The Powerpuff Girls

The Powerpuff Girls
The Powerpuff Girls with Professor Utonium
Created by	Craig McCracken
Starring	Catherine Cavadini Elizabeth Daily Tara Strong Tom Kane Tom Kenny Roger L. Jackson Jennifer Hale Jennifer Martin Jim Cummings Jeff Bennett Kath Soucie
Country of origin	USA
No. of episodes	78
Production
Running time	30 Minutes
Original release
Network	Cartoon Network
Release	November 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, "Meet Fuzzy Lumpkins" and "Crime 101," appeared on the What-A-Cartoon! show. A full TV series was aired in 1998. The Powerpuff Girls Movie was released in 2002.

Characters

The Powerpuff Girls

• Blossom: Red-haired, pink-eyed, and dressed in pink. She is "the commander and the leader" (aka the bookish, drill instructor-ish one). (Voiced by Catherine Cavadini)
• Bubbles: Blond-haired, blue-eyed, and dressed in blue. She is "the joy and the laughter" (aka the spacey one). (Voiced by Kath Soucie in the What-A-Cartoon! episodes, and Tara Strong in the series)
• Buttercup: Black-haired, green-eyed, and dressed in green. She is "the toughest fighter" (aka the violent one). (Voiced by Elizabeth Daily)

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, the ability to fly, super-speed, and the ability to project a variety of energy blasts. In some cases, they utilize special team manuevers to take down their foes such Ferocious Fiery Feline (the girls combine to create a cat of pure fire). Others include a tri-attack from side to side and front, spinning around fast enough to create afterimage doubles, turning into a ball to save people or strike 'em out, and a twister with devastating aftereffects.

There was a fourth Powerpuff Girl: Bunny, 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. (Voiced by Christine Cavanaugh)

Townsville Citizens

• Professor Utonium: Creator of The Powerpuff Girls in the series (voiced by Tom Kane)
• Ms. Keane: Teacher of Pokey Oaks kindergarten (voiced by Jennifer Hale)
• Mayor of Townsville: The 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 was named after the cerebellum

Villains

• Mojo Jojo: A mad scientist monkey (voiced by Roger L Jackson)
• Fuzzy Lumpkins (voiced by Jim Cummings)
• The Gangreen Gang
• Princess Morbucks: the spoiled little rich girl (the name is a play on Daddy Warbucks from Annie and voiced by Jennifer Hale)
• The Rowdyruff Boys: Male versions of the Powerpuff girls made by Mojo Jojo
• Sedusa: The jewel thief who dresses in dominatrix-style clothes
• Him: The mysterious, superpowerful, red-skinned, and effeminate devil.
• The Amoeba Boys: The harmless pack of amoebas who first appeared in the "World Premiere Toon" "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.

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), and The Dooks of Doom; furthermore, a group of unsuccessful bank robbers is often seen suffering the consequences of their deeds.

Episodes

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

External links

• Cartoon Network's Powerpuff Girls page
• The Powerpuff Girls at IMDb
• The Powerpuff Girls at the Big Cartoon DataBase

The Powerpuff Girls in other languages

As with mant animated television series produced in the United States, The Powerpuff Girls has been dubbed into many languages all over the world. Some, but not all, are put onto American DVDs

• Finnish: Tehotytöt
• Portuguese:
  • As Meninas Super-Poderosas (in Brazil)
  • As Powerpuff Girls (in Portugal)
• Spanish:
  • Las Chicas Superpoderosas (in Latin America)
    • 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.
  • Las Super Nenas (in Spain)
• French: Les Super Nanas
• Italian: Le Superchicche
• Chinese: Literally: "Little Flying Cop Girls"
  • 飛天小女警; fēi tiān xiǎo nǚ jǐng (Traditional Chinese)
  • 飞天小女警; fēi tiān xiǎo nǚ jǐng (Simplified Chinese)
• Japanese: パワーパフガールズ(Pawa- pafu ga-ruzu(Powerpuff Girls))
• Hungarian: Pindúr Pandúrok (Literally "Tiny cops")
• Hebrew: בנות הפאוורפאף (B'not Ha-Powerpuff - "The Girls of Powerpuff")
• Polish: Atomówki (Literally "Little atomic girls")
• Swedish: Powerpuffpinglorna
• Icelandic: Stuðboltastelpurnar ("the energetic girls", literally "the energy-ball girls")
• Russian: Крутые девчонки (Krutie Devchonki, literally "Kick-ass Girls")