Here’s The Sitch: Kim Possible Review (EAM)

ah we're back here again are we well i've already covered plenty of cartoons that aired on it defying the myth that once lizzie mcguire hit the scene they gave up on tv animation but with the possible exception of the proud family these shows have been good but not heavy hitters in the way disney cartoons are today i like them there's a special place in my heart for them but i need to show a main attraction one of their biggest animated hits of the decade one that just about stormed popular culture and showed its audience it could do anything but this is disney channel surely finding a show like that would be kim possible some of my earliest tv memories were of watching kim bossable an action cartoon about a heroic teenage girl who cheerleads by day and saves the world by night although i was too young to understand or follow continuity at the time it was airing new episodes i liked the characters the action and the individual situations it certainly did its job at giving young girls an idol but it made young boys like me respect them and their strength more i owe a lot of debt to cartoons for entertaining me and making me a nicer person growing up and kim possible is the one that comes to mind when i think of great shows that did both at once now how did it come to be we need to go back to the height of the disney renaissance for this one and two writers at walt disney television animation bob shirley and mark mccorkle they'd spent most of the late 80s and early 90s floating around the tv animation industry working in the sound department on shows like ninja turtles the super mario super show and captain planet before staying in one place with disney they slowly rose up the ranks through goof troop and bonkers and got their lucky break in 1994 being part of the screenwriting team for the sequel to aladdin the return of jafar sure disney director video sequels don't have the hottest prestige at least they didn't before the company's new money-making venture but writing a continuation to one of the biggest animated hits of the decade isn't an opportunity you get more than once unless you're bob's julie and mike mccorkle aladdin and the king of thieves the lion king 2 simba's pride the aladdin cartoon the hercules cartoon and last but not least buzz lightyear of star command based on the buzz lightyear franchise within the toy story franchise star command was a big hit for abc and kept toy story's popularity pumping into the 2000s i have heard rumors that the director of toy story john lassiter didn't like the show they made but he also didn't like giving animators personal space so yeah back to disney tv animation bob and mark liked working on star command but wanted to make their own ip for a change and create a heroine that their daughters could look up to they actually thought of the names and attributes of the main characters in an elevator mark mccorkle said kim possible she can do anything bob shirley said ron's stoppable he can't and so a legend was born if that's the same elevation kingdom hearts was conceptualized in i'd be so happy the rest of the cast kind of bloomed from there the main idea and 60s spy influence being so solid but what's a disney cartoon without a little star power even steven's co-lead christine carlson romano was brought into voice kim and the older brother from boy meets world willfriedl was picked for ron taj maori from smart guy played their assistant wade raven simone herself played monique nancy cartwright of the replacements fame played rufus point is they had a roller decks and weren't afraid to use it kim possible premiered on disney channel on june 7 2002 with three episodes in a row and continued to pump out episodes regularly up to spring 2005. it consistently remained the channel's top-rated cartoon amongst all demographics and was a merchandising machine in the mid-2000s getting books video games and home releases it probably wasn't as big a hit as the powerpuff girls but it achieved a similar level of acclaim for its animation and writing only one thing stood in its way syndication they hit 65 episodes which was a standard television speed cap at the time and disney didn't really feel like renewing kim possible after it hit that number you see this is where fandemard comes in they proved that the show had such a passionate following that disney eventually decided to give it one more season for 2007 and it ended at 87 episodes and a complete story on september 7th of that year so it was already the longest running disney cartoon of its time running five near continuous years from 2002 to 2007 so basically the whole decade but it's remained a very popular show through all this time since finally getting the live action treatment in 2019 even though bob and mark returned for it i've heard it's a pretty subpar movie in its own right so i'll stick with the animated canon for this review currently you can watch every episode on disney plus but watch it while you can i've heard it's jumping ship to our waxes soon it's criminal someone at club banana is in major style denial in the busy american city of middleton resides the world's most famous crime-fighting hero fifteen-year-old kim possible can do pretty much anything with a little trouble balancing school life family life and saving the world is pretty hard she largely manages to get through it with her best friend ron stoppable a clumsy dude who'll always stick by her no matter what plenty of the adversaries will do anything to get back up and fight him another day to the point where some of them become evil mutuals in their battles across land sea air and into the stars so on paper it's a standard action drama with the twist that the main characters are teenagers but with a series like this characters are everything kim is a lot of things smart agile and just but isn't totally immune from frustration she does get into trouble at school and isn't especially popular despite her busy life something i noticed while watching is that while she can show fear she never screams i imagine they had a list of things she would and wouldn't do which is a good sign they cared about her characterization just as much as her role in each story her bff ron is a wild and goofy slacker and a bit of a scaredy-cat's social outcast but as long as he isn't in a position of power he's very friendly towards kim for the first two seasons there's no romance between them but they do start getting more serious about a relationship near the end of season 3. they are great for each other but there was something sweet about their dynamic when it was platonic not that i don't like that they hooked up ron's other best friend is rufus his pit mole rash who looks a lot cuter than real life mole rats and exo-locks sharper and funnier too many bits are made out of how he can outshine his human peers in some areas plus he's really loyal and useful when wrought into missions those missions are usually sent to them by wade a ten-year-old computer genius who almost never leaves his room for a while he only appears for a minute per episode on average but they managed to make him a fleshed out character you can tell he's been friends with kim and ron for a long time some girls kim hangs out with are monique a good friend of hers who works in resell and fashion poor raven her show hasn't even premiered yet and she's already typecast as a fashion lover jokes aside monique's a good character and so is bonnie the selfish lead of the cheerleading squad always making kim feel bad for herself she sounds mean and trust me she is but seeing her get into issues herself sometimes does mix in some fun ron also runs into mr barkin a lot a big stern man who always fails to get ron to straighten up and fly right casting patrick war version as barkin was a stroke of genius his vocal performance is the very definition of commanding and hilarious the families are pretty good too kim's mother anne is a brain surgeon and her father james is a rocket scientist it's good to see cartoon parents who aren't bumbling dopes though 2002 was rarely the year of parents nonchalantly letting their kids go on dangerous adventures they're funny and friendly but most importantly good role models kim has little brothers too jim and tim possible who like causing mischief and are also very interested in rocket science expect ensuing mayhem and take the appropriate safety precautions this is a near perfect family and i think it has to do with the surname possible boosting their confidence maybe that's why the stoppable family is a lot more bland mrs stoppable is certainly but mr manages to be a little more interesting he's an actuary he can work anywhere oh you really want me to talk about larry he's kind of decent i like the geekiness but it's a good thing they held off making whole stories out of him for a while he's one of those small doses characters as enough good guys for now i really want to get to the villains because they are amazing dr draken is a mad scientist and james possible's former high school mutual fueled in part by revenge towards other scientists but otherwise he's pretty bad at his job and his henchmen aren't much better his assistant shigo not only remains the best character on the show but is a more competent super villain comes equal in combat and makes up one half of this bickering odd couple dynamic with anyone but john dimaggio and nicole sullivan two villains arguing for half their screen time wouldn't be that exciting but draken's such a loony unpredictable goofball and shigo's such a realistic straight woman that it's always a blast to watch another dynamic duo is the senor seniors senior senior senior and senior senior junior bear with me there are rich hispanic father and son duo who have a lot of time money and evil plans to spend it on seniors your standard cartoon billionaire but junior's vain full of himself and dying to be a teen pop sensation i don't think i need to go any deeper it's clear why they're such fun characters monkey fist is pretty funny too a british zoologist who's gone in over his head for simian legends and artifacts and also ron's greatest adversary since he has a fear of monkeys it's great to see that this is what he's up against and what he uses to face it also there's duff killigan an evil scotsman who loves a destructive game of golf he isn't used often and for good reason his gimmick is very niche but they did squeeze some good bits out of him and that's what you need with a villain this weird good bits now who could forget professor dementor i did i wasn't a fan of his plots or voice as hard as pattern oswald tries i don't hate him but i feel like the only thing he had over drakken was explosives onto some of the bad guys introduced later on motored is a dude bro who's into radical vehicles while not one of my favorites he's pretty annoying at points and his environment isn't one that specifically appeals to me i like his chemistries with other characters especially draken due to how weird it is camille leon is a high-profile celebrity with shape-shifting powers that she uses to get even more wealthy i like her but she was introduced a little late for her to feel like a really important one i couldn't care less for her cat though the last i'll bring up is warmonger an amazonian alien who's pretty stereotypical but genuinely threatening no wonder they used her and her species as the main antagonists for the finale i think that's enough characters for now i guess you can tell by now that it's a cast i really enjoy watching it's clear that they were well thought out and always used properly and whatever developments were made in them were made with benefiting them in mind sorry kp but discovering that your action here was a big fake is not something you just get over and this from a wrestling fan i don't get the connection now this should be a given for shows about double lives but i found the balance of these two different sides of kim's life to be perfect especially when they highlight their similarities and differences a recurring formula in the early episodes is that cameron would face some sort of issue at school or home which would later be comparable to something the villain's going through for instance if kim's getting a little too controlling the villains plot will involve mind control it gives them something to learn by showing how that sort of behavior can be used for world domination it's a little heavy-handed but they're teenagers better to adventure through these morality tales now before it's too late the show started out largely episodic but the plot got more in-depth as it went on middleton high gets tougher over the years and its sign funnier and the villains mingle more often making bigger evil plans over time it gets hard to figure out which side will eventually overtake their lives they're both such massive priorities character development is taken rather seriously especially as the story progresses and gets less episodic but the tone of the show is always pretty silly the villains are threatening but fun and a lot of parts of the world were designed to be humorous the video game brand they have has a mascot that's certainly japanese the wrestling personalities are just as weird as they are in real life and the discount store ron goes to has a giant brain for a mascot just because they're making an action show doesn't mean they can't make a comedy show at the same time the one problem i can see people having with the dialogue is the use of teen slang it added flavor at the time but now clearly dates the show to the 2000s if the designs of the technology don't already that is usually i don't really mind the lengo used but teenagers don't really use lingo like spankin or booyah anymore so i can't exactly say the show is timeless it's not patronizing or anything it's just an unfortunate example that the series is nearly 20 years old but really why shouldn't a show about teenagers reflect the time period it was made in it's a window to help kids their age dealt with issues like fashion and peer pressure in the 2000s and there's nothing inherently wrong with that if you look at it that way speaking of being a clear reflection of the times kim possible's animation has a very 2000s look and feel the character and clothing designs are sleek and curvy and so well done that i thought the creators were fashion designers before getting into animation the backgrounds and general atmosphere are also really good going for a retro modern hybrid mentality that works well with the props and characters i believe this was among the first cartoons to be made in high definition too but like other early to mid-2000s examples of the format it's not like you needed an hdtv to get the full experience glaring textures can sometimes be an issue in hd though they weren't even in a majority of american households until two years after the show ended but it's still worth noting something you'll notice is that the something you'll notice is that the quality of movement stays pretty good but not disney movie level throughout the whole run particularly in the fight scenes which are always well staged and choreographed there's even a directing credit in the title sequence which is amazing that's how much pride they showed in the presentation all in all the experience of watching kim possible is pretty retro now but good design work and directing never goes outdated [Music] this is a pretty smart first season in that while yes it focuses on introductions to characters locations and themes it's never overbearing with them they just naturally fall into kim and ron's lives they get into their first battles with the senior seniors and monkey fest around this time and it's very clear they're going to be the ones who'll recur throughout the show there's some other one-off villains throughout the year that didn't stick around for very long gil the lake monster perhaps but he's only got one more appearance after this as i said there's a lot of efficient making sure the troubles the characters face in their normal lives and extraordinary ones intertwine and the great thing is i can still remember a ton of great episodes and moments from the season even after the end as you'll see i don't think this show ever went downhill but it did like to change things up whether you were prepared or not um excuse me scary orb thing where are you taking us the attitude adjustment center isn't that the high school prepare to be drained of all individuality and spirit yep high school season two's main job was choosing areas of the show with potential and focusing and expanding on them and expanding is right when you see that big 31 episode order they got not to mention they started making a couple 11-minute episodes which made for even more adventures even though they aren't usually the best the show has to offer it's easily the longest season of the show and i really don't get why disney shows keep getting one extra long season it tends to throw my analyses off balance because of course the longer one is going to have more good episodes but this is the case where i don't consider it the best that comes later not to say that the growth this season made was bad it's just harder to figure out what exact strengths they were going for over at middleton high kim and ron graduates sophomore grade and become juniors but apart from monique and bonnie we see a little less from their peers kim's original love interest josh mankey gets phased out and tara who took an interest in wrong gives up trying to be noticed sad really but they're narrowing their choices for the eventual kim and ron hookup that is except for yuri a foreign exchange student who takes her on to japan so he can learn to harness his monkey powers and so she can giggle at his american style jokes that joke in itself gets tired but yuri's a wrinkle in the plot they sit on ironing out just for now another ally introduced is felix the wheelchair whiz i thought i'd bring him up because he's the first impaired kid i've seen in a disney cartoon who isn't a total dick plus his debut where kim has to learn not to underestimate him is really well written we learn a little more about draken and shigo too while kamron and rufus's backstories are largely saved for the show's first tv movie a section time there's a time monkey statue that the bad guys use to go back to kim's first day of kindergarten and bully her and we learn why she likes ron then they go to her first mission several years later and we learn why she started doing anything just a boastful babysitting web page emailed by mistake that's pretty funny there's a lot to dive into with a search in time with shigo hashing a plot to take over the internet before the dot-com bubble burst and then sending ron's family away to hurt his friendship with kim it's a pretty complicated movie and it all ends with a reset button anyway but the main takeaway from me was the amazing scope and animation i do really like this movie but it's pretty hard for me to explain why thank you you're too kind please tell me we can leave now forget it i'm on fire tonight whoever said quantity meant quality the season's only 13 episodes long counting the movie but it's my favorite of the show the seeds for kim and ron's future relationship are planted you get to see more human sides of bonnie and barker and a lot of the plot ideas are really fun and well executed the lilo and stitch crossover aired around this time which was fun but a little cliched and essential but the second tv movie so the drama is a lot better kim falls for a new kid called eric played by ricky ullman who turns out to be a spy from draken trying to get information about her weaknesses but what ends up happening is they chip away at ron's weaknesses making him jealous of the spy shouting down bueno nacho etc etc draken also breaks into james possible's lab and steals information to make an army of evil fast food toys again pretty weird but there's a lot of moving parts to make it an action-packed ride and i appreciate the more adult moments the original audience for kim possible was growing up this was made three years after the premiere and they would have been craving for more intense action and prettier outfits for shigo that would push the tvg rating to its breaking point so the drama was produced as episodes 63-65 of the show which naturally meant that disney was not willing to make new episodes but the show proved so popular and the ending so intoxicating that a fourth season was eventually commissioned around a year later and this time everything was different oh i'm on a team that's cool okay how about you water skiing over a shark hello okay not everything after draken's released from jail the turn of the series goes almost back to normal alien hijinks notwithstanding i get the impression that this is the most controversial season within the core kim possible fanbase some really liking it and others really hating it but i largely felt like it did the show a good send-off i don't know about the new mission outfit though kim and ron are now dating as seniors but ron will still act like a total goofus it's never to the point where i can't understand why they're still dating but it's clear they were pushing the limits of how spontaneous he can be a couple other changes include ron getting a job at smarty marsh a new baby sister called hannah who is a baby and a cartoon so there's strong and that's so adorable isn't it and monkey fist just flat out dies he's a statue now show's over go home the tweeds have moved up to high school grades and now hang around middleton high with kim the voice actors were replaced with younger sounding kids which is a little ironic but yeah what can you hiccup it could do a big change however was the introduction of an alien race appearing part way through the season then in the finale this is the one change where i'm confused why they did it because it's a bit strange to me when a show drops aliens into it after a couple seasons but to be fair they needed a big wrap up that sent the characters somewhere new and most would be too busy celebrating their graduation to care that much about this cartoon not being realistic now that you know that i like the whole show here's my 10 favorite episodes which is surprisingly pretty balanced from season to season emotion commotion sees the kim and wrong relationship start to really blossom but only because kim has this chip in the back of her neck that causes her to change emotions all the time it's a really strange episode but i do really like the jokes and drama they make out of it especially on she goes in that stuff is just the bomb sink or swim does an excellent service to campy teen horror movies camp wanna weep is a great name for a camp and a spooky place in general with a hefty amount of surprises coach possible has a pretty decent a-plot with kim being a bit too tough of a coach but the b-plot with junior wanting to create an evil disco party is something else a very weird and funny plot you can still take with a grain of seriousness murder red is our introduction to the character and although his world isn't my favorite i really liked seeing it in this episode very grungy and dirty but it's clearly a man's plane of reality this was also the introduction of felix and i've already praised his role in what he delivers this is a great time all around bonding is the old cuffed together plosh only kim and bonnie get attached at the hip and ron and barker are stuck together too we get to see more of their lives why bonnie's a bit of a thorn to kim and bark has amazing life outside the high school naked genius is about rufus becoming hyper-intelligent and helping ron become a mathematics scientist it's a funny idea with a good message to never fake your work something that's important to learn in high school go team go reveals what shigo's family is like very powerful but very disconnected since she turned to evil the bonding is great while it lasts and then we get one of the best fight scenes of the show exchange sees the beginning of the yuri arc and one of ron's most awesome adventures he truly can stand on his own in a battle and he truly can't transform into a japanese drawing of himself rapping draken is weird corny and absurd and that's just how i like it this is one of the last episodes set before so the drama so why not really test how crazy we can make a dragon episode have him sing karaoke rap about a mind controlling shampoo then have ron save the day by rapping about rufus just a stunning 22 minutes my favorite episode is oddsman in just a brilliant way to show the opposing attributes of kim and ron his father's an actuary so of course he'll have this freak out where he's afraid of worst case scenarios and forget the thrill and importance of taking risks it's really important for his character development and the subplot about drake and selling cupcakes is mwah it's a blast too those episodes are pretty great examples of kp but these are five that made me feel like this show couldn't do everything team impossible shows off the team the maya originally tried to email all those years ago and they're greedy knobs who didn't need a whole story at least we finally got to see wade leave his room that was a pivotal moment that increases the episode's worth return to camp one of weep failed to really engross me in the gill saga again it's mostly just a mean boring summer camp episode again i think the climax is interesting but not much else royal pain has it all in the title a snooty european prince comes to middleton high makes life difficult for kim and ron for a few days then leaves the show without a trace it isn't very funny or memorable and is my least favorite full-length episode there are two 11-minute episodes that i think are worse though adventures in rufus setting for being a mindless romp that doesn't make a lick of sense and chasing rufus for being a mindless romp that doesn't make a lick of sense and prominently featuring this ugly sphinx these bottom three aren't heinous but they're definitely skippable but hey the other idiot adventures are a pretty good time i apologize if i skipped over an episode character or story that you liked it's just the trouble i have with reviewing big arc heavy action shows such as this and if you wish to ask me about it i'm sure i'd like it kim possible is an excellent show and a prime example of a very well balanced action comedy cartoon maybe it's just the rose tinted glasses that have been prescribed to me by disney channel but there's barely anything that i dislike here it pretty much had its own generation of disney fans to enthrall coming right as one saturday morning ended and ending right his phineas and ferb started it's a window into a very specific time frame for the studio but it's one i'll call and beat back to for many years to come goodbye for now coming up next my little pony pony [Music] hey forever

Channel: EmployeeAMillion

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Id: vJXseHlzgaw

Length: 27min 36sec (1656 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 03 2021