Playmates Toys
had found great success with their license for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but they wanted to
develop a similar franchise that they could own outright. Inspired by the breakout
hit videogames Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic
the Hedgehog 2,
Playmates
decided their franchise should begin as a videogame. Playmates formed a new
division, Playmates
Interactive Entertainment, and courted videogame developer David Perry
to sign on and helm the division. Perry, tired of the constraints of licensed
games (of which he had just done three in a row) instead signed a three-game
development deal with Playmates and borrowed the money from them to open his
own development studio: Shiny
Entertainment, Inc.
 |
| Earthworm Jim concept painting with him on Planet Heck. |
With a newfound freedom, Perry began
focusing on what kind of property to develop for Playmates. He was introduced
to character designer Doug
TenNapel and immediately fell in love with his audition
sketch: an earthworm. From there, everyone involved with the game’s development
was invited to pitch in ideas, resulting in a bizarre collection of characters
and surreal level designs. Once concepts were narrowed down, everything was
drawn out, scanned into the computer for animating and coloring, and assembled
to form a game: Earthworm Jim.
The
game was a 2D side-scrolling platformer with elements of a run and gun game. It
focused on Jim, an earthworm that had somehow gained a humanoid super suit and
a blaster. Jim ran through crazy worlds, using a combination of the blaster and
his worm body as a whip on enemies in order to save Princess-What’s-Her-Name (a
joke reference to the throwaway damsels in distress in many games) from her
evil sister, Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-filled, Malformed
Slug-for-a-Butt, and keep the Queen from reclaiming his suit. TenNapel provided
Jim’s voice.
Earthworm
Jim was released on August 2, 1994 initially for the Sega Genesis,
but was soon ported to other systems. It became a hit, praised for its
innovative design and offbeat humor and earning awards recognition. It looked
as if Playmates had its franchise, and they were quick to try and capitalize on
it. A sequel, Earthworm Jim 2, was ordered into
production, and Playmates partnered with Universal
Animation Studios to bring the game to Saturday morning
television screens to further along the development of their new brand.
 |
| Jim and Peter Puppy. |
Earthworm
Jim was developed by Doug
Langdale, who also served as the primary writer, and
incorporated many elements from the game into its narrative. Jim (Dan
Castellaneta) was the bumbling hero who constantly had to stave off his foes’
efforts to steal back his super suit and do horrible things to the universe, or
put an end to general mayhem throughout the galaxy. Aiding Jim was his
sidekick, Peter Puppy (Jeff Bennet); an ordinarily cute, timid little dog who
turned into a monster whenever he was hurt or scared, and usually took his
anger out on Jim. In order to remain calm, Peter usually chanted “I must not
fear, fear is the mind killer, fear is the little death that brings total
oblivion”, which was a modified quote from Frank Herbert’s
Dune series. Jim’s
other sidekick was essentially a sentient booger named, appropriately, Snott
(John Kassir). Snott lived in Jim’s backpack, aiding him with his viscous body
by creating parachutes and the like. Snott only spoke in slurps and gurgles
that Jim and Peter could understand, and a running gag had them repeating a
long comment Snott made with only a couple of sounds. Although Snott only
appeared as a platform during a boss battle in the game, his role was similarly
expanded upon in the sequel.
 |
| Princess What's-Her-Name. |
Princess What’s-Her-Name (Kath
Soucie) was also amongst Jim’s friends. She was the “ugly” (by her people’s
standards) sister of Queen Slug-For-A-Butt (Andrea Martin), the evil ruler of
their home planet of Insectika.
What’s-Her-Name was locked away by her family because of her hideousness, and
upon her escape led a resistance movement against her sister. She was also
Jim’s love interest; although she was oblivious to his attempts to woo her and
only saw him as an ally. As in the game, the Queen would usually send out
various minions in an attempt to reclaim her super suit and conquer the
universe. She was assisted by her Royal Adviser, the Archbug
(Danny Mann).
 |
| Psy-Crow and Professor Monkey-For-A-Head. |
Also, following over from the game
were many of the primary antagonists; all of them aptly named. Psy-Crow (Jim
Cummings) was a bounty-hunting human-sized crow in a space suit. Besides being
Jim’s natural nemesis, he often had grand ambitions and almost took over
Insectika once, despite usually working for the Queen. He had also considered
trying new careers until he was fired from being a gym teacher for being too
nice (despite shooting lasers at the kids). He often worked with Professor
Monkey-For-A-Head (Charles Adler). The Professor was the inventor of the super
suit and was unable to make another due to its power source: the Battery
of the Gods (changed from the game’s reason that his
monkey half ate the plans). He would often use his sinister inventions against
Jim in an attempt to reclaim the suit, and relied on his monkey half whenever
he needed his abilities to make a quick escape.
 |
| Evil the Cat and Henchrat. |
Evil the Cat (Edward Hibbert) was
the ruler of the hellish Planet Heck
and sought to destroy the universe, rather than obtain the super suit like in
the game. Evil would often use disguises to get close to Jim with the assurance
“Did I mention, I’m not a cat?” and would have his plans foiled by outside
forces; such as origami, the Department of Apocalyptic Affairs, and the show’s
budget running out leading to “A minor setback.” His loyal minion was Henchrat
(Kassir), a human-sized dim-witted rat in bulky armor. Despite his villainous
occupation, Henchrat enjoyed watching mimes, taking self-actualization courses,
and hoped to one day open a macramé shop.
 |
| Bob in control of the suit. |
Bob the Killer Goldfish (Cummings,
using a deep southern drawl) was from the planet La
Planeta de Agua (Arriba!). Being a fish in a bowl, he
primarily used muscle-bound cat minions with number designations to get around
and do his battles. He spent a lot of time trying to motivate his fellow fish
to go on a destructive rampage, often backed by slow instrumental gospel music
giving him the aura of a televangelist.
 |
| Evil Jim. |
The series also introduced several
new characters exclusive to the show. Evil Jim (Castellaneta, using a voice
similar to his Krusty
the Clown) was a green-colored evil duplicate of Jim, the
result of a toxic waste/photocopier accident; Mrs.
Bleverage (April Winchell)
was Jim’s curlers-wearing neighbor in the Earth town of Terlawk
that ended up becoming a resident of Insectika and a friend to the Queen; Grayson (Kassir)
was a boy genius and head of the Earthworm Jim Fan Club; Walter (Cummings) was
a hillbilly with very bad teeth who often used Jim as dental floss; and Johnny
Dactyl (Cummings), a scrawny man in a suit, and the Hamsternator (Castellaneta),
an anthropomorphic hamster with a fetish for packing his cheeks to capacity,
were two of Terlawk’s resident ineffectual superheroes.
 |
| Psy-Crow with Queen Slug-For-A-Butt. |
Earthworm
Jim was one of the launch programs for The WB’s
new Kids’
WB
programming block on September 9, 1995; a little over two months before Earthworm Jim 2 was released. It was
written by Langdale with Thomas
Hart, John Loy, Steve Roberts, Jim Peterson,
John Behnke and Rob Humphrey. The series
attempted to emulate the absurdist humor of the game, even before an episode
started with the words of the theme by William Kevin Anderson
(“Jim was just a dirt / Eating chewy lengths of worm…”). An episode typically
began with a cold opening that showed Jim and Peter in some kind of peril that
had nothing to do with the episode’s actual plot. There would also be an
unrelated subplot that would focus on one of Jim’s enemies doing something in
their lives; such as Psy-Crow changing careers, Evil becoming a movie star to
further his evil plans, or the Professor attending group therapy. Just as the
game ended with the Princess being crushed by a cow launched by the player on
the first level, an episode would end with a character (usually Jim) being
randomly crushed by a cow. Along with Anderson, Patrick Griffin
composed the music for the series and
AKOM Production Co. rendered the animation. Although
initially warmly received and earning a second season, the ratings didn’t hold
up to warrant a third and the show was cancelled after 23 episodes. TenNapel admitted
to hating the show and confessed its only purpose was to further promote the
games.
As part of their franchise idea,
Playmates manufactured a toy
line
that was strongly based on the cartoon, but also incorporated elements from the
games as well. The first wave featured several Jim variants, his pocket rocket,
the Princess, the two forms of Peter, Bob and Number 4, Evil and Henchrat, and
Psy-Crow with Major
Mucus, who had never appeared in the show. A second
wave
was planned to include the Queen, the Professor, The Hamstinator, more Jim
variants and a motorcycle, but poor sales of the toys led to the line’s
cancellation. Taco Bell
also released a series of four toys.
Marvel Comics
was licensed to produce comics that combined elements from the show and games.
They released three
issues in the winter of 1995/96. In 1996, four VHS
collections (three in the UK) with two episodes each
were released by Universal Home
Entertainment. In 2011, Via Vision Entertainment
released the complete
series to DVD in Australia and New Zealand. Visual Entertainment
released a North
American set in 2012.
 |
| DVD cover. |
The Earthworm Jim franchise
continued on in video game form for two more games (with a third having been
cancelled). However, reception for each successive game became increasingly
negative as the original creators had long ceased involvement with their
production; most of them leaving Shiny shortly after its acquisition by Interplay Entertainment
in 1995. And while the games forged their own continuity separate from the
cartoon, Evil Jim and Henchrat were eventually incorporated into the series
with Menace 2 the Galaxy. Castallaneta was
even retained to provide Jim’s voice in Clayfighter
63 1/3 and
Earthworm Jim 3D.
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