Invader Zim is an American animated television series created by comic book writer and cartoonist Jhonen Vasquez for Nickelodeon. The series centers on the titular character (voiced by Richard 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 is antagonized by Dib Membrane (Andy Berman), a young paranormal investigator who is determined to stop Zim from succeeding.
Nickelodeon contacted 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 the second season was completed, Nickelodeon canceled the series, leaving several episodes unfinished. The series originally aired on Nickelodeon from 2001 to 2002, with six of the completed second-season episodes initially going unreleased. These episodes were first released on DVD in 2004 and later debuted 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 the way it pushed the boundaries of what was considered acceptable on children's television. In the years since its cancellation, Invader Zim has often been listed among Nickelodeon's best shows. The series won an Annie Award, an Emmy Award and a World Animation Celebration Award, as well as receiving nominations for seven additional Annie Awards and a pair of Golden Reel Awards. Invader Zim has spawned its own fan convention called InvaderCON and a plethora of official merchandise, including video games, toys, clothing and accessories, among many other products. Despite its early cancelation 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 the television and comic series, titled Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus, premiered on Netflix on August 16, 2019.
Premise The series centers on Zim (voiced by Billy West in the pilot; Richard Steven Horvitz in the series) a member of the extraterrestrial Irken species and the Irken Empire from the planet Irk. The empire's goal is universal conquest, and its social hierarchy is based solely on physical height. An overzealous, absent-minded Zim nearly destroyed Irk and the Irkens during the empire's first galaxy-conquering plan, Operation Impending Doom I, prior to the beginning of the series. As punishment he was exiled to food court planet Foodcourtia, but unilaterally "quit being banished" after receiving word of Operation Impending Doom II.
Zim attends the Great Assigning on the convention center planet Conventia, where he meets Almighty Tallests Red (Wally Wingert) and Purple (Kevin McDonald). At the Great Assigning, the Tallest appoint Irkens as Invaders, advance scouts tasked with infiltrating and preparing target planets for conquest by the Irken Armada. In an attempt to get rid of Zim, the Tallest assign him to a presumably non-existent "mystery planet" on the outskirts of the known universe. He is issued GIR (Rosearik Rikki Simons), an ineffective, malfunctioning, 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 the "mystery planet", which turns out to be a dystopian, futuristic, and satirical version of Earth with a mindless populace. A delighted Zim quickly goes to work and sets up his base in a city neighborhood; the Tallest are dismayed by his success. The short-statured Zim disguises himself as a human child with a green complexion (which he claims is caused by a "skin condition"), conducting espionage by attending a local school (spelled "Skool") while planning at home to conquer and enslave the world. Opposing Zim is his classmate Dib Membrane (Andy Berman), a paranoid paranormal investigator who is obsessed with the paranormal and supernatural and the only human (besides his sister) who sees through Zim's disguise. Dib 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, GazeleneNickelodeon Magazine 2007 Edition "Gaz" Membrane (Melissa Fahn); Zim and Dib's demonic teacher, Ms. Bitters (Lucille Bliss); and Dib and Gaz's caring, but neglectful scientist father, Professor Membrane (Rodger Bumpass). Later in the series, other alien characters begin to appear, including Tak (Olivia d'Abo), 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.
Episodes
Production Conception and early development
Prior to the creation of Invader Zim, Nickelodeon sought a series to suit its 11- to 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 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 no animation experience at the time, and asked him to pitch an animated series to Nickelodeon. Vasquez accepted the offer.
Vasquez knew from the start that his previous works were not suitable for Nickelodeon, so instead of adapting something he had already done, he decided to make something new. Since he 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 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 it, believing it would not fit his writing style. 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 from an incredibly advanced race, with access to such powerful technology that he could easily take over or destroy the Earth single-handedly, but instead, he decides to stay in school all day, never 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 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".
Animation Invader Zim was produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studios in Burbank, California with Nick Digital providing the CGI animation services and Sunwoo Entertainment in South Korea providing the 2D animation services. Salami Studios provided post-production and sound services for most episodes of the series, while Encore and Hollywood Digital provided 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 Zims art style 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. During early development, Invader Zim director Steve Ressel consulted the Futurama crew to learn how to seamlessly integrate 2D and CGI animation. When the Futurama crew saw the show, they were very impressed by how seamlessly the Invader Zim crew integrated both mediums, specifically in the episode "The Wettening".
Unlike standard eleven-minute animated series, which typically average 80–120 storyboard pages per episode, Invader Zim utilized 250–350 pages to document precise character movement and performance—a level of detail that garnered significant praise from Nickelodeon.
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 attempt the longest single shot in animation history. However, this idea was scrapped due to its limiting the episode's storytelling and its difficulty to animate. Despite this decision, the majority of "Zim Eats Waffles" still ended up as a single continuous scene.
Voice acting
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 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 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, because Futurama was still on the air at the time, Vasquez did not want the same voice actor to be the lead in two concurrent sci-fi comedies.