Kim Possible: La sfida finale

I liked the plot, Kim, Ron, Rufus, and surprisingly Shego. I also think Dr. Drakken is funny when he's angry. Watching this movie makes me think of my senior prom from high school. Also the ending is really touching.

Even before Season #3, many fans of Kim Possible have been anxiously awaiting the chance for Kim and sidekick Ron Stoppable to go from friends to G-rated teenage lovers, as most shows on The Disney Channel tend to do. But while the promos for this second(not first) animated TV-Movie made it look more dramatic than expected, it's just toned down enough for a Disney movie. And like "Kim Possible: A Stitch in Time," Drakken's evil plot involved the defeat of Kim, along with world conquest.

Kim just saved the world from another one of Dr. Drakken's evil plots... or so she thinks. All she really saved was Nakasumi(possibly voiced by Clyde Kusatsu) from a potential kidnapping. Unfortunately, she's the only member of the Middleton Maddog cheerleading squad without a date for the prom, and as far as she's concerned her sidekick's not exactly boyfriend material. Enter a new boy named Eric(voiced by "Phil of the Future's" Ricky Ullman), who our Kimmie-cub suddenly has the hots for. As soon as Ron realizes this, he becomes severely jealous of the new boy. Since this is television, Ron's suspicions about Kim's new beau turn out to be right on the money, because Eric's got a dirty little secret... no he's not a junkie or a closet homosexual, but let's just say he's fake and evil. Meanwhile, Drakken acquires Ron's favorite restaurant chain Bueno Nacho and does away with Naco night, replacing it with a toy in a kiddie meal that every kid wants... the very type of toy Kim was used in to market McDonald's Happy Meals in real life two or three years earlier. Ah, but what nobody realizes until it's too late is that these toys are rigged with super cyber-technology developed by Kim's dad, and stolen by Drakken to be used for(you guessed it) world conquest. As expected from most series-based movies, it has additional CGI-animation to distinguish it from the existing series, but the CGI is a little more impressive than in "A Stitch in Time," even if it's more noticeable than in the first movie. The fight sequences are far more violent than the existing series, and it's a good thing it's just a cartoon, because in some of the fights, the cast would've actually been killed. Still, the idea that Eric would be evil is too much of a cliché for me. I would've liked it better if Eric had been a nephew of Drakken reluctantly being misused for an evil plot against Kim, having to fight both of them off, all the while explaining to Kim that he's nothing like his mad uncle, and then broke up with her over her lifestyle and association with Ron. Now *that's* drama. Then again, perhaps that's stepping too far into Aaron Spelling territory. Another thing it has is a great deal of background music -- so much so that when the closing theme "Could it Be," by Christy Carlson Romano, was released in the fall of 2004, one would have the mistaken impression this was going to be a musical, like the EVEN STEVENS episode "Influenza: The Musical." I've got a feeling she might've also secretly provided the voice of the lounge singer who sang "Someone for Me," at a resort owned by Big Daddy Brotherson, who appeared in the episode "Number One." Okay, so the movie is predictable, but it has a few surprises here and there.

This movie was intended to be the final episode, but sadly Disney scrambled the last eleven or twelve episodes out of the order that Mark McCorkle, Bob Schooley, and Steve Loter wanted. As a result, we saw new episodes taking place AFTER "So the Drama" aired. Compare this to MTV, who while offering only half of a sixth season to Glenn Eichler for DARIA, forcing him to truncate the show with five, at least allowed him to use his story arc as he intended. On the other hand, while the DVD of IICY? was edited severely, the upcoming one of StD will be extended. Doesn't seem fair in either case, but for adventure, laughs and a little bit of drama, this movie might be for you.

(Note: IMDb's automatic spell-corrector will not let me spell the title of the previous Kim Possible film correctly. It's "A S-i-t-c-h in Time", not "S-T-i-t-c-h".)

This is an easy one to tell if you will like it or not--the film is typical Kim Possible territory. If you like the show, you'll like this film. If you haven't seen anything featuring Kim Possible yet, this is probably not the best place to start. (Just to give you the basic gist of the character, think of an animated Buffy the Vampire slayer (the film or early seasons of the television series), but instead of the horror orientation, make Buffy a teenaged James Bond, with all of the adventure, gadgets and villains that implies, and mix in heavy doses of sci-fi and humor.) Start with the television episodes, then work your way up to the films--you'll appreciate them more that way, as they do everything the episodes do, but "turned up to 11". If you can't watch the show on The Disney Channel, pick up or rent either The Secret Files (2003) or The Villain Files (2004) on DVD, as both of those are "film-like" compilations of television episodes. This is the second "legitimate" Kim Possible film, after A Stitch in Time (2003). I thought that A Stitch in Time was a bit better, but this is still an excellent film.

In So the Drama, Kim Possible villain Dr. Drakken (John Di Maggio) and his "sidekick" Shego (Nicole Sullivan) are hatching their latest plot to acquire world domination. It involves technology developed by Kim Possible's (Christy Carlson Romano) rocket scientist dad, Dr. Possible (Gary Cole), and it affects Kim and Ron Stoppable (Will Friedle) in different ways, both very close to their hearts. Can they stop Dr. Drakken's mad scheme?

As Kim Possible stories will do, there is also a high-school oriented subplot. The prom is fast approaching and because of Kim's world-saving activities, she has not had time for a boyfriend. As cheerleading nemesis Bonnie Rockwaller (Kirsten Storms) points out, all of the most eligible boys--meaning all of the star jocks--are already taken. What will Kim do, take the Chess Club Captain to the prom?

So the Drama is not quite as dense as A Stitch in Time. By that I mean that it's not as layered, and it's not quite as "fast". A Stitch in Time worked on multiple levels at the same time, delivering more adult humor and social satire at the same time that it delivered material more geared towards young teens and older preteens. It tended to move its jokes by very quickly--with some contained in dialogue, some in subtle character actions and some in backgrounds/settings--in a way that bore a resemblance to "The Simpsons". While So the Drama has the same basic attitude and attributes, it's a simpler and somewhat mellower film, a bit less focused on humor, and occasionally shows more of an influence from anime and even commercial (as in graphic arts, advertising, etc.) visual design. The relative simplicity and lessened focus on humor is what kept me from granting a 10 to this film, as I did with A Stitch in Time.

The visual design I mentioned above is extremely interesting. I'll just mention a few of the more unusual features (this stuff is fascinating to me because I'm also a visual artist): The opening of the film is a quickly paced action sequence (with an amusing reference to the 1989 Tim Burton Batman) that at times has just fast-moving patches of color as a background. Later, the animators vacillate a bit between the more typical flat, 2D Kim Possible style and some highly stylized 3D modeling. Once Drakken releases his minions, there are some beautiful graphic-arts oriented patterns in the "armies", occasionally with that stylized 3D modeling, and occasionally layered with many other visual styles. There is also a fair amount of well-integrated computer animation/modeling.

Kim's prom subplot allows an exploration of the romantic tension between Ron and Kim. That's something I hadn't noticed much in the show before (I've seen quite a few of the television episodes, but certainly not all of them--maybe it's explored more in some of the episodes I've missed), but it's just as fascinating as similar romantic tensions between television characters of the past, such as Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) in "The X-Files" (1993). It also gives scripters Mark McCorkle and Robert Schooley a chance to emphasize Ron's dorky side (his scooter is particularly hilarious) and Kim's feminine, even sexy side (she gets into a fight in a dress, shows some leg, etc.)--those aspects help underscore the tension and why it may be there in the first place.

The Dr. Drakken plot enables a lot of opportunities to mildly satirize capitalism, and especially consumer service industries, such as fast food restaurants and marketing tie-ins. Of course, since this is a Disney film, that particular satirizing doesn't cut as deeply as it might coming from another source, but there are a lot of sly cracks about customer service, decisions made to benefit the company versus pleasing the consumer, and the attraction we have to trinkets, even when they might mean more trouble than they're worth. There are also subtle references/jokes emphasizing parallels to real world businesses, such as McDonald's.

I watched So the Drama on DVD (the film has also been on The Disney Channel a few times). The DVD has slightly beefier extras than many past Disney releases in this niche. There is a bonus episode of Kim Possible from the television show, a couple deleted scenes from the film that seem like legitimately deleted scenes, two pleasant music videos related to the film, and a truckload of trailers/previews, with at least one--for Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005)--containing some "behind the scenes" footage.

This was supposed to be the movie which ended the series. Thank goodness it didn't! While the movie is good as an extended Kim Possible episode, it is not quite as epic as I originally remembered it. Lovers of the show will certainly enjoy it. If you didn't already like the show, then the movie probably isn't for you.

After watching the series as a kid, and now watching it with my girls, I appreciate this movie so much. It's sweet, funny, and exciting. The plot is easy for kids to follow. And honestly, it's about 1000x better than the live action crap they tried to make.