Earthworm Jim

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This article is about the animated series. For the video game series, see Earthworm Jim.

Earthwom Jim
Genre	Animated series, Adventure, Comedy
Created by	Doug TenNapel
Voices of	Charlie Adler Jeff Bennett Dan Castellaneta[1] 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 Fox Kids
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.^[2] 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.

Plot & Show

Earthworm Jim retains the absurdist and surreal humor of the games as well as introducing its own features. Most episodes involve the series' numerous villians attempting to reclaim the super suit, rule/destroy 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 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 (in the first stage, the player launches a cow into the sky, only to have it crush the princess upon the game's ending).

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.

Episodes

Season 1 (1995)

Season 2 (1996)

Cast

• Dan Castellaneta: Earthworm Jim; Evil Jim
• Andrea Martin: Queen Slug-for-a-Butt; Mrs. Bleverage
• John Kassir: Snott; Henchrat
• Jim Cummings: Psy-Crow; Bob the Killer Goldfish; Walter; Bad Mr. Frosty: Walden
• Kath Soucie: Princess What's-Her-Name; Evil Princess
• Jeff Bennett: Peter Puppy; Narrator; Evil Peter
• Charlie Adler: Professor Monkey-For-A-Head; T-Hoppy
• Edward Hibbert: Evil the Cat
• Ben Stein: Rosebud; Dr. Houston
• Charles Napier: Duke Phillips
• Wanda Sikes: Princess Bessie
• Grey DeLisle: Wubbzy
• Lara Jill Miller: Widget
• Tara Strong: Daizy

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.

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 and Professor Monkey-for-a-head. 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.

See also

• Catscratch

References

External links

• Earthworm Jim at the Internet Movie Database
• Earthworm Jim at TV.com