A SITCH IN TIME (2003)

 

 A SITCH IN TIME (the title provides the best pun in the story) was one of two telemovies built from the Disney Channel’s KIM POSSIBLE franchise.  The titular character, though constructed as a superspy operative of some sort, usually functions more like an independent superhero.  This extends to her possessing a regular “rogues’ gallery” a la Batman, though Possible's villains tend to be incompetents who suggest little real danger.  In SITCH three of those rather monotonous foes—Monkey Fist, Doctor Drakken, and Duff Killagan—plot to take over the world with the use of a time-altering monkey-idol.  An additional B-plot concerns how Kim loses her goofy sidekick Ron Stoppable when his father gets a job in Sweden, forcing Ron to move out of the neighborhood—which later proves to be a plot by the villains to break up the team.

Disney’s television franchises are perfect for most juvenile audiences: they’re repetitive but flavored with enough wit to keep them from being completely tedious.  However, there are never any particular highs or lows with Disney teleseries, and SITCH is no exception.  The telefilm is designed so that it could be cut apart and shown as separate episodes during the broadcast of the regular half-hour series, which doesn’t do a lot for narrative unity.

The film, like the show, makes copious use of physical and verbal comedy, but it doesn’t completely reduce the main character to a joke.  Therefore when assigning it a Fryean mythos I designate it as “adventure,” albeit very tongue-in-cheek adventure after the fashion of the 1960s BATMAN series. 

ADDENDUM: Changed my mind on the classification; the jokes are more important than the feats of derring-do.