 Kim Possible is a Disney Channel original Emmy-winning American animated television series about a teenage crimefighter of the same name who has the task of dealing with worldwide, family, and school issues every day. The show is fairly action-oriented, but also has a strong, light-hearted comedic atmosphere and often lampoons conventions and clichés of the secret-agent and action hero genres. Kim (voiced by Christy Carlson Romano) often finds herself criss-crossing the globe in an attempt to rescue people, stop crimes, and battle supervillains... all the while being expected to come home and complete her homework in time. Kim Possible attends Middleton High School, and is captain of the school's cheerleading squad. However, the red-haired crime fighter cannot save the world alone. Alongside her is Ron Stoppable, her goofy, wisecracking partner and boyfriend, and his scene-stealing pet naked mole rat, Rufus. The series premiered in June 2002, and the first episode to air, Crush, was nominated for a Primetime Emmy award the following year. With the premiere of this episode, Kim Possible was regarded as the most watched and highest rated television show on the Disney Channel at that time. The series as a whole was nominated for the Daytime equivalent in 2004, and again in 2005 (that year saw it receive 5 nominations with 1 win). The show has widely been praised for its smart dialogue, fluid animation, and engaging, well-written characters (both heroic and villainous). Kim has faced many different foes and villains throughout her career. She has dealt with evil weather controlling machines, super fast growing grass and one time even being placed under mind control by her arch foe Doctor Drakken. Many of her villains also point out the clichés of villainy often saying it's old or classic. Kim's dialogue tends to be peppered with not-so-typical teen slang; for example, "So not the drama" and "No big", as well as the series' catchphrase, "What's the sitch?" (situation). The show's title music, Call Me, Beep Me, is sung by Christina Milian. Much of its artistic style is due to character development by artist Stephen Silver. Kim Possible also airs on Toon Disney and Family Channel in Canada. 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". According to creators Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, 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, instead of remaining best friends. This becomes reality in the supposed series ending movie "Kim Possible: So the Drama." The romantic theme also continues in season four. On February 22, 2005, after 3 seasons and 65 episodes, the show ended production. However, 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 theme song's image sequence for the fourth season is vastly changed, but the original song is kept intact. |
