Kimberly Ann Possible (usually known as Kim Possible) (voiced by Christy Carlson Romano) is the title character from Disney's animated television series Kim Possible.
Kim debuted in the series opening episode in June 2002,[1] and starred in all 65 episodes of Season 1-3. She made her Season 4 debut in an episode broadcast exclusively over the Disney Channel website in February 2007, and returned to Disney Channel on the 10th of February.[2]
Kim is a high school student and freelance hero/secret agent. She is unusual in this field in that she has no secret identity - for the most part, her classmates are aware of her work but do not comment on it unless it affects them directly. At school, she is cast as one of the "popular kids," head of her cheerleading squad at school, and a straight-A student, rather than as a misunderstood outsider/underdog.
Character history
Prior to the start of season 1, Kim was an ordinary young girl leading an ordinary life. By her early teen/late preteen years, she was wishing to supplement her allowance, so she decided to start up her own babysitting business and set up her own website, "KimPossible.com", under the slogan, "I can do anything", to advertise her services. Soon after her site went live, Kim was accidentally contacted by Mr. McHenry who was in trouble, and was trying to contact a different group of heroes, "Team Impossible". Due to a typing error, he contacted "KimPossible.com" instead of "Impossible.com." After the rescue, Kim's fame as a hero grew until she was being contacted for help by people all over the world, including governments and royalty.
Personality
Kim is a confident and assertive teenager whose awareness of her own abilities is reflected well by her motto "I can do anything". Her typical state is bright and cheerful, and she has a kind and caring heart that compels her to help others and to put their well being above her own, although she can be arrogant at times, especially when people appear to do things better than she can. Her competitive nature and drive for perfection, as well as some of her insecurities, are consistent with a Type A personality. They also lead her to set high standards for herself, and sometimes give her a tendency to be bossy and to set standards for others that are too high - as was evident when she attempted to coach her brothers' soccer team - or to try and do things herself in order to save others from potential failure or harm.[3][4][5]
Despite being a freelance hero, Kim is still a teenage girl, and is susceptible to most normal teenage insecurities and growing pains. She gets embarrassed by her parents, is pouty when she doesn't get her own way, and has a strong desire to fit in, the latter of which is often one of her biggest weaknesses.
Kim's personality traits were most clearly demonstrated when her school was hit by a fictional personality-guide fad known as animology, under which she is classified as being a blue fox: a born leader who can't resist a challenge, is driven to excel, and who is a perfectionist.[6] During the career fair at her school, Kim was drawn toward international diplomacy:[7] a demanding, extroverted field.
Kim has a tendency to be worried about - and frequently fooled by - appearance. As such, she is often overly concerned about her image and the way in which others see her, sometimes even going so far as to extend these anxieties to others (primarily Ron) even though they do not necessarily feel the same way.[4][8][9] Owing to this element of her personality, Kim has a tendency to succumb to peer pressure, something she never really manages to overcome until the very end of the third season, and she is often unable to see beyond first appearances, or deeper than other people's defense mechanisms.[9][10][11]
It is this element of her personality which appears to form the foundations of much of Kim's rivalry with Bonnie, who is similarly competitive and concerned about appearances,[10][11] and it is often through this rivalry that we see the less desirable elements of Kim's competitive nature in play, including incidents when she has engaged in tit-for-tat revenge or one-upsmanship, and when she has competed purely because she doesn't want Bonnie to succeed.[11][12]
Due to her type A personality, Kim also has a strong tendency to become frustrated, impatient, or insecure when faced with a field in which she does not instantly excel. This tendency has been displayed several times throughout the franchise, usually in conjunction with an episode subplot or Mcguffin revolving around her social life, and is often made more notable by the fact that these fields are ones in which either the often inept Ron or the immature Tweebs excel. Examples of such fields include cooking[13] and video games,[14] auto mechanics,[15] and the duties required of her when she worked at Bueno Nacho during season 1.[8]
In addition to the recurring problems caused by her competitive personality and her weakness in the face of peer pressure, Kim has also demonstrated many of the weaknesses that have become cliché to teen-high school comedy/drama, most of which have been highlighted in individual episodes, but are not evident across the franchise as a whole. Such clichés include trapping herself in a position in which she tells an escalating series of lies in order to cover up a much smaller lie,[16] attempting to sabotage an opponent's campaign during a school election,[17] and allowing herself to be baited into angry or unwise courses of action by a rival.[18]
In the pilot episode, Crush, Kim was rendered incapable of coherent speech in the presence of Josh Mankey, her first confirmed love interest.[1] As take-charge as she is in the other areas of her life, when faced with asking Josh on a date, Kim was at a complete loss for what to do.
Kim lives to please, as she confirmed herself in the episode Queen Bebe. When Ron asks her why she doesn't "just say no," to a request for help, she replies that she's "just not programmed that way."[18] This accounts for why she finds herself unable to refuse a date with Brick Flagg in All the News, since she agrees to do it so that Brick won't be so depressed that he'll blow the football game.[19]
Although Kim is generally reasonably mature in the usual give-and-take with her parents over what she can and can't do (how late she can stay out, even if it is on a mission saving the world, if she can get a loan to buy new clothes or must instead get an after-school job, etc.,) if she really, really wants something it looks like she won't be able to get, she has a "puppy-dog pout" that has been seen several times during the show. It becomes a running gag, and the pout has been used by others against her.
School
Kim is a naturally intelligent student who maintains a high GPA despite her adventurous lifestyle by using the time she spends traveling to and from missions to study, and by always making sure that she gets a handle on assignments as early as she can in case she is called away on a mission at the last minute. Plus she makes time for cheerleading practice after school.[20] As a result of these diligences, it is only on rare occasions that her grades suffer or that she has problems with assignments.[21] Despite her intelligence, Kim remains the least scientific member of her family, not understanding many of the terms and phrases or inventions that her father and brothers build and use; for example, in the episode The Twin Factor, she immediately passes off her brothers' invention of a handheld silicon phase disruptor as a "stupid toy", or believing that the mind control chip in the same episode is "ferociously unethical". She also doubts her brothers' high intelligence, believing their early advancement to high school is the result of a mistake in the records, and is truly shocked when she discovers from Mrs. G'day, Jim and Tim's S.K.I.P. program counselor, that it was legitimate.
Physical description
Kim is slightly tall, slender, and very strong. She has large, bright green eyes and long fiery red hair, which comes down to her lower back/waist and when seen from behind is shaped as a heart. She wore her hair in pigtails when she was in pre-k, and as a preteen wore it in a long ponytail.
Abilities
Kim is extremely athletic and has excellent reflexes that have been honed through years of cheerleading practice, allowing her to perform death-defying moves like somersaulting between laser beams with little apparent effort; although A Sitch in Time presents Kim as being a good fighter before being a cheerleader.[22] She is also highly skilled in martial arts, knowing 16 types of kung fu (as revealed when she threatened Ron in the episode Hidden Talent),[12] including Praying mantis kung fu.[23] Her skills are aptly demonstrated by the fact that she is able to go toe-to-toe against Shego, an older and more experienced villain whose super powers allow her to tear through reinforced concrete with ease.[16]
Kim is also a fast learner and is able to pick up new skills quickly, and adapt to new situations as they arise. Among the many talents that she has demonstrated during the series are a high level of proficiency in various extreme sports; such as hang-gliding, skiing, and rock climbing, and even shuttle piloting. She also discovers her ability to sing in the episode Hidden Talent.
In the episode Odds Man In, the current actuary of the year points out that her amazing ability set gives her the equivalent risk factor when fighting super villains as most other teens have when riding a skateboard.
In the episode The Ron Factor, Kim reveals that she always thought her extraordinary abilities came from good genes (as one of the running gags of the show is that her mother is a brain surgeon and her father is a rocket scientist).
Age
Kim's age has been debated quite a bit because nothing has been stated that she was any specific age other than 'high school' age (14-18). However, in the Season 2 episode Car Trouble, Kim is stated as old enough to get a driver's license, which in most states (the show takes place in the United States) is 16. Kim also had mentioned that Ron had to take 12 years to kiss her in Homecoming Upset which indicates that she was 17 as of that episode. Graduating from high school and considering college acceptance letters in the series finale Graduation would likely put her at a few months shy of 18. During the episode Hidden Talent, Wade constructs a class ring with a mini Kimmunicator inside of it; the ring had an Emerald in the setting, signaling that Kim's birth month could be May (traditional class rings within the United States are often adorned with the wearer's birthstone). Also in a few episodes she shows her love for being a senior as people stare at her, implying that she is a 17 to 18 year old student.
Home state
The location of Kim's hometown of Middleton is often a point of debate, as there are three possibilities on where it can be located.
The first possibility indicates that it could be located in Colorado, as evidenced by the episode The New Ron, in which Senor Senior Sr. states that he plans a missile strike on her "hometown", and the map shows Colorado as the target area. If so, one could transpose Middleton for the location of the actual city of Littleton, though the homes pictured more closely resemble those in Highlands Ranch.
The second possibility could be northern West Virginia, as evidenced in the episode Downhill, when Kim asks Wade for alleged sightings of a snow beast that Ron and Barkin are looking for; the map shows an area in northern West Virginia as a target area.
The third possibility is Kansas, shown in Odds Man In, when the Geography Club at the high school is said to meet at 98"35'W, 39"50'N. This is the geographical center of the continental United States, rounded to the nearest minute.
Alternative versions
As with many Disney cartoons, Kim's physical appearance has remained static throughout the franchise and has not been changed between seasons to represent aging. However, several different versions of Kim have been introduced, at various points in the franchise, to represent Kim at different ages prior to her appearance in Season 1.
During the first 3 seasons, two younger versions of Kim were introduced. The first version to appear on screen was a pre-school version, and the second was a version representing Kim in her early teens/late-preteens.
Pre-school Kim was first introduced through flashbacks in the episode October 31, and was later visited several times through Seasons 2-3. She made her first in person appearance in the feature length production Kim Possible: A Sitch in Time when she was targeted by a cohort of time traveling villains who sought to destroy her confidence during her first day in pre-school, in order to prevent Present Day Kim from thwarting their plans. Ironically, in an altered timeline that has since been erased, this intervention led to Kim stepping in to fight to save Ron for the first time, bringing about their first meeting outside the classroom and leading to their becoming friends.
Pre-School Kim is very similar to present day Kim, but with the addition of freckles and pigtails. When first introduced, she also lacked the confidence of her present day counterpart.
Early teen/late-preteen Kim made her first appearance in the feature length production Kim Possible: A Sitch in Time. She was introduced when Kim's present day foes (Drakken, Shego, Monkey Fist, and Duff Kiligan) traveled back through time on a mission to sabotage her first mission. Initially, the villains planned to sabotage the mission in order to crush Kim's spirits, thus preventing her from ever becoming a teen hero. However, after a brief discussion, they decided to kill her instead. Early teen/late-preteen was saved by the intervention of Present Day Kim and Ron. Due to the closing events of A Sitch in Time, the timeline in which her early teen/late-preteen self appeared was erased, leaving Present Day Kim with no memory of meeting her past self, nor vice-versa. Since her initial appearance, early teen/late-preteen Kim has appeared in several flashbacks, most notably during Hidden Talent, which revealed that she was an excellent singer (but unable to hit high notes),[12] and in Team Impossible, when the events of Kim's first mission were replayed, minus the intervention from the future (that timeline having since ceased to exist).[21]
At this point in her life, Kim is shorter and slimmer than her present-day self, and minus a bust line, but with the addition of braces (which is the reason Bonnie called her "Tinsel Teeth"). She is always shown with her hair in a ponytail and her bangs to the side. Her clothes consist of a purple long sleeved shirt, darker purple shorts, matching shoes with a white sole on the bottom, and a black choker with a round yellow jewel.
An older version of Kim was introduced in an interactive featurette that was included in the DVD of A Sitch in Time. Little was revealed about Kim's older self, except that she was still fighting crime in her 40s, was a member of the PTA, and that she wears a patch over her left eye, ala Nick Fury. Older Kim is also shown wearing a Global Justice uniform similar to that worn by Dr. Director (who coincidentally also has an eye patch, though the reason remains a mystery as well). As of Season 4, older Kim has not appeared in the series and her exact place in Kim Possible canon remains uncertain.
Fan reaction
Although the franchise's primary focus is to be an adventure/comedy, the Kim romance/crush angle has proven to be a surprising hit among fans.[34] With audiences both reacting well to the relationship issues and themes aired in the show, and adding to them though fan-shipping (fans projecting romantic imagery onto franchise characters) in their own fan-fiction and artwork.[35]
In several episodes leading up to So the Drama, there was a running gag where Ron would react in a jealous manner if Kim showed interest in or spent time with another boy, and vice versa, where Kim would react in a jealous manner if another girl appeared to show an interest in Ron; both tended to react in an angry, defensive manner if they thought someone was implying they had romantic feelings for the other. For example, in Overdue, when Shego asks Ron where Kim is, he angrily shouts, "She's NOT my girlfriend!"; in Gorilla Fist, Kim shows clear jealousy of Yori and her interest in Ron, even going so far as to suspect her of being an agent of Monkey Fist on the basis of virtually no evidence. This prompts Monique to accuse her of 'gellin', i.e., being jealous of Yori, which Kim angrily, defensively denies.
According to the shows creators, the reaction to Kim's relationships with other characters was clearly demonstrated to them when a Disney Channel poll, held prior to kiss scene in So the Drama, revealed that Emotion Sickness; an episode in which Ron is forced to address his feelings about Kim, was, by a wide margin, the most popular episode of the time.[34] After seeing the results of the poll, Schooley and McCorkle took it "as a sign" of fan approval, and used it as part of their justification for progressing Kim and Ron's relationship to the next level in the Season 3 finale, culminating in them kissing during the closing montage. In turn, this proved to be extremely popular with fans and led them to maintain and formalize Kim and Ron's boyfriend-girlfriend relationship when Disney renewed the show for a fourth season.
Although the primary focus of audiences has been towards a Kim-Ron relationship, fans have also engaged in a certain amount of shipping directed at other pairings that were never fully explored in the franchise, such as Kim/Josh pairings or pairings with characters other than Kim (for example, Ron pairings). There have also been a number of less conventional fan pairs that that diverge substantially from series canon. Among the most well known of these is the Kim and Shego slash pairing (known as Kigo), which has been derived from audience interpretations and projections of series subtext, and has proven popular with fan-artists and slash-fiction enthusiasts
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Possible_(character)
