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Kim Possible: The Secret Files
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment // G // September 2, 2003
List Price: $19.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
I tend to get some strange looks when I inform people that I watch the Disney Channel regularly. I take every available opportunity to plug Even Stevens, which may eventually get the recognition it deserves now that its star Shia LeBeouf is netting so much attention with his turns in Holes and The Battle of Shaker Heights. Another Even Stevens alum, Christy Carlson Romano, is also a part of the other reason I tune into the Disney Channel: Kim Possible. Romano lends her voice to the hit animated series' title character, a cheerleader who, aside from dealing with the normal annoyances of being a teenager in high school, moonlights as a secret agent. Her partners in crimefighting include her platonic male pal Ron Stoppable (Will Friedle), Ron's pet mole rat Rufus (The Simpsons' Nancy Cartwright), and Kim's Oracle, the inventive, computer-bound Wade (Tahj Mowry). Thankfully, Kim's parents -- a brain surgeon and a rocket scientist -- are supportive of their daughter's superheroics, but not everyone in Kim's life is out to make things easy for her. There's a relentlessly competitive cheerleader who takes every available opportunity to try to knock Kim down a peg, Kim's brilliant but bratty twin brothers, and, of course, her rogue's gallery. Kim's arch-enemies include a blue-tinted mad scientist, a megalomaniacal multizillionaire and his son who become supervillains not really having anything better to do with their time, a crazed golfer, and an coupon-cutting mastermind who keeps his eye as close on his checkbook as on world domination. Kim Possible: The Secret Files is a compilation of a pair of episodes from the series' first season and a new episode that's currently exclusive to this home video release. These three episodes strung together with a series of computer generated interstitials with Rufus duking it out with the Kimmunicator.
Attack of the Killer Bebes is the first episode on this DVD, though it was the ninth to be broadcast on cable. Ron's decided to showcase his mask-crafting talents as the school's new mascot, and Kim and the other cheerleaders want to keep him as far away from the court as humanly possible. Dr. Possible tries to steer his daughter in the right direction by recounting a story from his college days. An old pal of his hadn't had much luck with the ladies, and his embarrassing mishaps with a crudely cobbled-together cybernetic cutie led him to drop out. And...gasp! Past and present collide as a trio of more refined 'bots snag several of the prominent scientists in the Doc's tale. With Ron and Kim having a falling-out, it's up to her to...y'know, save the day and all.
The relentlessly-rerun Downhill was the fifth episode to air. Kim's dismayed to learn that her parents are chaperoning her class ski trip, revealing all sorts of embarrassing tidbits about her personal life, such as her passion for Cuddly Buddies (think a cross between Wuzzles and Beanie Babies). At least Kim's not alone in her adoration, meeting an even more rabid fan...a biogeneticist who decided to create her own real-life animal hybrids when she ran out of overpriced plush dolls to collect.
Partners is, at least for the moment, exclusive to this DVD, and it's aptly-titled. Kim and a brainy physicist are paired up for a science project, and the sidelines aren't Kim's usual stomping grounds. Ron isn't doing any work either, but that's by choice in his case, and Ron's partner Monique isn't particularly thrilled with his work ethic. A less pleasant pairing brings together the villains from the previous two episodes on this DVD -- Dr. Drakken and DNAmy -- who pool their collective talent for chaos to create a destructive dinosaur to do their bidding.
Kim Possible, at least in some ways, strikes me as what the aborted Buffy the Vampire Slayer animated series probably would've turned out like. There are some surface similarities, beginning with the concept of a badnik-whompin' female lead and her bumbling platonic sidekick. Despite having shuttled around the world duking it out with scores of bad guys, Kim also has trouble with boys and her classes. But moving away from the basic premise, Kim Possible has a similar sensibility, with a more Saturday morning-friendly approach to Buffy's blend of humor and action. Both series effectively intermingle school and superheroics, without taking the obvious "okay, this is the A-story, and this is the B-story" route. Kim Possible also doesn't get bogged down in rehashing secret agent clichés, which would've gotten old very quickly. The 'hip' dialogue can get mildly grating at times -- I really, really wish "So not the drama" hadn't become one of Kim's catchphrases -- but it doesn't come across as forced or excessively awkward, a trap that would've been easy for the series to fall into.
One of the aspects that really drew me towards Kim Possible was the character design. It has a deceptively simple appearance, and the characters are quite a bit more expressive than much of the animation that litters cable nowdays. There's also some solid voice acting to accompany the visuals. A number of the primary characters are high schoolers, and the majority of the actors who voice them (virtually all of whom are from a variety of live-action Disney Channel series) are actually age-appropriate. Gary Cole, Ricardo Montalban, Fred Willard, Dan Castellaneta, Brian Posehn, and Elliot Gould are a few of the notable actors who have lent their voices to the series, alongside sitcom veterans like Enrico Colantoni, Richard Kind, Diedrich Bader, Brad Garrett, Patrick Warburton, Nicole Sullivan, and a slew of others whose names may not ring a bell, but I guarantee you'd recognize 'em if you saw 'em. It may also be worth noting that Chris Bailey, from Clerks: The Animated Series (he mentions the show in the Clerks audio commentary, incidentally) and the Oscar-nominated Mickey Mouse short Runaway Brain, directed the entire first season.
Kim Possible is a fun, well-crafted series that I'd recommend to Buffy fans who also have an abiding love for Saturday morning animation. Kim Possible: The Secret Files hits DVD with a bonus episode in tow, along with a widescreen presentation, six-channel audio, and a couple of nice extras.
Video: Kim Possible airs full-frame on the Disney Channel and ABC Saturday mornings, but it's slightly expanded horizontally to 'family-friendly widescreen' for its release on DVD. Presented in anamorphic widescreen at an aspect ratio of 1.66:1, Kim Possible is crisp, clear, and colorful. There is a smidgen of ringing around many edges, visible throughout a pretty substantial portion of these three episodes. Below is one random example, cropped and sized down a bit.
Some exceedingly brief portions have a noisy appearance, as if they weren't compressed particularly well, such as the opening sequence and the two instances of the cheerleaders strutting their stuff in "Attack of the Killer Bebes". In total, this amounts to all of a couple of seconds at most, and neither of these flaws were heavy enough to distract all that much. Still, I hope these problems are ironed out before any potential Kim Possible season sets hit store shelves.
Audio: Accompanying the widescreen framing is a spiffy new Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack (448Kbps). It's definitely nicer than what I'd expect to have piped over cable TV, though it's closer in sound to the six-channel mixes on The Simpsons DVDs than some bombastic feature film. There's some decent activity in the lower frequencies, particularly the bounding beasties and avalanche in "Downhill" as well as the dino-thing's rampage through Middleton in "Partners", though a few effects aren't accompanied by quite the sort of thunderous rumble that they seem to cry out for. Directionality is fair but limited, and most of the activity in the surrounds falls under ambiance and reinforcing various bits of music. TV Tome notes some minor modifications made to the audio, such as a completely unnecessary raspberry added to "Attack of the Killer Bebes" and the altered tone of one voice.
Kim Possible: The Secret Files also includes subtitles and closed captions in English.
Supplements: The featured extra is the series premiere "Crush", presented here as a bonus episode. The big dance is lurking in the wings, and Ron is frantically asking everyone in earshot to tag along. Kim, on the other hand, has someone specific in mind. Although she's saved the world dozens of times, Kim finds it tougher to talk to Josh Mankey (Breckin Meyer) than to crush the sinister plans of any supervillain. While she builds up the nerve to ask Josh to the dance, Kim squares off against Dr. Drakken, who's stolen a Japanese video game factory as part of some unknown scheme. Unlike the other episodes on the disc, "Crush" is presented full-frame with Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround audio (192Kbps), and it doesn't exhibit any of the flaws seen in the 'Secret Files' episodes. The hearing-impared may be disappointed to learn that "Crush" isn't accompanied by subtitles or closed captions.
The interactive, full-frame "Kim's Most Wanted Wacko Bad Guys" tackles the teenage secret agent's rogue's gallery, offering up brief profiles on Dr. Drakken, Shego, Gill, DNAmy, the Killer Bebes, Monkey Fist, Señor Senior Senior and Señor Senior Junior, Duff Killagan, and Jackie the Jackal. The information is password-protected, and even though clicking on Rufus will pop up the combination to unlock each villain, I'm not particularly a fan of leaping through hoops to catch a peek at extras. I guess they wouldn't be "Secret Files" if they were easily accessible, but still... To save readers a couple of clicks, here's the password for each badnik:
- Drakken: Ron-Wade-Kim
- Shego: Bonnie-Kim-Bonnie
- Gill: Kim-Wade-Wade
- DNAmy: Wade-Ron-Bonnie
- Killer Bebes: Ron-Kim-Kim
- Monkey Fist: Wade-Ron-Bonnie
- Señors: Bonnie-Wade-Kim
- Duff Killagan: Wade-Bonnie-Bonnie
- Jackie the Jackal: Kim-Bonnie-Ron
Finally, there are sneak peeks for the special edition DVDs of The Lion King and Sleeping Beauty, a letterboxed trailer for Disney's upcoming animated theatrical release Brother Bear, the Lizzie McGuire and Kim Possible TV series, a pair of Recess releases, Disney's Toontown Online, and...yikes, is that Julie Benz in the letterboxed promo for George of the Jungle 2? The previews are all non-anamorphic and include Dolby Digital 5.1 audio (384Kbps).
Kim Possible includes a set of 16x9-enhanced animated menus, though like The Lizzie McGuire Movie, a couple of my DVD players had problems with some menus appearing mostly blank initially. The included insert lists the extras and the handful of chapter stops, with a plug for a pair of Lizzie McGuire home video releases on the flipside. Also tucked into the white keepcase are coupons for the Kim Possible soundtrack CD and Stitch! The Movie, along with an offer to join the Disney Movie Club.
Conclusion: With more than a couple dozen episodes on hand, it's kind of weak that only a few managed to make it onto Kim Possible: The Secret Files. Still, hopefully this disc will sell well enough to convince Disney to release season sets in the not-too-terribly distant future, or at least tack another episode or two onto future installments. Despite the dearth of material, Kim Possible fans still ought to find this disc worth a purchase, thanks to the inclusion of a previously unseen episode and the opportunity to catch a couple of familiar favorites in a different way. Recommended.
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