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(STF) - Boys, mostly 10-year-olds, are being drawn to a female action figure, even if she is animated. The top-ranking Disney cartoon series, Kim Possible, is kind of retro and yet modern, a little of European in the design, writes MELANIE PROCTOR.
IT'S possible! Boys can be fans of a television series with a girl in the lead role or of a series named after a girl, that is. Conventional thinking in children's entertainment has been that boys are not inclined to watch a show with a girl in the fore but "that theory has been shot out of the window", said Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, the creators and executive producers of the new TV series Kim Possible, at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, United States recently.
The Walt Disney Television Animation production, the first Disney series to debut at No 1 (in June) in the US, follows the comedic action- adventures of a typical high-school girl who, in her spare time, saves the world from villains.
McCorkle and Schooley feel it has been the "action and humour that have pulled in the boys". And a survey revealed that if Kim Possible video games were marketed, yes, the boys (mostly 10-year- olds) would have no problems "being" Kim.
In crafting their first TV series based on characters of their own creation, McCorkle and Schooley, who helmed Emmy Award-winning TV series Disney/Pixar's Buzz Lightyear of Star Command and Hercules, is said to have gone to a place where few others would have for a contemporary hero - into the life of a high school cheerleader.
Kim is the girl-next-door turned superhero who foils arch- nemesis around the globe, and then it's back to family and homework.
"What was exciting with `Kim Possible' was that we developed a new Disney character... and have added to the Disney heritage," said McCorkle who came up with the series' title.
Schooley said that Kim (voiced by Christy Carlson Romano of Even Stevens TV series fame) had a very contemporary feel to her. "We went out of our way not to layer her with all sorts of intrigue. No...