Earthworm Jim (animation): Difference between revisions

 

[http://tvshowsondvd.com/news/Earthworm-Jim-The-Complete-Series/16727 A DVD set] has finally been announced for a North American release!

 

* [[Action Girl]]: Princess What's-Her-Name

* [[Adaptation Decay]]: In transition from the video game to the TV series, two villainous characters were lost: Major Mucus and Doc Duodenum for being an athropomorphic booger and an anthropomorphic body organ, repsectively. (For some reason Snott got to stay, though.) Evil the Cat's status as one of the [[Demon Lords and Archdevils]] is reduced to him simply being the ruler of a firey planet who wants to destroy the universe. They also put clothes on Peter Puppy who is a naked anthropomorphic in the game.

* [[Adorkable]]: Peter Puppy. So. Very. Much.

* [[Ascended Extra]]: Peter Puppy is now Jim's right hand man.

* [[Badass Adorable]]: Peter Puppy

** Later, Jim tries the Eye of Truth again, this time on Psycrow. Psycrow is unaffected and throws an anvil on top of him.

* [[Determinator]]: Jim in general counts for this, but especially when he's trying to win the Princess' affections.

* [[Disability Immunity]]: Jim cannot be defeated by really bad sounds or smells, as he has no ears or nose. Overlaps with [[Forgot I Could Fly]] as this rarely comes into effect until one of the characters explicitly mentions this. Note that this [[MST3K Mantra|doesn't ever stop Jim from being able to hear or smell normally]].

* [[Distaff Counterpart]]: Evil the Cat gets one . . . in Malice the Dog.

* [[Batman Can Breathe in Space|Earthworm Jim Can Breathe in Space]]: And so can the entire cast. But they can't breathe underwater, obviously. Even Bob the Killer Goldfish must remain in his bowl.

* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: The Queen.

* [[Evil Twin]]: Evil Jim.

** There was one episode where Evil Jim got hold of a gun that made Evil Twins of anything it hit (he wanted to make duplicates of the sidekicks so he would have some friends); unfortunately, the opposite of an [[Action Girl]] isn't particularly useful, and pissed off Evil Peter Puppy becomes a civilized monster. Eventually it was discharged against all the villains; Evil Evil The Cat becomes Good The Cat who neutralizes acid furballs, Evil Professor Monkey-For-A-Head becomes Monkey Professor-For-A-Head (they run away together), Evil Queen Slug-For-A-Butt is an old lady more concerned about knitting, and since evil Jim is already the opposite of Jim blasting him with the gun creates another Jim, lots and lots of other Jims.

'''Brain Four:''' [[All Men Are Perverts|Where are the girls?]] }}

** The fact that they can form coherent sentences makes them advanced for worm brains.

* [[Interspecies Romance]]: Jim (male mutated giant Texan Earthworm) insists that he and Princess Whats-Her-Name (female [[Cute Monster Girl|deformed]] Insektikan -- an alien race descended from insects) are a couple. The Princess makes it fairly clear that she is not interested in him and has never given him reason to believe that she is, Jim merely chooses to ignore her denials to fit in with his own delusions, which results in her being more openly irritated by his claims in the second season. There is also Peter Puppy (male Earth dog possessed by a demonic spirit) and Grogamel the Destroyer (female alien) in one first season episode, and Evil the Cat (male demonic feline) and Malice the Dog (female demonic canine) in a [[Unholy Matrimony|surprisingly romantic relationship]] in one second season episode.

* [[Jerkass]]: Most of the villains, but Psycrow and the Queen really stand out here.

** In the same episode, Peter's interpretive puppet show using condiments describing his [[Heroic BSOD]] devolves into something like this, until Peter's just having everybody throw up by dumping the condiments onto the table.

{{quote| '''Peter:''' 'I'm just a sugar, but I'm gonna barf too!' And the jelly! Jelly barf, '''jelly barf!'''}}

** Although in one episode, he claimed he was alive before the start of time and would be around when it ended (although didn't adequately back up either of those [[Badass Boast|Badass Boasts]] with evidence ) so he may yet have a plan. Other than gloat.

*** Well, he could explain it if someone gave him an orange.

** [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|"Did I mention I'm not a cat?"]]

* [[Narrator]]

* [[Nosy Neighbor]]: In "The Egg-Beater" Mrs. Bleveredge, Jim's next-door neighbor demands Jim return the Egg-Beater he borrowed, only to become a [[Chew Toy]] as Jim takes her from planet to planet in search of it.

** She returns in the episode "Exile of Lucy" becoming friends with Queen Slug-For-A-Butt. (they share the same voice actress.) The very next episode "Hyper Psy-Crow" shows her sitting in a throne to the right of the Queen.

* [[Not Even Bothering With the Accent]]: [[Dan Castellaneta]]'s interpretation of Jim lacks the thick southern drawl of his games counterpart, replacing it with a cliched [[Large Ham|hammy]] superhero dialect.

* [[Odd Job Gods]]: When Jim goes to get a replacement for the Battery of the Gods, he meets the God of Puns, the Goddess of Disco, and the God of Nasal Discharge.

* [[Our Presidents Are Different]]: The president in this series, [[Lampshade Hanging|as he points out in every episode he appears in]], is one of those generic presidents TV shows use to keep from being dated.

* [[Overly Long Name]]: The Queen's full name is Queen Bloated, Pulsating, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-Filled, Malformed, Slug-For-A-Butt, which is said in full at least once in every episode she's in.

{{quote| "Hiss, Hiss! Hello, I am a steam pipe. The intruders went that way. Hiss, hiss! Steam!"}}

** From Hyper Psy-Crow:

'''Psy-Crow:''' A lady?<br />

'''Peter:''' Okay, okay, a dog in a dress, JUST TAKE OFF YOUR HELMET PINHEAD! }}

* [[Planet of Hats]]: Almost every planet in the universe is one, from the Planet of Very Tall Things to the Planet of Easily Frightened People (Psycrow loves this planet)

* [[Play Along Prisoner]]: Jim only stays in prison because he's convinced that all the evil deeds Evil Jim committed were done by a split personality. Once he finds out he really ''does'' have an evil twin, he promptly burrows underground and escapes.

* [[Prison Episode]]: Jim turns himself in to the police in one episode after hearing about his [[Evil Twin]] committing crimes and coming to the conclusion that he's actually developed a [[Jekyll and Hyde]]-style [[Split Personality]].

** Including all the amenities of your basic old-timey prison, such as the chain gang and "completely pointless rock breaking."

* [[Redheaded Hero|Red-Headed Heroine]]: Princess What's-Her-Name.

* [[Redundant Rescue]]: In "Sidekicked", as Princess What's-Her-Name insists. Jim seems to be too busy giving a hero monologue to hear her.

* [[Rogues Gallery]]

* [[Royals Who Actually Do Something]]: Princess What's Her Name.

'''Jim:''' I dunno, Snot. Who's [[Jules Verne]]? }}

* [[Single Biome Planet]]: La Planeta de Agua! ''<small>Arriba!</small>''

** Moreso in the fact that by alien standards Queen Slug-For-A-Butt is considered the pretty one while her sister Princess What's-Her-Name is considered hideously deformed. An unrelated episode featured the Princess being okay with being hit by a ray gun that turned her fat as "this look is very popular on her planet."

* [[Spinoff Babies]]: One of the mid-interval shorts was a trailer for ''Young Earthworm Jim''.

* [[Talks Like a Simile]]: Jim and Peter in the denouement of several episodes. "Once again, evil is as grass beneath the mighty lawnmower of justice!"

* [[The Teaser]]

* [[The Unintelligible]]: Snot.

** Also, Monkey Professor-For-A-Head.

** The episode "Wizard of Ooze" takes this to extremes: The narrator continually takes a sarcastic, defeatest and cranky attitude towards his job through the episode, at one point even asking the audience to read a book and calling his agent in the middle of the show. Jim snaps him out of it by threatening him with a jar of vocal chord-eating parasites.

* [[Villains Out Shopping]]: Done frequently. Often a premise for mid-interval shorts in the first season with one of the [[Rogues Gallery]] [[A Day in The Limelight|in lead role]].

* [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart Anyway]]: Most of the Galactic Justice League falls under this category (Turns-His-Eyelids-Inside-Out Boy and Zantor, Master of the Flying Toupee, are prime examples of this trope)

{{quote| "Ahhhh, something green! Ahhhh, something not green!"}}

* [[World of Ham]]