When it comes to cult-classic cartoons, few are as big as Invader Zim.
Despite being cancelled in 2002 after only 27 episodes, the show’s popularity has remained strong enough to justify a full-length movie nearly 20 years later, with Enter the Florpus serving as the series finale it should have gotten from the start.
The original show followed Zim, an alien invader sent to Earth in order to ready it for invasion. The first twist is that Zim is grossly incompetent and was sent to Earth by his superiors in order to get him out of the way.
The second twist is that humans are even worse and, with the exception of Zim’s arch-rival Dim, fail to notice Zim’s often over-the-top attempts to conquer them.
Zim‘s comedy was very late ’90s/early 00s, with wacky hijinks and cartoon violence playing out alongside occassional Cronenberg-lite body horror and a good helping of Gen X nihilism.
While it is still entertaining 20 years on, it’s definitely a product of its time.
Thankfully, Florpus has the self-awareness to slightly update its style for a more modern time.
It’s still very much a Zim film, with plenty of the dark humour that made it so popular, but it’s not as cynical this time around and injects some much needed light to balance things out.
Art-wise, the style remains almost unchanged with the original voice cast brought back for one final hurrah.
