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Kim Possible: So the Drama
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment // G // May 10, 2005
List Price: $19.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
With 65 episodes more or less in the can, Kim Possible is facing the same fate as every other Disney Channel original series to hit that syndication-friendly milestone -- cancellation. Just as they did with Even Stevens a couple years earlier (maybe Disney really, really likes Christy Carlson Romano), Disney's giving the show one last feature-length send-off.
If you're reading this, I'm guessing you know the drill: regular, average girl here to save the world, and I'm not quoting any more from the theme song.
So the Drama pits Kim yet again against her standard issue arch-foe, the demented Dr. Drakken, and the Fiendishly Evil Scheme™ du jour is more convoluted and clever than Drakken's usual machinations. Even his superfueled sidekick Shego can't make sense of it, which means whatever it is that Drakken's planning might actually work. While Kim's struggling with rescuing a kidnapped Japanese toy mogul and scrapping with Shego in in a tropical nightclub, she's also trying to decide who to take to the prom. Berated for not hanging off the arm of some sort of sports hero, Kim doesn't seem particularly enthusiastic about tagging along to the dance with her klutzy compadre Ron Stoppable. As Ron tries to muster the nerve to shed the platonic pal label and actually start dating Kim, she quickly becomes smitten with Eric, the Tiger Beat cover-friendly new kid at school. 
So anyway -- Romance! Heartbreak! Armies of giant robots! Knockdown, drag-out fight sequences! It's pretty much exactly what you'd expect from a Kim Possible movie, and I mean that in the best way possible.
With as many times as he's been the villain of the week on the show, Drakken's actually somewhat menacing for the first time. His scheme is cacklingly clever, and I liked how it wasn't announced in some sort of overwrought monologue in the first few minutes. Clues are continually dropped throughout the movie, and even though I was able to connect most of the dots beforehand, I wasn't really that far ahead of the curve. So the Drama is also teeming with guest appearances from a lot of supporting characters and nods to a slew of earlier episodes, which should further endear itself to fans.
The "drama" in the title seems kind of apt, especially with the scenes of a very depressed Ron that wound up surprisingly touching. I can see how some people might be bugged by an attempt to introduce some sort of romance between Ron and Kim, which I guess leaves Veronica Mars as the only show that's not trying to couple its platonic male/female friends. Still, that angle doesn't come totally out of left field, and by the end of the movie, it felt earned enough to me. As you'd probably expect from a movie with such a lean runtime (So the Drama barely breaks the 70 minute mark), the pacing never has a chance to drag. There are a bunch of fight sequences, more fluid and more elaborate than anything the show's done up to this point. The cocktail-dress-clad confrontation and the climactic rooftop battle in particular stand out.
The animation as a whole has been beefed up, and the difference in shading and all is especially noticeable when watching the bonus episode on this DVD immediately afterwards. There's also some mostly-seamless integration of cel-shaded computer animation.
Although So the Drama is still firmly entrenched in G-friendly territory, it does push the boundaries incrementally further than you might expect from something on the Disney Channel. The fight sequences are amped up, with one slash resulting in a bloodied scratch on Kim's arm. There's also some obscured but still halfway-onscreen clothes changing, including Kim slipping into a cocktail dress on a darkened beach a couple feet away from an eyes-covered Ron. Although the cover art touts that this is a "top secret extended edition", the difference seems to just be in the undercover sequence set at the Bermuda Triangle nightclub. I couldn't even tell you what's been added, exactly, but it's nothing that dramatic.
I think I would've opted for appearances from the rest of the rogue's gallery and served up more in the way of the series' trademark humor, but So the Drama is a great send-off for a solid animated series, and fans of Kim Possible should certainly consider grabbing this DVD.
Video: So the Drama is presented in anamorphic widescreen, closer to an aspect ratio of 1.75:1 if you want to get unnecessarily specific. If you'd like a quick and maybe not entirely accurate comparison between the center-cropped Disney Channel presentation and this widescreen DVD:
The wider frame makes So the Drama seem more like a movie and not quite so much a lengthier episode of a cable TV series. It's quite a bit sharper, colors are better defined, and there's none of that analog noise from my lousy cable provider muddying everything up. As improved as the DVD is in a lot of ways, larger displays might reveal some of its shortcomings: there's noticeable electronic ringing around a lot of edges, and the compression at times looks fairly shoddy.
Most viewers probably won't notice, or at least won't care, unless they're watching this DVD on a 42" screen or larger. The checkmarks under "Good" more than outnumber the minor ones under "Not So Much", but I would have preferred to see a little more care taken during authoring.
Audio: The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack (448Kbps) sounds like it was originally designed for stereo and opened up rather than engineered with six channels in mind. I'm not particularly disappointed with what I heard, but this isn't the most aggressive mix. The surrounds are mostly reserved for music and light ambiance. Every once in a while there'll be a discrete effect in the rears, like slammed lockers and metallic chunks of something or another clunking against the ground, but most of the action's anchored up front. Dialogue comes through crisply and clearly, and there's a bunch of stereo separation spread across the three front channels. No major complaints but still strictly average overall.
Closed captions and English subtitles are also offered, but there are no alternate soundtracks, dubs, or subtitles in any other language.
Supplements: This DVD has a few extras tacked on, beginning with a pair of really short deleted scenes. They're fully animated, colored, and all that fun stuff, although I guess they were lopped off before any music or sound effects could be mixed in. "10 Times Better" runs around fifteen seconds and introduces Ron's rickety moped. "High School Evil" is just shy of a minute long and has Kim comparing-'n-contrasting supervillain evil with...you guessed it...high school evil.
Speaking of evil, there are two music videos: the syrupy teen-pop-quasi-ballad "Could It Be", sung by Christy Carlson Romano, and Jesse McCartney's pretty thoroughly awful "Get Your Shine On". "Could It Be" tosses in a bunch of vertically elongated clips from the movie and sports Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.
The letterboxed "Get Your Shine On" is presented in stereo surround.
The DVD also includes a bonus Kim Possible episode, the hasn't-aired-quite-yet "Gorilla Fist".
Anyway, rounding out the usual laundry list of stuff are 16x9 animated menus, an insert listing the DVD's twelve chapter stops, and promos and coupons for things there's no real chance of me buying.
Conclusion: So the Drama is a nice exclamation point for Disney's Kim Possible, and even though some ardent fans might be miffed that no further episodes are being produced, at least the series ended on a high note. Its spiffier presentation, the inclusion of an unaired episode, and a reasonable sticker price leave So the Drama pretty easy to recommend. So, he types in an italicized, emboldened font: Recommended.
Related Reviews: DVD Talk also has reviews for the Kim Possible episode compilations "The Secret Files" and "The Villain Files".
If you're reading this, I'm guessing you know the drill: regular, average girl here to save the world, and I'm not quoting any more from the theme song.
So the Drama pits Kim yet again against her standard issue arch-foe, the demented Dr. Drakken, and the Fiendishly Evil Scheme™ du jour is more convoluted and clever than Drakken's usual machinations. Even his superfueled sidekick Shego can't make sense of it, which means whatever it is that Drakken's planning might actually work. While Kim's struggling with rescuing a kidnapped Japanese toy mogul and scrapping with Shego in in a tropical nightclub, she's also trying to decide who to take to the prom. Berated for not hanging off the arm of some sort of sports hero, Kim doesn't seem particularly enthusiastic about tagging along to the dance with her klutzy compadre Ron Stoppable. As Ron tries to muster the nerve to shed the platonic pal label and actually start dating Kim, she quickly becomes smitten with Eric, the Tiger Beat cover-friendly new kid at school. So anyway -- Romance! Heartbreak! Armies of giant robots! Knockdown, drag-out fight sequences! It's pretty much exactly what you'd expect from a Kim Possible movie, and I mean that in the best way possible. With as many times as he's been the villain of the week on the show, Drakken's actually somewhat menacing for the first time. His scheme is cacklingly clever, and I liked how it wasn't announced in some sort of overwrought monologue in the first few minutes. Clues are continually dropped throughout the movie, and even though I was able to connect most of the dots beforehand, I wasn't really that far ahead of the curve. So the Drama is also teeming with guest appearances from a lot of supporting characters and nods to a slew of earlier episodes, which should further endear itself to fans.
The "drama" in the title seems kind of apt, especially with the scenes of a very depressed Ron that wound up surprisingly touching. I can see how some people might be bugged by an attempt to introduce some sort of romance between Ron and Kim, which I guess leaves Veronica Mars as the only show that's not trying to couple its platonic male/female friends. Still, that angle doesn't come totally out of left field, and by the end of the movie, it felt earned enough to me. As you'd probably expect from a movie with such a lean runtime (So the Drama barely breaks the 70 minute mark), the pacing never has a chance to drag. There are a bunch of fight sequences, more fluid and more elaborate than anything the show's done up to this point. The cocktail-dress-clad confrontation and the climactic rooftop battle in particular stand out.
The animation as a whole has been beefed up, and the difference in shading and all is especially noticeable when watching the bonus episode on this DVD immediately afterwards. There's also some mostly-seamless integration of cel-shaded computer animation. Although So the Drama is still firmly entrenched in G-friendly territory, it does push the boundaries incrementally further than you might expect from something on the Disney Channel. The fight sequences are amped up, with one slash resulting in a bloodied scratch on Kim's arm. There's also some obscured but still halfway-onscreen clothes changing, including Kim slipping into a cocktail dress on a darkened beach a couple feet away from an eyes-covered Ron. Although the cover art touts that this is a "top secret extended edition", the difference seems to just be in the undercover sequence set at the Bermuda Triangle nightclub. I couldn't even tell you what's been added, exactly, but it's nothing that dramatic.
I think I would've opted for appearances from the rest of the rogue's gallery and served up more in the way of the series' trademark humor, but So the Drama is a great send-off for a solid animated series, and fans of Kim Possible should certainly consider grabbing this DVD.
Video: So the Drama is presented in anamorphic widescreen, closer to an aspect ratio of 1.75:1 if you want to get unnecessarily specific. If you'd like a quick and maybe not entirely accurate comparison between the center-cropped Disney Channel presentation and this widescreen DVD:
 |  |
The wider frame makes So the Drama seem more like a movie and not quite so much a lengthier episode of a cable TV series. It's quite a bit sharper, colors are better defined, and there's none of that analog noise from my lousy cable provider muddying everything up. As improved as the DVD is in a lot of ways, larger displays might reveal some of its shortcomings: there's noticeable electronic ringing around a lot of edges, and the compression at times looks fairly shoddy.
Most viewers probably won't notice, or at least won't care, unless they're watching this DVD on a 42" screen or larger. The checkmarks under "Good" more than outnumber the minor ones under "Not So Much", but I would have preferred to see a little more care taken during authoring.
Audio: The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack (448Kbps) sounds like it was originally designed for stereo and opened up rather than engineered with six channels in mind. I'm not particularly disappointed with what I heard, but this isn't the most aggressive mix. The surrounds are mostly reserved for music and light ambiance. Every once in a while there'll be a discrete effect in the rears, like slammed lockers and metallic chunks of something or another clunking against the ground, but most of the action's anchored up front. Dialogue comes through crisply and clearly, and there's a bunch of stereo separation spread across the three front channels. No major complaints but still strictly average overall.
Closed captions and English subtitles are also offered, but there are no alternate soundtracks, dubs, or subtitles in any other language.
Supplements: This DVD has a few extras tacked on, beginning with a pair of really short deleted scenes. They're fully animated, colored, and all that fun stuff, although I guess they were lopped off before any music or sound effects could be mixed in. "10 Times Better" runs around fifteen seconds and introduces Ron's rickety moped. "High School Evil" is just shy of a minute long and has Kim comparing-'n-contrasting supervillain evil with...you guessed it...high school evil.
Speaking of evil, there are two music videos: the syrupy teen-pop-quasi-ballad "Could It Be", sung by Christy Carlson Romano, and Jesse McCartney's pretty thoroughly awful "Get Your Shine On". "Could It Be" tosses in a bunch of vertically elongated clips from the movie and sports Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.
The letterboxed "Get Your Shine On" is presented in stereo surround. The DVD also includes a bonus Kim Possible episode, the hasn't-aired-quite-yet "Gorilla Fist".
"Well, Sensei, the master of the Yamanouchi School...which is a secret ninja school, by the way...is missing, and we think Monkey Fist is behind it."Ron's tapped for a secret mission that sends him globetrotting with a mysterious Japanese girl, and his remarkably deft attempts at sneaking this in under Kim's radar makes her incredibly jealous. That jealing (I guess that's how it's spelled) fits in pretty well with the relationship angle seen in So the Drama. The episode's presented in anamorphic widescreen and Dolby Digital stereo surround, if you're curious.
"Ninja school? That explains the magic sword."
"The Lotus Blade? Oh, that is so last season, KP. You gotta get current."
Anyway, rounding out the usual laundry list of stuff are 16x9 animated menus, an insert listing the DVD's twelve chapter stops, and promos and coupons for things there's no real chance of me buying.
Conclusion: So the Drama is a nice exclamation point for Disney's Kim Possible, and even though some ardent fans might be miffed that no further episodes are being produced, at least the series ended on a high note. Its spiffier presentation, the inclusion of an unaired episode, and a reasonable sticker price leave So the Drama pretty easy to recommend. So, he types in an italicized, emboldened font: Recommended.
Related Reviews: DVD Talk also has reviews for the Kim Possible episode compilations "The Secret Files" and "The Villain Files".
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