Take A Look at Disney

10/13/13

Halloween: October 31st (Kim Possible Episode Review)


Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney Halloween.  Today, we head back to Middleton as we take a look at Kim Possible's Halloween episode,  October 31st.



Episode Title

October 31st

Lame!  Okay,  this may be one of the weakest episode titles for any of my favorite shows.  It doesn't tell you anything about the episode other then it is set on Halloween.



The Plot


How do I sum up the plot? Lying is bad!  That's the main thing, I took away from this episode.  And  no offense to one of my favorite shows but that seems like something that would be taught on a Disney Junior show or to keep with when this show came out, a Playhouse Disney show.  Again,  I'm not saying that this is bad but seems kinda below the average audience of this show. Though to be fair,  I do like that they used KP for this because it helps to deflect arguments that KP is a Mary-Sue character.   Part of the reason I love KP is because she isn't perfect. Though to be fair,  I'm probably selling this episode a bit short as it shows the stress that rapid lying can cause.  Now let's get to the actual plot of the episode.   The episode starts off as we see Dr. Drakken and Duff Killignan about to haggle over something called The Centurion Project.  Shego  just wants to get the deal done.  And I don't blame her as who should show up but KP to get The Centurion Project.  And she does after some fighting with Shego and we see it is a bracelet and it gets attached to  KP's arm.   We find out that KP's best friend other then Ron, Monique is throwing a Halloween party but Ron doesn't want her to go as trick-or-treating dating back to Pre-K.  The first Halloween,  the year of the cowboy and the ballerina.



















No matter, how many times I see this joke,  I still get a kick out of it. Later on back at KP's house, we learn  that her family is partaking in a haunted house for charity at the hospital that her mom works at.   We get a scene between KP and Wade, seeing if Wade had any found any information on how to get the Project off.   Sadly no,  and we also see Wade all dressed up for Halloween and find out that he does his trick-or-treating online.  Uh Wade, that kinda takes the fun out of it.  Yeah,   it does fit in with  Wade staying in his room in the early episodes but still,  kinda lame.
















And this is where the conflict comes in as Monique calls KP to let her know that her season 1 crush, Flash Sentry, uh I mean Josh Mankey would be performing with his band at Monique's  party.    Giving KP more reason to want to go to the party.

















And then,  Ron calls KP to see if  Kim is still willing to go trick-or-treating with him.  She breaks down & lies saying that she is going to be helping with her family at the haunted house.  Which also leads into her second conflict as her mom comes up and asks that if she heard Kim saying that she thought she wad going to be helping out at the haunted house.  KP gives in and lies again, saying that she is going trick-or-treating with Ron. Leading to KP's second lie.   Which slowly causes the Project to expand and cover more of KP's body. And this slowly starts to show the stress of what KP is going through.  And we also see that Duff and Drakken have gone to Middleton searching for the Project.  They listen in on the phone call that KP had and Duff ends up finding Ron trick-or-treating and takes him hostage and Dr. Drakken and  Shego but she isn't there.  No, she's at Monique's Halloween party.  Where the stress is getting to her from both lying and being around her crush (who had as much personality as cardboard).  This causes the suit to grow some more and tear her princess costume apart revealing what the whole armor looks like.








We see Wade contacting KP but Monique has to answer it as the Kimmuicatnor was stuck in her clothes.  Um,  KP why were you wearing your everyday clothes under your costume?  That seems a bit much but it was cool to see KP fight Shego in her everyday clothes.   So KP heads to the haunted house and fights Shego using the Project and we see that the Project has unlimited abilities such as healing similar to that of Wolverine.



 









  And it ends with the armor coming off KP,  I can't remember how.  And the fight is cut short by KP's dad as he wishes to talk with his daughter and we see Kim being reprimanded and grounded for one month.

















Y'know ya done messed up, when The Tweebs (Jim and Tim) are busting you.
















All in all,   I'm not sure where this episode stands with me personally.  On the one hand, it's not bad but there are a lot of better KP episodes and quite honestly,  the biggest issue I have with this one is that it didn't need to be a Halloween episode with the story that was being told.  Let's take a look at the basics here for a sec, KP  wants to go to a party but there are other engagements that her friends and family want her to help out  with.  So to get out of these engagements, KP concocts a lie.  Does anything in that remotely sound like you need Halloween for the story to be told. No, not at all.  Mind you, it isn't a bad story but I just feel that this episode at best compared to some of Kim Possible's other episodes is forgettable.  It doesn't have the same holiday spirit that say A Very Possible Christmas had.





Plot Device



The Centurion Project


















The Centurion Project was interesting piece of armor as it protected the wearer as they were stressed out. And I have to say that the armor with the protection kinda reminded me of the Battle Suit from So The Drama.   This was season 1 and So The Drama came out after season 3.  I doubt they were meant to be the same thing but the idea was similar was enough.













Though, if you were to ask this hardcore KP fan, the Battle Suit is cooler.





Characters


This'll be broken down into Main, Supporting, & Villains.   With that out of the way, let's begin.



Main Character


Kim Possible voiced by Christy Carlson Romano















This was a pretty good episode for KP as it showed that even my lovely Kim can have her off days and that she isn't totally perfect.  Plus her fighting Shego in the Centurion Project was all kinds of awesome.


















I know what I said up top about the moral being below the audience.  I may have to retract on that statement but I just don't think the lesson was the best episode in the series.




Supporting Characters



Ron Stoppable voiced by Will Friedle





Ron was cute in this episode as he represented the inner youth that is rarely found in many teens.  So, what he still goes trick-or-treating and he's in high school.  And the best part is that even though, KP does at one point,  ask Ron "Don't we're a little old for that?" , she doesn't mean it in a derogatory manner.  She isn't berating her best friend but rather just surprised that she still he wants to go trick-or-treating.  Ron doesn't care and there is a cute moment, where we see him trick-or-treating doing the "Smell Your Feet"  bit and he was asked by a little kid (voiced by Tara Strong,  who  also played KP's younger cousin and super fan, Joss) dressed as a bunny not to do that.


Monique voiced by Raven-Symone














I liked Monique.  I felt like she  was underused in the show throughout most of it's run but she was a recurring character.  And her party played an integral part in the plot.  And it was cool to see her house as I think this was the only episode,  we saw that.



Josh Mankey voiced by Breckin Meyer

















Yeah,  even when this show was on, I never liked this character. There's a reason I called him Flash Sentry because like Flash, he had no personality. I swear most of these shows with female leads at the time and even today felt the need to give the character, a love interest that just made you scratch your head and go "Really,  just really?  What do you see in that person?"



Villains


Dr Drakken, Shego, & Duff Killigan voiced by John DiMaggio, Brian George, & Nicole Sullivan.



 

















This had to be my biggest problem with the show.  The villains after the cold open just  took a huge backseat to the story.  It was like the show forgot about them for a bit and then they came back and other then the fight between KP and Shego,  they were pretty lackluster.  Honestly,  I'm not sure the episode even needed them.  This episode was at times, trying to do too much.



My Final Thoughts

This  episode isn't bad but I don't recall it being this sub par.  It has no chance of making a favorites list of mine.   But it isn't the worst episode from KP but it's not a good Halloween episode either.  It's okay but I think it could've been better. I don't hate it and that's about the best, I can say for it.  Man, these last two reviews have been pretty lackluster.  

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