Animation Rules!!

          Lets talk cartoons!! My son Nick was born in 1997.  It had been a long time since I was a kid, and having him gave me a 2nd childhood.  Along with my great adventures at Sea World, the San Diego and Phoenix Zoos, I rediscovered cartoons.  Nickelodeon was a new experience for me. With a myriad of new cartoons among the most popular were; The Rug Rats, Sponge Bob Squarepants, Avatar, Cow and Chicken, Courage the Cowardly Dog (loved it), Fairly Odd Parents, and Jimmy Neutron. My 2 favorites were Danny Phantom and Invader Zim.

           Invader Zim (voice by Richard Steven Horvitz) is the story of a small green insect like alien with large pink bug eyes. He came to Earth to observe the "pig smelly"people, that is earthlings to you and me. He was to find their weaknesses in order to take over the planet. Zim sabotaged the first attempt, Operation Impending Doom 1 all by himself, by attacking his own allies and planet.  So he was banished to a planet called Food Courtia, as a serving drone. Imagine, living forever in a world of food service, sort of like hell, without the tips.

             Zim is part of a race of aliens (called Irken) where the hierarchy is literally dependent on height.  The Irken leaders are called the Almighty Tallest (Wally Wingert and Kevin McDonald), and they rule the smaller Irkens.  They begin an the Assigning.  This is for the Operation Impending Doom II.  This is a process where they choose the best and the brightest to go to different planets, become part of the society, and access their weaknesses. So later they can take over the planet.  Zim sees it on TV and escapes from Food Courtia and goes to the Assigning.  The Almighty Tallest, totally surprised to see him, give him an impossible journey to the outer uncharted area with a second hand robot name GIR (Rosearik Rikki Simons).  After travelling a long time Zim stumbles on Earth. The Tallest were surprised he survived. So Zim is on a mission on Earth.

            I love the character of Zim who makes his earth home in between two other houses in the suburbs.  Then he changes himself and GIR into more like ordinary earth beings.  So Zim now has hair instead of feelers, and GIR is wearing a green dog costume with a zipper.  Here is the fun part.  His home goes up over night and no one seems to complain or do anything.  Even though he attaches devices to the houses on either side of his to suck out their electrical energy to his home.  The neighbors look on, but it seemed ok to them. Even when he put up a fence with garden gnomes no one complains. Hmmmmmmm  He makes parent robots that greet him each time he comes home.

          This cartoon is quirky. Zim decides to learn about earth by going to school (spelled skool in the cartoon).  It is there he meets Dibs (Andy Berman). Dibs is a UFO fanatic that knows Zim is an alien, yet seems not to be able to convince the other children.  One of my favorite scenes is where the leader of Food Courtia, Sizz-Lorr recaptures Zim to take him back.  He comes through the roof of the school takes Zim and Dibs is screaming, "Do you believe me now?" One of the students looks at Dibs and notices the bird poo on his clothes, he points and says, "Dibs has bird poo on his shirt!"  The whole focus becomes Dibs and his poo, Zim is unnoticed.  Talk about rolling laughter!!


           This cartoon has it's own following. In fact in Los Angeles, there is a Invader Con July 28-29. The fans of Invader Zim are as quirky as the cartoon. It was on 2 seasons, and came back 2006 on Nicktoons.  This leads me to my favorite Nickelodeon cartoon Danny Phantom. 

           When my son was  8 this was his favorite too.  That tells you my age mentally.  Danny Fenton has ghostbusting parents, Jack and Maddy Fenton.  The live in this converted brick building with all kinds of satellites dishes on the top and a mission command on the inside.  Jack is a bumbling ghostbuster who has built all kinds of gadgets and guns to blast ghosts. He and Maddy's greatest achievement is the ghost portal. It goes between the human world and the Ghost Zone, the areas ghosts live in. Maddy is really the brains behind the ghostbusting duo.  She would rather study and dissect the ghosts than blast them.

              The story is that at 14 year old Danny pushes the "on" button when he and his friend Sam are messing around it. The portal mixes ectoplasm with his DNA.  The song goes "his molecules got rearranged." The other ghosts call him the halfa.  He now changes into a ghost boy, Danny Phantom. His image is mirror to his normal image. His hair goes from black to white, his eyes go from blue to green.  At first he has no control so he is all over the place. Later he is a super hero first for humans, and then to the spirit world also. All while keeping it a secret from his parents. His powers grow and he adds ray blasts, wailing and cryokinesis.

 

             I usually like high school stories, which is the world Danny Fenton lives in.He goes to Casper High School. Get it? Casper the friendly ghost?  Ok, my age is showing.  His best friends are Sam Manson (Grey Delisle), and Foley Tucker (Ricky D'shon Collins). They help him  keep his secret and fight the ghosts. All three friends are basically geeks.  Sam is the girl who is a friend and eventually will become his girlfriend.  She is goth, rich (though she hides her wealth) and vegetarian. She is smart and sassy, a real individualist.  She is my favorite character in the show. His friend Tucker is the tech guy. He is lighthearted and when not inventing gadgets, is chasing girls.  Danny has a 16 year old sister named Jazz(Colleen O'Shaughnessy). She finds out Danny's secret early on, and at first tries to help him. She finally stops when she messes everything up for him. She still is an ally when needed.  The high school, the popular jocks and the teachers give a great backdrop to the stories.
 

    
            There are many great ghosts, starting with the Lunch Box lady (Kath Soucie),  who hates any kind of change, and tried to get revenge on Sam for getting a vegetarian menu served at school. Ember (Robin Kimissel) the Rock singer, tries to control every one with her music. She is sarcastic and seductive. She teams up with other ghosts in her attempt at control.  My favorite ghost is the Box Ghost (Rob Paulsen).  He fights with cardboard and anything boxy, which just makes me giggle. His line is "Beware, I am the Box Ghost!"  He is sort of a buffoon.  There are many other ghost villains, the worst enemy of Danny is Vlad Masters/Vlad Plasimuis.  He like Danny has ghost powers. Jack gave them to him years earlier, which put him in the hospital.  He now has a great chip on his shoulder. He knows Danny's secret, and keeps it from his mother and father, while manipulating and fighting Danny.  He is incredibly rich and went to college with Maddy and Jack. He is in love with Maddy, and blames Jack for stealing her away. So he is a constant thorn in the Fenton families' side. 

           So now Nick is older, doesn't care about Invader Zim or Danny Phantom anymore.  Yet in the wee hours, I have them safely tucked into the DVR.  I actually watch them.  I suggest you do the same. Invader Zim is also on Netflix, both are on Nickelodeon. Speaking of animation, I am going to move into many different areas of entertainment from superheros to Horror flicks, comics to comedies.  I love the world of entertainment as you can see. It provides laughter, and relief from life's toils. Thank you to those of you who are reading my blog, I promise to continually improve it.