Kim Possible (series)

***Kim Possible*** is an American animated television series about a teenage crime fighting girl of the same name who has the task of dealing with worldwide, family, and school issues daily. Although the show is action-oriented, it also has a light-hearted atmosphere, comedy, and often lampoons the conventions and clichés of the secret-agent and action genres. It is marked as the second animated Disney Channel Original Series, after *The Proud Family*, and was the first series to be produced by Walt Disney Television Animation, in association with the Disney Channel.

*Kim Possible* is Disney Channel's highest-rated show of all-time. It also holds the record for being the second-longest running Disney Channel Original Series, (behind *Phineas and Ferb*) airing for a total of five years and three months (or sixty-three months) between its first episode and the series finale.

## Premise

The series revolves around Kim's fights against her enemies as well as her everyday life problems as a normal teenager, which are usually presented as a subplot. Kim lives in what is supposed to be an "Any Town, USA" named Middleton, although it is built around a thriving NASA-like Space Center with several supporting Science Laboratories. *Kim Possible* takes place primarily within the United States town of Middleton and focuses on the life and adventures of Kim Possible, an accomplished high school student who fights crime on a regular basis, assisted by her best friend and sidekick Ron Stoppable and Rufus, his pet naked mole rat. Ron's personal fears, insecurities, and clumsiness tend to jeopardize the success of their own missions. Kim and Ron are aided remotely by Wade, a 10 year-old computer genius who seldom leaves his bedroom and communicates with the duo via a device he invented himself known as a Kimmunicator. Together, the foursome is known as Team Possible. The majority of Kim's missions involve her traveling to various destinations around the world to rescue citizens from harm and fight a variety of enemies and villains, the most frequent of whom are Dr. Drakken, a mad scientist constantly plotting world domination, and his superpowered sidekick Shego, who possesses the ability to generate powerful energy blasts and emit them from her hands, making her the heroine's most dangerous opponent. Not yet of age to drive herself to most of her missions, Kim often relies on favors from various people she has assisted in the past for transportation.

Attending Middleton High School alongside Ron, her best female friend Monique and rival classmate Bonnie Rockwaller, Kim lives with her family: father James, a rocket scientist, and Ann, a brain surgeon, as well as her younger brothers, identical twins Jim and Tim, both of whom possess genius-level intellect. Fully aware of their daughter's occupation, Kim's parents remain completely supportive of her crime-fighting endeavors so long as she continues to obey curfew, but tend to be more-so concerned about the character's performance in school, as well as her love life. Lacking a secret identity, Kim is world famous and her profession is constantly acknowledged by both her classmates and teachers. *Kim Possible* also explores the highs and lows of Kim's life as a high school student attempting to navigate dating, captaining her high school's cheerleading squad, academics, homework, exams and eventually learning to drive,[15] all the while striving to maintain a healthy work-life balance; fighting crime typically comes to Kim more naturally than the more standard components of adolescence.

As revealed in *Kim Possible: A Sitch in Time*, Kim became involved in crime-fighting rather unintentionally. In a series of events prior to the beginning of the series, a pre-adolescent Kim, in search of a job, creates her own website, kimpossible.com, to promote her burgeoning babysitting and lawn mowing services, promoting it using the slogan "I can do anything". When he becomes trapped by his own laser security system, a billionaire accidentally contacts Kim while he was attempting to reach Team Impossible, to whose aid she immediately rushes. As news of the character's heroism spreads, her website is soon flooded with e-mails from around the globe requesting her assistance, and Kim ultimately decides to use her talents help the world, becoming a superhero.

## 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 movie *Kim Possible Movie: So the Drama*, which was originally slated to be the series' ending. The romantic theme, however, also continues throughout season four.

The series premiered on Disney Channel on June 7, 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 five nominations and won one for Outstanding Sound Mixing — Live Action and Animation). The show has been widely praised for its dialogue, animation, and characters. This is the second longest running Disney Channel show ever.

On February 22, 2005, after three 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".

Steve Loter documented the production of the final episode of season four, and thus the completion of the *Kim Possible* franchise. in a blog titled "So the Finale" 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.

The show's title music, "Call Me, Beep Me!" is sung by Christina Milian. Artist Stephen Silver was the lead character designer.

## Airings

*Kim Possible* also aired on Toon Disney in the United States and Family in Canada. Episodes have been aired on ABC as part of its *ABC Kids* lineup.

In the UK, the show has often aired on GMTV's children's weekend slot Toonattik, on ITV1. The show is being broadcast daily at 9:30pm showing two back to back episodes on Sky Movies Disney. 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". It is still being aired on Disney Channel Latin America in the Pacific feed from Monday to Friday in the animated block. It is also being aired on Disney Channel South Africa and Disney XD Netherlands.

The Bulgarian version of Kim Possible (*Ким Суперплюс*) premiered in 2005 on BNT Channel 1, with a dub produced by Disney Character Voices International; the Disney weekend block however was closed without notice on January 1, 2006. After more than two years absence, Jetix CEE brought the series' first season back in August 2008, with the old Bulgarian dub appearing from October of that year. After Jetix was changed to Disney Channel, it repeated season 2 (which aired on Channel 1 as well). It has been reported that the previously undubbed season 3 is now ready for broadcasting. It is expected that it will be dubbed by the same sound studio as before (Alexandra Audio).

Between the middle of 2013, and Janaury 2015, the show was on Disney XD in the US.

On May 2016, the show started airing on Freeform (previously known as ABC Family) on Fridays from 12am to 2am as part of *That's so Throwback* until September 30.

## Characters

* Kimberly Ann "Kim" Possible (voiced by Christy Carlson Romano): a confident, adventurous, and popular high school student who moonlights as a crime-fighter, dividing much of her time between saving the world and attending cheerleading practice. Although protecting the world comes to her quite naturally, Kim actually finds growing up as a teenager much more challenging, struggling with everyday personal issues that range from schoolwork to bullying, embarrassment, relationships, and self-doubt, continuing to become flustered around boys she likes despite her own good looks, multiple talents, and heroics. A straight-A student, Kim is also a perfectionist. Kim's catchphrases include "No big", "So not the drama", and "What's the sitch?", short for "situation". Combined, her first and last names are a pun of the word "impossible".

* Ronald "Ron" Stoppable (voiced by Will Friedle): Kim's sidekick; her childhood best friend (and boyfriend as of season four) who, unlike Kim, is cowardly, socially awkward, clumsy and unpopular with his peers. Although Ron is far less competent within the realm of crime-fighting than Kim, he has proven his merit as a teammate on multiple occasions by gradually maturing and gaining confidence over the course of the series. He is regarded by other characters as a crucial component to Kim's unusually high success rate in crime-fighting and is highly talented in cooking. Known for his catchphrase "Booyah", Ron suffers from a severe fear of monkeys and serves as the show's comic relief. His first and last names are a pun of the word "unstoppable".

* Rufus (voiced by Nancy Cartwright): Ron's pet naked mole rat who accompanies Kim and Ron on their missions, traveling in his owner's pocket.

* Wade Load (voiced by Tahj Mowry): a 10-year-old computer genius who informs Kim and Ron about upcoming missions from his bedroom, remotely assisting, guiding and equipping them with useful tools, weapons and gadgets, including Kim's Kimmunicator, via which he communicates and provides his teammates with vital information. Wade is also responsible for maintaining Kim's website.

* Dr. Drakken (voiced by John DiMaggio): born Drew Theodore P. Lipsky, Drakken is Kim's archnemesis and most resilient adversary. He is a mad scientist plotting world domination, although most of his schemes fail at the hands of Kim because he lacks both the patience and intelligence to perfect his ideas, which often suffer as a result of his own mistakes and oversights. His skin has permanently been turned blue as a result of a laboratory accident. Additionally, Drakken is a former college roommate of Kim's father James.

* Shego (voiced by Nicole Sullivan): Kim's primary combatant and most dangerous opponent;[10] a supervillain with the superhuman ability to generate powerful green energy blasts from her hands. Shego is Drakken's sarcastic – but far more intelligent – sidekick, who openly mocks the scientist with little regard for his seniority. The character finds herself making up for Drakken's incompetence on multiple occasions. Originally the lone female member of a team of superheroes known as Team Go alongside her four brothers, Shego eventually makes a full conversion to villainy after ultimately growing attracted to the evil she once fought against (in addition to finding her brothers annoying).[10] Smart, athletic, and attractive, Shego is essentially a "dark reflection" of Kim, as well as the only character the heroine truly has reason to fear, although the two archrivals share a mutal respect for each other at the same time.

Some episodes revolve around characters other than Kim and Ron, particularly villains, who have been provided with nearly as much back story as the heroes. Other significant recurring characters include Kim's parents, Drs. James and Ann Possible (Gary Cole and Jean Smart, respectively), and her younger brothers, twin geniuses Jim and Tim (Shaun Fleming, seasons 1–3; Spencer Fox, season 4), to whom she refers as "Tweebs" (a portmanteau of "twin" and "dweebs"); the twins speak their own made up language known as "Twinnish". Kim shares a bitter rivalry with fellow cheerleader Bonnie Rockwaller (Kirsten Storms), who, unlike Kim, is selfish, inconsiderate, superficial, and has a tendency to be mean when angry – her "polar opposite", essentially representing the kind of person Kim could have been if not for her humility. Kim's best female friend is Monique (Raven-Symoné), who is occasionally forced into accompanying Kim on select missions when Ron is unavailable. With her fashion and pop culture expertise, Monique bridges the worlds between Kim's high school and crime-fighting lives, also serving as something of a guidance counselor. Although Drakken and Shego are Kim and Ron's most frequent opponents, the characters occasionally battle a diverse cast of other villains, namely Monkey Fist (Tom Kane), who Ron particularly dislikes due to his fear of monkeys; Scottish golfer Duff Killigan; father-son billionaires Señor Senior, Sr. and Señor Senior, Jr, who treat villainy as a hobby out of boredom, and Professor Dementor (Patton Oswalt)

## Trivia

* In the *American Dragon, Jake Long* episode "Halloween Bash" we see two cheerleaders, a blonde and brunette, wearing the same cheer outfit as the Middleton High School Cheer Squad.
	+ Jake specifically called them "cheerleaders", not girls in costumes, so there is a high chance they are from Middleton, probably Middle School.
* Currently Kim Possible is the 12th most popular cartoon Fan Fiction on FanFiction.net with over 8000 individual stories.

* In the opening credits title screen, the list beside Kim's picture says:

KIM POSSIBLE
SHE CAN DO ANYTHING
AGENT FOR CHANGE TO SAVE THE WORLD
MIDDLETON HIGH SCHOOL
HIGH SCHOOL SOPHOMORE
JUNIOR VARSITY CHEERLEADER
WORLD'S LAST HOPE
FEAR NOT
READY FOR ACTION
In Season 4, "Sophomore" changes to "Senior" and "Junior Varsity" to "Varsity".

* Kim Possible is currently Disney Channel's second-longest running original series, second only to *Phineas and Ferb.*