Inspirational Images: Zenon

It’s 1999.

Excitement for the New Millennium (Y2K!) is at a fever pitch. The made-for-TV Disney movie ZENON: GIRL OF THE 21ST CENTURY blasts us into space through the eyes of a 13-year-old girl. It captures the late 1990s zeitgeist with aplomb: a carefully calculated mix of a) awe-inspired optimism about the future and b) the Spice Girls “Girl Power” cultural craze, then at its peak. Zenon’s 2049 shows us spaceship colony life: the packed halls look like a particularly hellish day at Heathrow, your teacher’s a hologram, and your bedroom window gives you an epic view of Earth orbiting nearby. You get to use computers for all your schoolwork, you can video chat with your crush, and Chelsea Clinton is the US President (Sorry Z, we haven’t advanced to a woman president yet, but 2 out of 3 ain’t bad).

As a 10-year-old, ZENON was an easily digestible, hopeful look at what a future world could look like. Grounded with teen familiarities like slang (“zetus lapetus!”), futuristic fashion, and rock star idols (Prota Zoa!), the movie is a cozy wave of future nostalgia that fittingly leaves us with a pop anthem for the ages: