Powerpuff Girls is the most stylish cartoon on TV. Think Rocky and Bullwinkle meets Designer's Republic. Slick lines and curves, minimalism and the use of unusual palettes make the show even more entertaining on a different level.
"The PowerPuff Girls" is not a show for children. I just realised that. Well, I'm sure most children don't care, but still...
I take evidence from an episode I just saw where "The Professor" meets Ms. "Ima Goodlady". He's going on a date with her, y'see. The girls are helping him get ready. Innocent enough stuff. the then line and visual comes; the lil' blue 'girl says: "..and one of these..." ...and slips a small, white square (with a circle on it?) into his breast pocket. Yes, we all know what it was. Children won't get it; adults just blush.
This event, however, does not detract from the fact that The PowerPuff Girls kick extreme ass.
Prof. Utonium: It's time for bed, girls, and I mean it!
Bubbles: Anybody want a peanut?
Gotta love a cartoon that plagiarizes The Princess Bride!
It was wrong. It was brilliant. It kicked ass.
Oh, and then there's the really angsty, pathos-filled ones... like the evil imaginary friend one, BubbleVicious (where Bubbles shows how much of a badass she can be if she's pissed enough), the one where Buttercup stops taking baths and, as a result, goes freelance (and eventually gets kicked out of Townsville, complete with an homage to the good ol' monster movies)...
PPG is actually quite intellectual. Kids almost certainly can't get most of the humor in it.
Actually, according to a The Onion interview with the creator (Craig MacKracken), the original title of the show was "The Kick-Ass Girls,"[1] and it was never intended for kids, but Cartoon Network liked the idea anyway (pending a name-change, for obvious reasons).
Cartoon Network rules. PowerPuff Girls is a BIG part of the reason why.
this has been an incoherent bunch of discombobulated rambling by Magenta, who's currently feeling completely disoriented and dizzy.
[1] According to commentary on one of the DVDs, the original name was "The Whoop-Ass Girls". It may be that he tried both. An investigation is under way. -- C-Dawg
Blossom, commander and the leader Bubbles, she is the joy and the laughter Buttercup, she's the toughest fighter Powerpuffs save the day Fighting crime, trying to save the world Here they come just in time, the Powerpuff Girls Fighting crime, trying to save the world Here they come just in time, the Powerpuff Girls... Powerpuff!
Those of you who don't know what that means, click on the link before continuing.
Okay. First, we have Bubbles, cute and, well, bubbly. She's the happy, bouncy one, and plus she has blonde hair - a common look for maidens because it's light and airy.
Next there's Blossom, the leader. She's bossy and Always Right (TM). And who doesn't know a mother who acts like that? Plus, she has red hair, and red is the Mother's color because of blood.
And finally, Buttercup. Rude, witty, sarcastic. Her black hair is the Crone's color (represents night).
By the way, there are cartoons made just for children; in general, we think they're lame.
Actually, one of the most interesting subtexts in the show is how intelligence and rationality are subtly promoted (VERY much in 'period' with the overall look and feel of the show, which seems to be a generalized high end 1950's). To wit, many villains are given names that connote "superstition", "ignorance", and the like: Mojo Jojo, The Boogie Man, and, (my favorite for sheer cojones) "Him", while "good" characters are not only "smart", but sexually attractive (as well as being sexual, and attractive, which is something altogether different). I didn't see the "Ima Goodlady" episode, but it's clear that Professor Utonium (modeled after J. Robert Oppenheimer -- Oppenheimer??) has a functional male body under that lab coat. (Such a pity the REAL Oppie's sex life was such a flop...now had Craig MacKracken chosen Richard Feynman...HMMmmmm...) The same is true of Miss Keane, their kindergarten teacher, and of course, the faceless (but far from brainless) Sarah Bellum, who has on some occasions, counselled the 'Girls on adult behavior.
VERY sneaky! And most probably empowering for children (not just girls), the way the old Felix the Cat was for me in the real early Sixties: few remember that the Cat was an exemplar of Twenties "can-do" and intelligence, unlike the Depression-era "little guy's revenge" cartoons like the wince-inducing Tom and Jerry.
FWIW, my take on the 'Girls is not that they're the Triple Goddess, but an extension of the concept of "Mens et Manus": here, they symbolize Head, Hands... and Heart.
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