Earthworm Jim (3D)

Earthworm Jim (Earthworm Jim 3D) Oh Jim, what did VIS Entertainment Limited do to you? Gender: Male Type: Accident-Prone "Superhero" The Not-So-Groovy Side of Earthworm Jim Species: Earthworm Portrayed by: Dan Castellaneta Status: Alive Media of origin: Earthworm Jim

Earthworm Jim is the protagonist of the Earthworm Jim video game series, the action figure line, the comic book mini-series, and the animated television series which ran for two seasons.

He's normally a likable and hilarious superhero in the franchise; however, in Earthworm Jim 3D, sadly, he was badly flanderized.

Not So Groovy Qualities

NOTE: This only focuses on the Earthworm Jim 3D version of Jim, since the original and recent versions of Earthworm Jim are likable.

1. He was hit with some serious Flanderization: He went from being a silly, brash, wacky, thrill-seeking & clumsy yet a hilarious, lovable, charismatic and incredibly competent superhero, and he has become more of an unfunny, somewhat sadistic, and pathetic loser who, despite being all cheerful and exuberant, has a gun with a low range that makes defeating enemies harder than in the first two games, he is also far too accident-prone for his good, and he is often loud, yet most of his one-liners are quite unremarkable and forgettable compared to his previous appearances in the games and the cartoon.
2. He is much more of a watered-down version of Earthworm Jim as a hero, who comes out short by personality and character development. This makes him more generic and bland somehow, whereas in this game he is depicted as a typical "I'm gonna save the world" protagonist with nothing else unique about him aside from being a colossal schlemiel with bizarre weapons, hence the explanation. Which is unacceptable since Earthworm Jim is meant to be a comical "idiot hero" who is a cartoonish parody/satire of other 2D platforming heroes like Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario for example.
3. His design in-game is ugly and it looks like a slightly distorted yet subpar look of Jim himself. Where his design on the cover art of the N64 game/PC game (despite looking unsettling & odd), and the concept art for Earthworm Jim 3D (in and out of the trailer) look way better than how he is in the game.
4. Since his gender-swapped counterpart of himself has a stereotypically sexist motive of wanting to control Jim's mind with female hormones because of a "Girls are better than boys" cliche, Jim's motive here is favoring his masculinity over femininity. Where Kim's goal is quite misandristic, Jim's goal to foil her plan has a slight implication of Jim showing mild misogyny towards himself.
   • Due to the original creator, Doug TenNapel, being infamous for being a homophobe and a transphobe, there was a surge in the popularity of Earthworm Kim; as she can be seen as both a representation of Jim himself, being a closeted transwoman, or Jim being a transmale and restating his identity, which can come off as insulting to trans people.
5. When Jim gets hurt, collects marbles, makes puns, or says anything, he never SHUTS UP. His infamous line "Braaaain!", being repeated every single time you collect a brain marble, which can get annoying in a while.
6. Many of his awesome abilities are missing, like his whip swing from Earthworm Jim 1, and some of which are unnecessary, like the summersault addition that makes him look like a crumbled-up piece of paper.
7. Much like Bubsy, he often says things that aren't funny, and it can easily get annoying.
8. He has moments of being sadistic, like whip-lashing an innocent hamster to open a gate (which you can kill if you whip it more than twice) or whip-lashing Elvis to make him jump across wide gaps.
9. A bit like Rito Yūki (To Love-ru), Jim being depicted as an overtly clumsy Butt-Monkey just comes across as sad and mean-spirited rather than comical and light-hearted.

"Groovy!" Qualities

1. He was a much better character in the original series and the cartoon.
2. He can have some entertaining one-liners at times, some examples include "Worm Power!", "I feel... GREAT!" and "Win win win! Me me me!!".
3. Dan Castellaneta does a good job at voicing Jim whenever he doesn't yell, shriek, or talk way too much, especially since he is reprising his voice talents from the 90s animated cartoon of Jim.
4. Some of the weapons he uses are creative and/or useful in a vaguely wacky way, like his Leprechaun launcher weapon for example.
5. He has redeemed himself in later adaptations of Earthworm Jim that did a better job with his characterization.
6. Despite being a bit unlikeable, he's still very heroic and still shows to have his enthusiastic personality like in the previous games.

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