"Twisted Sister" is the 21st episode of Season 2, and the 45th episode overall.
It was produced in 1999 but premiered on Cartoon Network in the United States on May 26, 2000.
Synopsis
Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, as they appear in this episode.
From thwarting bank robberies and fighting monsters to saving endangered citizens all day, the Powerpuff Girls come back from a long day of crime fighting. The Professor, however, is fast to remind them of their chores despite the fact that they're exhuasted. Realizing they need help with their crime fighting, they secretly choose to create another Powerpuff Girl. They sneak into the Professor's lab and try to create a new Powerpuff Girl in the technique left behind by the Professor himself. Unfortunately, for lack of the right ingredients, they improvise; they use artificial sweetener instead of sugar, dirt and twigs instead of spices, and things they themselves believe are "everything nice" such as crayons, books, lizards, flowers, computers, footballs, stuffed animals, calculators, a mackerel, a compass, boxing gloves, a ribbon, art, bandages, a smiley face, a globe and a knuckle sandwich (Buttercup punches the mixture).
Finally, as if it were a scripted accident, they add the "accidental" dose of Chemical X. The mixture explodes in the tradition of the opening sequence, but it creates a hideously oversized girl. The girls introduce themselves and try to think of a name for her since she can't speak very well; though Buttercup suggests Braces, Bubbles christens her as Bunny, a more suitable name that both Blossom and Buttercup seem to agree with as well. The girls tell Bunny what she has to do and they send her off to fight crime while they try and relax.
However, with her misunderstandings of what she needs to do when being told to fight the bad guys and throw them in jail, Bunny interprets the police as criminals (anyone who has a gun) and ends up imprisoning them in place of the perpetrators. It's not until the girls see her on the news that they realize that Townsville is in danger. The girls seek her out in town, and as she wails on a police officer, they tell her that she has been bad and isn't cut out to be a Powerpuff Girl. Upset, Bunny flies away.
"She was good after all, we were the ones who were bad"
-Bubbles. The girls mourning the loss of Bunny
Straight away, the girls are surrounded by all the criminals, including the newly released, and are overpowered by them. Up on a ledge out at sea, Bunny hears their cries and flies to their rescue, attacking all of the criminals in a way that only the girls were known for and shouting that she has done good. But just then, Bunny begins to wobble and white light beams out of her, then explodes and perishes with a blinding flash.
The Powerpuff Girls manage to recover from being attacked by every criminal in Townsville, thanks to Bunny saving them. As they wonder where she is, the piece of her dress she leaves behind drifts to the ground. The girls become rife with surprise and grief; Blossom surmises that Bunny was unstable and the explosion broke her down into her original ingredients, while Bubbles mentions in her eulogy that Bunny was good after all, especially on this one occasion, and that they were the ones who were bad. And with that, they hang their heads in sadness as they mourn the loss of their "sister" in the street, with the girls' meanness towards her coming at the cost of her own life.
"And so, for the first, and final time, the day is saved, thanks to Powerpuff Bunny"
Even the narrator is upset over Bunny's death as he weeps ("And so, for the first and final time, the day is saved thanks to Powerpuff Bunny!") and he sobbingly breaks the fourth wall by telling the cameraman to go commercial.
Characters
- The Powerpuff Girls (Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup)
- Bunny (one-time only)
- Professor Utonium
- The Gangreen Gang (do not speak, only laugh)
- Fake Powerpuff Girls (cameo appearance)
- Robbers
- Prisoners
- Policeman
- Maria Darling
Goofs
- When the camera zooms out on the girls looming over the section of Bunny's dress, all of the criminals have seemingly vanished.
- When Blossom says "Yes, bad..." to Bunny, the stripe on Bubbles' dress disappears.
Home Videos Released
Trivia
- This episode premiered in some countries before the United States.[1]
- This episode premiered in Australia on December 10, 1999.
- This episode premiered in Canada on January 1, 2000.
- This episode premiered in the United Kingdom on February 13, 2000.
- This is the only appearance of Bunny.
- This is the first of two episodes to have a bad ending. The other being "Custody Battle".
- In this episode, Bunny dies. In "Custody Battle", the episode ends with the Narrator saying that "The day is doomed" rather than being saved.
- This is the second episode to have a character die in the show (the first being The Rowdyruff Boys, but they were later resurrected by Him), which is Bunny. Dick Hardly and the knockoff Powerpuffs died next.
- This is the one of the episodes ending with the narrator saying his catchphrase differently "And so for the first...and final time, the day is saved, thanks to Powerpuff Bunny."
- The ending of this episode was later referenced in "Strong-Armed", an episode of the 2016 TV series, in which Bubbles' gravestone is seen and the Narrator is heard tearfully saying "And so once again, the day is saved, but at what cost?!" and cries hard before quickly saying "Wait, what, oh, there's more?" in a normal tone.
- This is one of two episodes where the Gangreen Gang are shown to be truly dangerous instead of just teenaged hoodlums (the first being Buttercrush where Snake tries to kill Bubbles and Blossom by dunking them in acid). In this episode, Ace threatens a man with a knife unless he hands over his watch.
- In this episode, the Chemical X that Blossom "accidentally" drops into the concoction which created Bunny is a neon-ish blue/green color. In every other form of Powerpuff Girls media, except for Powerpuff Girls Z, it is jet-black.
- The Villains from "Powerpuff Bluff" make a cameo when the news report shows the criminals escaping.
- This is one of Craig McCracken's ten favorite episodes.
- In "Forced Kin", Bubbles does not want to ask help from others after being outmatched by an alien force. However, in this episode, she agrees when Buttercup said that they need help after doing numerous tasks in saving Townsville.
- This episode shows the girls extremely exhausted for a second time, but it wasn’t as bad as "Too Pooped to Puff".
- The narrator (tearfully) breaks the fourth wall in this episode when he said "Go to a commercial".
- This happens to be the late former voice actress Christine Cavanaugh's third and final voice over in the show. Her first two being Bud Smith in "Supper Villain" and "Just Desserts".
- The previous episode also had Christine Cavanaugh voicing as a one (two) time character. More likely because her two Smiths parents co-stars, Jeff Bennett and Kath Soucie (also voice of Julie Smith) had more lines than Christine was given and was given the chance to voice another character after the Smiths roles were done.
- In 2000, Don Shank won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Animation for this episode, along with "Cover Up".
- This episode is available on the Cartoon Network Asia YouTube channel.
- The WatchMojo network ranked this as the #6 unexpectedly dark episode in a kids' cartoon, as well as the #2 darkest episode of The Powerpuff Girls and the #2 darkest Cartoon Network episode.
- Despite Bunny only appearing this episode, she became famous amongst various fan works, with many fan arts designing her how she would appear if she were created successfully.
- For the episode’s 20th Anniversary, over 117 independent animators participated in a Reanimated collaboration of the cartoon on YouTube.
- There was an actual fourth Powerpuff Girl, Blisstina Utonium, who debuted in the reboot special "Power of Four".
- The animation of Blossom punching Ace and Bubbles headbutting Grubber in the stomach are reused and updated from "Telephonies", with the girls replacing Mojo Jojo as the gang's attacker.
Production Notes
- Although this episode premiered in the United States on May 26, 2000, it was actually produced in 1999 according to the credits.
- This episode was finished in July of 1999.[2]