debut in the episode "GIR Goes Crazy and Stuff", in which GIR was supposed to be covered in blood while floating with
3300-407: The interior of the CD cover features messages from both Kevin Manthei and Richard Rae. Kevin Manthei's message says: When I was approached by Richard E. Rae about the possibility of an internet radio show featuring hours and hours of my " Invader Zim " music, I was thrilled. What a great opportunity to let the fans of " Invader Zim " hear the music! Richard went way beyond what I thought the show
3375-448: The majority of "Zim Eats Waffles" still ended up being one continual scene. When casting voice actors for Invader Zim , Vasquez did not want actors who were just capable of doing zany voices because it sounded less natural to him. He made a point to cast people with speaking voices that were naturally distinct and out of the ordinary so that the cast did not have to do unnatural voices, but could instead just speak naturally. Mark Hamill
3450-445: The music for The Land Before Time , An American Tail , and Stitch! The Movie , to compose the music for the pilot episode of Invader Zim . Vasquez said that he asked for several of the tracks that Tavera produced to be discarded and that ultimately the team had less than half of the number of tracks that they planned to submit. According to Vasquez, he and Tavera were not "a great fit" for one another creatively. Vasquez described
3525-531: The new virtual reality world to the old one, since he does not like the idea of a real-life city existing in Invader Zim . The original version of this scene can be found online. Additionally, the episode "Hamstergeddon" had only aired once prior to the attacks on the World Trade Center, and would shortly thereafter be temporarily withheld from rotation as "[executives] thought the sight of falling buildings would not go over well with sensitive viewers." One of
3600-435: The part of GIR because he was "bad at it", and that fit the character. When voicing GIR, Simons' voice was edited to make it sound higher-pitched and metallic. While Simons eventually learned to perform the voice without the high-pitch editing, the metallic quality still had to be added. Unedited versions of Simons' voice-overs can be heard in voice recordings for the unfinished episodes. Kevin's music wasn't just an addition to
3675-490: The part of GIR, as a reflection of how broken and messed up GIR really is. Vasquez wanted someone who sounded unprofessional, but all of the actors who auditioned for GIR were "good actors" who just did a "stock crazy robot voice", which he found dissatisfying. Vasquez then asked his friend, Rosearik Rikki Simons , who was working with him on his comic called I Feel Sick at the time, to try to audition for GIR, saying he "couldn't screw it up anymore than anyone else". Simons did
3750-411: The pilot music as having a "more 'children's television' sound," with a "much more traditional and not as surprising" theme as he wanted, but added that the music "worked for the pilot." Tavera's cover version of Tortorici's theme music did not appear in the pilot as there was no opening credits sequence. Vasquez said that members of the Invader Zim crew laughed at Tavera's version of the theme because it
3825-555: The reason for his banishment. After learning that Operation Impending Doom II was being planned, Zim unilaterally "quits being banished" to attend the Great Assigning on the convention center planet Conventia. At the Great Assigning, The Tallest appoints Irkens as Invaders, advance scouts tasked with infiltrating and preparing target planets for conquest by the Irken Armada. Zim successfully pleads to be made an Invader, and receives
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#17328553522603900-489: The relationship between the Zim staff and the executives at Nickelodeon as "a little dysfunctional", and that "the executive assigned by Nickelodeon to oversee our show - who was, and still is, a decent guy, by the way - probably felt like he had to keep a lid on an inexperienced show creator, and as a result clamped down harder than he should have." Trueheart also speculated that the channel's other programming also had an effect on how
3975-583: The second season was completed, Nickelodeon cancelled the series, leaving several episodes unfinished. The show originally aired on Nickelodeon from 2001 to 2002, with six of the completed second-season episodes initially going unreleased. These episodes were first made available on DVD in 2004 and later made their television debut on the Nicktoons Network in 2006. Invader Zim received positive reviews from critics and audiences, with praise primarily directed at its humor, writing, animation, art-style, and
4050-527: The series is industrial and techno in nature. The anime internet radio station " Anime Stuff R " produced a radio broadcast special titled " The Kevin Manthei Invader Zim-phony Special " which featured a majority of the music Kevin Manthei composed for Invader Zim . The broadcast special was hosted by Kevin Manthei, DJ Richard Rae and Tom Mitchell (DJ Tomzer1) and was broadcast from September 13, 2002, to October 15, 2002. The entire broadcast
4125-423: The show "happier" and more appealing to certain viewers, which Vasquez always detested. "Bloody GIR", which depicts an image of GIR covered in blood, was created when series creator Jhonen Vasquez illustrated GIR covered in blood and wanted to put this drawing into an episode of Invader Zim . Nickelodeon, however, prohibited it. Director Steve Ressel and illustrator Chris Graham then snuck the forbidden drawing into
4200-409: The show Jhonen Vasquez said, "I could go on and on with variations of the most fantastic reasons for why the show was cancelled, but in the end, even I couldn't give you the whole and accurate truth for why the show got pulled," he wrote in a lengthy post on his website in 2010, nearly eight years after the show wrapped. "The most likely culprits are simply ratings and the sheer expense of the show, which
4275-412: The show, it was crucial for the show to be what it was. Without his intense sounds lending a sense of urgency and seriousness to the ridiculous proceedings within Zim, I could never have given the good little children of the Earth as many nightmares as I did. — Jhonen Vasquez Vasquez asked his friend Mark Tortorici to come up with the theme music for Invader Zim . Vasquez said all he really wanted for
4350-462: The spot. That's partly true, but I'm not a voice actor... while I did the voice-actor thing of taking his direction on inflection and I read the lines provided, I was really having the best time ever just yelling and screaming and being stupid." Simons reprised his role of GIR in a number of video games and in a 2019 film, Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus . In 2011, Nickelodeon approached Rikki Simons,
4425-1038: The style of All in the Family . The Alvin Show from Ross Bagdasarian Sr. and Beany and Cecil from Bob Clampett are also sitcoms. The 1980s and 1990s were a renaissance of the animated children and adult television series. Various broadcast networks and media companies began creating television channels and formats designed specifically for airing cartoon and anime series. Companies that already had these types of formats in place began to revamp their existing models during this time. Most of this animations were American-based or Japanese anime. Listed below are examples of television networks and channels that include animated programs. American British Japanese Canadian Australian Examples of animation-focused networks and channels are listed below; but some of them aired live-action programs occasionally. American South Korean Canadian Japanese During
4500-429: The television and comic series titled Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus , premiered on Netflix on August 16, 2019. The series centers on Zim (voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz ), a member of the extraterrestrial Irken species and the Irken Empire from the planet Irk. The empire's goal is universal conquest and has a social hierarchy based solely on physical height. The empire's leader is called The Almighty Tallest; at
4575-458: The theme music was military music to represent Zim mixed with futuristic electric orchestral music. Once the direction for the music was settled on, Tortorici produced the theme music on an Alesis QS8 very quickly and it did not go through many changes, but they did reorchestrate it for the TV series and stuck with it from that point on. Vasquez's team selected Michael Tavera , who is known for composing
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#17328553522604650-406: The voice of GIR, about doing some animated shorts revolving around GIR. While Simons was open to reprising his role, nothing ever came of these shorts for unknown reasons. During an Invader Zim panel at Long Beach Comic Con 2019, Simons said the reason why these GIR shorts never went anywhere might have been because "It's kinda weird to do GIR by himself. I don't know what that would be." Simons
4725-402: The voice without the high-pitch editing, the metallic quality still had to be added. Unedited versions of Simons' voice-overs can be heard in voice recordings for the unfinished episodes. Simons said in a 2004 interview that he approached the role of GIR "by pretending (which didn't take much effort) that it wasn't a job... A lot of people comment that I sound like I was just making things up on
4800-457: The way it pushed the boundaries of what was considered acceptable on children's television. In the years following its cancellation, Invader Zim has often been listed as one of Nickelodeon's best shows. The series won an Annie Award , an Emmy Award and a World Animation Celebration Award, and received nominations for seven additional Annie Awards and two Golden Reel Awards . Invader Zim has spawned its own fan convention called InvaderCON and
4875-419: Was "cheesy," adding that the reaction was not mean-spirited and that Tavera had received little information about the series before submitting the music. Tavera did not become a part of the regular Invader Zim crew, and was replaced with Kevin Manthei , who is also known for composing the music for Generator Rex , The Sims 2 (PSP) , and Robot Chicken , to compose the series' music. Manthei's music for
4950-477: Was already voicing the character of Daggett on fellow Nickelodeon series, The Angry Beavers ), saying that West was "too well known" and that he wanted all of the voices for the main characters to be unique and not voices people had heard before. Also, due to Futurama still being on the air at the time, Vasquez did not want the same voice actor to be the lead in two contemporaneous sci-fi comedies. Vasquez wanted someone with no experience in voice acting to play
5025-455: Was cancelled. This ended up being tragically ironic, since the market for cartoons that appealed to older audiences was just a few years away with shows like Adventure Time and Regular Show . — Sean Aitchison from Screen Rant On January 18, 2002, Nickelodeon issued a statement announcing the show's cancellation after completing 27 episodes, instead of fulfilling the original 40 episodes order. On this subject, creator of
5100-431: Was creating a show for a children's network, Vasquez compiled together many things he loved during his own childhood, including robots, monsters, horror films, science fiction films, paranormal investigators, Monty Python , the works of Douglas Adams , and aliens. Before settling on the darker concept of an alien invader, Vasquez briefly considered doing a more light-hearted show along the lines of Mork & Mindy , with
5175-431: Was going to be, and he poured his heart and soul into producing the "Zim-phony". Richard is not just a fan, he's a professional who uses his passion for music and his willingness to work hard at it to produce great shows. I am honored that he and Tom took the time to put the "Zim-phony" and this "Special Edition" together. Happy listening! Richard Rae's message says: We took chances with the "Zim-phony Special". I took
5250-500: Was impressed with the art-style and character designs in the series. Harrington contacted the creator of JtHM , then-22-year-old Jhonen Vasquez , who had zero experience in animation at the time, and asked him if he would like to pitch an animated series to Nickelodeon. Vasquez accepted the offer. Vasquez knew from the start that his previous works were definitely not suitable for Nickelodeon, so instead of adapting something he had already done, he decided to make something new. Since he
5325-637: Was monstrously expensive at the time, especially when compared to more modern, flash-based savings fests." Animated series Animated television series are presented daily or on certain days of the week during a prescribed time slot , including for example saturday-morning cartoons , prime time cartoons , late night anime , and weekday cartoons ; series broadcast only on weekends. The duration of an episode also varies. Traditionally, they are produced as complete half-hour or nearly half-hour programs; however, many are presented as animated shorts of 10 — 11 minutes, which can be combined for filling
5400-428: Was originally hired to do the voice of Zim for the pilot episode, but was replaced before the pilot was shown to Nickelodeon executives because Vasquez felt his voice did not feel right for the character. Hamill was replaced by voice acting professional Billy West , who remained the voice of Zim for the pilot. After the show was picked up for a full series, Vasquez decided to replace West with Richard Steven Horvitz (who
5475-427: Was originally supposed to be called "The Hearts and Lungs of Zim's Darkness", but Nickelodeon denied this title. In response to these censorships and restrictions, the writers of Invader Zim slipped in ways to poke fun at Nickelodeon, or to simply go against their wishes. This includes the character Nick, who is a boy that is always happy and a not-so-subtle reference to Nickelodeon's frequent demands that Vasquez make
5550-427: Was trying to imitate his mother-in-law, but decided it was too "shrieky". He then remembered when he used to play with hand puppets with his father as a kid and tried to do one of those voices. Vasquez said he gave Simons the part of GIR because he was "bad at it", and that fit the character. When voicing GIR, Simons' voice was edited to make it sound higher-pitched and metallic. While Simons eventually learned to perform
5625-410: Was very impressed by. The episode "Zim Eats Waffles" was originally supposed to be one long shot, panning between Dib's reaction and his computer screen. This was because the animators wanted to try to have the longest single shot in animation history. However, this idea was scrapped, due to it limiting the episode's storytelling capabilities and it being too difficult to animate. Despite this decision,
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