Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century

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Name: Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century
Abbreviation(s): Zenon
Creator: Disney Channel Original Movie
Date(s): January 23, 1999
Medium: Live-action film Trilogy
Country of Origin:
External Links: on IMDb on Disney+
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Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century is the first film in a trilogy of Disney Channel Original Movies. The following films are Zenon the Zequel and Z3. In the franchise, Zenon Kar is a 13-year-old girl (in the first film) who lives on a research satellite space station orbiting Earth in 2049. She and her best friend, Nebula, have reputations on board the ship for being troublemakers—especially Zenon. They spend their time creating art from recyclable waste from the ship and listening to their favorite boy band, Microbe. After getting into trouble with the space station's commander, Edward Plank, Zenon's parents punish her by sending her to Earth to live with her Aunt Judy. On Earth, Zenon experiences trouble fitting in with other kids, who consider her name, space-station stories and slang to be weird. Likewise, Zenon considers the children at her school woefully out of touch with pop culture. Eventually, Zenon makes friends on Earth with two boys, Andrew and Greg (with whom she develops a relationship). Along the way the kids learn to be more accepting of one another and to look past first impressions.

During her time on Earth, Zenon uncovers a plot masterminded by station bigwig Parker Wyndham to use a computer virus to crash the space station and collect the insurance money. When Zenon tries to warn her parents of the danger, Commander Plank, who sees all children as troublemakers, convinces Zenon's parents not to listen to her. Plank believes that her story is only a ploy to get back onto the space station to attend an upcoming concert by her idol Proto Zoa and his pop-rock group Microbe.

Zenon, of course, saves the day.

In the subsequent films, Zenon makes first contact with extraterrestrials and communicates with them using Microbe's music.

In Fandom

Zenon is a popular Halloween costume and cosplay figure due to her distinctive, colorful fashion, which is probably her most notable fannish contribution. Zenon and Nebula as a pairing are often placed on "best friend Halloween costumes quick!" lists.

Cosplay

  • 2020 Cosplay of Zenon Kar and Proto Zoa

  • 2017 Cosplay of Zenon from Z3

  • 2018 Cosplay Inspired by Zenon Kar

  • Petite Panoply Cosplay of Zenon for Dragon Con 2018

  • 2016 Cosplay of Zenon and Nebula

  • 2018 Cosplay of Zenon and Nebula

  • 2016 Cosplay of Zenon Kar and Proto Zoa

Pairings

  • Zenon Kar/Nebula
  • Zenon Kar/Greg Smith
  • Zenon Kar/Proto Zoa

Fanfiction Sites

Meta

Speaking of media, the definition of media studies is “a discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history, and effects of various media; in particular, the mass media”. This is relevant because while, yes, there is fanfiction for everything from A Beautiful Mind to Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century, the majority of fanfiction tends to focus on works that are at least mainstream-ish. To put it another way, in order to have a lot of fanfiction, a decent sized fanbase is required. The works mentioned above, for example, got 4 and 2 hits respectively on AO3. Both were produced by big studios (Universal and Disney, respectively), and were successful when they came out, but they didn’t have that elusive something that sparks a large internet fanbase. Meanwhile, works that are relatively obscure in the mainstream like Supernatural, Welcome to Night Vale, and Homestuck have steady fanbases that are still churning out new content years after the work’s original debut, and are still based on works that are mass produced, like television.

i’m rewatching “zenon: girl of the 21st century”

and honestly

considering the plotline is “teenage girl discovers that the corporate overlords who are funding a scientific research satellite decide that since the research doesn’t support their product, they’re going to covertly dismantle the satellite and kill everyone aboard in a way that looks like an accident; no one believes her, so she gets banished and has to decide whether to watch from afar as her parents are slow-burn murdered or try to make it back to space to save them despite the risk to her own life,”

the only ~fantastical scifi element~ is that her dad likes the same pop singer she does.


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