The Fabulous Disney Babe
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(c) Disney
"Naked City"
Naked what? It was a cartoon about Naked Mole Rats. It looked REALLY cool. Then, Disney didn't make it. But don't fret! Rufus the naked mole rat made it into KimPossible as Ron Stoppable's companion and pet. Rufus is voiced by Nancy Cartwright, best known for her work on the Simpsons as Bart, but was also the voice of Pistol on Goof Troop and Chuckie on Rugrats.
So Naked City didn't work out. McCorkle and Schooley are now working on Kim's second season, should the show prove to be a hit, and also a KimPossible movie. I had wondered, what with someone getting upset with my ex in the past for using the phrase "Disney Dweeb" if using the term "Animation Geek" would be bad. "Maybe we should change that to 'Animation FAN'," I suggested to Bob. He assured me otherwise: "I'm one of those guys who would go every Friday and buy the new comics that came out that day. Lots of guys in the office did that." Okay, okay. Animation Geeks it is. But most definitely Disney Geeks, too: the background style is based on the silk-screened look of the classic Disneyland Attraction Posters you can still see in the Disney Gallery and inside the tunnels leading into the Park. Some of the shapes are reminiscent of Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom's edgy, visually exciting figures, but much, much warmer here, in tone and character.
I went to the cartoon expert of the family, my daughter Alice. "It's non-stop action," she told me, sounding like a non-existent film reviewer from a newspaper ad. "I like Kim because she's strong and good for girls and can fight." (oh great) "and it's VERY funny. I like the part with the stink gas and the socks." (You have to see it.) Anything you DON'T like? "I think Ron's supposed to be like Ron in Harry Potter and he's not."
(c) Disney
I'm not sure exactly why, but this show reminds me so much of my late favorite animated show, Freakazoid! It's nowhere near as mad, and KimPossible's animation is much richer. Maybe it's Dr. Drakken, Kim's nemesis, who looks an awful lot like Freakazoid, but older, evil and with a Captain Harlock style scar. Could be Ricardo Montalban's Evil-in-Training guest appearance. There are some great throwaway gags. I was ready for the chief of police to show up sounding like Ed Asner and ask Kim if she wanted to go out for a mint.
Nicole Sullivan voices Dr. Drakken's hot-babe evil sidekick, green glowing-handed (don't know why, yet) Shego. Shego is really cool, yelling at Dr. Drakken to stop telling Kim his evil plan: "Every time you tell her, she WINS!"
Kim has twin brothers who so far haven't much to add, a high-school rival with an attitude problem, and a pair of genius parents; her mother, voiced by Designing Women's Jean Smart, is a brain surgeon, her dad, voiced by Gary Cole (the Brady Bunch Movie - sounds nothing like Pa Brady here) is a Rocket Scientist. He's a little like Professor Utonium in the Powerpuff Girls (Hey, I TOLD you I was an Animation Geek!)