INTERVIEW 16 21/2008/E “. She can do anything”

A conversation with Robert Schooley and Mark McCorkle*

Kim Possible – is she a female just action, but girls want to see char- ? acters and a little more relationships. What Kim Possible does is pretty And the one thing we found what amazing and kind of implausible, but unites boys and girls is, everybody she still has real problems and teen likes to laugh, so we felt that if we issues she goes through. So we were could do a show that had some ad- careful not to make her impervious or venture, some relationships and hu- anything like superheroes are, be- mour throughout, then we would ap- cause we wanted Kim and Ron to be peal to a wider audience and more characters that kids can relate to. What kids would like it. And so far we’re makes Kim effective in the action good! world is gymnastics, cheerleading, Another thing that we consciously physical activity, something that any put into Kim, and it really helped to kid, any girl, in the world could do. form her and it is part of The other thing about Kim that was why kids and adults respond positive- part of what made it really exciting ly to her, was this simple idea that when we first developed it, is the idea her goal is just to help people. If that she would have a website, she someone needs help, no matter how would have the communicator with a big or how small, she’ll do it, but then video screen. When we started in the when she needs a ride to Hong Kong, year 2000 there were only cell phones, she gets a ride from somebody and already tells you that this is going to and not every kid had a website – but we always play that gag: “Thank you be an arched show that is a little bit now kids do, and this is one of those for the ride” – “No, thank you, for over the top, but also that the girl is things that makes the world smaller. saving us …”. So it became a humour going to be the action lead and the It reflects that a little symbolically in thing, but also a nice thing that for guy is going to be funny. the series, where Kim can effortless- her it was never about money or med- There was this fun challenge for us: ly hop around the world and get back als or working for some organisation. in TV animation there’s a sort of an- in time for dinner. Which is pretty un- If someone goes to her website and cient truism that girls will watch a realistic, but it’s what kids can do on says “I need help”, she helps. show with a boy star, but boys will the now. They can talk to not watch a show where a girl is the somebody anywhere, so it’s one of How did you create the character star, for whatever reason. So we were those things that, at the time, we Kim Possible? thrilled when the show premiered and thought was kind of novel – and it is We got the request that the people at it was getting a pretty healthy sampl- actually just now part of kids’ every- were looking for a ing of boy fans. day lives. show that showed ordinary kids in And also because we’re both fathers extraordinary circumstances. Bob with daughters and when we were What role does humour play in this and I were on our way back from growing up we had heroes – James series? lunch and I just turned to him and Bond or Captain Kirk or the like. We It’s primarily a series and it’s said: “Kim Possible. She can do had these guys who were larger-than- definitely parodying a lot of the con- anything.” And then Bob said: “Ron life characters, and when you were ventions of the James Bond movies Stoppable, he can’t”. And then we playing, you were pretending you and things like that. We found that came up with almost the entire show. were them. boys tend to really like action shows, A show with those kinds of names So we thought, why shouldn’t our INTERVIEW 21/2008/E 17 daughters have the same thing, a char- very appealing design, but we just boys was they did want to see Ron acter that they can pretend to be? wanted to keep it out of that realm of succeed a little more, so heading into Working out the whole Kim Possible video game heroine. season 4 we let him develop and be- universe was really collaborative. The come more confident so he wasn’t people at Disney Channel have input We did a representative study on always messing up. all the way and the actors help de- favourite television characters of 6- velop, if they bring something to it. to 12-year-olds in Germany and How did you develop , the The designers of the characters for Kim Possible ranked # 1 in 2007 for female villain? the visual look of it certainly help set the girls. What makes her so espe- Well, in a lot of ways it evolved. The it apart, the various writers who work cially attractive to girls? Drakken/Shego-dynamic is sort of with us, everybody who can bring a It’s everything! When you create an this weird mirror of the Kim/Ron- little spark, that all adds up. And it animated character, the visual design dynamic. For some reason the girl is does develop, too. When you do that is a huge part of it and she’s a very very competent and the boy is a fum- many seasons the character gets to appealing design, but also very relat- bler. We had worked with Nicole Sul- grow and you usually discover new able. The voice actress Christy Carl- livan, the voice of Shego, on the Buzz things. We were lucky enough to be son Romano for us here in America Lightyear series, and we created this able to oversee the whole series and did a great job. I’ve actually heard character for her. In the very first ses- keep it consistent. some of the German translations and sion with John DiMaggio, who plays they match the voice pretty well. So, Drakken, they got this chemistry of Which considerations played into the voice actor is a huge part of the her being smarter than him and being the graphic realisation of the char- appeal. And then the character as we sarcastic – being the hallmark of acters? How much did you, as the created it, the fact that she’s a confi- those characters that really did come writers, take part in the decision- dent, competent, positive character is from the actors and what they could making of Kim’s appearance? really appealing. make funniest. Initially, Shego was We took a part in it a lot, but the credit supposed to be just a standard side- really has to go to the 1st season di- In our survey in 2007, Kim Possi- kick to him, but as soon as we cast rector Chris Bailey, and to our bril- ble was the only girl character Nicole and played with it, it became liant art director, Alan Bodner. He and ranking among the top ten of the clear that the funny dynamic there Stephen Silver, the character design- boys in Germany. Why is that so? was for her to just barely put up with er, put their heads together. We had Whenever there’s an action comple- him. an input considering we’ve had a fair ment to a show, boys get excited, and amount of experience in doing mo- when Kim does her martial arts and Would Kim have been your dream vie spin-offs. We knew what worked when she’s doing one of these girl in High School? in TV animation and what didn’t. And incredible stunts, boys love to watch Oh, absolutely! She would have been we knew, Kim had to be an appealing it. They think she’s so good at it that way out of our class though. character and Ron had to be a goofy- they have fun watching her do it! And appealing character. one of the things that we’ve always We tried a lot of things for Kim’s found is that boys of any age, going look. There were about 3 months of right up to the late teen years, love various developments. She started out humour and characters that are a little as a pretty standard-looking athletic goofy, sort of silly and weird. When blonde. It evolved; we just tried to we tested it, the kids were like: “Oh, make her more unique. I think one of Ron’s stupid funny” and that became the things that design-wise they push- sort of a buzz phrase. ed for was . But together And we tried to highlight from time with Disney Channel we came to re- to time in the show that even though alise that this is an interesting char- Ron is not a great action hero the way *A short version of a conversation acter and a fun character, but not a Kim is an action heroine, he goes of Elke Schlote (IZI) with Robert very real character. That’s where we along and puts himself in this danger, Schooley and Mark McCorkle, really pushed the designers into the so he’s still very courageous. In sea- creators of Kim Possible. The two direction of “let’s make her look like son 4 he does get his chance to shine US-Americans have been working a real 14-year-old girl” that she’s not even more than previously. Over the as writers and producers in chil- dren’s animation for more than 15 some ‘bombshell’, she’s just this pret- course of the seasons, the one feed- years. ty girl who’s athletic. She has a nice, back that we consistently got from