Preface: I don't really review much television. It's not really one of my go-to mediums. Not that I don't like TV shows; I just don't care about that many shows, at the end of the day. The Powerpuff Girls was such a pleasant time when I revisited it that I just had to talk about it a little bit. I'm throwing it in the "comics" category just because that seems like the closest fit. It's an animated superhero show. Seems to belong there more than "movies."
A few weeks ago, I was browsing the options on Netflix Instant hoping to find something I could put on and only half pay attention to as I ate lunch before work. After a minute, I came upon the Powerpuff Girls and remembered how each episode was broken down into two mini-episodes. That made it ideal for lunch-watching!
But I knew I was going to want to finish re-watching it all from the moment the opening theme song came on! Easily one of my favorite themes, it is very visual in its sound. It rocks out when Buttercup pops up on screen. It softens and becomes cute when Bubbles shows up. It gets menacing when the horde of villains appears. It's an awesome theme song! Here:
Pretty catchy. Stays in the brain.
A lot of people probably pass off the Powerpuff Girls as your typical animated kids show, but it is much more than that. Like all great "kids' fare," is really does cram a lot of stuff for the adults in there too. There are a lot of jokes that kids just wouldn't possibly get (and those jokes are actually pretty funny!) Here's an example:
There's no shortage of adult-aimed humor. (I think my favorite was the episode where the girls are rewarded with candy and they wind up with a candy addiction. The way that they eat the candy and react to it...well...it's gonna fly over the heads of kids, for sure.) You can also see that they target an older crowd with episodes like "Meet the Beat Alls," an episode that essentially parodies the Beatles, while almost every line of dialogue is from a Beatles song. There are also a fair number of Star Wars references. (And here, my personal favorite reference occurs during a random conversation between the girls and the Professor where they keep rhyming. The Professor then says, "No 'buts' and I mean it!" Then Bubbles follows up with, "Anybody want a peanut?" It's a really funny, sick reference to The Princess Bride.)
Seriously. There are tons of references, from Scarface to South Park to Ocarina of Time to Planet of the Apes. There are all sorts of shout outs (including a rather random shout out to Mos Def). Then there is a lot of oddball humor, like when everyone is turned into a cat. We see owners allowing their cats to do all sorts of things like sleep on the bed and scratch up the curtains. Then we cut to a silent shot of the Mayor slowly licking his cat. It's really strange, but ridiculously funny.
The humor is one of the strengths of the show, but it's far from the only one. The Powerpuff Girls each have their own unique and widely differing personalities. Bubbles is cute. Blossom is smart. Buttercup is a badass. Everyone has their favorites (mine was Buttercup, but in the rewatch, Bubbles quickly became my favorite!)
How can you not just melt watching that? Daaaawwww....
The rapport the girls have with each other and with the Professor feels pretty genuine (for a cartoon). They definitely seem like a family. They get along, but aren't without their fights and conflicts. The Professor himself is just as funny as the girls are too!
And of course, if a superhero comic is only as good as his/her villains, well, the Powerpuff Girls still hold up. Their cast of villains are incredible. You've got the troublesome Gangreen Gang. There's the rich and spoiled wannabe Princess. There's Fuzzy, the creature who only cares about his property. There's the inept Amoeba Boys. Then there's the gender-confusing devil known only as "him" (my personal favorite villain). And of course, their main arch nemesis: the super smart chimp Mojo Jojo. All of these villains - like the girls - have very well defined character traits and personalities. To me, this is the ultimate strength of the show and why they are able to do so well in the humor department. If these characters weren't as intentional in their design, or if they weren't so unique and odd, the show would probably fall in on its own cultural references. These characters prevent the show from ever truly becoming dated.
The Powerpuff Girls is somehow more entertaining and more hilarious than I remembered it being. If you watched the show when you were younger, then I definitely recommend you watch it again. Even if it's just a few episodes here and there, odds are you will find yourself laughing more than you anticipated.
I don't think about life with kids. I mean, I'm so far removed from that even being a possibility! But I do know that if I have kids - boy or girl - that kid is watching the Powerpuff Girls. (Oh yeah, it really is a show for everybody! It really isn't "girly," but it also isn't a show you would think, "boys watch this" either.)
It definitely stacks up. Weird, clever, cute, touching, hilarious, and great characters mixed with an interesting and attractive animation style, it's as good an all-ages cartoon show as it gets. It has to be up there with the likes of Adventure Time.
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