Post by nabusan on Feb 8, 2007 20:29:09 GMT -5
forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=100698
Who'll be the first one to spot the mistake?! ;D
Who'll be the first one to spot the mistake?! ;D
CREATORS TALK ABOUT KIM POSSIBLE 4TH SEASON
PATRICK FOR PRESIDENT!, ANIME FINALISTS ANNOUNCED, NEW OSHII IN NYC
by Steve Fritz -- 02-08-2007, 08:35 AM
The first scene of the first episode of the fourth season of Kim Possible has a wry observation. The announcement board in front of Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable’s high school simply says “Not The End.” To fans of Disney Channel’s Kim Possible series, this is very good news indeed.
Back in 2005, creators Mark McCorkle and Rob Schooley thought did the last ever episode of the series, a made-for-TV movie called Oh The Drama. They did the right thing wrapping up everything they could, with Kim and Ron not only truly finishing off all the bad guy but realizing they were meant for each other. It honestly looked like they were leaving on a very high note.
But like a lot of animated shows recently, the fans had their own thoughts on that (ask Fox).
They demanded more, a lot more. So much more a whole new season of 22 episodes make their debut on Disney Channel this Saturday, February 10 at 8:00 p.m. Then again, when you look at McCorkle and Schooley’s resume, what’s surprising is Disney didn’t realize what a hit they had on their hands.
Fellow grads of Philadelphia’s Temple University, the two seemed to be joined at the hip from that time forward. Their first work, together, were as sound men on Super Mario Brothers Super Show for DiC. They then did some work on The Real Ghostbusters. But things started moving their way when they went over to Disney TV.
It started with them being story editors on the Aladdin series. From there they did the last two made-for-video Aladdin videos, The Return of Jafar and King of Thieves . It was onward and upward as producers of the Disney’s Hercules series and then to infinity and beyond with a full 65 episodes (with Tad Stones) of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.
Then in 2002, they struck gold again with Kim. Like a lot of similar shows, it looked like it would do its mandatory three years and a couple of now direct-to-DVD movies then be on its way. In fact, in 2005 the two did move on and wrote the script for the live action film Sky High. But, as stated, this wasn’t the end at all.
Here’s what the two had to say:
NEWSARAMA: It looked like with Oh The Drama, you resolved everything in Kim’s world. What made you guys do another season?
BOB SCHOOLEY: We got a call saying ‘You know what? We want to do another season.’ We said all right. Besides we love these characters.
Actually, doing this season was fun. We went through an interesting thought process because So The Drama was such a punctuating finale. We thought where could we go from here? Then we found out the relationship of Kim and Ron now dating gave the series a whole new outlook. It gave us new story ideas, new opportunities for comedy. It’s actually been a lot of fun.
NRAMA: So what about the villains? Are they returning too?
MARK MCCORKLE: Yeah. We also have a couple new ones. We have Camille Leon, a disinherited celebutante. She has experimental plastic surgery and now can shapeshift. How she gets into her life of crime you’ll have to see. She’s voiced by Ashley Tinsdale (High School Musical, Suite Life of Zach & Cody).
BS: Of course, we’ll see the return of Drakken. We’ll keep him in jail for a few episodes and will finally get him sprung out in a surprising way. About mid-season we’ll do a lot of unexpected villain team-ups and things like that. Keep it fresh, you know?
MM: For instance, when you meet Drakken’s cell mate, he’s an obscure villain from the first season.
NRAMA: Just from the way you guys are talking, I have to ask, what comic books did you guys read?
MM: I grew up definitely a Marvel guy. I was definitely into Spider-Man, X-Men, stuff like that. I’m not embarrassed to say, in spite of all the mocking I get from my wife, I still go to the comic book store every Wednesday. I do have to say that now I’m an adult I’ve dipped into some of the DC and independent stuff. It’s all great.
I think when you’re in this business, you have to be a bit of a kid all your life. The weekly visit to the comic book store is still one of the highlights of my life.
BS: I didn’t read comic books as a child. I watched way too much television. Mark just looks at me and shakes his head. He looks at something and says ‘This is just like the Reed Richards/Doctor Doom thing.’ Then I have to tell him that I’m completely ignorant of what he’s talking about.
NRAMA: You mean you didn’t watch the Fantastic Four cartoons when you were young?
BS: Oh yeah. I watched all the cartoons. My only excuse is my memory is fading with old age.
NRAMA: But one episode in particular, when you went into the origins of Shego and her family, struck me as classic comic book.
MM: We had fun with that. Dr. Possible being a college roommate of a scientist who went wrong and became Drakken was definitely a tip of the hat to Richards/Doom thing.
BS: We’ll be bringing Shego’s brothers back again. The main thing is each time we use them we try to come up with something different. This time we came up with a truly over-the-top 60s kind of villain from their past.
MM: Much of Kim’s world tends to be more James Bond than comic book. Team Go does give us the opportunity to do something a little more comic book-ish. Our director, Steve Loter, is another comic book fan, and he took advantage of this to do some different art and color schemes than usual.
NRAMA: Speaking of, the general design definitely harkens back to the 60s.
MM: We really wanted a graphic simplicity that was the hallmark of some of that decade. If you look back, even the architecture of that era, the mid-century modern, was based on things like the James Bond villain’s lairs.
BS: In fact, when we were first developing the show, we showed Alan Bodner, our art director, posters that Disney used in the 60s that featured that same kind of strong graphic design.
MM: And he thought it was great. Alan was always a fan of the classic Chuck Jones/Maurice Noble style of design. It’s funny. Everyone has managed to throw in the influences of their childhood into this show.
NRAMA: Now who’s the voice of Kim again?
MM: Christy Carlson Romano.
BS: She was on another Disney show called Even Steven. When she started Kim she was 16 and now she’s 22.
NRAMA: So she’s another homegrown Disney talent.
MM: You know that’s an interesting story. When we were looking for Kim we went through a ton of people. Then the people at Disney Channel brought her to our attention and her audition was just fantastic. She really nailed it. Now Will Friedel, the voice of Ron, has been doing stuff for a while now. He was in Batman Beyond and a lot of Disney shows. When he came in he nailed it, too.
NRAMA: Well, teenaged boy voices come natural for him.
MM: Right. John DiMaggio, who is Drakken, we always loved him as Bender in Futurama . What amazed us is just how funny and versatile a guy he is. Drakken is as funny as he is because of how funny John is. Like any of the great voiceover guys, he can do multiple voices. He also just has a terrific comedic sense. But what I’m getting to is when you have such good actors, then the writers are challenged and want to rise to the occasion. It brings up everybody’s game.
NRAMA: Would you say Kim Possible is strictly a very strong girl following or has it managed to cross genders?
BS: It’s undeniable that Kim has a huge girl audience. What makes us happy is we meet a lot of boys who love this show, whether they will publicly admit it or not.
MM: We’ve found that whenever you have a girl in the lead doing all the action stuff, there’s a certain age group of boys who won’t admit they like the stuff. They really want to see the boy in that role. Girls are just having a field day with it.
Because of this, one of the things we decided was having Ron come into his own a little more. He’s still the comical sidekick, but now that he’s the boyfriend as well we thought it was time to take his game to the next level.
NRAMA: It seemed you were hinting at that with Oh The Drama.
MM: That’s the launching point. Actually, if you look at Oh The Drama as a finale that’s one thing. But really you should look at it as a launching point for the fourth season. To follow chronology he has to get more confident now.
NRAMA: Again, looking over the show, wouldn’t you say you’re making Monique a more prominent character?
MM: Yes, she’s voiced by Raven. Going back to the first season, we knew that as much as Ron was the sidekick, we also felt Kim had to have her #1 girlfriend. It wouldn’t have been that realistic for her not to. So we created Monique. Being we’re also comedy guys, we wanted someone who would be also be a strong performer. One thing Raven is known for is nailing a punch line.
So at first, we made Monique kind of a wry observer to all that was going on between Kim and Ron. With the fourth season, she will become more involved in their adventures. We found adding her in that way opens up the ensemble.
BS: Another thing we’re doing is in the past with Wade we always had him as the kid who never left the room. We experimented with him leaving the room at the end of the third season. Thanks to Oh The Drama he will get out even more.
MM: And for Jim and Tim, who in the past were only a pain in the neck for Kim, we are also going to see them starting to fit in. What you will learn is they are super-geniuses. They are definitely following in their father’s footsteps in the realm of science. In fact, being this is also Kim’s senior year in high school we thought it would be great to have them skip a whole bunch of grades and be freshmen in her high school. So suddenly they are going to be tagging along whether she likes it or not.
NRAMA: So do you feel this season is going to be another strong one for you?
BS: Yes. It’s just great, although we have to admit we’re daunted by people’s expectations. We actually had the first show online on Disney Channel online (disney.go.com/disneychannel/) and are relieved to see people are loving it.
NRAMA: Any chance you will see the seasons collected on DVD?
BS: You know, we don’t have any control over that. There’s been a fair amount of shows released as DVDs, but never as boxed sets. Maybe in the future. We’re not typically involved in those decisions. We’d like a set if they do.
NRAMA: So how many episodes?
MM: 22, and the last two is a very big, epic two-part capper.
NRAMA: At least as far as we know.
MM: Yes. If we hear otherwise, we’ll let you know.
