The Powerpuff Girls
The Powerpuff Girls is an American animated superhero television series created by Craig McCracken for Cartoon Network. The show centers on Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, three kindergarten-aged girls with superpowers. They live in the fictional city of Townsville with their father and creator, a scientist named Professor Utonium, and are frequently called upon by the city's mayor to help fight nearby criminals and other enemies using their powers.
While attending his second year at CalArts in 1992, McCracken created a short film, Whoopass Stew!, about a trio of child superheroes known as the Whoopass Girls, which was only shown at festivals. Following his hiring by Hanna-Barbera, McCracken changed its name to The Powerpuff Girls and produced the series' pilot for their What a Cartoon! series, which premiered during the Space Ghost Coast to Coast episode "1st Annual World Premiere Toon-In" on February 20, 1995. After a second episode, "Crime 101", aired on January 28, 1996. Network executives gave McCracken the greenlight for a full series, which debuted as a Cartoon Cartoon on November 18, 1998.
The Powerpuff Girls aired on Cartoon Network for six seasons, three specials, and a feature film, with the final episode airing on March 25, 2005. A total of 78 episodes were produced, in addition to the two pilots, a Christmas special, the film, a tenth anniversary special, and a special episode in computer animation. Various spin-off media include an anime, three CD soundtracks, a home video collection, comic books, a series of video games, a 2016 reboot series, and an upcoming reboot series, as well as various licensed merchandise. The series has been nominated for six Emmy Awards, nine Annie Awards, and a Kids' Choice Award during its run.
Premise
The show revolves around the adventures of three kindergarten-aged girls with an array of various superpowers: Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup. The plot of an episode is usually some humorous variation of standard superhero and tokusatsu shows, with the girls using their powers to defend their town from villains and giant monsters. In addition, the girls have to deal with the normal issues that young children face, such as sibling rivalries, loose teeth, personal hygiene, going to school, bed wetting, or dependence on a security blanket. Episodes often contain hidden references to older pop culture. The cartoon always tries to keep different ideas within each episode with some small tributes and parodies thrown in.The show is set mainly in the city of Townsville, USA. Townsville is depicted as a major American city, with a cityscape consisting of several major skyscrapers. In his review of The Powerpuff Girls Movie, movie critic Bob Longino of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said, "the intricate drawings emanate 1950s futuristic pizzazz like a David Hockney scenescape," and that the show is "one of the few American creations that is both gleeful pop culture and exquisite high art."
Episodes
Characters
As depicted in the opening sequence of each episode, the Powerpuff Girls Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup were created by Professor Utonium in an attempt to create the "perfect little girl" using a mixture of "sugar, spice, and everything nice". However, he accidentally spilled a mysterious substance called "Chemical X" into the mixture, creating three girls and granting them superpowers, including flight, superhuman strength, superhuman speed, superhuman senses, limited invulnerability, x-ray vision, red heat vision, energy projection, space survivability, and thermal resistance. In the original concept, the accidental substance was a can of "Whoopass", which was replaced by "Chemical X" in the television show.The three girls all have abnormally large eyes inspired by Margaret Keane's art, and stubby arms and legs, and lack of noses, ears, fingers, flat feet, toes, and necks. McCracken preferred them to look more symbolic of actual children rather than going for a "realistic" look, meaning fewer body parts were needed. Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup normally wear dresses that match the colors of their eyes with black stripes, as well as white stockings and black Mary Janes. They individually represent body, mind and spirit, and despite being the same age, they adopt the characteristics of the oldest, middle and youngest child. The closing theme song offers a nutshell description of their personalities: Blossom, commander and the leader. Bubbles, she is the joy and the laughter. Buttercup, she is the toughest fighter.
File:2017 LA Comic Con - Powerpuff Girls cast.jpg|thumb|The show's main cast, from left to right: E. G. Daily, Tara Strong, Cathy Cavadini, and Tom Kane
- Blossom is the self-appointed leader of the Powerpuff Girls. Her personality ingredient is "everything nice", her signature color is pink, and she has long orange hair with a red bow. She was named for having spoken freely and honestly to the Professor shortly after her creation, as shown in The Powerpuff Girls Movie. She often behaves as the most level-headed and composed member of the group, with a strong and determined attitude. Her unique abilities include ice breath, microscopic vision, lightning bolts, and advanced intelligence. As the leader, she is a master strategist and apt planner, so she figures everything out and keeps control of the situations.
- Bubbles is the "softest and sweetest" of the three. She is the most innocent and childish, as she most enjoys the regular occupations of any child, such as playing games and coloring. Her personality ingredient is "sugar", her signature color is blue, and she has blonde hair in pigtails. Bubbles is kind and sweet, but she is also capable of extreme rage and fights just as well as her sisters. She loves animals and her best friend is a stuffed octopus doll she calls "Octi". She has the ability to both understand multiple languages and communicate with various animals. Her unique powers are projecting powerful sonic screams, and creating a shockwave of thunder with a single clap from her hands.
- Buttercup is described as a "tough hotheaded tomboy". Her personality ingredient is "spice", her signature color is green, and she has short black hair in a bob cut. She loves to fight hard, play rough and get dirty; she does not plan and only wants to punish the bad guys instead of solving the crimes. Her unique powers are curling her tongue, spinning into a tornado, and creating fireballs by rubbing her hands together until smoke comes out. This action forms a flaming ball that she throws at an opponent. McCracken originally wanted to name the character "Bud", until a friend suggested the name Buttercup.
Production
While he was working on 2 Stupid Dogs in 1992, McCracken's Whoopass Girls short was picked up for a series by Cartoon Network. The name Whoopass was dropped for inclusion as part of the What a Cartoon! animated shorts showcase. McCracken explained that Cartoon Network executives believed no one would make a children's show with the word "ass" in it, so the title changed to The Powerpuff Girls and the "can of whoopass" was renamed "Chemical X". McCracken's new short, titled "Meat Fuzzy Lumpkins", premiered during the Space Ghost Coast to Coast episode 1st World Premiere Toon-In on February 20, 1995; the episode, written by Matt Maiellaro, had McCracken humorously present the short while wearing an elaborate swimsuit in front of Space Ghost, after "winning" as pre-determined by Cartoon Network. Despite this, the short was not as popular as Dexter's Laboratory, a project McCracken and former classmate Genndy Tartakovsky worked on together; being the most popular of the shorts, Dexter's Laboratory was the first to be greenlit by the network. Furthermore, McCracken's cartoon did not do well with a test audience composed by 11-year-old boys; "They were saying, 'This is stupid, little girls can't be heroes'", he recalled in 1999. They also found the girls' designs to be disturbing, which caused McCracken to panic and attempt to redesign them in a more realistic style. However, Cartoon Network executive Mike Lazzo convinced McCracken to stay true to his original vision, and allowed him to produce a second Powerpuff Girls short titled "Crime 101", which aired on What a Cartoon! in early 1996. Veteran ABC announcer Ernie Anderson, who narrated the pilot episodes and died of cancer in 1997, was replaced by Tom Kenny when it became a series.
Following the second short, Cartoon Network picked up The Powerpuff Girls for a regular animated series. McCracken said that the show did not go through a large development process, but he was advised to change the name of the three main characters to Pink, Blue and Green, since the network executives found it hard to differentiate them by Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup. Instead, he put together a bible for the show, explaining the essential aspects of the characters. The Powerpuff Girls series debuted on November 18, 1998, and was the highest-rated premiere in Cartoon Network's history at the time. During its run, the series consistently scored the highest rating for an original series each week for the network across a wide range of demographics—from young children to adults. In October 2000, Cartoon Network credited the series for its Friday night prime time ratings win among cable networks. By the end of 2000, merchandising based on the series encompassed a whole variety of products, including T-shirts, toys, video games, lunchboxes, and dishware. Concerning the show's success, Craig McCracken has stated, "I thought it would get on Cartoon Network and college kids would watch it and there would be a few random T-shirts out there in the rave scene or in record shops. But I had no idea that it would take off to this extent."
A theatrical film based on the show, The Powerpuff Girls Movie, was also commissioned in 2000 and was released on July 3, 2002. The production of the film marked the series' switch from traditional cel animation to the digital ink and paint technique. Initially, McCracken had wanted to stick to the traditional method, feeling that computer animation still lacked the "visceral feeling" of cel animation, and that he and his team were "purists" of the medium. All of the original episodes were hand-drawn and produced at the Korean studio Rough Draft Studios, and the cost per each episode was $500,000.
Following the series' fourth season, the closing of Hanna-Barbera Productions and the death of its executive William Hanna in 2001, along with the muted reception to The Powerpuff Girls Movie, McCracken left the series to focus on developing his next animated series for the network, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, leaving Chris Savino to take his place while production of The Powerpuff Girls was moved to Cartoon Network Studios. The show's last original run episode was on March 25, 2005; in all, six seasons were made. Cartoon Network had offered to give McCracken and Savino a seventh season of the series, but they believed six was enough, and that the series had run its course.
James L. Venable, Thomas Chase, & Steve Rucker composed the opening theme of the series, and Scottish band Bis performed the ending theme song, as played during the credits. The opening theme uses a sped-up drum break sample of "Funky Drummer" performed by Clyde Stubblefield.