The PPG Movie

Seeing as how I have already come clean as a secret fan of "Kim Possible", I will confess to being a secret fan of another show that I also became aware of around the same time that as I was introduced to "Kim Possible". It was my first year of university and as an escape from the schoolwork; I would watch cartoons on Disney Channel and Cartoon Network (I grew up with Scooby Doo). This was in 2001-2002 and so "The Powerpuff Girls" was still on the air but the peak of their popularity took place between 1998-2000. During my first exposure to this TV show, there were no new episodes airing because the creators were making this movie. I did remember seeing the advertisements for the upcoming feature film but I first saw it online many years later after its release. Because I grew up as a kid watching other shows, especially animation produced by Disney, it took a few years to see past the unique style of "The Powerpuff Girls" and understand how it appeals to a wide range of ages. I kept thinking the TV show was only for kids when I first starting watching bits of it. It was only after seeing episodes like "Meet the Beat-Alls", "The Powerpuff Girls Best Rainy Day Adventure Ever" and "Monkey See, Doggy Two" when the show clicked in my head. "The Powerpuff Girls Movie" is an origin story and that can be entertaining enough. The movie isn't perfect but it stays true to the characteristics that made the TV show popular and unique. The movie also teaches the importance of inner value and believing in yourself among other values. I hoped to avoid critiquing the TV show but because this film is an origin story, I had to do so in order to explain the good points of the story being told in the movie.

Besides creator Craig McCracken (who is better at designing than animating), Genndy Tartakovsky had the greatest impact on the show. Tartakovsky would later go on to make the "Hotel Transylvania" films. Both men went to college together at CalArts. The genesis for the Powerpuff Girls was a birthday card McCracken made for his brother in 1991. The style of the cartoon that McCracken had in mind did not suite any animation studio at the time so he went to work for Cartoon Network (a division of Hanna-Barbera) when they wanted to change their style. The Powerpuff Girls were made into a short cartoon for a television showcase alongside other possible ideas for a series including "Dexter's Laboratory" (As a fun fact, the basis for "Family Guy" also originated there). Children focus groups' first impressions of Powerpuff were much like mine. It was different and a little weird. What the studio executives took away from this testing session was that kids took notice of the Powerpuff girls and did not overlook it. "Dexter's Laboratory" was the show that was made first as an original series of Cartoon Network. With Tartakovsky the creator of that series, McCracken was made the art director. After four seasons, the executives felt that show's success was proof that Powerpuff could work. The labor that McCracken was doing behind the scenes with the storyboards for "Dexter's Laboratory" was noteworthy and doing this animated series first also gave McCracken real-world experience. The crew working on "The Powerpuff Girls" was given a lot of creative freedom, which usually breeds success. Some hit shows take time to become popular for various reasons. Sometimes the animation is too crude or the crew is finding their footing in the first few seasons or the universe needs to be better established before the real creativity can happen. "This Powerpuff Girls" however was an immediate hit. This was a complete surprise to McCracken because he was making the show to mostly entertain himself. He couldn't even imagine the idea of a Delta plane with his characters drawn on the side of it for example. A popular animated cartoon show usually results in a movie of some kind. It can take the form of a multi-part episode or a TV movie but Cartoon Network went all out and requested a theatrical feature film. With this opportunity, McCracken set out to depict the girls as he originally conceived them. This did make the movie enjoyable but not as fun as the TV show.

"The Powerpuff Girls" series never had an origin story as an episode in its first season because McCracken wanted to put the focus of the show on the characters. This brings me to what makes the TV show special and these qualities apply to the movie as well. "The Powerpuff Girls" are known for contrast, a signature sense of comedic timing/pacing and, as mentioned, the characters. The idea of kindergarten superhero crime fighters is original enough but McCracken went for even more contrast by making his protagonists "the perfect little girls". The idea is that their design contrasts their abilities and that in turn makes them more heroic. McCracken also didn't pull a Huey, Dewey and Louie (even though E.G. Daily previously voiced Louie for Disney television). You can tell the girls are related but they have different hairstyles, personalities and their color schemes vary. Their final design alone would not necessarily hint that they had superpowers. Many superheroes, such as those in comic books or on other animated shows, have an outfit or a physique that implies their enhanced nature. With the Powerpuff Girls, they have exaggerated eyes and heads to make them cute but that doesn't suggest the idea of superpowers or crime fighting. Some comparisons could be made to the three good fairies from "Sleeping Beauty" but McCracken actually mixed the styles of Hanna-Barbera and UPA (United Productions of America). A simpler way to describe the design of this show is "The Jetsons" meets "Gerald McBoing Boing" with a dash of Margret Keane's waifs (this is where Ms. Keane from the TV show gets her name from). The use of color and sound in the asteroid scene is also another example of contrast. While the TV show is full of moments where the timing and pace create comedy, this is a review of "The Powerpuff Girls Movie" and so I will use the tag scene to illustrate this second unique quality (this scene will also help illustrate many additional points about this film). The editing and aforementioned contrast also plays a part with the sense of comic timing and pacing. The damage to the city all came from a lesson on how to play tag. Mitch methodically teaches the girls how to play the simplest child's game that exists and it contrasts the consequences that are about to befall the entire city. The sequence is not only filled with long pauses in the action or sound but there is the intercutting of clips that contrast each other. Not only do we see this in the tag scene but also on the morning of the climax as shots of Mojo and the girls getting up are shown together. The disparity of the Mojo shots compared to the shots of the girls is palpable and the editing fully exhibits the contrast.

The characters in "The Powerpuff Girls" are probably what people most like about the show and by extension, the movie. The cool thing about the movie is that we get to see how these characters came into existence. The names of the protagonists describe their personalities with the exception of Buttercup. During the development of the show, a name was needed that started with a "B" and was two syllables. The original name that McCracken came up with was Bud until a friend thought up Buttercup. The scene where the girls are named makes a joke out of all this. Buttercup is the most likely of the three girls to lose her temper but whenever she does, she is remorseful. When you think about it, the girls may be described as perfect but in truth they have weaknesses. The way I see it, incorruptibility and purity justify this sense of perfection that they are branded with. The reason why the girls have weaknesses is to be relatable to their audience. Blossom's obedience and controlling nature as the leader are her weaknesses but this was more evident in the TV series and less so in the movie. Bubbles' shy nature and tenderness is her weakness. "The tag incident" also effectively depicts the varied personalities of the protagonists. Blossom uses her brain to tag Bubbles and Buttercup uses her aggressiveness at the expense of the city to catch her sisters (When you think about it, the tag sequence is a showcase of everything that made the TV show special). The voice talent behind the show needs to be mentioned. All three actresses that voice the girls are well chosen because they naturally harmonize with each other. Blossom is the melody, Bubbles provides the upper harmony while Buttercup supplies the lower harmony. The two voice actors from "The Powerpuff Girls" who deserve the most praise in my opinion are Tara Strong and Roger L. Jackson. Strong's voice acting resume is extensive to say the least. She can also effectively voice little boys in cartoons. The vocal pitch she used in the creation of her character's voice was spot on. To me, Strong makes Bubbles the funniest of the three girls. In the TV show whenever Bubbles is sarcastic or sassy, it is way too funny. Her laugh in character is also quite contagious. Other classic comedy moments came from when Bubbles was over-the-top cute. Not only can Strong make a funny line even funnier such as in the episode "Bubblevision", she can also take a line that was not meant to be funny and make it so. Case in point: "You're no monster, Mister. You're just really dirty." When originally creating the villains for the show, Craig McCracken followed a scale or spectrum on which he could place his villains, ranging from really dumb to really evil. On one end of the scale are the dim-witted Amoeba Boys who are far from evil while at the other end of the spectrum is Him, as evil and conniving as they come. Mojo Jojo (as voiced by Jackson) can be found right in the middle of the spectrum and this made him the perfect central villain for the series. He could exude both silliness and evil in a balanced way. Jackson is best known for his role in the "Scream" films but if you ask me, Jackson's parody of the English translation of "Speed Racer" that he uses to voice Mojo can't be beat. Unfortunately, Mojo is funnier in the TV show and that is one area of the movie where the creators screwed up. There is a lot to be said for making him formidable for the dramatic requirements of a feature film but what made him originally special was how funny he was. He was a manipulator in the series and this is a major part of his character in the movie. He also demonstrates his stupidity in the movie by giving the apes and monkeys his level of intelligence, which causes a revolt. That moment in the show was kind of annoying by the way. When I first saw a clip from "The Powerpuff Girls", I immediately recognized E.G. Daily from "Rugrats". Previous to "The Powerpuff Girls", Tara Strong and E.G. Daily both had roles in "The Rugrats Movie" by the way. I first heard Cathy Cavadini's voice in "An American Tail: Fievel Goes West". Other notable voice actors among so many in this movie/TV show include Tom Kane and Tom Kenny.

The story of the movie isn't half bad either despite some flaws at the start and the fact that the whole movie not being as entertaining as one of the TV show episodes. The episodes are funny while the story of the movie has a slightly more serious tone. The movie exists to tell the story of how the protagonists go from being perfect little girls who accidentally got superpowers to becoming the crime fighting city protectors we know. It's not like this story however is completely unknown to fans. After all, the TV show's opening title sequence features how the girls came into existence and the series also contains two episodes ("Mr. Mojo's Rising" and "Get Back Jojo") that explore the girls' origin story. The film fortunately doesn't deviate from what we already know about how the Powerpuff Girls came to be. I love continuity as a film fan. Their creation story is practically memorized by fans so that is why this moment is given very little time in the film. This however brings problems with the narrative flow because the girls are created at the very start of the movie. Most traditional film narratives have an inciting incident that introduces the main plotline or conflict. One would think that a movie about the origin of the Powerpuff Girls would have their creation as the inciting incident but in actually, it is the game of tag the girls have. Perhaps another reason why the creation is played out quickly at the start of the film is to make time for the girls to develop relationships before the story really gets underway. The scenes of their first day at home with Professor Utonium and their first day at school before playing tag are vital to the movie because they play a big part in the climax, affecting the decisions that the girls make. In any case, the narrative flow might have been even stronger if the film had taken more time to establish the need for perfect little girls in a town with a serious crime issue and in the life of a lonely scientist. When the Professor is mixing in the ingredients to create the girls, his body positions are the same as the opening shots of every episode minus the silhouette. That is a nice touch as is the naming of the protagonists.

Because of the style and premise of the original TV show, the filmmakers don't have to work hard to make their story stand out from other superhero origin stories. First of all, most superheroes are not born with their powers. In the case of Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup, they are not only born with their powers but they also instinctively know how to use them. Many other superhero movies such as Superman take the audience on a journey as the protagonist discovers how to handle their new powers and this allows us to relate to them. As illustrated earlier, what makes the Powerpuff Girls charming and relatable are their personalities and design. Their powers and origin do not define them and I am sure that fans would agree. For example, they are as happy to get presents as any other children would be and they are perfectly polite before and during the revelation of their powers to the Professor. Chemical X didn't give the girls their outward appearance but rather gave them hidden superpowers. Their lack of fingers and toes is a result of their creation in a lab in my opinion. It is plausible that those at Pokey Oaks can't tell at first that the girls are abnormal because when you compare the design of the girls to that of the other human characters, there isn't as much of a difference as you might think. Other characters in the show/movie have large heads and large eyes. After the girls learn how to play tag, they don't use their powers immediately. It is only when they innocently get carried away, as kids always do, that chaos ensues. Another original element is that after being created, the Powerpuff Girls are naive to the fact that their powers are what make them different from other characters in the movie. After arriving home, the girls are oblivious to the fact that they just participated in a very extreme game of tag. In their minds, it was only part of their day because they also "met lots of kids" and "learned things". All this adds to their appeal and it creates sympathy for them later in the story. The girls end up going on a slightly different journey for superheroes of learning how to fit in because they don't have secret identities. They also must discover what to do with their powers. The girls' naivety concerning their abilities is why the Professor accepts them as super-powered children. At first, he is excited about the prospect of being an instant parent (so much so that he leaves the girls home alone to buy them presents). Upon the discovery of their powers, he is as surprised as anyone would be but he accepts the girls as is even before Bubbles calls him "Dad" and kisses him. He can see past the powers because he succeeded in creating the well-behaved kids he always wanted. As with normal children, the girls are born with unique personalities that are further developed as they learn and interact with the outside world. I once again use the tag scene to illustrate. Both Blossom and Buttercup use different tactics in playing the game. Blossom uses her brains while Buttercup plays destructively. In my opinion, the Powerpuff Girl who undertakes the most active journey of self-discovery is Buttercup. Her personality originates to some extent from the moment when she is named because she doesn't really like her name. She doesn't start out as aggressive as her TV self. In addition to the tag scene, Mojo's manipulation and her frustration with trying to save the talking dog feed her aggressive side. I would say Buttercup has a tendency towards aggressiveness as opposed to being inherently aggressive. Blossom is also discovering herself as the leader of her sisters. She follows the rules and is able to see Buttercup's outburst towards the gorilla as the ultimate solution to the crisis. All the girls end up reaching their full potential because of their fundamental good natures. Thankfully, they also have a good father figure to teach them how to win people over if you are different. The lesson that is taught to the girls and to us is that people need time and chances to see past your differences. By just being you, people can eventually be won over. The Professor is not suppressing the girls in any way. He is trying to educate them so that other people will be able to accept them the way he accepts them. When the girls aren't picked up from school, they react realistically by blaming themselves and assuming that the Professor hates them along with the rest of the town. Despite this, they haven't forgotten Professor Utonium's important lesson and they accordingly don't use their powers to get home. They also try to pass the lesson onto another seemingly misunderstood individual: Mojo Jojo.

"The Powerpuff Girls Movie" is an origin story for Mojo as well and it is fitting considering the fact that he is the girls' arch-nemesis. Just as in the TV episode "Mr. Mojo's Rising", he gains super intelligence from the same blast that created the girls. He is therefore not naive to the fact that the girls have immediately replaced him in the Professor's life. His destructive nature before his transformation is also a factor in why he became a super villain. Mojo is also not oblivious to the fact that the world will now fear him and his newly acquired intelligence. So if he can't get the world to accept him, then he will force it to. He uses the good nature and innocence of the girls to achieve his evil goal. Mojo also is able to manipulate the girls by twisting the Professor's lesson to suit his mentality. The Professor knows how useful the girls' superpowers can be but time is required for the girls to first be accepted by society before they reach their full potential. Mojo changes the order by implying that society will only accept you after you have achieved full potential. It is backwards thinking because for example, you can't prove yourself a leader by flaunting your leadership skills in front of others. You have to earn respect so that others will value you in charge and then your skills can take you the rest of the way. Mojo however wants happiness now. He wants the girls to use their powers to change the public's minds as opposed to letting moral fiber win people over. Ironically, he calls the girls "pure and innocent" when they first meet but he also says that people "fear and despite you for the very things that make you special." This is his major flaw in the story of the movie because he views only his intelligence and the girls' powers as what makes each of them special. Mojo fails to see that what truly makes him unique is that he's evil. He also doesn't understand that the Powerpuff Girls are special because they are "pure and innocent and most certainly loved." He sees innate morality as a weakness instead of as the true superpower. He also mistakenly views the world as a cruel place. Lord Voldemort has many the same flaws. Superheroes and super villains in many cases have things in common. Batman and his villains are the prime examples of this and the story of "The Powerpuff Girls Movie" explores this fact. The girls and Mojo can relate to each other because all of them are freaks and outcasts. However, despite these similarities, there are obvious differences between the protagonists and antagonist that make them such. Mojo's underlying issue is that he is bitter for being replaced by the girls. He blames others unlike the girls who innocently blame themselves. Once the girls understand the fear that comes from being different, they view their powers as a curse but Mojo feels his power makes him better than others. This fuels his bitterness. Mojo's plan is not just to take over the town but also to turn the town completely against the girls, who are the only ones who can foil his scheme. When the girls return to Townsville and discover how to stop Mojo, he then must try to win them over to his side. This fails because it involves the girls becoming something they're not, something against their nature. As I said before, they were created as the perfect little girls and just happen to be given superpowers. It is true that the girls use their powers to change the hearts and minds of the town but the girls had to do this out of necessity to save the town. Their actions however prove to the town the strength of their inner qualities. The girls come to see their powers as a blessing to keep their father & town safe and it is another reason why they reject Mojo's climatic offer. Mojo Jojo's has had a variety of plans in the series so it is interesting and lucky that the creators of the show hadn't thought of this scheme for Mojo to use in world domination until now. Perhaps its epic scale is one reason in that this plot couldn't have easily fit even into a 30-minute episode. When you have an evil plot like this by the way, it is impossible not to make references to "Planet of the Apes" and "King Kong". I also liked the brief reference to Sesame Street News.

I have a few more aspects of the film I wish to point out as I wrap up. The plot point of Antidote X was too convenient in resolving the conflict but the reference to the "Three Wise Monkeys" in the scene on the asteroid was smart. The montage of the girls walking home at night past the destruction they caused with the Professor providing voice over is well conceived. In feature film form, the creators of "The Powerpuff Girls" have the budget to create clean animation with impressive moving shots. The best one, that is yet another example of the contrast that the TV show is known for, has Mojo laughing over his plan as the camera moves out of his evil lair and finishes on the sleeping, smiling girls in their room. The musical composer for this movie wrote the score for the TV show as well. James L. Venable in the movie had the budget to compose a grandiose score that is different but still reminiscent of his work for the series. With one exception, the musical cue of the Powerpuff Girls theme isn't heard until the girls learn they can use their powers to fight and that is a cool choice. Some critics thought the feature film was too violent but I disagree. When you look at some TV show episodes, there is more violence than what you see in the climax of "The Powerpuff Girls Movie".

After making the movie, the creators continued with the show to create a total of six seasons but decided to quit while the show was still enjoyable to watch like "Seinfeld". For a time, this was the only Cartoon Network original show that spawned a theatrical movie. It wasn't until 13 years after "The Powerpuff Girls Movie" that Cartoon Network released another theatrical feature. I think I had too much time on my hands on the day I wrote this. You would think that a review this long would warrent a high rating but the movie was not as funny, light-hearted or silly as the TV show. This is why I gave the movie the rating that I did. Creator Craig McCracken not only tells an origin story but takes the characters themselves back to their origins. In trying to hearken back to his initial concept for the protagonists, he delivers a film and a story that is cool and draws you in but it leaves you longing for the aforementioned aspects that of the TV show that were left out. Giving the Powerpuff Girls a dramatic, action-packed angle has its benefits but also drawbacks because the movie is a tad different from what we are used to. This is probably the reason why the film got mostly positive reviews but only made a 5 million dollars profit at the box office.

4 Stars out of 5