Earthworm Jim (TV series)
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- This article is about the animated series. For the video game series, see Earthworm Jim; for the character, see Earthworm Jim (character).
| Earthwom Jim | |
| Genre | Animated series, Adventure, Comedy |
|---|---|
| Created by | Doug TenNapel |
| Voices of | Charles Adler Jeff Bennett Dan Castellaneta Jim Cummings Edward Hibbert John Kassir Andrea Martin Kath Soucie |
| Narrated by | Jeff Bennett |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 23 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | David Perry Douglas TenNapel |
| Producer(s) | Kathi Castillo Roy Allen Smith |
| Editor(s) | Jay Bixsen |
| Running time | 30 min. (including commercials) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel |  Channel 4 Kids' WB! RTL7 RTL Television TV3 Network Ten The Den Canal 13 YTV Nelonen TVE Channel One |
| Original run | September 9, 1995 – December 14, 1996 |
Earthworm Jim is an American animated television series which ran for 23 episodes in 2 seasons from 1995-1996 on the Kids' WB! programming block on The WB Television Network in the United States. It is based on the video game series of the same name created by Doug TenNapel. The series follows the adventures of an earthworm named Jim, who is turned into a superhero by a robotic super suit. The series was produced by Universal Animation Studios along with Akom Production Company, Flextech Television Limited, and Shiny Entertainment.
Contents |
[edit] Plot & Show
Earthworm Jim maintains much of the absurdist and surreal humor of the original games as well as introduces its own features. Most of the episodes revolve around one of Jim's many villains trying to reclaim the super suit, rule/destroy the universe, or otherwise causing mayhem through the galaxy. Other problems Jim is faced with include returning his neighbor's eggbeater and finding a new power source after his suit is depowered. The show also breaks the fourth wall with many characters often talking to the audience and the narrator.
Episodes begin with Earthworm Jim and Peter Puppy in some peril that has nothing to do with the main plot or the previous episode's, with little explanation of how they got into the mess. In between episodes there is a short side-story, generally featuring one of the villains and ending with "and now, back to Earthworm Jim." The end of every episode involves Jim or any other character being crushed by a cow, a play on the first game of the series (at the start, you launch a cow into the sky only to have it crush the princess in the end).
[edit] Characters
Many of the characters from the games were made into main characters for the show. Peter Puppy becomes Jim's sidekick and friend and Princess What's-Her-Name his love interest. Many villains from the game, including Evil the Cat, Psy-Crow, Bob the Killer Goldfish, Queen Slug-for-a-Butt and Professor Monkey-for-a-head also recur throughout the show. The series also created many of its own new characters, such as the Galactic Heroes League, a group of wannabe superheroes including the Hamsternator and Lower Back-Pain Man and introduced a major new villain named Evil Jim, an evil duplicate of Earthworm Jim, who went on to be the main antagonist for the game Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy. It also inspired the later game Earthworm Jim 3D.
[edit] Cast
- Dan Castellaneta: Earthworm Jim; Evil Jim
- Andrea Martin: Queen Slug-for-a-Butt
- John Kassir: Snott; Henchrat
- Jim Cummings: Psy-Crow; Bob the Killer Goldfish
- Kath Soucie: Princess What's-Her-Name
- Jeff Bennett: Peter Puppy; Narrator
- Charlie Adler: Professor Monkey-For-A-Head
- Edward Hibbert: Evil the Cat
[edit] Episodes
[edit] Season 1
| Episode number | Original airdate | Episode name | Synopsis |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | September 9, 1995 | Sidekicked | After Peter botches one of their adventures, Jim begins looking for a new sidekick. |
| 2 | September 16, 1995 | The Book of Doom | Due to a printing error, Jim's pop-up book contains the secret to universal destruction, which Evil the Cat seeks to possess. |
| 3 | September 23, 1995 | Assault and Battery | Jim must find a new power source after his super suit is drained. |
| 4 | September 30, 1995 | Day of the Fish | Bob the Killer Goldfish attempts to steal Jim's super suit. |
| 5 | October 07, 1995 | Conqueror Worm | Due to a photocopy machine accident, Jim creates an evil duplicate of himself. |
| 6 | October 14, 1995 | Upholstered Peril | Professor Monkey-For-A-Head creates sofa monsters that are so comfortable, people become mindless zombies. |
| 7 | October 21, 1995 | Sword of Righteousness | Jim finds an enchanted sword who begins training him in what it considers the ways of a true hero. |
| 8 | October 28, 1995 | The Egg Beater | Jim loses his neighbor's eggbeater and takes her on a journey to recover it. |
| 9 | November 4, 1995 | Trout! | After receiving a postcard, Jim sets out to see the legendary Fur-Bearin' Trout. |
| 10 | November 11, 1995 | The Great Secret of the Universe | Evil the Cat steals Jim's snow globe, which contains The Nameless Beast (whose name is Rosebud), who knows the Great Secret of the Universe. |
| 11 | November 18, 1995 | Bring Me the Head of Earthworm Jim | Psy-crow and Professor Monkey-For-A-Head team up to defeat Earthworm Jim by replacing his super suit with a weak duplicate. |
| 12 | November 25, 1995 | Queen What's Her Name | Princess What's-Her-Name finally overthrows her tyrant sister Queen Slug-for-a-Butt. |
| 13 | December 2, 1995 | The Anti-Fish | Jim and Bob must join forces to save the Great Worm Spirit from being consumed by its arch-enemy: the Anti-Fish. |
[edit] Season 2
| Episode number | Original airdate | Episode name | Synopsis |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | September 7, 1996 | The Origin of Peter Puppy | Jim and Peter travel through Peter's subconscious to try to discover the reasons for Peter's transformations. |
| 15 | September 14, 1996 | Opposites Attack! | Evil Jim attempts to create evil versions of Jim's friends, with less than stellar results. |
| 16 | September 28, 1996 | Darwin's Nightmare | Bob discovers a way to hyper-evolve himself to higher lifeforms. |
| 17 | October 5, 1996 | The Exile of Lucy | Psy-Crow & Professor Monkey-For-A-Head overthrow Queen Slug-For-A-Butt, but they quickly prove to be even worse rulers than her. |
| 18 | October 26, 1996 | Evil in Love | Evil falls in love and teams up with Malice the Dog. |
| 19 | November 2, 1996 | Hyper Psy-Crow | Psy-crow overdoses on coffee and becomes hyper-powered. |
| 20 | November 9, 1996 | Peanut of the Apes | While Professor Monkey-For-A-Head tries to de-evolve people into monkeys, Jim tries to introduce "viewer interactivity" on the show. |
| 21 | November 16, 1996 | Lounge Day's Journey Into Night | Jim and Peter switch roles as hero and sidekick, while Evil tries to destroy the universe by making a pair of dime-store lounge singers sing a cursed song. |
| 22 | November 23, 1996 | The Wizard of Ooze | Jim and Peter are transported to an alternate dimension akin to The Wizard of Oz. |
| 23 | December 14, 1996 | For Whom the Jingle Bell Tolls | Queen Slug-For-A-Butt tries to brainwash Santa Claus. |
[edit] Home video releases
The series was released by MCA/Universal Home Video on four VHS volumes in 1995. The videos included:
- "Bring Me the Head of Earthworm Jim" and "Sword of Righteousness" (Volume 1)
- "Conqueror Worm" and "Day of the Fish" (Volume 2)
- "Assault and Battery" and "Trout!" (Volume 3)
- "The Book of Doom" and "The Egg Beater" (Volume 4)
Each VHS tape also included a short behind-the-scenes "Cartoon School" segment, which covered various production topics including storyboarding and voice acting.
There are no current plans to release the show on DVD.
[edit] Action figures and other merchandise
A line of action figures based on the show were released. A second series of figures was planned but was ultimately canceled. The action figures available included every main character from the cartoon/video games except for Queen Slug-for-a-butt. It also included battle damage suit Earthworm Jim. Earthworm Jim and battle damage suit Earthworm Jim came in two different colors with either red accessories or a green accessories. This required you to buy both colored versions to have the correctly colored gun and pet Snott. The pocket rocket was also available and was correctly sized for Earthworm Jim to ride when scaled with the rocket from the show. The action figures were nearly half the price of other action figures available in stores at the time including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and X-men action figures.[citation needed]
For a short time, Taco Bell also included premium toys with their Kid's Meal.
Two Earthworm Jim comic book series were created to tie the games to the animated series. Separate comics were released in the US and UK, but the UK comics struggled greatly to find an audience. Submissions to the comic's letters/fan art page were so low that the publishers were forced to show episodes at local schools so that pupils could create content for them. This was noted several times within the comic itself.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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