18 years ago today, Cartoon Network premiered its most epic crossover, but you can’t really stream it anymore without jumping through some major hoops to do so. Cartoon Network might not be as strong today as it used to be, and that’s because there has been a wider shift away from children’s programming. The 2000s were a very strong era for the network with lots of original shows making their debut with an energy that really couldn’t be matched anywhere else. Making matters even better was the fact that these shows often felt like they lived in the same worlds throughout a wider Cartoon Network universe.
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This became very real with Codename: Kids Next Door and The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. The two shows were some of Cartoon Network’s biggest bright spots of the 2000s era, and they became an even brighter spot when the two of them collided into a brand new crossover that perfectly helped to fuse them together. The Grim Adventures of the KND first premiered with Cartoon Network on November 11, 2007, 18 years ago today, but it’s tough to revisit these days if you wanted to check it out because of how both shows have been removed from streaming services.
What Is The Grim Adventures of the KND?
The Grim Adventures of the KND is an official crossover special between Maxwell Atoms’ The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and Mr. Warburton’s Codename: Kids Next Door. Taking place of the Season 6 finale of Codename: Kids Next Door, the special collides both series together into a story that perfectly blends both of their worlds. Both series have wild exaggerated elements, but maintain a grounded setting. The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy is allowed to explore of the magic thanks to the Grim Reaper, but Codename: Kids Next Door instead focuses on technology and expands its world on it that way.
The episode finds a hilarious way to bring them together as when Billy wears hid dad’s pants and gets Grim’s scythe stuck in them, he asks the Kids Next Door for help. Numbuh One decides to take Billy’s place to keep Billy’s parents from finding out, and Billy ends up going to their headquarters. It’s not long before Mandy figures out what’s going on, and ultimately makes it to the headquarters herself. Hilariously, she does what fans would expect and eventually takes over the entire organization without much trouble.
Meanwhile, Grim’s power starts getting used by one of the Kids Next Door’s biggest villains, the Delightful Children From Down the Lane. They begin to fuse into a massive Grim Reaper sort of monster that starts to suck up all sorts of other kids around the series. It’s an epic scale for both series that often go to such fantastical heights, and it’s a perfect way to take them to that much bigger scale that feels like it’s all fitting within the characters and personalities that both shows had demonstrated before that point.
What Happened to the Grim Adventures of the KND?
Because it’s slated within a Season 6 episode of Codename: Kids Next Door, it’s not exactly easy to find this crossover special. But it’s not exactly easy to stream it. Because the series has been removed from streaming platforms like HBO Max that originally hosted it, there are no more options to legally stream it in that way. If you wanted to watch it digitally, or through an online service, the only option is to purchase it entirely. It’s not that big of a purchase in the grand scheme, but it’s definitely a barrier to entry.
It’s a shame because this crossover is the best one that Cartoon Network has ever done officially. The creators of both franchises worked together to combine their series in the way that would seem fitting for all of the characters involved, and it just makes a lot of sense when you see it all play out. It’s a crossover that was such a huge event when it happened that Cartoon Network surprisingly never really tried another event of that level ever again. That’s what ultimately made it all the more special when it premiered all those years ago.
There have been crossover promos and advertisements in between each of the shows, but this was the rare time where we got to see a full combination of both shows. It was almost a miracle to see how well the two shows worked well together, and it came during a time where Cartoon Network was in the spirit of experimentation. But now it’s harder to watch if you missed it all those years ago without paying an extra bit for it, and that’s just a shame.
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Image courtesy of 2th Century Studios -
image courtesy of 20th Century Studios
