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The Powerpuff Girls are a trio of cute superhuman kindergardeners created by Professor Utonium who are the title characters of the Cartoon Network series The Powerpuff Girls and its Anime spin-off, Powerpuff Girls Z.
There is an article of the same name, you may be looking for The Powerpuff Girls series page!
Members
Official Members
- Blossom (Commander and the Leader)
- Bubbles (The Joy and the Laughter)
- Buttercup (The Toughest Fighter)
Honorary Members
- Bunny (deceased, appears only in Twisted Sister)
- Bullet (lives in woods now, first appeared in Stray Bullet)
- Princess Morbucks (first appeared in Stuck Up, Up, and Away, became a temporary member in Boy Toys)
- Dexter (The Inventor, from Dexter's Laboratory)
- Dee Dee (The Dancer, from Dexter's Laboratory)
Creation
In Powerpuff Girls, the girls were created by Professor Utonium. They were going to be created out of "sugar, spice and everything nice" as perfect little girls. But he accidentally added Chemical X to the concoction, due to being shoved by his then lab assistant, Jojo (later to become the evil villain Mojo Jojo). After the events of Powerpuff Girls Movie, the Powerpuff Girls "dedicated their lives to fighting crime and the forces of evil."[1]
In Powerpuff Girls Z, Peach (not in the original series) threw a rice cake into a batch of Chemical X, turning it into a new substance which would be named Chemical Z by Professor Utonium. Ken (Utonium's son) uses the Chemical Z to destroy a giant glacier caused by global climate change. However, the impact of Chemical Z caused several black and white lights to appear in the Tokyo sky. Three ordinary girls, Momoko Akatsutsumi ("Hyper" Blossom), Miyako Gotokuji ("Rolling" Bubbles), and Kaoru Mastubara ("Powered" Buttercup), were engulfed in white lights and were transformed into the Powerpuff Girls Z. During the anime, the girls most often fight people, animals and objects affected by the black lights and Him's black particles.
Appearance in The Powerpuff Girls
The Powerpuff Girls are drawn with physical traits that make them exaggeratedly cute. They wear dresses with a black belt, white tights and black Mary Jane shoes. They have large eyes, oval-shaped heads, stubby arms and legs, and, although they are able to hear, smell, touch and hold, have no necks, noses, ears, fingers, or toes (often joked about in the series). They stand 2' 3" and weigh 61 lbs. Although they are superheroes they greatly resemble seemingly harmless little girls.
Whether they actually have the aforementioned features or not is not fully clear; in the episode "Criss Cross Crisis," when the Girls switch bodies with other people in Townsville, Buttercup, who had swapped bodies with Professor Utonium, complained that her hand did not work when trying to pick up the phone (meaning that the girls' fingerless hands could pick things up at will.) However, in the same episode, Bubbles, in the Mayor's body, is seen using a toothbrush without trouble, and the characters who are in the girls' bodies have no issue holding objects. In the episode "Curses," all three of the girls play "rock-scissors-paper," and can apparently distinguish who chose what. Additionally, Bubbles counts on her unseen fingers in the episode "Mo Job" and Buttercup snaps her fingers in "Boogie Frights." However, in "Oops, I Did It Again," the Professor dreams of normal versions of the girls, "The Run-of-the-Mill Girls," each with the features clearly.
Former/Honorary Team Members
Bunny
- Main article: Bunny
In the episode "Twisted Sister," the girls created a fourth Powerpuff Girl named Bunny in order to ease the burden of saving the town by themselves. Bunny was voiced by Christine Cavanaugh.
Unlike her predecessors, she was created by the girls using imitation objects of those which gave the girls life (artficial sweetener instead of sugar, dirt and twigs instead of spices, and what the girls considered to be "everything nice," which included "a knuckle sandwich" by Buttercup).
While she possessed the same powers as the girls and a similar color theme (having purple eyes and a purple dress to match), her appearance is rather abnormal (due to the use of imitation ingredients). She was much larger (both in height and weight) than her predecessors, had horribly crooked teeth and was noticeably deformed. She was also extremely naïve and thought that having a gun made a person a criminal, and when she confronted two cops taking in a couple of crooks who were brandishing guns, she beat up the cops and threw them in jail, and started to release criminals, thinking they were good.
As a result of her mishaps, the girls send Bunny away, only to be confronted by every convict Bunny released throughout the episode. To redeem herself and save the girls, she defeats every criminal herself. However, due to the instability of her composition, she explodes at the end of the brawl, leaving behind only a piece of her dress.
Bullet
- Main article: Bullet
Bullet is a squirrel who was given Chemical X by Bubbles in order to overcome the lethal injuries she had been given by a hawk. As a result, she gained the powers of the Powerpuff Girls, and is currently the protector of Townsville woods. She appeared in the episodes Stray Bullet and The City of Nutsville.
Dexter
- Main article: Dexter
In the comics "Super Secret Crisis War!" and "Powerpuff Girls: Super Smash-Up!," the girls gained a non-Powerpuff Girl named Dexter (he is the main character of Dexter's Laboratory[2]). He is a boy genius who has a secret laboratory next to his bedroom. His intelligence makes him the brains of the family. He is always working on new inventions and creations every day, but his stupid sister Dee Dee is always breaking into his lab and destroying his work. The plots of this show mainly revolve around his relationship with his sister and everything that happens between the two. He is currently being voiced by Candi Milo and was formerly being voiced by Christine Cavanaugh before she retired. He has made several cameo appearances throughout The Powerpuff Girls series (alongside other characters like Quackor and Dee Dee), but there is currently no TV episode featuring a full-time crossover of The Powerpuff Girls and Dexter's Laboratory casts, despite the 2016 reboot having a crossover with Teen Titans Go.
History of the Powerpuff Girls
First drawing of the PPG by Craig McCracken.
In 1991, Craig McCracken, then a student in the character animation program of CalArts, created "The Whoopass Girls" as a drawing of three girls on a small sheet of orange construction paper. The following year he included them as the main characters of his short film Whoopass Stew! The Whoopass Girls in: A Sticky Situation.This short, along with a few of McCracken's No Neck Joe shorts, was selected to be shown at Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation in 1994. While working on Dexter's Laboratory, McCracken submitted his work to Hanna-Barbera's innovative What a Cartoon! Show shorts program, which was eventually produced for Cartoon Network as "The Powerpuff Girls in: Meat Fuzzy Lumpkins" as part of World Premiere Toons."Meat Fuzzy Lumpkins" first aired in 1995, and was followed by a second short, "Crime 101," a year later. Announcer Ernie
Anderson, the narrator of the pilot episodes, died of cancer in 1997 before the show premiered, and he was
The movie's DVD cover.
replaced by Tom Kenny for the remainder of the series.The show's animation director was McCracken's former classmate Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack), who also directed many episodes himself. All of the original episodes (except the WAC shorts with the first one being animated at Animal House in Japan and the Second being animated at Fil Cartoons in the Philippines) were hand-drawn and produced at Rough Draft Studios in South Korea. The Powerpuff Girls series debut on November 18, 1998 was the highest rated premiere in Cartoon Network's history at the time.
The series consistently scored the highest rating each week for the network across a wide range of demographics—from young children to adults. In October 2000, Cartoon Network credited the Powerpuff Girls for its Friday night prime time ratings win among cable networks. By the end of 2000, merchandising based on The Powerpuff Girls encompassed a whole variety of products, including T-shirts, toys, video games, lunchboxes, and dishware. Concerning the Powerpuff Girls success, Craig McCracken has stated, "I thought it would get on Cartoon Network and college kids would watch it and there would be a few random T-shirts out there in the rave scene or in record shops. But I had no idea that it would take off to this extent."In August 2008, McCracken revealed on his DeviantArt account, as had been announced in that year's Comic Con, that he was working with Cartoon Network on a new half-hour Powerpuff Girls special to celebrate the series' 10-year anniversary. The special, titled "The Powerpuff Girls Rule!!!," aired on the Pan-Euro Cartoon Network on November 29, 2008, on the Powerpuff Girls Birthday Marathon, and in the United States on January 19, 2009, as part of its 10th anniversary marathon. Unlike previous episodes in the series, the anniversary special was animated using Adobe Flash at Cartoon Network Studios.
Super Powers
- Main article: List of superpowers used in The Powerpuff Girls
Likes & Dislikes
Likes
- The City of Townsville
- Professor Utonium
- Pokey Oaks Kindergarten
- Ms. Keane
- The Mayor of Townsville
- Ms. Bellum
- Lucky Captain Rabbit King Nuggets
- Robin Snyder
- Candy
- April
- The multiplex
- Fighting crime (depending on what kind of crime)
- Color and sound in Townsville
- Playing together
- BEEBO
- Tag
Dislikes
- Supervillains (especially Mojo Jojo)
- Getting sunburned
- Failing to save the day
- Slient movies
- Citiesville
- Being called brats
- Losing their superpowers
- Liver and Onions
Gallery
Click here to visit the Powerpuff Girls' gallery
Powerpuff Girls Z Appearances
The PowerPuff Girls Z
Like the original Powerpuff Girls, the Powerpuff Girls Z possess the ability to fly and have super strength, and their outfits seem to be indestructible (or at least very durable). Unlike the original Powerpuff Girls, the Powerpuff Girls Z trio are teenagers and have necks, ears, fingers, toes, and noses. In addition, each of the girls wields a weapon, a super-powered version of toys being played with by children they protected from the white light which made them Powerpuff Girls Z. An interesting Note is that in one episode of The Powerpuff Girls Z a reference is made to the original Powerpuff Girls when the Powerpuff Girl Z were traveling through various universes and HIM threw them off course by sending them to the Powerpuff Girls universe while they were fighing the Giant Fish balloon from the episode Uh Oh... Dynamo, the girls can even be seen flying by on screen for a second and The ending theme heart backdrop can be seen in this scene as well. In the episode The Rowdyruff boys, Mojo makes a robot made from the remains of old robots, and part of the robot is a giant lizard made of block layer and in a fit of rage Kaoru starts swinging her hammer and knocking of layers. This is a clear reference to the Sonic X Episode "The Last Resort."
Trivia
- Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup were named by the Professor, and each name is supposed to give an idea of their personalities. (Blossom was named for being open and approachable, Bubbles was named for her giggling once Blossom received her name, but Buttercup received her name "because it also begin with a 'B'," leading to her personality.)
- Their names in French are Belle ("beauty"), Bulle ("bubble") and Rebelle ("rebel").
- All of the Girls' names start with B, and have a set of double letters, except in Italy, where their names are Lolly (Blossom), Dolly (Bubbles) and Molly (Buttercup).
- In China, their Chinese names are two same Chinese words, not actually translated by original English names. Their names in Chinese are "花花" ("flower") for Blossom, "泡泡" ("bubble") for Bubbles and "毛毛" ("hairy") for Buttercup.
- In the Latin Spanish dub, Las Chicas Superpoderosas, their names are Bombón ("bonbon") for Blossom, Burbuja ("bubble") for Bubbles and Bellota ("acorn") for Buttercup.
- Blossom and Buttercup's names are references to types of flowers.
- The ingredients used to make the Powerpuff Girls and also the Rowdyruff Boys are based on the Nursery rhyme "What are Little Boys Made of?"
- They have alternative/parallel appearances as the Run of the Mill Girls (Oops, I Did It Again) and Steamypuff Girls (West in Pieces), etc.,
- Blossom's weakness is the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard, as revealed in the book "Scary Princess" where Princess tells Ace Blossom's weakness and he uses it on her.
- In "The City Of Clipsville", where the girls appear as teenagers, they have abandoned their main purpose in life which is fighting crime and are living normal teenage lives. They also develop crushes on their teenage male counterparts (The Rowdyruff Boys) who also have abandoned their purpose in life which is destroying the girls, They then organise dates with their counterparts. However, the girls were really ditzy, succeeding in only confusing the boys in the flashback and when it was over, Buttercup said, "Boy were we dumb.", and her sisters agreed. The Rowdyruff Boys are also the only villains who the girls were unable to directly defeat in battle.
- The girls' greatest weakness is their constant arguing, as seen in "Crazy Mixed-Up Puffs".
- According to "Silent Treatment", the girls love movies in a really cool theater with color and sound, car crashes and explosions. They absolutely dislike silent movies.
- "Reeking Havoc" establishes that April is the girls' favorite month.
- In the making of their first short "Meat Fuzzy Lumpkins", the girls' name had to be changed from "Whoopass" and two friends of Craig McCracken's separately came up with the name "Powerpuff".
- In some episodes, Bubbles and Buttercup have slept on the wrong sides of the bed and failed to realize it.
- The girls' names appear to be based off of three good faries from Sleeping Beauty.
- The girl are also based on Margaret Keane's waifs.powerpuff girl's appared in the powfactor song Blossom acoustic guitar Buttercup electric guitar bubbles drum kit
References
| Episodes and VHS/DVD releases - The Powerpuff Girls Movie - Powerpuff Girls Z | |||
| Characters: The Powerpuff Girls (Main: Blossom - Bubbles - Buttercup Other: Bunny - Bullet) - Professor Utonium - Mayor - Ms. Bellum - Ms. Keane Mojo Jojo - Fuzzy Lumpkins - HIM - Princess Morbucks - The Rowdyruff Boys (Brick - Boomer - Butch) - The Amoeba Boys - Sedusa - Gangreen Gang - Minor characters | |||
| Video Games: Fifth Generation Games: Chemical X-Traction (PS, N64) - Bad Mojo Jojo (GBC) - Paint the Townsville Green (GBC) - Battle HIM (GBC) Sixth Generation Games: Relish Rampage (PS2, GCN) - Mojo Jojo-A-Go-Go (GBA) - HIM and Seek (GBA) Seventh Generation Games: Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z (DS) PC Games: Mojo Jojo Clone Zone - Princess Snorebucks - Mojo Jojo's Pet Project | |||
| Misc. Superpowers - Townsville | |||
| Creator: Craig McCracken | |||