Blogging Baby has an interview with the creators of Disney’s Kim Possible, Mark McCorkle and Robert Schooley. In it some clues about the fight to save the show are revealed along with a lot of other fun and interesting stuff… here’s a taste:
We thought So the Drama was the series finale. That was it. Ending it with Kim and Ron getting together seemed right. Problem is, now we’ve kind of painted ourselves into a corner. But yes, it definitely picks up from So the Drama. We’re finding a way to tip-toe out of that corner.
I’ve never watch an episode of the show, but its fans are legion, so there must be something there. Any true fan want to clue us in in the comments?
[ disney, kim+possible, interview, disney+channel, television, animation ]
I’ve only recently been able to see the show, and I found it’s central theme kind of disturbing. Virutally all the male characters are nerds or jerks. Ron, Kim’s sidekick is a dingbat slacker who is regularly beat up for his lunch money. The series running gag is Ron losing his pants once or twice every episode. It’s like one of those gross 60s Matt Helm films where every woman character is a bimbo, except in Kim, it’s all the guys who are the fools. Considering that boys are falling farther behind girls in school right now, this isn’t a program I’d like my son to get hook on.
Yo Doug, I don’t think you have the right sense of this show. Virtually every cartoon out there has a male lead, and most of those leads are totally flat, either in their perfection or their blunt attempt at relatability. it’s really refreshing to see something different, KP stands out in this era of relatively bland, gutless animation. Ron may be a fool but he’s a good guy, and beyond him most of the other main men are brilliant. Wade is a genius, as are Kim’s younger brothers, and her father is a rocket scientist. Ron is foil to her perfection, and Wade is Deus Ex Machina with heart and wit. Most of the good male side characters are very smart too, for example the boy in the cyberrobotic wheelchair or the japanese exchange student. I’m discounting the bad guys, of course, but they are fabulously endearing and suprisingly complicated compared to all the boring villains in today’s action cartoons.
If anything, Ron and Wade are good influences. There are a lot of really terrible cartoons out there that are trying far too hard to be cool, and that’s the real problem. Kids watch these shows where the premise is that the main guy or girl either IS popular, or just wants to BE popular, because that’s something kids can relate to. But here’s a show where the two main guys aren’t at all popular, and it’s a non-issue. Ron’s lazy, and Ron’s a dork, and he spouts a lot of slang that makes him sound even dorkier (slang that’s used in sincerity in other shows.) But he’s comfortable in himself. One of the earliest episodes saw Ron revamped into a metrosexual, but by the end he realizes he doesn’t care about his appearance, even though it made him a hit with the ladies, what was most important was his “natural Ronness.” That’s a lesson right there, and it wasn’t even forced, it was a great ep, one of my favorites. That’s what cartoons need more of. Kids are already paranoid about being cool enough. Drugs, drinking, this is standard high school fare on the top of the social ladder, believe me. A cartoon character that’s comfortable with his status on the bottom rung! It’s so refreshing I can’t even say. And he’s adored by kids! Amidst the Bratz and Trollz and 6Teen and Winx Club etc, I only hope we’ll have a generation of Rons coming, instead of prosti-tots, self obsessed emos and jocks! Oh, and as for Wade, come on, he’s just adorable!
So I hope you’ll reconsider KP! It’s quality, and has some really brilliant episodes, great designs and backgrounds, fabulous characters. And please don’t blame television for how stupid kids are nowadays, there are a lot of factors there. Put down the statistics, and spend some time with your son!
>>”it’s really refreshing to see something different, KP stands out in this era
of relatively bland, gutless animation.”
It’s certainly different, if not refreshing to broadcast a sexist cartoon for kids.
>>”Ron may be a fool but he’s a good guy, and beyond him most of the other main men are brilliant.”
Wade is a fat guy who evidently never leaves his computer so he can constantly be at KP’s beck and call. Like the boys who carry the cheerleader’s books around and do her homework for her. The cliche pathetic nerd. He’s also on screen about 2 minutes/show.
Kim’s brothers are jerks and from the shows I’ve seen, her father’s role is generally the standard sitcom “foolish dad” one. The mother, of course, is both brilliant and wise.
>>”Ron’s lazy, and Ron’s a dork, and he spouts a lot of slang that makes him sound even dorkier
(slang that’s used in sincerity in other shows.) But he’s comfortable in himself.”
I agree with your synopsis of Ron. Which, interestingly enough, is also a synopsis of the “Step and Fetchit” character. S&F is
considered an insulting and damaging stereotype, yet it’s used here as the male LEAD.
>>”I only hope we’ll have a generation of Rons coming, instead of prosti-tots,
self obsessed emos and jocks!”
If you think that the only males in the world are Rons or ego jocks, then you truly have my sympathy.
My final objection to KP is one of reciprocity. I was at the San Diego Comic con a few years back, when the Disney booth was heavily advertising KP and WITCH. I asked them what they had for boys, since
everything being advertised was for girls. The person there was a bit flustered at first, (evidently nobody had asked that question before) but then found a comic book where a bunch of young teens were doing some kind of serious time/space travel rif. There was a boy in charge of a 5 person crew, including two girls which the writer spent a lot of time and dialog making sure they were
presented as every bit as capable, mature, intelligent and brave as the boys. After watching KP, I find the asymmetry striking.
Of course, the Disney channel has a lot of programs with male leads who are not idiots, but as you correctly pointed out, these are uniformly bland, flat and uninspired. A lot of effort, time and money was put into KP to make sure that it was fresh, creative and involving. It’s doubly annoying then that the creators decided to bash boys while they were doing it.
As for spending time with my son, I do, which is why I can review the programming he gets to watch.
Hey bud, you really have the wrong impression. I’m baffled that you actually think this show is sexist. Calm down, PC police. Here’s a show with actual characters, with actual relationships to one another. It’s called writing! Yes, the theme is a girl hero! Yes, the other characters revolve around her! That’s how protagonists work. What grates me the most is your distaste for nerds and dorks.
>>Wade is a fat guy who evidently never leaves his computer so he can constantly be at KP’s beck and call.
I don’t know what episodes you’ve seen but that’s not Wade. What do you have against him? Yes, he almost never leaves his room, but it’s not becomes he’s waiting to hear from Kim, it’s because he is a computer wizard. He “has the world wired,” he’s on top of every situation, he knows everything that’s going on. Wade contacts Kim, not the other way around, with information, sends her on missions, he gets her the rides, he overrides the deathrobot or hacks into the doomsday device and saves the day. He’s the backbone of their team! And it’s not even a full time gig, he still has time to build a holideck for his mother, design robots and weapons, and be the best at video games–he can do everything tech, it’s no sweat to help out his friends.
And he in no way embodies the nerd stereotype. He’s not a gangly pasty loser with glasses or a pocket protector or a mandark voice. He’s a cute chubby black kid computer genius. I don’t understand how you can have a problem with him.
>>”I agree with your synopsis of Ron. Which, interestingly enough, is also a synopsis of the “Step and Fetchit” character.”
WHAT??? That makes negative sense. First off, S&F is a RACIAL stereotype. Ron is, as you may notice, NOT black. He’s Jewish, in fact. Ron isn’t a stereotype, certainly not a Jewish stereotype, and definately not a black one. He’s not at all Stepin Fetchit, because he’s not servile in any way. He also doesn’t pretend to be stupid to get out of doing things. And, though he’s lazy in a procrastinator kind of way, he gets things done when they are important to him (ex, he got a job at bueno nacho in one ep, and was so devoted and meticulous that he was quickly bumped up to manager. He even invented the Naco.) And, he’s on the ball in his attempts to help Kim. He goes with her because he’s her best friend and they do everything together; he doesn’t even fit the sidekick stereotype, even though he’s supposed to.
>>If you think that the only males in the world are Rons or ego jocks, then you truly have my sympathy.
Oh burn!! Seriously, nice one, but I was only talking in stereotypes because you were. Frankly, most of my friends are guys, although they’d probably fall under your ‘nerd’ catagory. I like to hang around other devoted artists and comic book/cartoon geeks. My wonderful fiancee might fall under your “computer nerd” catagory. And perhaps all of us can be summed up under the blanket of Ronness and Wadeness, it being so extensively damaging. I won’t deny my inner Ronness, he’s the one I relate to. Doesn’t care about his appearance or what other people think, does what he does, likes what he likes, cares about his friends- booyah.
I feel your pain in the girl-cartoon department. I hate cartoons for girls, I can’t watch them. I’m in school to be an animator- I want to make a show with some decent female leads. KP is the closest thing out there, but if it was just her sans Ron and Drakken I probably wouldn’t like it. I don’t like Juniper Lee much. WITCH makes me sad- as does Winx club, but they’re pretty much the same thing.It is absolutely painful the way they try to make these strong female characters, because they just end up as flat as their strong male characters, (except for in the chest.) They try too hard, and it’s like nails on a chalk board. What we need are some female characters with personality; loveably dorky, loveably chubby, loveably nerdy girls! The asymmetry IS striking! Where’s my female Ron??
Disney Channel does put out American Dragon and Get Ed and Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go and are starting up ATOM (is that the team thing you were talking about?) those are some power-male shows. You can also peep Avatar and Danny Phantom and Ben 10 on CN and Nick. It’s not just budget that makes KP special, those other shows get good funding too. KP has personality and tone and stays true to it.
>>As for spending time with my son, I do, which is why I can review the programming he gets to watch.
That’s cool, animosity aside, I always loved watching cartoons with my dad.
I,m interested in working with disney re voicing scenes in movies or a commercial. I,m not too sure how you go about picking your voices what I’ve noticed thou is that famous voices have been used to do parts within movies and commercial is this a requirement.
How did the idea walt disney come to you
Ah.. Yes. Actually, I’m sixteen and with all these Kim Possible Season 4 advertisements everywhere, I’m getting interested.
As a babysitter, I spend a lot of time watching Disney, and I absolutely loved KP from the beginning.
As the above discussions would show, I would have to agree with Rebecca’s opinion. I think, in a majority, there are two types of fans; Children, and .. well, the people who watch the children and end up watching Disney with them. :D
The kids just love it because, well, I honestly don’t know why they like it, but as for the older generation, I’d say because it’s simply a very well written tv show. It’s not like That’s So Raven (Which I’m making the kids avoid, as the slang is just TOO MUCH), Proud Family (.. just, no. Slang, slang, slang, and bad influences), or other tv shows that just aren’t educational. Some are entertaining, yes, but it’s simply not right for the child to spend all those hours in front of a television only to receive nothing of it besides entertainment.
Ack, I’m babbling. But the point of my post is that KP is a good show.
Yeah, that’s all. x;
Kim Possible has a flaw in her heroics. Whenever a charector like Larry her nerd cousin seen in the episode “Monkey Fist” she is very rude to him.
No empathy or compassion at all.
Now if she was nice to this nerd charector and realize there could be more to the story than what’s on the surface.
That would be new and heroic for a change.
Some nerds including me have a kind of autism aspergers. When I say my speeches it’s nothing personal it’s just being in my own world.
Know it alls Kim Possible are a hard to deal with I agree but don’t lump all smart but socially awkward into the same category.
I was confused she was understanding to the guy in the wheelchair and not the least bit with Larry.
Being nice and understanding to a nerd charector wow now that would be something new :).
I apperciate you for being understanding Rebecca from what I read.
You outdid Kim by being kind to nerds or anyone else that was nice to socially awkward smart types, that would be mission impossible for Kim Possible.
I agree so not the sameness.
I love Kim Possible! It is such a great show and I think that this show really teaches kids a lot. The creator of this show is brilliant and I think he/she should defiantly make a 5th season. Keep up the good work!
I think that some of you are watching one episodes and then taking everything too seriously; there are several male characters who are not morons or jocks; there’s Kim’s family (her dad, mom, and twin brothers) of smart people, um…Wade, who is in nearly episodes, and several minor characters in only one or two episodes, like..um…what’s-his-name. But my point is, it’s not as unbalanced as you think it is. Ron isn’t bullied anymore after an episode in the first season.
We need a 5th season
I love this show but i canit belive that they are not making a 5th season what is that like hundreds of kids and evin my parents watch this awsom show so please make a 5th season please.(:
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