Anybody familiar with Invasion America?

[DjJuice5]

It was a primetime series that aired on the WB in 1998 to compete with the simpsons. Whereas the Simpsons was pure comedy, Invasion was the first attempt to bring serious animation to primetime in the US to my knowledge(if i'm wrong, feel free to correct me). The series ran for 13 episodes but it never found an audience and depiste the WB moving it to the KidsWB block it wasn't renewed for a second season.

I never got the chance to see it when it was on but I recently discovered it on Youtube and really liked it. Yes it some parts it was slow and it looked and felt more like a high quality SatAm cartoon than a primetime series but the story was intresting and most of the characters were likeable. I think the series came at too early a time to fully be appreciated and it was on the wrong network.

Anyways, feel free to voice your opinons of the series below.

[Anthonynotes]

I remember this series being advertised during Kids WB at the time, but yes, it had a very short life in primetime. Don't recall much else about the show (besides involving aliens and its dramatic tone), though, not having watched it much at the time...

[zimbach]

It was a miniseries that might have gone farther if it were successful. It wasn't successful, at least by the WB's standards of the time, for a prime-time show. In a way it did help pave the way for Batman Beyond, but it also re-established the animation age ghetto on American broadcast TV for anything but rude comedy.

[Anarky]

kid looked like Terry McGinnis!

[Crash]

"Hey, David--Did you know your house burned down?"

Mostly I remember the show for that line. Because I recognized the voice actor (I was young, that was a rarity back then) and because I had a friend named David at the time.

I don't remember much whether it was good or bad. But I remember that I enjoyed it, and that I was dissapointed that it was discontinued. It would have been neat to have an original sci-fi animation. Would have been a nice trend....

[Goodfellow]

Dude, oh my god. I have been bugging Dreamworks for years to release this show. I recorded it all 6 episodes when they aired back in 99 and it is the only reason I still own a VCR, as it is my only VHS tape (and a pretty crappy conditioned one too). I cannot even find the show for download, which sucks, as I have a feeling the tape is going to break the next time I watch it.

DjJuice, the 13 episodes you are referring to is when it was reaired on Kids WB, but it was severly edited. There is one scene when an alien breaks loose in an underground lab and starts killing the scientists, but it was heavily cut down when it reaired.

My biggest gripe for the show was the cliffhanger ending, with Spielberg promising 30 more episodes in an interview that is in my Toons Wizard magazine that never happened.

[TacoHunter]

I remember watching it. It was pretty cool. But I wasn't really blown away by its narrative. But its been a while and I was quite a bit younger. Maybe I should see about seeing it again and see what I think of it now. In fact, I think I will...

[Goodfellow]

I remember watching it. It was pretty cool. But I wasn't really blown away by its narrative. But its been a while and I was quite a bit younger. Maybe I should see about seeing it again and see what I think of it now. In fact, I think I will...

Good luck, beause unless you recorded it, you will probably not find it.

[podznvines]

I used to watch it with my parents. The only thing I really remember from it was that the main guy was half-alien (I think). I was mad when it got canned, and my parents were even moreso.

That was a great year of animation for me: I was just discovering sci-fi cartoons, and the Sci-Fi channel aired anime movies, two of which were Galaxy Express 999 and the sequel (Maetel's in the left corner as I type this).

The beauty of animation is that you can tell any story with it. I think we(as in American society) are cheating ourselves when the only "acceptable" animation is sanitized kiddy fare, bowlderized fairy tales, snarky talking animals, and sophomoric comedy that's somehow labeled "mature". Nothing wrong with those types of shows (or movies) in small doses, but what happened to variety?

[Rick Jones]

It was a miniseries that might have gone farther if it were successful. It wasn't successful, at least by the WB's standards of the time, for a prime-time show. In a way it did help pave the way for Batman Beyond, but it also re-established the animation age ghetto on American broadcast TV for anything but rude comedy.
It's pretty weird that everytime I remember the show, I always think of Batman Beyond as well. My sister and I loved the show. It was a real shame that it wasn't continued.

[Dub C]

I barely remember the show. The few things I can remember is that the main was a half-alien & that they did some kind of freaky communication or something with their eyes. Other than that, the show is mostly a blur, but I did remember somewhat enjoying it.

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

A massive disappointment. When it wasn't repetitive scenes of droning military heads, it was cliche, rushed, poorly executed teen angst science fiction. And I remember they hired a Japanese storyboarder to help make the production more "anime" like, but the results were disastrous. The show looked shoddy. And apparently the staff involved in the show acknowledged that there were communication problems regarding how the show should look.

[Master Moron]

A massive disappointment. When it wasn't repetitive scenes of droning military heads, it was cliche, rushed, poorly executed teen angst science fiction. And I remember they hired a Japanese storyboarder to help make the production more "anime" like, but the results were disastrous. The show looked shoddy. And apparently the staff involved in the show acknowledged that there were communication problems regarding how the show should look.

I agree. I can't believe how much praise the show is getting. The dialogue was also pretty bad if remember correctly.

[GregX]

Michael Reaves once referred to it as one of the worst shows of his entire career.

[AlgeaX]

Michael Reaves once referred to it as one of the worst shows of his entire career.

I wouldn't say that. It probably won't make it on my top ten or even tweanty, but I've seen way worse.

[Goodfellow]

I agree. I can't believe how much praise the show is getting. The dialogue was also pretty bad if remember correctly.

Are you kidding me? The show was fantastic, it was unique, showed that even in American they can give a cartoon that airs on TV a mature story, and that they weren't afraid to kill people off.

[TheVileOne]

I totally dug the hell out of the show at the time and I heard it did well in the ratings and I wanted to see more.

Also it ran for SIX EPISODES, not 13. It was sort of like a sci-fi TV miniseries than an actual series.

Sucks it won't get released on DVD. Get on it Spielberg.

[John Pannozzi]

Michael Reaves once referred to it as one of the worst shows of his entire career.
That's... odd, considering that in this interview from 2000 (http://www.animationartist.com/2000/Interviews/Screenwriters/Michael_Reaves/MReaves.html)he praises the living daylights out of it.

[SpaceCowboy]

I remember seeing it back when it premiered and was pretty disappointed with it. It really was like an overblown SatAM cartoon with added cursing. Was expecting something more like a hard sci-fi anime.
If the producers wanted to take this big a risk and wanted to make a good sci-fi show for older audiences, they should have asked the Japanese for a few pointers first!

[USSManhattan]

All I remember about IA was that Seattle was destroyed/threatened to be destroyed by asteroids or something like that.

[GregX]

That's... odd, considering that in this interview from 2000 (http://www.animationartist.com/2000/Interviews/Screenwriters/Michael_Reaves/MReaves.html)he praises the living daylights out of it.

Yeah, about a year after that interview, he trashed it at a convention panel as a terrible professional experience.

[Terrence Briggs]

Yeah, about a year after that interview, he trashed it at a convention panel as a terrible professional experience.

Maybe it seemed bad in retrospect :-)

I didn't care much for the show at all. Mainly because AKOM's animation was so awful and the editors couldn't produce a watchable series around the crappy footage they got back. Compare to Saban's X-Men, which also had crappy animation, but a decent (sometimes great) program was salvaged from it.