The trailer for the Disney Channel live-action reboot of the beloved 2000s cartoon Kim Possible dropped Friday, and it’s… well, it’s a trailer. For a movie. That somebody thought was a good idea.
If you’re not familiar with the sitch, Kim Possible was a show about a high school cheerleader who fought crime with the help of her goofy best bud, Ron Stoppable, his pet naked mole-rat, and their techie friend, Wade. It ran for four seasons, spawned two films, and the theme song’s “Call me, beep me, if you want to reach me” can still be heard echoing throughout millennial social media on a semi-regular basis.
The new film, updated to live-action like most things Disney these days, has this plot as provided by Deadline:
"Kim and her best friend and sidekick, Ron Stoppable, start Middleton High School, where Kim must navigate an intimidating new social hierarchy. She is ready to tackle the challenge head-on, just as she has with everything else in life, but her confidence is shaken when she faces roadblocks at every turn—getting lost in the confusing hallways, being late to class and facing rejection during soccer tryouts from her frenemy, Bonnie.
"Kim’s day starts to turn around when she and Ron meet and befriend Athena, a new classmate and Kim Possible superfan who is having an even worse day than Kim. With Kim’s guidance and friendship, Athena transforms into the newest member of Team Possible. Soon, Athena starts to eclipse Kim just as the nefarious Drakken and Shego resurface in Middleton with a master plan to finally stop Kim. Now it’s up to Team Possible — Kim, Ron, tech-genius Wade, new friend Athena and Rufus, a Naked mole-rat that Ron meets along the way — to stop these super villains.”
It sounds reasonably in line with the show kids in the ‘00s loved, but after the trailer, old school fans aren’t too thrilled with what’s coming.
Oof. Brutal.
But as upset and disappointed as many older fans are, there are plenty of others ready to remind them that the movie is aimed at children and pre-teens of a new generation, and isn’t actually for any of us.
The trailer currently has 21,000 upvotes and 93,000 downvotes on YouTube — but it’s also got 1.8 million views. So if Disney wanted to drum up interest, in one way or another, they’ve certainly done that. And the movie is bound to pull in a good deal of viewers when it premieres on February 15, both in terms of kids just looking for some fun new action hero to watch, and millennials looking to play drinking games and lament over their ruined childhoods.
