he big-screen adaptation of this popular Cartoon Network series begins with the same four words that open every episode: "The city of Townsville." Through a narrator—whose booming voice is as recognizable to fans as that of the main characters—the audience learns that the city of Townsville is in big trouble. Crime runs rampant and the police are helpless to stop it. Everyone seems to have lost hope. Everyone, that is, except for one man—Professor Utonium.
While conducting an experiment in his lab, the Professor combines the elements of "sugar,
spice and everything nice," in an attempt to create the perfect little girl. But an accident causes him to break a bottle of the mysterious Chemical X over the concoction, adding it to the mix. Thus, the
three super-powered little girls who will become the Powerpuff Girls are born.
Wanting to be a good parent, the kindly Professor sends the girls—whom he names Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup—to Pokey Oats Elementary School. They are instantly liked by their fellow students until a disastrous game of tag gets out of hand and escalates into a full-scale rampage through the city. Suddenly, the Powerpuff Girls are public enemy number one. The Professor is visited by an angry mob, including the mayor of Townsville, and taken away to jail by the authorities, who find him responsible for the destruction.
Alone and dejected, the girls become unwitting accomplices in the plans of Mojo Jojo, a superintelligent lab monkey who was also exposed to Chemical X. He convinces them to help him build a device he calls a "Help-The-Town-and-Make-It-a-Better-Place-Machine." In actuality, the machine is designed to create more evil supermonkeys like himself.
Will the Powerpuff Girls discover Mojo Jojo's diabolical plan in time to save the town and restore their good name? Stay tuned.
A clever family comedy that packs a punch
Cashing in on the success of other animated series that made the transition from the living room to the multiplex, the Powerpuff Girls movie does what a good family film is supposed to do—it
gives the parents something to enjoy as much as their kids.
It's not hard to see why the cartoon series has become so popular among a wide range of fans. There is a certain hipster edge to the simplistic animation design, which owes as much to Japanese anime as it does to the retro-cool styles of the '60s and '70s. The soundtrack is equal parts bubble-gum pop and hypnotic techno-beat house music. And the appeal of the three tiny powerhouses at the center of it all is difficult to deny.
Wisely, the producers have taken what was best about the series and simply extended it for
the movie. Powerpuff Girls is a pop-cultural cocktail, with references including everything from Planet of the Apes to Jimmy Durante to monkey toys which every filmgoer will recognize. The dialogue is clever and sophisticated in its humor. Lamenting the fact that he's not appreciated for his enormous brain, Mojo Jojo (arguably the best villain in the series) quips, "Nothing in this gray matters." Later on, he announces, "I rock so hard!"
The one problem with the film is the big question—was a Powerpuff Girls movie
really necessary? There isn't much here that couldn't have been done on television. The opening credits of the cartoon series tell the origin story just as well as the film does. The big battles
are enjoyable, but not that epic or special. Yet, commercially speaking, similar efforts to translate
cartoons to the big screen have been hugely successful, and Hollywood loves a trend, so a film version was probably inevitable.
