Kim Possible

Kim Possible

Cover for "Crush", pilot episode of Kim Possible. Featuring Kim, Ron, Rufus, Dr. Drakken and Shego.
Format Television series
Created by Mark McCorkle
Bob Schooley
Voices of Christy Carlson Romano
Will Friedle
Nestor Carbonell
Nancy Cartwright
Gary Cole
John DiMaggio
Shaun Fleming (1-3)
Ricardo Montalban
Tahj Mowry
Earl Boen
Jean Smart
Rider Strong (1-3)
Nicole Sullivan
Kirsten Storms
Raven-Symoné
A.J. Trauth (1-3)
Patrick Warburton
Ashley Tisdale
(4)
Spencer Fox (4)
Opening theme "Call Me, Beep Me"
by Christina Milian
Country of origin Flag of the United States.svg United States
No. of seasons 4
No. of episodes 87 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time approx. 22 minutes (per episode)
Broadcast
Original channel Disney Channel
Original run June 7, 2002 - June 10, 2006
February 10, 2007 – September 7, 2007
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Kim Possible is an Emmy Award-winning American animated television series about a teenage crime fighter who has the task of dealing with worldwide, family, and school issues every day. The show is action-oriented, but also has a light-hearted atmosphere and often lampoons the conventions and clichés of the secret-agent and action genres.

Contents

Premise

The series revolves around the life of Kimberly Anne Possible, a junior adventurer who deals with both super-villains trying to take over the world and her own school life without actually living a double life. Her lifetime friend Ron Stoppable and Ron's pet naked mole rat, Rufus, act as sidekicks. They are backed up by Wade, a ten-year-old genius who gives Kim her equipment and missions and never seems to leave his room, though he does on a few occasions in the last season.

The characters live in the average town of Middleton, and while the series revolves mostly around Kim’s fight against her enemies, she usually also has to deal with problems in her own daily life as a cheerleading teenager, normally as a subplot in many episodes.[1]

Production

Creators Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley claim they created the show in an elevator. As they tell it, McCorkle looked at Schooley and said, "Kim Possible: she can do anything". Schooley at once replied, "Her partner is Ron Stoppable: he can't do anything". The creators also maintain that it was always their intention for Kim and Ron to eventually become involved romantically, rather than just remaining best friends. This becomes a reality in the supposed series-ending movie, Kim Possible: So the Drama. The romantic theme also continues in season four.[2]

The series premiered on Disney Channel in June 2002, and the first episode to air, Crush, was nominated for a Primetime Emmy award the following year. After the premiere of this episode, Kim Possible was the most watched and highest rated television show on Disney Channel at that time. The series as a whole was nominated for the Daytime Emmy in 2004, and again in 2005 (that year it received 5 nominations and 1 win).[3]. The show has been widely praised for its smart dialogue, fluid animation, and engaging, well-written characters (both heroic and villainous).[4]

On February 22, 2005, after 3 seasons and 65 episodes, the show ended production. Due to the popularity of the series and grassroots operations by dedicated KP fans, Disney announced on November 29, 2005, that the show would be renewed for a fourth season, which debuted on Disney Channel on February 10, 2007. The series finale aired on September 7, 2007 with the airing of the one-hour-long concluding episode, "Graduation."[5]

Steve Loter documented the production of the final episode of season 4, and thus the completion of the Kim Possible franchise, in a blog titled "So the Finales" hosted on Blogger. It included behind the scenes and production information from the perspective of the crew as well as production sketches from one of several alternative endings that had been scripted. So the Finale maintained an open comment system allowing fans to express their views on the franchise and its closure.[6]

The show's title music, "Call Me, Beep Me", is sung by Christina Milian. Artist Stephen Silver was the lead character designer. Kim Possible also airs on Toon Disney in the United States, and Family in Canada. Some early episodes have been aired on ABC as part of its Saturday morning block ABC Kids.[7]

In the UK, the show can be seen often on Toonattik (GMTV's children's weekend slot on ITV1). It's currently on Saturday mornings.

In Australia, Kim Possible can be seen on Disney Channel Australia 3 times a day along with the Seven Network which are currently repeating the final season every Saturday at 7:05am. In India, Kim Possible can be seen on "Toon Disney", "Disney Channel" and "Disney CineMagic".

Episodes

Main article: List of Kim Possible episodes
Season Ep # First Airdate Last Airdate
Season 1 21 June 7, 2002 May 16, 2003
Season 2 32 July 18, 2003 August 5, 2004
Season 3 12 September 25, 2004 June 10, 2006
Season 4 22 February 10, 2007 September 7, 2007

Characters

Main article: List of characters in Kim Possible
Further information: List of minor characters in Kim Possible

The show hovers around the conflict of good and bad. The good is represented by the protagonists: vigilante and teen crime-fighter Kim Possible, assisted by her faithful sidekick Ron Stoppable, the main source of comic relief for the show. During the show, Kim and Ron progress through the high school, starting in the ninth grade in the pilot episode Crush and ending on the prom in the final episode Graduation.

Together the duo fights various antagonists. The most common of these is Doctor Drakken assisted by his henchwoman Shego, whose unsuccessful world domination schemes appear in almost every episode of the show. The other common villains are Monkey Fist, Duff Killigan, Señor Senior, Sr. and Jr. and Professor Dementor. Monkey Fist starts out as an Indiana Jones-like persona, but soon turns into a megalomaniacal practicer of monkey kung fu, a real-world fighting discipline supernaturalized and portrayed as mystical in the series.[8] Duff Killigan is an overweight Scottish golf player who wears a kilt and attacks his opponents by exploding golf balls.[9] The Señor Senior father and son duo are at first just extremely rich people owning a large resort island. However, they are inadvertently dragged into the evil business by Ron Stoppable. Senior, the father is more business-oriented, as his son tends to exploit the evil ways for not-so-evil deeds, such as opening a personal disco.[10][11] Little is revealed about Professor Dementor, an antagonist obsessed with world domination schemes like Doctor Drakken, his sworn enemy, although Dementor usually turns out to be more successful.[12][13]

Films

DVDs

Various DVDs were released for the series:

Probably all 4 seasons will be released in Germany. These are region 2 DVDs with the original English language track included.

Soundtrack

Main article: Kim Possible (album)

Video games

International

A Mandarin version aired on CCTV-12 in China, and an Arabic dub was also made which started airing on Dubai TV in early 2006 and is currently airing on MBC 3 on the network's "Disney morning timeslot", the only thing that was changed were the character's names, for example Kim was called "Damo Staheel" (Mostaheel is Arabic for Impossible), Ron was called "Mostah Aed", Wade was called "Awad", Shego was called "Shahira", and Dr. Drakken was called "Daraken". The show aired on the French Disney Channel and then on TF1's Disney show in France. Several changes were made in the names to fit with translated jokes: for example Ron Stoppable is called Robin Trépide ("Intrépide", meaning intrepid: some kind of a courageous adventurer). From August 11, 2008, the show airs on Jetix, in Romania. In Bulgaria the show was aired on Kanal 1 in 2005. The same translation was made available on the Bulgarian version of Jetix on October 20, 2008. In Sweden, the show has been aired on SVT1, Disney Channel Sweden and Toon Disney Sweden. The show was dubbed to Swedish, but the names were the same as in the original version.

References

  1. ↑ Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley Interview on Kim Possible Season 4
  2. ↑ The Background Art of Kim Possible Art director Alan Bodner and executive producer/director Chris Bailey discuss the Background Art of Disney's Kim Possible.
  3. ↑ Awards for "Kim Possible" (2006), retrieved August 4, 2006
  4. ↑ Latest interview with Steve Loter
  5. ↑ http://sothefinale.blogspot.com/ So The Finale], Official Season 4 finale production blog by Steve Loter (2008-01-01)
  6. ↑ Loter Steve (2007) "So the Finale", Blogger
  7. ↑ earlier Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley Interview
  8. ↑ Kim Possible, episode 13, Monkey Fist Strikes (13 September 2002)
  9. ↑ Kim Possible, episode 14, October 31st (11 October 2002)
  10. ↑ Kim Possible, episode 3, The New Ron (7 June 2002)
  11. ↑ Kim Possible, episode 11, Coach Possible (23 August 2002)
  12. ↑ Kim Possible, episode 39, Hidden Talent (2 January 2004)
  13. ↑ Kim Possible, episode 54, Bonding (22 October 2004)

External links


Kim Possible
Episodes · Movie · Soundtrack · Characters
Characters
Kim Possible · Ron Stoppable · Drakken · Shego · Minor villains · Family members · Minor allies · Supporting characters
Video games
Revenge of Monkey Fist · Drakken's Demise · Team Possible · Kimmunicator · What's the Switch · Global Gemini
Disney Channel Original Series
1997-2000
Flash Forward • The Famous Jett Jackson • Bug Juice • So Weird • The Jersey • Even Stevens • In a Heartbeat • Totally Circus
2001-2005
Lizzie McGuire • The Proud Family • Totally Hoops • Kim Possible • Totally in Tune • That's So Raven • Lilo & Stitch: The Series • Dave the Barbarian • Phil of the Future • Brandy & Mr. Whiskers • American Dragon: Jake Long • The Buzz on Maggie • The Suite Life of Zack & Cody
Currently Running
The Emperor's New School • Hannah Montana • The Replacements • Cory in the House • Phineas and Ferb • Wizards of Waverly Place • The Suite Life on Deck
Upcoming Series
Sonny With a Chance
ABC Kids
Disney's One Saturday Morning (1997-2002)
101 Dalmatians • Buzz Lightyear of Star Command • Doug • Hercules • House of Mouse • Jungle Cubs • Lloyd in Space • Mary-Kate and Ashley in Action! • Mickey Mouse Works • Pepper Ann • Recess • Sabrina, the Animated Series • Squigglevision • Teacher's Pet • Teamo Supremo • The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh • The Weekenders
ABC Kids (2002-Present)
Even Stevens • Fillmore! • Hannah Montana • Kim Possible • Lilo & Stitch • Lizzie McGuire • Phil of the Future • Power Rangers • Recess • Teamo Supremo • That's So Raven • The Buzz on Maggie• The Emperor's New School • The Proud Family • The Replacements • The Suite Life of Zack and Cody • W.I.T.C.H.