Line #14 Film/Zenon


1	[[quoteright:263:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Zenon21_298.jpg]]
2	A Creator/DisneyChannel movie first aired in 1999, ''Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century'' is set in 2049, where Zenon Kar (Creator/KirstenStorms) is a 13-year-old who literally gets grounded as she is forced to leave her SpaceStation home and live on Earth. The first film concerns her trying to get along with some Earth kids while taking down a plot by [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Parker]] [[BigBad Wyndham]] to destroy the space station.
3
4	Although it never became a TV series as expected, it did spawn two sequels. ''Zenon: The Zequel'' follows Zenon as she clashes with General Hammond and his military forces who are taking over operations of the station; to make matters worse, Hammond's daughter is Margie, Zenon's AlphaBitch enemy from the first film. ''Zenon: Z3'' focuses on Zenon as she enters the Galactic Teen Supreme contest, while Sage Borealis, a Moon preservation activist, and Selena, goddess of the moon, urge her to stop contest-holder Pat Numbar from colonizing and exploiting the moon.
5
6	If you want to read the original book by Marilyn Sandler, [[https://archive.org/details/zenongirlof21stc0000sadl choose this link]].
7
8	Not to be confused with the ''Franchise/{{Devilman}}'' villain.
9	----
10	!!This film and its sequels provide examples of:
11	* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The trilogy starts 50 years from the first movie's release date in 2049. The zequel takes place in 2050, and the third in 2054.
12	* AdaptationalDyeJob: The front cover of the 1997 book has Zenon depicted with black hair. Kirsten Storms kept her natural blonde hair for the DCOM trilogy.
13	* AdultsAreUseless: Zenon and her friends are the only ones who can save the Space Station from crashing. Only Zenon and her 13-year-old friend manage to piece together an anti-virus. Back at the space station, the adults, many of whom are scientists, are freaking out and have no idea how to fix the virus. That said, Zenon and her friends are aware that the system failures are intentional sabotage, and not simply malfunctions much earlier, giving her friend more time to work on the problem.
14	* AerithAndBob: Names like Mark, Leo, Greg, Parker, and Margie are lined up with Zenon, Astrid, Aquila, Nebula, and Lynx. A rare case like the TropeNamer where for the most part the female characters have irregular names and the male characters have normal ones.
15	* AesopAmnesia:
16	** Pat Numbar at the end of ''Z3'', who offers Zenon another chance at properly winning a contest by joining him in a new one on Mars along with her friends. Zenon's reply?:
17	--> '''Zenon''': Mr. Numbar, if you thought Selena was hard to handle, let me just point out to you that Mars is the god of war.
18	** Two seconds after hanging up, she adds that "some people just never learn."
19	* AlmostKiss: Zenon and Greg are sitting side-by-side, facing the same direction, in awkward silence. Zenon tells Greg that if he wants to kiss her he should get over it and just kiss her already. After a pause, they both turn suddenly towards each other at the same time - and accidentally smash their faces into each other, ruining the moment.
20	* AlmostOutOfOxygen: Zenon and Dasha nearly run out on their way back to the Lunasphere after Zenon speaks to Selena at the Sea of Tranquility in ''Z3''.
21	* ArtificialGravity: The Space Station, courtesy of spinning futuristic rings. This accurately reflects current scientific ideas on how to maintain gravity. In-story, the generated gravity is also much weaker than Earth's gravity, which makes it difficult for Zenon to function on Earth.
22	* ArtisticLicenseSpace: To be expected in a movie like this. One notable example comes up in Z3. Selena gives a deadline of “the next Earthset” for everyone to leave the moon base. In reality, the moon is tidally locked to Earth, so Earth never rises or sets from the perspective of someone on the moon.
23	* BeautyEqualsGoodness: In the zequel that introduces aliens, Zenon deduces that the aliens are good, with no irony, because their spaceship is too beautiful for them to be evil (one of the military soldiers described it as looking like a "flying rainbow"). She was right, of course.
24	* BetaCouple: Judy and Commander Plank form one by the end of the first movie. They get married in the ending of the zequel.
25	* BigBad:
26	** In the first film, Parker Wyndham is the [[CorruptCorporateExecutive mogul]] who owns the space station, and sets out with his [[TheDragon assistant]] Lutz to implant a computer virus that will destroy it, killing everyone inside, so he can [[InsuranceFraud collect the insurance money]].
27	** ''The Zequel'' plays with this in regards to General Hammond and Marge; Hammond is the main antagonist of the film, taking over the now-damaged station and planning to dismantle it, which would put everyone on the station out of a job, and is trying to capture Zenon. However, he is not doing it to be malicious, but to protect the people of Earth from a possible ColonyDrop, and to protect Zenon who is endangering herself trying to find an alternate solution, making him more of a WellIntentionedExtremist. Meanwhile, his daughter Marge is a standard antagonist who is an AlphaBitch to Zenon, but [[spoiler:[[HeelFaceTurn becomes nicer to Zenon]] halfway through and becomes an ally instead of an antagonist for the rest of the film]].
28	** ''Z3'' has Pat Numbar, the host of the Galactic Teen Supreme contest who is using it as a front to colonize and exploit the moon for its resources, greatly angering the moon goddess Selene who recruits Zenon to stop his plans.
29	%%* BiggerOnTheInside: The station.
30	%%* BritishRockstar: Proto Zoa.
31	* CallBack:
32	** In ''Z3'', Dasha's journal has an article detaling the military taking over the space station, which drove the plot of the previous movie.
33	** Later when Zenon is talking to Bronley, he mentions her saving the space station and meeting aliens.
34	* CassandraTruth:
35	** Zenon tries to expose the plot to destroy the space station but no one believes her until it is almost too late.
36	** No one believes Zenon detected alien signals in the second film at first. Maybe if the AP lab had some sort of data archive or a recording device, that might've convinced people.
37	* CatchPhrase: Zenon's is [[FutureSlang "Cetus Lupeedus!"]]
38	** In ''Z3'' it becomes "Vega Omega!"
39	* ColonyDrop: A side effect of the Wyndham's plan in the first film. When the Zequel starts, the Space Station has been shifted out of its orbit enough that that this is a very real possibility, and preventing it is the real reason the army is so aggressive about dismantling the station.
40	%%* ColorfulSong: "Supernova Girl" and "The Galaxy is Ours".
41	%%* ComputerVirus: How the villains of the first movie commit their InsuranceFraud scheme. Solved by HollywoodHacking and reverse engineering.
42	%%* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Parker Wyndham in the first movie; the people in charge of building the moon base in the third movie.
43	* DancePartyEnding: All three movies end with a Proto Zoa concert; the third has him do a duet with Cosmic Blush.
44	* DeclarationOfPersonalIndependence: Zenon declares to her father that she's thirteen. Old enough to take care of herself.
45	* DefrostingTheIceQueen: Margie starts off being completely antagonist to Zenon, but by the end of the second movie, they've become good friends.
46	* DemotedToExtra: Nebula in the third movie who only gets a (very badly green-screened) cameo since she's on vacation on Earth. On the upside, she's played by Raven-Symoné once again.
47	%%* DramaticAlienVTOL: The aliens in the second movie have a very pretty space ship.
48	* DrivingTest: At the start of ''Z3'', Zenon takes her pod flying test with Co-Commander and uncle Klane as her instructor. Despite struggling with parallel parking, she passes with a near-perfect score.
49	%%* EnergyBeings: The aliens in the second movie, more or less.
50	%%* FirstPersonPerspective: The books are told from Zenon’s perspective.
51	* FiveManBand: In the first and third movies, Zenon has three of them for when she's down on Earth, back home on the Wyndcomm Space Station later known as Space Station 9, and at the Moonstock Festival on the Moon. On the space station, we have...
52	*** TheHero / TheLeader: Zenon
53	*** TheLancer: Nebula
54	*** TheBigGuy: Aquila
55	*** TheSmartGuy: Leo
56	*** TheHeart: Lynx
57	** On Earth, we have...
58	*** TheHero / TheLeader: Zenon
59	*** TheLancer: Margie
60	*** TheBigGuy: Matt
61	*** TheSmartGuy: Andrew
62	*** TheHeart: Gregory
63	** In the third movie at Moonstock, we have...
64	*** TheHero / TheLeader: Zenon
65	*** TheLancer: Margie
66	*** TheBigGuy: Bronley
67	*** TheSmartGuy: Cassie, [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute Nebula's cousin]]
68	*** TheHeart: Sage
69	*** SixthRanger / TagalongKid: Dasha
70	* FutureMusic: The movie focused heavily on the music of a band called Microbe. The first being a 1999 Creator/DisneyChannel movie, their biggest song sounds exactly like modern light tween pop, except with lyrics such as -- sing along, contemporaries, you know the words -- "ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM, make my heart go BOOM BOOM, would you be my [[SciFiNameBuzzwords Supernova Girl]]?"
71	** Better yet: "Interplanetary, megastellar, hydrostatic! There's no gravity between us, our love is automatic!"
72	* FutureSlang: A particularly memorable example. Cetus Lupeedus, guys! The movie is totally stellanarious! And it's full of Action Major!
73	** Including names like "Zenon" and "Nebula", although both those naming conventions and much of the FutureSlang are more common on the space station than Earth; in the first movie, one of Zenon's Earth teachers accidentally calls her another noble gas; "Radon". When Zenon corrects her, Margie mocks the weirdness of Zenon's name, giving the viewers the first hint that only people on the space station have FutureSlang names. This is further enforced when we find out that other kids on Earth have names like Margie, Greg, and Andrew, and they all have their ''own'' dialect of FutureSlang-- macro, micro, etc.
74	** Not to mention an entire song whose lyrics include nothing but future slang (i.e. a bunch of unrelated scientific terms all jammed together). If you listen to it, it actually does make sense, albeit in a pop song sort of way. It's not much sillier than the vague space imagery in [[Music/{{Queen}} "Don't Stop Me Now"]] or [[Music/EltonJohn "Rocket Man"]] or a million other songs from the seventies.
75	** The books give further insight on the space station slang as well as featuring some phrases that may or may not have been used in the films.
76	** SciFiNameBuzzwords: Most of the FutureSlang is essentially a bunch of vaguely "space-y" terms blended together.
77	%%* FutureSpandex: Many of the characters wear spandex and other form-fitting materials.
78	%%* GirlishPigtails: Zenon wears these in the first film.
79	* GodOfTheMoon: Selena, but ''Z3'' makes no mention of her place in the classical mythology.
80	* GravitySucks: In the second movie, as soon as it runs out of fuel, the shuttle Zenon, Margie, Proto Zoa, and Judy are on starts falling towards the Moon.
81	* GreenAesop: The third movie appears to attempt to invoke this, except using the moon (and an angry moon spirit who literally tells Zenon that the humans are screwing everything up, as if Sage the moon environmentalist wasn't {{Anvilicious}} enough) as a stand-in for Earth. A bit strange considering the moon does not have any life forms...except for, apparently, the aforementioned grumpy moon spirit, who wasn't in any danger from the minor intrusion on her habitat.
82	* HaveAGayOldTime: The word "viral" is explicitly described as a synonym for bad or disgusting. In context, this makes sense given the space station is mostly a scientific colony, and the word uses a biological definition. To a viewer in the internet age, "viral" takes on the meaning of "shared frequently online."
83	%%* HollywoodScience
84	* JerkassGods: Selena in ''Z3'' seems to be pretty temperamental, considering how she threatens to blow up Earth because a human wanted to colonize a tiny part of her moon.
85	* TheMetricSystemIsHereToStay: Zenon is from a space station, but when she arrives on Earth, she explodes a test tube because she was thinking in Celsius when all the instructions were in Fahrenheit. In a science class.
86	* MookFaceTurn: Two of Wyndham's security agents, after trying to capture Zenon and take her to Wyndham, pull one after Proto Zoa calms them down and offers to take them under his wing.
87	* MotileVehicularComponents: The alien ship in ''Zenon: The Zequel'' has four long, elegant wings that flap. In space. Yes, really.
88	* NeverSayDie: Invoked. In the first film, when Zenon's space station home is in danger of being destroyed, she says in anguish, "everyone up there will be...finished" (y'know, instead of "dead"). Also possibly averted in that she tells Nebula that everyone on the station is in "danger mortus", which a viewer who recognizes the Latin root in "mortus" could figure out means in danger of dying.
89	* OddlyNamedSequel2ElectricBoogaloo: ''Zenon: The Zequel'' forgoes proper spelling for AddedAlliterativeAppeal, and ''Zenon: Z3'' marks the only numbered installment in the trilogy.
90	* PluckyComicRelief: Nebula, Proto Zoa and the Microbes. The villains of the first and third movies aren't much better off, really.
91	* SayMyName: Plank's "ZEEEENOOOOOOOOOOOOONNN", which happens in the beginning of the second movie.
92	%%* ScienceIsBad: The moon base in the third movie.
93	* SettingUpdate: The book is set in 2037, the film jumps ahead to 2049 for the sake of depicting more advanced technology.
94	* ShoutOut:
95	** The aliens in the second movie initially communicating through musical tones is very much like ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind.''
96	** Margie also mentions what happened to the alien in ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'' as a potential reason for the aliens wanting to meet in space.
97	* SpaceIsAnOcean: Deconstructed a bit. Zenon assumes that because she can 'swim' in space, that she knows how to swim in a pool for gym class. SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome and Greg ends up saving her life.
98	* SpacePlane: All shuttles take off without any boosters and can apparently do so multiple times a day without needing maintenance.
99	%%* SpaceSuitsAreSCUBAGear
100	* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Selena is obviously the Greek moon goddess Selene, but with an "a" instead of an "e" at the end.
101	* StandardEstablishingSpaceshipShot: SpaceStation shot. There are a couple in all three movies.
102	* StatusQuoIsGod: Averted. Margie keeps her development in the second movie after having been Zenon's nemesis in the first and most of the second. Here she largely takes Nebula’s place as Zenon’s best friend in the third movie due to Nebula having a much smaller role.
103	* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
104	** Zenon ends up falling the first time she does anything energetic because she forgets that Earth gravity is not quite the same as her space station's artificial gravity.
105	** General Hammond plans to have the station decommissioned and dismantled due to damage caused by Parker Wyndum in the previous film because he thinks it's not safe to live in anymore and to keep it from endangering the people of Earth. If someone tries to intentionally put people in danger, which causes much damage to a living space, then people like the military aren't going to think it's safe anymore, and will want people to leave said living space for their's and other people's protection.
106	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodSandwich: Zenon and Greg's first date at a beachside diner. Zenon's never had Earth food before, and she orders nearly everything from the menu. She eats one onion ring. She sees Lutz and then chases after him, leaving all of that good food behind.
107	%%* TickleTorture: The force field around Protozoa's estate creates a similar sensation.
108	* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: Strangely enough since the Disney Channel was entirely in charge of the trailer, the trailers for the third movie spoiled both the existence and true appearance of Selena the moon goddess, when quite a bit of the movie is Zenon trying to figure out her "viral moon dreams" and other weird supernatural things that keep happening to her. Oh, gee, it couldn't be that moon spirit the trailers showed, could it?
109	* {{Zeerust}}: These movies are late 90s/early 2000s visions of what people thought the future would look like. The outfits alone show how dated the whole thing looks, as does much of the tech used in the movie.

Context Film / Zenon