The Powerpuff Girls

The Powerpuff Girls is an American animated television series about 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 (now Cartoon Network Studios) 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 in Whoop-Ass Stew: "A Sticky Situation". Spike and Mike premiered the short at their Festival of Animation. 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.

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" (i.e. the bookish, drill instructor-ish one). Her special superpower is Ice Breath.
• 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" (i.e. the spacey one). She speaks Spanish, and can also talk to animals and monsters.
• Buttercup (voiced by E.G. Daily): Black-haired, green-eyed, and dressed in green. She is "the toughest fighter" (i.e. the violent one).

They live in the fictional city of Townsville, USA (not to be confused with Townsville in 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.

They have large eyes and are drawn without 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.

In one episode, 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. Because of her unstable composition, she died on the same episode she was created, when her body exploded.

Townsville Citizens

Friends and allies of the Girls include:

• Professor Utonium: A scientist who creates the Powerpuff Girls in this series (voiced by Tom Kane).
• Ms. Keane: Teacher of Pokey Oaks Kindergarten (voiced by Kath Soucie in the "What-A-Cartoon" episodes and by Jennifer Hale in the series).
• 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)
• 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

Major Reccuring Villains

• Mojo Jojo: A mad scientist chimp with vast intelligence. He has been known to go completely berserk and howl and rage like a ravenous chimp. (voiced by Roger L. Jackson)
• Fuzzy Lumpkins A large, husky, furry pink redneck that loves his hunting gun like a spouse, and will shoot anything he finds "on his property". He is well-known for his insane anger and possessing immense physical strength. (voiced by Jim Cummings)
• The Gangreen Gang A pair of sick-looking (hence the name) hoodlums that are somewhat mutated looking (i.e. the leader has goat legs, and a human upper body). They have the personality of juvenile delinquents and have been known to form a good stratagem or two.
• Princess Morbucks: A spoiled little rich girl. Her name is a play on Daddy Warbucks from Annie (voiced by Jennifer Hale)
• The Rowdyruff Boys: Male versions of the Powerpuff Girls made by Mojo Jojo. They have bully-like personalities and are very violent.
• Sedusa A woman considered to be a master of disguise. When her identity is revealed, she often fights with her whip-like hair which she can control. In one episode, she had the ability to whip off globs of uber-sticky hair gel adhering people to walls. True to her name, she seduces men, young or old.
• Him: A mysterious, super powerful, red-skinned, and effeminate devil. He is so evil that his real name can never be said. He often disguises himself or creates psychological events or catastrophes which he uses as an attempt to cause the Powerpuff Girls to break mentally. When forced to fight, he is a force to be reckoned with, as he heralds doom in every direction. He has shown numerous satanic forms, most of which are revealed in hell or apocalyptic situations or realms. His voice and character were inspired by the Chief of the Blue Meanies in Yellow Submarine.

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. In one episode, a giant monster explains to the girls that going to Townsville and encountering the Powerpuff Girls is a symbol of honor on Monster Isle.

Guest Enemies

One-time villain appearances include:

• Femme Fatale
• Abracadaver
• Roach Coach
• The Smiths: Their next door neighbors. These actually appeared twice in the show
  • Harold: The Father
  • Maryanne: The Mother
  • Julie: The Daughter
  • Bud: The Son
• The Dooks of Doom
• The Boogie Man
• The Giant Fishballoon
• Mr. Mime
• The Ministry of Pain
  • Mastermind
  • Cohort
  • Counterpart
• Bernie Bernstein
• Donnie
• Dick Hardly
• Lenny Baxter
• Officer Mike Brikowski
• Robber Dude
• Steve the Monster

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

Miscellaneous

• Narrator: The series' narrator who says "The city of Townsville!" at the beginning and "So once again, the day is saved! Thanks to The Powerpuff Girls!" at the end. Sometimes, he breaks fourth wall. (voiced by Tom Kenny)
• 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.
• Major Man: an archetypical superhero, 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.
• The Talking Dog: He mostly appears as a background character, but always has something to say, and once had his own episode. (Voiced by Tom Kenny)

Episodes

• 78 episodes in 6 seasons, and 1 self-titled movie called The Powerpuff Girls Movie, have been made. and no more episodes have been planned.
• An anime version of this series, Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z is being planned.
• There was an hour-long Christmas episode "Twas the Fight Before Christmas", where Princess switches Santa's naughty and nice lists.

Trivia

• In the "Boogie Frights" episode, the last sequence is a remake of the Death Star race at the end of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
• The "Cat Man Do" episode includes a white cat on the knees of a well-dressed criminal who supervises operations and pets the feline. That is a reference to Ernst Stavro Blofeld's famous pose in the James Bond movies, although in this case it's the cat that makes the orders.
• In "Imaginary Fiend", when Blossom falls inside a pile of clothes, she comes out dressed in a large red jacket, a round blue cap and yellow gloves, which make her look just like Eric Cartman from South Park.
• In The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, Jody Irwin, one of Juniper's best friends claims there are over three hundred episodes. (Despite a fact in above)
• The monsters that occasionally attack Townsville are a nod to the famous Godzilla series and films. As such, the name of Monster Isle is said to be a take-off of the Godzilla series' "Monster Island".
• In "Collect Her", While trying to find who captured the Powerpuffs by naming off all the citizens of Townsville, the Mayor says "Genndy McCracken" as one of the last names, a nod to the creator, Craig McCracken and another cartoonist, Genndy Tartakovsky, the creator of Dexter's Laboratory.

Titles 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", Pronounce: fēi tiān xiǎo nǚ jǐng
  • Traditional Chinese: 飛天小女警
  • Simplified Chinese: 飞天小女警
• Croatian: Supercure (lit. Supergirls)
• Finnish: Tehotytöt
• French: Les Super Nanas (The Super Chicks)
• 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")
• Lithuanian: Super Mergaitės (Literally "Super Girls")
• Japanese: パワーパフガールズ (Pawāpafugāruzu) (Powerpuff Girls)
• Korean: 파워퍼프 걸 (R.R.: paweopeopeu geol) (Powerpuff Girl)
• Norwegian: "Powerpuffjentene"
• Polish: Atomówki (Literally "Little atomic girls")
• Portuguese:
  • Brazil: As Meninas Super-Poderosas (Literally "The superpowerful girls")
  • Portugal: As Powerpuff Girls
• 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". ("The Fashionable Girls" or "The Flirty Girls".) This was changed before the series started. (the first season were originally aired as "Chicas Coquetas", reruns were re-dubbed.)
  • Spain: Las Supernenas
• Swedish: Powerpuffpinglorna
  • NOTE: Originally (in the "World Premiere Toon" times), they were called Powerpuff-flickorna.