Comic book artist Jhonen Vasquez's outré sci-fi spoof, which ran on Nicktoons at Night from March 2001 to December 2002, remains the object of a vociferous cult following. Pressure from the fans compelled Nickelodeon ... more »to resume production of Invader Zim twice before the show was cancelled permanently. The title character is a zealous, none-too-bright agent from the Irken Empire posing a human boy. Zim imagines he's gathering vital information for the imminent conquest of Earth; the Irken leaders actually sent him here to get rid of him. With the rather spotty assistance of Gir, his robot sidekick disguised as a dog, Zim alternately sneers at humanity and gets himself into trouble. The only person who recognizes Zim as an alien is his UFO-obsessed classmate, Dib. The two-disc set is loaded with extras that will delight fans of the show, including commentaries by Vasquez and several of the story and voice artists, a second "commentary" of pigs grunting, subtitles in Irken, and the original pilot for the series. The uninitiated may find Invader Zim suggests a cross between Dexter's Laboratory and Jimmy Neutron re-imagined by Tim Burton. The bizarre designs, over-the-top vocal performances, and bodily function jokes are not for the faint-hearted, but they're not supposed to be. (Unrated, suitable for ages 10 and older: cartoon violence, gross humor) --Charles Solomon« less
"I never thought this show would ever come out on dvd! This just makes my day.Here's a list of episodes you can expect on this DVD:
- Unaired Pilot Episode (a half-length short starring Billy West of Futurama as Zim) - Commentary with Jhonen Vasquez (Zim Creator, Head Writer, Art Direction)
- The Nightmare Begins - Commentary with Rikki Simons (Voice Actor - Gir and Color Artist), Wally Wingert (Voice Actor) and Jhonen Vasquez
- Bestest Friend - Commentary with Rikki Simmons, Ian Graham (Storyboard Artist) and Jhonen Vasquez
- NanoZIM - Commentary with Rikki Simmons and Jhonen Vasquez
- Parent Teacher Night - Commentary with Rikki Simmons and Jhonen Vasquez
- Walk of Doom - Commentary with Rikki Simmons and Jhonen Vasquez
- Germs
- Dark Harvest - Commentary with Eric Trueheart (Writer and Various Voices) and Jhonen Vasquez
- Attack of the Saucer Morons - Commentary with Eric Trueheart, Rikki Simmons and Jhonen Vasquez
- Career Day
- Battle-Dib
- Planet Jackers - Commentary with Rikki Simmons and Jhonen Vasquez
- Rise of the Zitboy - Commentary with Eric Trueheart, Rikki Simmons and Jhonen Vasquez
- Invasion of the Idiot Dog Brain - Commentary with Rikki Simmons and Jhonen Vasquez
- Bad Bad Rubber Piggy - Surprise Commentary!
- A Room with a Moose - Commentary with Rikki Simmons and Jhonen Vasquez
- Hamstergeddon - Commentary with Eric Trueheart, Ian Graham, Rikki Simmons and Jhonen Vasquez"
Simply the best cartoon of all time
Emelio Zychi | Somewheresville, XY USA | 02/21/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"From the mind of Jhonen Vasquez, author of insane, twisted comics, the voice of Richard Horvitz (Billy, Dagget), and the conductor's wand of Kevin Manthei (Resident Evil), Zim, an evil green alien from the planet Irk, comes to earth in attempt to take it over and give its land to his masters so they can do something cool with it. Unfortunately for Zim, a kid named Dib is onto his plot and is willing to go to any lengths to stop him. Now Zim, his insane robot sidekick, GIR, Dib, and his sister, Gaz, are locked in mortal combat for the fate of the Earth.
This is a brilliantly set up cartoon and the bizarre humor is hiliarious. Zim has been cancelled and us fans have been dying for a DVD for years. Now it's here. ...Look up there! what a price. What on earth are you doing reading this? Support the Irken empire and buy this DVD!!!!"
Don't fear the Peepi! Fear Me! Fear ME!
Schtinky | California | 08/31/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Invader blood marches through my veins like giant, radioactive rubber pants! Met Zim, an arrogant and none-too-bright Irkin sent to Earth to destroy it. Well, sent by accident. The Tall Ones just wanted to get rid of Zim and shot him randomly into space.
While other Irkin Invaders are equipped with SIR's (Standard Information Retrieval Units), Zim is given an assistant put together from pieces pulled from the trash; a GIR. ("What does the `G' stand for?" GIR shrugs, "I don't know.") Ah, the stink of clean!
With GIR's help, Zim must conquer earth. He disguises himself as a human child and attends school. No one suspects him except Dib, an outcast at school with a fixation on alien invasions.
The humor is advanced for Nickelodeon, most likely the reason they finally pulled the show. Body functions and toilet humor abound, along with some great one-liners. Pure cartoon entertainment, especially for fans of Jhonen Vasquez's humor.
My one complaint would be that there are no English subtitles. For those of us who are a little hard of hearing, I like to have subtitles sometimes.
Here's a rundown of the episodes:
Disc One:
Episode One-The Nightmare Begins
On Irkin, Zim shows up late for Invader assignments and is sent away in a random direction with GIR, just to get rid of him. Zim lands on earth, and sets up his base for plotting to destroy the planet.
Episode Two-Bestest Friend
Zim discovers he won't fit in with earthlings unless he has a friend. So he tests several of the kids to find out who will be his bestest friend. The tests include absorbency, electrical conductivity, and one that involved a squirrel and a taxi, but wasn't shown. The winner is Keef!
Episode Three-NanoZim
Dib takes an incriminating picture of Zim to send to Mysterious Mysteries of Strange Mystery, to prove Zim is an alien. Zim shrinks down and goes inside Dib's body to destroy his memory of the photo. Dib uses his dad's nano-technology to chase after Zim, but Gaz has to take over the controls to defeat Zim.
Episode Four-Parent Teacher Night
Zim has to reprogram his mechanical parents to attend Parent/Teacher night at school, but instead of the training program, GIR changes the screen to his favorite programs (like the Scary Monkey Show). Zim winds out with really weird parents.
Episode Five-Walk of Doom
Zim gets lost on purpose to test his new geographic locator, but GIR removed it to make room for a cupcake.
Episode Six-Germs
Hilarious episode! Zim buys germ goggles, only to find out his house is riddled with nasty germs. Especially GIR. The only thing Zim can find that is germ free is some really nasty burger meat, so he wears the meat
Episode Seven-Dark Harvest
One of my favorites! Zim needs human organs in order to appear human to the school nurse. He steals organs and replaces them with items like hall passes, cartons of milk, and cans of soda. At the end, he is bloated with organs.
Episode Eight-Attack of the Saucer Morons
Zim declares war on bees. He crashes his ship in the park during a UFO convention. "Ride the pig, GIR, ride the pig!"
Episode Nine-The Wettening
When it rains, Zim discovers that water hurts him. Unfortunately, so does Dib. What follows is the world's ultimate water balloon fight.
Disc Two:
Episode Ten-Career Day
This is likely the most disgusting, and therefore one of the funnier, episodes. Zim wants to be Lord of All Humans on career day, but is instead assigned to food preparation. He gets a case of zits and...well...things go downhill from there.
Episode Eleven-Battle Dib
Dib has to go through a triathlon type contest just to get his father to sign a note. The contest includes Spido-Ractno-Rama.
Episode Twelve-Planet Jackers
Zim's telescope is broken, so he must find a more powerful one. GIR wants to make biscuits instead. Using the telescope, Zim finds out earth has been planet-jacked and needs to get it back from the jackers.
Episode Thirteen-Rise of the Zitboy
Zim gets a pimple, and discovers that it has the power to hypnotize humans. He draws a face on it and names it Pustulio. He refers to it as a 'hideous montage of humiliation and shame'.
Episode Fourteen-Invasion of the Idiot Dog Brain
When Zim is installing a new house brain, GIR gets in the way and GIR's brain winds out in the house. "Shut your noise tube, taco human!"
Episode Fifteen-Bad Bad Rubber Piggy
Zim attempts to send a Hunter/Destroyer machine into the past to get rid of Dib, but GIR's rubber pig goes instead. Zim then must use ALL of GIR's rubber pigs to change the past and stop Dib from hounding him.
Episode Sixteen-A Room With a Moose
Zim sends a bus with Dib and his classroom out into space, through a wormhole headed towards a Room With A Moose. It's up to Dib to get the bus back to earth.
Episode Seventeen-Hamstergeddon
One of my favorites! Meet Peepi the hamster. Peepi is the class's new pet. Zim alters Peepi to grow at a phenomenal rate in order to use Peepi's cuteness to conquer the world.
Invader Zim is an imaginative and enjoyable cartoon for those adults, like me, who never tire of being a kid once in awhile. I wouldn't recommend this cartoon for small kids, but its good silly fun for the mature cartoon connoisseur. Enjoy!
"
I Squeal With Glee
Animagess | Somewhere up North | 07/03/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Well, Nick made good on their decision to cancel Zim forever from the airwaves. The only problems I can think of with the DVD are the mispelling of 'Irken' on the back, and the fact that the Irken subtitles automatically come on when you put the DVD in the player.Aside from these, however, the DVDs are packed with solid entertainment. They even have commentaries for some of the episodes, as well as a feature where the sketchy storyboards are shown onscreen with the original audio playing. The hilarious pilot episode is included as well.One of the best inclusions is the interview with the voice actors. It may surprise you to learn that GIR's voice actor is a tired-looking guy who mumbles a lot... and that Zim's voice actor's voice really does sound like that.I would have been content with just the episodes, actually, so I was pleasantly surprised... the commentaries are well-done and very funny, what with Tallest Red's voice actor always complaining about how Tallest Purple stole his lines and the other little in-jokes here and there. Also, you get to hear the enigmatic Vasquez speak about his masterpiece, which is grood. And great. And good. Great and good.This package has a solid five-star rating all the way through for a reason. There is really nothing else one could hope for... excepy maybe a GIR dog plushie."
I'm gonna watch it again!!!
Erin L. Kidwell | Lawrence, Kansas United States | 05/19/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Ok, I'll level with you... There are a lot of hilarious cartoons out there for adults these days, but none (and I mean NONE) can compare to the snappy one-liners and incredible attention to detail of Invader Zim. The first time I watched a Zim show I practically wet my pants from laughing so hard (yes, I was 22...)! The second one I saw, between the intermitant need to pee my pants, I also noticed how unbelievably amazing the animation quality was in this show. Unlike so many other cartoons, the animators actually show some incredible talent and appear to take a huge amount of pride in their work. The same can be said about the writers. Very few "intended" jokes fail to illicit a stomach-wrenching guffaw from myself and my other friends. This show is not full of fluff... it's pure animation GENIUS!!
I do agree that it is a little too intense for children and therefore, I understand how Nickelodeon took it off of the air. What I don't understand is why the Cartoon Network hasn't picked it up and heaped loads of money on Mr. Vasquez to produce more and more until the show is forced to "jump the shark" from lack of material (which I see happening about 70 or 80 years from now...)
Anyway, my suggestion would be very simple: Put down the mouse, step away from your keyboard, grab your wallet and car keys and race to purchase Zim. I love Amazon, but seriously folks... with this cartoon, any amount of waiting is WAY TOO LONG!
I hope you enjoy the show!"