The Powerpuff Girls Movie

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The Powerpuff Girls Movie
The Powerpuff Girls Movie DVD cover
Directed by	Craig McCracken
Produced by	Donna Castricone
Written by	Craig McCracken Lauren Faust Don Shank Amy Rogers
Starring	Cathy Cavadini Tara Strong E.G. Daily Roger L. Jackson Tom Kenny Jennifer Hale Jennifer Martin Tom Kane Jeff Bennett Grey DeLisle Phil LaMarr Rob Paulsen Kevin Michael Richardson Frank Welker
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	July 3, 2002
Running time	73 minutes
Language	English
IMDb profile

The Powerpuff Girls Movie (also known as The Powerpuff Girls and The Powerpuff Girls: The Movie) is an animated feature-length film based on the Cartoon Network animated television series The Powerpuff Girls. Produced by Cartoon Network for Warner Bros. Studios, the film debuted in the U.S. on July 3, 2002. It was more or less a prelude of the television series, telling the story of how the Powerpuff Girls were created and how they came to be the defenders of Townsville, USA.

[edit] Synopsis

Townsville (a fictional city) is ruled by criminals and villains. As the Narrator (Tom Kenny) describes the situation, we see Professor Utonium buy some sugar and spice in a supermarket before making a dash for safety when a criminal (Fuzzy Lumpkins) aims a rifle at the check clerk. Utonium returns to his home where he attempts to create the perfect child using sugar, spice and everything nice, but his experiment goes wrong when his mischievous chimpanzee, Jojo, collides with the formula and spills Chemical X into the mixture, causing a massive explosion. The mixture spills all over Jojo and throws him out of a window.

After the explosion, Utonium regains consciousness and finds himself staring into the adorable eyes of three tiny girls. They scare him by simply saying "Hello," and telling him that they are his creations. Utonium leaps with joy and names the three girls: Blossom (for being polite and the first to speak to him), Bubbles (for being very giggly and bubbly), and Buttercup (because it also starts with a B, and much to her displeasure). Utonium discovers within seconds that his daughters have superpowers, including super speed and flight. Jojo, now a mutated and intelligent monkey, watches from a window.

The following morning, Utonium takes his girls to school and comes back to pick them up at noon. But the girls learn of the game Tag and take it into overdrive when they start using their super speed to flee from one another. Buttercup gets frustrated and chases the girls into Townsville. The girls fly about madly, chasing one another, destroying various structures, with Utonium chasing them in his car all the while. The girls seem oblivious to the havoc they're causing in the city. The Mayor hurries out of City Hall, practically terrified, continuously saying "Oh boy!". The girls game ends with them arguing on a roof over who is "it" and excitedly fly across the city, not looking where they're going. They collide with the mayor who was about to eat a pickle. Utonium appears and bundles the girls back to their house. He tells them maybe they should not use their superpowers in public for their own safety. The three understand, but they have no idea what consequences there will be for their reckless actions.

The following day, Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup are treated as outcasts at school when the rest of the class are angry at them for trashing their water and electricity supplies and their fridge and playground. Ms. Keane, their teacher, tries to lighten the mood by having the girls recite the alphabet. Meanwhile, Utonium is ambushed by the mayor and his guards and taken to prison. The girls wait for their father after school until they decide that he hates them and they sadly try to find their way home... on foot.

The girls' mood worsens when they view on television horrible remarks from citizens of the city, including the mayor who shrieks about them being "Pickle Destroyers". A report airs about Utonium being arrested and he tells the public that the girls could be lost, lonely and in danger. Buttercup then declares that the world hates them for what they are, when Bubbles replies that it can't get any worse, it starts to rain. Bubbles and Buttercup break down in tears and Blossom notices they are outside their house, but there is no way in. They try to take shelter in some boxes out back, but the Gangreen Gang attack them. The girls are saved by none other than Jojo, now an intelligent monkey who hides in fear. The girls are moved by his speech on how people resent him. He claims he wants to be loved for what he is.

The girls offer their help and Jojo accepts the offer. Together, the four build a new building on top of a volcano in the middle of the city that has a giant machine in its center. As a "reward" for their help, Jojo sneaks the girls into the local zoo, but every photo Jojo takes is of the monkeys in the zoo. Bubbles finds a lost rattle and attempts to give it to its owner, but the baby's mother snatches it from her, rudely saying "I thought the zoo kept all the animals in cages!"

The girls manage to get into their home and Utonium is thrown in through the front door and complains of arrest, lawsuits and other such difficulties. During the course of the night, Jojo activates teleporting devices he attached to the monkeys through his camera at the zoo and teleports them to his lair (the building in the middle of the city), where he uses Chemical X to mutate them into intelligent apes like himself.

The next day, the girls believe that the public will accept them, and travel with Utonium towards City Hall. Then, Jojo (now calling himself Mojo Jojo) attacks with his monkey army. Mojo Jojo announces that Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup helped him with his plan. The girls try to convince Utonium that they were tricked, but he is shocked and says "I don't know who to believe. I thought you were good...". And with a heartbreaking cry, the girls blast off into space.

Mojo Jojo announces that the primates will rule the world in the human race's place. The monkeys, however, all having been rendered evil geniuses by the chemical X, all wish to be the future ruler of the monkey race. Mojo Jojo loses control over his army as it collapses into infighting. Frustrated, Mojo Jojo decides to kill Professor Utonium.

Up in space, the girls are on an asteroid travelling away from Earth. Bubbles is in tears, Buttercup is in a bad mood and Blossom is just not talking. Blossom accuses Buttercup of causing all the mayhem and the two start fighting. Their fight quickly ends when Blossom announces she is never talking to Buttercup ever again. Bubbles manages to hear the screams coming from Townsville and when they hear Utonium yell, the girls fly back to Earth where they have to fight all of the monkeys, each with a gimmick more bizarre than the other, to save the professor and the town.

Now Mojo Jojo takes some more Chemical X and grows to the size of a giant. In the fight that follows, Mojo Jojo catches the girls in his humongous hand as he scales a skyscraper (an obvious reference to King Kong). He tries to make the girls join him, but they break free from his grasp and push him off the skyscraper. Utonium appears with an antidote for Chemical X that will shrink Mojo Jojo back to normal size. Mojo is about to fall directly on the Professor, but the girls push him out of the way, making him drop the antidote which shatters on the road. Mojo crash-lands on the antidote and shrinks back to normal before being arrested.

The Powerpuff Girls decide to destroy their powers with the remainder of the antidote so the town will like them as ordinary girls, but the townsfolk protest. The Mayor apologizes for the whole of the city over their misunderstanings and asks the girls to become their local superheroes. The girls happily accept the job. The movie ends with the girls saving an elderly woman from the Gangreen Gang. And the narrator gives them their official name: the Powerpuff Girls!

[edit] Voice actors and their characters

• Cathy Cavadini: Blossom
• Tara Strong: Bubbles
• E.G. Daily: Buttercup
• Roger L. Jackson: Mojo Jojo
• Tom Kenny: Narrator, The Mayor
• Jennifer Hale: Ms. Keane
• Jennifer Martin: Ms. Sara Bellum
• Tom Kane: Professor Utonium
• Jeff Bennett: Ace, Big Billy, Grubber
• Grey DeLisle: Linda, Woman at Zoo
• Phil LaMarr: I.P. Host, Local Anchor
• Rob Paulsen: Hota Wata, Killa Drilla
• Kevin Michael Richardson: Rocko Socko, Ojo Tango
• Frank Welker: Whole Lotta Monkeys

[edit] Production notes

• Trouble: During production, The Hollywood Reporter reported that voice actresses Cathy Cavadini, Tara Strong and E.G. Daily had gone on strike, protesting that they weren't being paid enough to star in a feature. The studio publicly mulled replacing them with new actresses, but eventually a deal was reached and the trio returned to voice the Powerpuff Girls again.

[edit] Design

The film featured substantially revised designs for many of the TV show's characters, with a much more angular look. Many of these changes were incorporated in the future seasons of the show, such as the Professor's new eyes.

[edit] Reception

Reviews of the film were generally positive. Bob Longino of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution gave the movie perhaps the highest praise of all, saying "The intricate drawings emanate 1950s futuristic pizzazz like a David Hockney scenescape. The inspired script is both sinfully cynical and aw-shucks sweet". He also called it "one of the few American creations that is both gleeful pop culture and exquisite high art". However, it was also reviewed negatively by some for its violence, which many felt was too extreme and highly inappropriate for a family-oriented film.

Despite the high critical success, however, the film failed at the box office due to poor marketing and publicity, and not enough public interest. It was released straight-to-VHS and DVD in some countries.

[edit] Trivia

• Caricatures of various artists who worked on the film can be spotted in certain crowd scenes.
• The "News Flash" logo used when the girls are watching TV is taken from Kermit the Frog's "News Flash" segment on Sesame Street.
• All of Mojo's monkey-minions are based on actual species of monkeys, in terms of both appearance and behavior. Additionally, the proboscis monkey character is also based on Jimmy Durante.

[edit] External links

• The Powerpuff Girls Movie at the Internet Movie Database