Yes, I grew up watching Invader Zim. And yes, I still to this day, cherish it. Similar to my all-time favorite kid’s show Courage the Cowardly Dog, Invader Zim dared to be not necessarily the representative model for children’s entertainment. It was dark, eerie, and conflicting, and I’m sure that its uncanny nature turned-off many Nickelodeon producers leading to the shows eventual short run. It was like the G-rated Death Note to us younglings.
I’m glad to see that they haven’t extracted the “weird” out of Invader Zim in Enter the Florpus. The sporadic dialogue, the seizure-esc editing, the quirky, disturbing animations, the science-fiction overload, and GIR being typical, irresistible GIR are all distinct qualities that are livelier than ever in this feature-length continuation.
But, I wasn’t really sold on it. Sure, it’s a nostalgic flash-in-the-past for old fans like myself, but it’s got no clout to latch onto—besides maybe its redundantly formulaic themes that it weakly and apathetically departs through. Most solid animated movies wisely choose to have some worthwhile marrow to its totality that makes it upend as something more than just a speechless children’s flick and Enter the Florpus, frankly, is void of this property. It’s definitely direct-to-DVD quality, which is unfortunate because the esteemed show deserves a much better “movie” than something of that-sort-of caliber.
I’m sure I would’ve loved Enter the Florpus back in 2004 when I was a child, but it’s 15 years too late in my humble opinion. I think rebooting and continuing Invader Zim for the next generation as a television show with these same creators and cast members would’ve been a lot keener than dragging it into a feature-length for Netflix that’s mainly subsisting to please lifelong, young-adult fans.
I’m sure Hot Topic sales will get a kick out of this one though.
Verdict: C+
“Invader Zim: Enter the Forpus” is now available to stream on Netflix.
Burning the Celluloid 
Published by