Codename: Kids Next Door

Codename: Kids Next Door
File:Kids Next Door title.png Codename: Kids Next Door logo
Created by	"Mr Warburton"
Starring	Ben Diskin Lauren Tom Dee Bradley Baker Cree Summer Tom Kenny Grey DeLisle Tara Strong Jeff Bennett Maurice LaMarche Jennifer Hale
Country of origin	USA
No. of episodes	78
Production
Running time	22 minutes approx.
Original release
Network	Cartoon Network
Release	December 6, 2002 – Present

Codename: Kids Next Door, also known as Kids Next Door or by its acronym KND, is an American animated television series that debuted on the Cartoon Network on December 6,2002. Like The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy before it and Megas XLR after it, this series came about as the result of a viewer's poll by Cartoon Network. Broadcast as two episodes per half-hour (except for a few half-hour episodes, the first being "Op G.R.O.W.-U.P."), the central characters of the series are five ten-year olds who operate out of their treehouse against the tyranny of adults and teenagers (e.g. early bedtimes, homework, and any place where kids aren't allowed). These central characters make up what is known as Sector V (the letter V and not the Roman numeral for 5) of a worldwide organization, also collectively known as the Kids Next Door. The series was created by Tom Warburton, who appears only as "Mr. Warburton" in the credits.

To accomplish their various missions, the Kids Next Door have access to a variety of gadgets and devices stored in their treehouse (often Rube Goldberg devices that are products of "two-by-four technology") as well as the resources of the global Kids Next Door. Although the Kids Next Door of Sector V often call themselves agents, or even soldiers, they normally do not wear modernized armor during missions, instead they typically wear regular clothes.

Storylines

The stories are titled as missions, denoted as "Operation: " followed by an acronym which often give viewers clues to what the story is about. The stories are often about typical problems that children face, but usually magnified in the cartoon. Every mission might or might not be chronologically ordered in relation to the previous or the next, but it's accepted that most of the time they occur in the order that the episodes are shown. Sometimes a mission can make a reference to a certain situation, or lead to consequences in another mission. An example of this is the Age Cigar, which first appeared in Operation: C.A.B.L.E.-T.V. but was found and reused by the Delightful Children From Down The Lane in Operation: G.R.O.W.-U.P. In Season 2, one ongoing plot arc involves an attempt of Cree to destroy the Kids Next Door Moonbase. This story arc runs through Operation: S.U.P.P.O.R.T., Operation: K.I.S.S., Operation: S.P.A.C.E. and Operation: E.N.D. Another example are the story arcs of Heinrich Von Marzipan and James Nixon McGarfield, who prefers being called Master President, as revealed in operation S.N.O.W.I.N.G..

In season 3, several stories take place at Gallagher Elementary School. This is due to the adults extending school to 52 weeks a year, meaning it's year-round school for the operatives, according to a press release from Curious Pictures.[1]

A recurring plot device involves the KND fighting the Delightful Children From Down The Lane over the latter's birthday cake. These stories always have the word "CAKED" in the title. Also seen throughout the series are the Delightful Children bribing other kids to do their bidding with slices of their birthday cake. There have been five "CAKED" episodes so far, which have all taken place on the same year, since there are five delightful children.

Kids Next Door Universe

In the KND Universe, this is the history of kids and adults:

Operation: A.R.C.H.I.V.E. shows a paranoid version of how adults were created by kids in the KND Universe, (Operation: Z.E.R.O. shows the start of the 7th age of KND) but whatever the case is a fact that both groups faced confrontations before establishing peace and an organized society. Some adults decided not to agree with this peace and try to establish superiority over the kids, reason why The Kids Next Door Organization was founded. This is a global group of trained kids that fight evil adults (and only evil adults, as mentioned in Operation: M.A.T.A.D.O.R.) that reunite at theaters to plan how to make kid's lives miserable .

(Operation A.R.C.H.I.V.E. and Z.E.R.O. are in the style of the Animatrix: they have similar starts and the narration is similar)

The KND Universe has several places that might place it in the real world, like the United States, Russia, Egypt, China, England, France, India, and Jamaica. However, there are some landmarks that can only be fiction, like a Sea of Asparagus or a Chocolate Volcano. A crossover with The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy means that Codename: Kids Next Door is part of their universe as well, where it is also referenced also.

Kids Next Door Organization

The Kids Next Door, or KND for short, is a worldwide organization of trained kids under the age of 13 who battle adult tyranny. The current age of the KND, the seventh age, was founded by Numbuh Zero, after he discovered “The book of KND”.

The current highest ranking official, the Supreme Commander, is Numbuh 362. The majority of the KND operatives work and live in treehouses called Sectors. For example, the KND treehouse in China is called Sector C and the treehouse in Jamaica is called Sector J. The KND Headquarters, the Moonbase, is located on the Moon. The second-most-important headquarters, the KND Arctic Base, serves as the training center for future KND operatives. The KND Prison is also located there.

All KND operatives start as Cadets Next Door. They are trained by Numbuh 60 in the Arctic Base. After completing training, the Cadets graduate at the Moonbase where they pick a codename (codenames are usually numbers, but they can also be letters). They then register by inserting their genetic material (i.e. booger) into the Code Module. After that, they are assigned to a sector and will work there until they are thirteen. When an operative turns thirteen, they will be decommissioned and all their memories as a KND operative will be removed. However, certain operatives will continue service undercover to report the plans of teens and adult faculties to the KND.

Characters

File:Sector V.png

From top to bottom: Numbuh 4, Numbuh 3, Numbuh 5, Numbuh 1 and Numbuh 2

The main five characters belong to Sector V, one of many groups in the overall KND network.

The Kids Next Door are regularly pitted against villains that embody the characteristics they resent. Among their more tenacious adversaries are Father and the Delightful Children from Down the Lane, well-behaved, obedient children who want to punish and destroy them for setting a bad example; the Common Cold, who blames children's germs for his cold and seeks to infect all people as sick as he is; Stickybeard, who, with his crew of Candy Pirates, sails about the city stealing candy from children; and Gramma Stuffum, who fattens up people with disgusting dishes from her bottomless cookpot, although Numbuh 2 seems to be semi-immune to her dishes' effects.

Other adults who aren't enemies of the Kids Next Door (most often their parents) are often hidden characters whose faces are not usually seen. As of 2006, viewers have seen all the children's parents with the notable exceptions of Numbuh Two's father (whose absence is a point of debate among fans) and the faces of Numbuh One's Mother and Four's Mother.

On occasion, the younger siblings of the Kids Next Door have accompanied them on missions. A few episodes feature Numbuh Three's younger sister Mushi (Operations S.P.A.C.E., K.A.S.T.L.E., N.U.G.G.E.T., and C.L.U.E.S.), Numbuh Four's baby brother Joey (Operations S.P.R.O.U.T. and D.O.D.G.E.B.A.L.L.) and Numbuh Two's younger brother Tommy has gone on to become an adult-fighting crusader himself (he was briefly a Kids Next Door member, codenamed "Numbuh T", but he took himself out of their database to save the group; the KND security system won't let him re-enlist, and at the time no one except Numbuh 86 knew that the Recommissioning Module was functioning which would explain why Numbuhs 2-5 got re-enlisted but Tommy didn't. He now goes by the alias "The Tommy" and functions as an independent operative.

The missions (Episode list)

Main article: List of Codename: Kids Next Door episodes

Trivia

• The show was originally going to be on Kids' WB!.
• The last name of each kid is a reference to his/her code name:
  • Numbuh 5 Abigail Lincoln: The U.S. $5 bill features Abraham Lincoln.
  • Numbuh 4 Wallabee Beetles: The Beatles had 4 members
  • Numbuh 3 Kuki Sanban: 三番 ([sanban] Error: {{nihongo}}: text has italic markup (help)) means "Number 3" in Japanese.
  • Numbuh 2 Hoagie P. Gilligan, Jr.: Gilligan, a character in the television comedy series Gilligan's Island, is the second in command of the S.S. Minnow. Also he was the second in his family to be named "Hoagie P. Gilligan".
  • Numbuh 1 Nigel Uno. "Uno" means One in Spanish and Italian.
• The KND also have THE aliases, which were part of the original series pitch but aren't directly mentioned on the show:
  • Numbuh 1="The Leader"
  • Numbuh 2="The Pilot" "The Inventor" "The Doofus"
  • Numbuh 3="The Girly One" "The Flirt"
  • Numbuh 4="The Tough Kid" "The Stupid One"
  • Numbuh 5="The Cool One" "The Quiet One" also second in command
• In a few episodes Numbuhs 1, 2, and 5 have ranks, and most likely the others do too, but those are not mentioned.
  • Numbuh 1="Supreme Tactical Commander of Sector V"
  • Numbuh 2="2x4 Technology Officer of Sector V"
  • Numbuh 5="Second in Command of Sector V"
• In Operation: C.A.K.E.D., Numbuh 4 was referred to as Wallace, not Wallabee. Also, in the original advertisements he was called "Wannabe," which was an ironic typo because he looked like a wanna-be Beatle.
• Numbuh 1 is the only "only child" of 1-5
• So far the series has inspired 2 videogames: "Operation: S.O.D.A." for the Game Boy Advance and "Operation: V.I.D.E.O.G.A.M.E." for the Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. Both games sold very badly.
• The KND musical score is composed by Stephen Rucker & Tom Chase. The end theme song is sung by Fake Brain.
• From season 4 (Ops R.A.B.B.I.T. and F.L.U.S.H. onwards), the closing credits were redone, so that they show on half the screen (the secret agent-themed crediting and closing theme remain) with a "beauty shot" on the right. This is usually showcasing a humorous event inspired from the episode which follows the ending. The storyboard of one such sequence can be seen here. (These type of credits were also used in the first two season 3 episodes (F.U.T.U.R.E., A.F.L.O.A.T., and L.E.A.D.E.R.), while other episodes in that season used the old credits.)
• KND were referred to in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. In the episode "Sickly Sweet", Grim was watching TV, and someone sounding like Numbuh 4 said: "Numbuh 3! Get back to the treehouse and clean up this Numbuh 2 mess, before Numbuh 1 gets back!"
  • Also in "Billy and Mandy vs. the Martians", when the kids see a hologram similar to the hologram in KND (Billy says "Hey, this isn't Codename: Kids Next Door! It's just as mesmerizing, though.")
  • A crossover with The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy will air after Season 6.
• In some episodes there is a kid that dresses like Ash Ketchum and, Numbuh 215 resembles Yugi Mutou (Yu-Gi-Oh!) except with glasses. This is probably a reference to several of the voice actors who have worked extensively with anime dubs.
• From episodes "C.A.K.E.D." through "C.A.K.E.D.-F.O.U.R." it seemed as though the KND were not getting older. By then, they would have been at least 13 as they were advertised as 10 years old. Apperently, episode "C.A.K.E.D.-F.I.V.E." cleared that up as Numbuh 1 says that we only get to do this 5 times every year (one for each of the individual Delightful Children's birthdays).
• The first KND movie aired August 11, 2006. It is called Operation: Z.E.R.O., {Zero Explanation Reveals Origins} in which the KND must recommission their greatest operative, Numbuh Zero.
• A live action film adaptation is currently being kicked around[[2]].
• In episode D.A.D.D.Y., Numbuh 1 says his baldness is due to his father's attempt to cut his hair, although in earlier episode F.O.U.N.T.A.I.N. he claimed it was the Delightfuls who caused it.
• In some episodes, Sheep from "Sheep in the Big City" made dozens of cameos throughout the seasons.
• Each of the KND Characters of Sector V have something that would cover up their eyes: Numbah 1's sunglasses, Numbah 2's goggles, Numbah 3 closes her eyes, Numbah 4's hair and Numbah 5's hat.
• The series didn't originally focus on kids fighting adults, but later on did.
• The show was originally "The Kids Who Lived Next Door".
• In earlier episodes Numbah 5 is seen wearing glasses.
• In many episodes, the plot is an altered twin of a famous Sci-fi/Horror/Action/Adventure movie. Such used are Star Wars, James Bond, Dawn of the Dead, Resident Evil, The Matrix, etc.
• In Op. A.R.C.H.I.V.E. there is a kid who plays pitcher wears Numbuh 5's hat. This might prove that the hat had been around for years.
• Sector V can be seen as a pun, such as V also stands for the number five as there are five kids.
• Several times both Knight Brace and the Toilenator use floss or toilet paper in the same manner Spider-Man uses his webs.

Titles in other languages

• Bulgarian: Кодово име: Съседските деца (literally: "The neighbor-kids")
• Danish: Kodenavn: Naboens børn (literally: "The neighbor-kids")
• Dutch: the title is the original English title, though the Dutch version has a Dutch-language script and voicecast. Even though sometimes they are called "kids van hiernaast"
• French: Nom de Code: KND
• German: Deckname KND
• Hebrew: שם קוד: המורדים (Shem kod: Ha-mordim, literally "Codename: The rebels")
• Hungarian: Rémkölykök (Jelszó: Kölyök, Nem Dedós) (literally: Gruesomekids (Password: The kid is not babyish!)
• Japanese: KND ハチャメチャ大作戦/KND: Hachamecha Daisakusen (literally "KND: Great Chaotic Operations")
• Lithuanian: Kaimynų vaikai (literally "Neighbour kids")
• Macedonian: Лозинка: Децата од соседството
• Norwegian: Kodenavn: Nabobarna
• Polish: Kryptonim: Klan Na Drzewie
• Portuguese:
  • Brasil: KND: A Turma do Bairro (also Kids from the Hood)
• Russian: Кодовое Имя: Соседские Ребята (literally "Codename: Neighborly Children")
• Italian: Nome in codice: KND Kommando Nuovi Diavoli
• Spanish
  • Spain: Código: KND
  • Latin America: KND: Los Chicos del Barrio (literally "Kids from the community" or "Kids from the Neighborhood")
• Swedish: Kodnamn: Grannungarna (Literally The neighbourkids)
• Traditional Chinese:小孩大聯盟 (literally "Child big alliance")

External links

• Official site at Cartoon Network (USA)
• Codename: Kids Next Door at Curious Pictures (producer)
• Stardrifter's Forum the Kids Next Door fanbase.
• The KND Oekaki Free online art program for Kids Next Door fans
• KNDpedia KND Encyclopedia Project