Jump to content

The Powerpuff Girls

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 12.221.190.13 (talk) at 17:11, 18 December 2005. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Powerpuff Girls
The Powerpuff Girls with Professor Utonium
Created byCraig McCracken
StarringCathy Cavadini
E.G. Daily
Tara Strong
Tom Kane
Tom Kenny
Roger L. Jackson
Jennifer Hale
Jennifer Martin
Jim Cummings
Jeff Bennett
Kath Soucie
Country of originUSA
No. of episodes78
Production
Running time30 minutes (15 minutes per episode)
Original release
NetworkCartoon Network
ReleaseNovember 18, 1998 –
2004

The Powerpuff Girls is an animated series starring three little girls with superpowers who have dedicated their lives to fighting crime and the forces of evil. The series was created by animator Craig McCracken, and first produced by Hanna-Barbera for Cartoon Network.

The show began as a project for Craig McCracken's college class at California Institute of the Arts in 1992, titled The Whoop-Ass Girls. Spike and Mike premiered the short at their Festival of Animation. They then funded a fully drawn color short, "A Sticky Situation," that also featured the Amoeba Boys. In 1995, they were renamed to the more TV friendly Powerpuff Girls as a few more episodes and new antagonists, "Meat Fuzzy Lumpkins" and "Crime 101," appeared on the What-A-Cartoon! show. A full-length TV series was aired in 1998. The Powerpuff Girls Movie was released in 2002.

One complaint that has been lodged against cartoon programming in general is that there are more cartoons targeted at boys than at girls. The reason for this, to make a long story short, is that girls also watch "boy" cartoons, whereas most boys won't touch "girl" cartoons. The Powerpuff Girls is a rare example of a "girl" cartoon that is also popular among boys.

Characters

The Powerpuff Girls

  • Blossom (voiced by Cathy Cavadini): Red-haired, pink-eyed, and dressed in pink. According to the theme tune, she is "the commander and the leader" (aka the bookish, drill instructor-ish one).
  • Bubbles (voiced by Kath Soucie in the What-a-Cartoon! episodes and Tara Strong in the series): Blond-haired, blue-eyed, and dressed in blue. She is "the joy and the laughter" (a.k.a. the spacey one).
  • Buttercup (voiced by E.G. Daily): Black-haired, green-eyed, and dressed in green. She is "the toughest fighter" (aka the violent one).

They live in the fictional city of Townsville, USA (not to be confused with Townsville, Australia). They were created by Professor Utonium, who was attempting to make the perfect little girl by combining sugar, spice, and everything nice, when (courtesy of his assistant, Mojo Jojo) he accidentally knocked a glass of "Chemical X" into the mixture.

The girls are super-cute and super-powerful. They have abnormally large eyes and no fingers or toes.

They also have many super-powers similar to those possessed by Superman. Including:

  • Super-strength.
  • Ability to fly.
  • Super-speed.
  • Ability to project a variety of energy blasts.

In some cases, they utilize special team maneuvers to take down their foes, such as Ferocious Fiery Feline (the girls combine to create a cat of pure fire).

Others include:

  • A triple attack from side to side and front.
  • Spinning around fast enough to create after-image doubles.
  • Turning into a ball to save people or strike them out.
  • And a twister with devastating after-effects.

There was a fourth Powerpuff Girl named Bunny (voiced by Christine Cavanaugh), who was brown-haired, purple-eyed, and dressed in purple. When, the three original girls couldn't handle all their crime-fighting activities any more, they decided to create a new Powerpuff Girl themselves, but she didn't turn out exactly as planned. Bunny appears to be mentally challenged.

Townsville Citizens

Friends and allies of the Girls include:

  • Professor Utonium: A scientist who creates the Powerpuff Girls in this series.
  • Ms. Keane: Teacher of Pokey Oaks Kindergarten (voiced by Jennifer Hale)
  • Mayor of Townsville: An empty-headed mayor who is referred throughout only as "Mayor". In one episode where he was forced to run for re-election as Mayor, he ran with the campaign slogan "Vote Mayor for mayor!". (voiced by Tom Kenny, who also serves as the show's narrator)
  • Ms. Sara Bellum: Mayor's very competent assistant, the statuesque redheaded person, whose face is always just out of shot. (most likely a reference to the initial appearance of redhead Mary Jane Watson in Spider-Man.) She is named after the cerebellum. (voiced by Jennifer Martin)

Enemies of the Powerpuff Girls

The girls also frequently combat a wide assortment of giant monsters, all of which seem to visit Earth solely for the purpose of demolishing Townsville.

One-time villain appearances include:

  • Femme Fatale
  • Abracadaver
  • Roach Coach
  • The Smiths (their next door neighbors)
  • The Dooks of Doom
  • The Boogie Man

Furthermore, a group of unsuccessful bank robbers is often seen suffering the consequences of their deeds.

Major Man came to Townsville trying to take the girls' place but it was discovered he was nothing but a big fraud and the girls made him leave Townsville.

Miscellaneous

  • The Amoeba Boys: The harmless pack of amoebae who first appeared in the "World Premiere Toons" "Crime 101," are somewhere in between enemies and friends. That is, their crimes are as primitive as their species (they considered stealing a discarded orange to be their greatest crime ever), and they have some ties with the Powerpuff Girls.

Episodes

78 episodes in 6 seasons, and 1 self-titled movie called The Powerpuff Girls Movie, have been made. In The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, Jody Irwin, one of Juniper's best friends claims there are over three hundred episodes. However, no more episodes have been planned. An anime version of this series, Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z is being planned.

The Powerpuff Girls in other languages

  • Arabic: الفتايات (simply 'The Girls', although in show they tend to be called 'الفتايات الخأرقات ' 'The Amazing Girls')
  • Chinese: Literally: "Flying Tiny Female Cops"
  • Finnish: Tehotytöt
  • French: Les Super Nanas
  • Hebrew: בנות הפאוורפאף (B'not Ha-Powerpuff - "The Girls of Powerpuff")
  • Hungarian: Pindúr Pandúrok (Literally "Tiny cops")
  • Icelandic: Stuðboltastelpurnar ("the energetic girls", literally "the energy-ball girls")
  • Italian: Le Superchicche
  • Latvian: Detektīvmeitenes (Literally "Detective girls")
  • Japanese: パワーパフガールズ(Pawāpafugāruzu(Powerpuff Girls))
  • Polish: Atomówki (Literally "Little atomic girls")
  • Portuguese:
  • Russian: Крутые девчонки (Krutie Devchonki, literally "Kick-ass Girls")
  • Spanish:
    • Latin America: Las Chicas Superpoderosas
      • NOTE: Originally (in the "World Premiere Toon" times), they were called "Las Chicas Coquetas" which roughly translates to "The Fashionable Girls" or "The Flirty Girls." This was changed before the series started(the first season originally aired as "Chicas Coquetas", reruns were re dubbed) .
    • Spain: Las Supernenas
  • Swedish: Powerpuffpinglorna

See also

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=The_Powerpuff_Girls&oldid=31861504"