| Earthworm Jim | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Action / Adventure / Comedy |
| Format | Animated series |
| Created by | Doug TenNapel |
| Presented by | Universal Cartoon Studios |
| Voices of | Charlie 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/Sky1/TCC/Nicktoons (UK) Kids' WB! (U.S.) RTL7 (Poland) RTL Television (Germany) TV2 (New Zealand) Network Ten (Australia) The Den (Ireland) Canal 13 (Argentina) YTV (Canada) Nelonen (Finland) TVE (Spain) Channel One (Russia) Fox Kids (Netherlands) |
| Original run | September 9, 1995 – December 13, 1996 |
Earthworm Jim is an American animated television series which appeared on Kids' WB![1][2] for two seasons from September 9, 1995 through December 13, 1996. It is based on the video game series of the same name. The series follows the adventures of an earthworm named Jim, who is turned into a superhero by a robotic super suit.
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Earthworm Jim retains the absurdist and surreal humor of the games as well as introducing its own features. Most episodes involve the series' numerous villains attempting to reclaim the super suit, rule/destroy/freeze/knock over the universe, or otherwise causing mayhem throughout the galaxy. Other problems facing Jim include returning his neighbor's eggbeater and finding a new power source after his suit is depowered. Also, the show breaks the fourth wall with 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 episodes, with little explanation of how they got into the mess. In between parts (generally before or after the commercial break), there is a short side-story, generally featuring one of the villains doing a more natural part of life, usually without any involvement from Jim. These can range anywhere from Psy-Crow opening a villainy school, Evil the Cat falling in love with a TV star, or Professor Monkey for a head attending group therapy and always 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 (in the first stage, the player launches a cow into the sky, only to have it crush the princess upon the game's ending).
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.
| No. | Title | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sidekicked | September 9, 1995 |
| After Peter botches one of their adventures, Jim begins looking for a new sidekick. | ||
| 2 | The Book of Doom | September 16, 1995 |
| Due to a printing error, Jim's pop-up book contains the secret to universal destruction, which Evil the Cat seeks to possess. | ||
| 3 | Assault and Battery | September 23, 1995 |
| Jim must find a new power source after his super suit is drained. | ||
| 4 | Day of the Fish | September 30, 1995 |
| Bob the Killer Goldfish attempts to steal Jim's super suit. | ||
| 5 | Conqueror Worm | October 7, 1995 |
| Due to a photocopy machine accident, Jim creates an evil duplicate of himself, Evil Jim. | ||
| 6 | Upholstered Peril | October 14, 1995 |
| Professor Monkey-For-A-Head tries to conquer the world with cybernetic furniture. | ||
| 7 | Sword of Righteousness | October 21, 1995 |
| Jim finds an enchanted sword in a vending machine sandwich who begins training him in what it considers the ways of a true hero. | ||
| 8 | The Egg Beater | October 28, 1995 |
| Jim loses his neighbor's eggbeater and takes her on a journey to recover it. | ||
| 9 | Trout! | November 4, 1995 |
| After receiving a postcard, Jim sets out to see the legendary Fur-Bearin' Trout. | ||
| 10 | The Great Secret of the Universe | November 11, 1995 |
| 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 | Bring Me the Head of Earthworm Jim | November 18, 1995 |
| Psy-crow and Professor Monkey-For-A-Head team up to defeat Earthworm Jim by replacing his super suit with a weak duplicate. | ||
| 12 | Queen What's Her Name | November 25, 1995 |
| Princess What's-Her-Name finally overthrows her tyrant sister Queen Slug-for-a-Butt. | ||
| 13 | The Anti-Fish | February 24, 1996 |
| Jim and Bob must join forces to save the Great Worm Spirit from being consumed by its arch-enemy: the Anti-Fish. | ||
| No. | Title | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 14 | The Origins of Peter Puppy | September 7, 1996 |
| Jim and Peter travel through Peter's subconscious to try to discover the reasons for Peter's transformations. | ||
| 15 | Opposites Attack! | September 14, 1996 |
| Evil Jim attempts to create evil versions of Jim's friends, with less than stellar results. | ||
| 16 | Darwin's Nightmare | September 28, 1996 |
| Bob discovers a way to hyper-evolve himself to higher lifeforms. | ||
| 17 | The Exile of Lucy | October 5, 1996 |
| 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 | Evil in Love | October 26, 1996 |
| Evil the Cat falls in love and teams up with Malice the Dog. | ||
| 19 | Hyper Psy-Crow | November 2, 1996 |
| Psy-crow overdoses on coffee and becomes hyper-powered. | ||
| 20 | Peanut of the Apes | November 9, 1996 |
| While Professor Monkey-For-A-Head tries to turn everyone on earth into apes while Jim tries to introduce "viewer interactivity" on the show. | ||
| 21 | Lounge Day's Journey Into Night | November 16, 1996 |
| Jim and Peter switch roles as hero and sidekick, while Evil the Cat tries to destroy the universe by making a pair of dime-store lounge singers sing a cursed song. | ||
| 22 | Wizard of Ooze | November 22, 1996 |
| Jim and Peter are transported to an alternate dimension akin to The Wizard of Oz. | ||
| 23 | For Whom the Jingle Bell Tolls | December 13, 1996 |
| Queen Slug-For-A-Butt tries to brainwash Santa Claus. | ||
The series was produced by Universal Animation Studios along with Akom Production Company, Flextech Television Limited, and Shiny Entertainment.[3]
2 seasons were produced, a total of 23 episodes. In the United States, the show was aired on the programming block on Kids' WB! The WB Television Network[2]
The series was released by MCA/Universal Home Video on four VHS volumes in 1995. The videos included:
Each VHS tape also included a short behind-the-scenes "Cartoon School" segment, which covered various production topics including storyboarding and voice acting.
Universal currently has no plans to release the show on DVD in the US: However, on June 1, 2011 Via Vision Entertainment released the complete series as a 5-disc set in Australia.[4]
A line of action figures based on the show was released by Playmates. The series included Peter Puppy, Bob, and Psycrow, Princess Whats-Her-Name, along with several variants of Earthworm Jim.[5] The pocket rocket was also available, in the correct scale and mountable.
Earthworm Jim and Battle Damage Suit Earthworm Jim came in two different colors, with either red or green accessories - Having the correctly colored gun and pet Snott required the purchase of both sets.
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. For a short time, Taco Bell also included premium toys with their Kid's Meal.
A second series of figures was planned, but ultimately canceled - it would have included Queen Slug-for-a-butt, Professor Monkey-for-a-head and The Hamstinator among others.[6]
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.
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