The Powerpuff Girls Movie (2002)

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

In 1998 Paramount sent a big screen adaptation of Nickelodeon's popular animated series RUGRATS into theatres. It exceeded all expectations by becoming the first animated film to break $100million at the US Box Office. This lead to a glut of other animated series (HEY ARNOLD!, WILD THORNBERRYS, POKEMON among others) following the trail onto the big screen. These films, along with successful releases from Dreamworks, Aardman Animations and BlueSky Studios helped break the monopoly on animated films Disney had held in America for some sixty years (the odd challenge from the likes of Don Bluth aside). While no one, bar their subsidiary Pixar, has been able to match Disney's grosses or consistency, parents now know that there will be an at least competent animated film they can take their children to every 2 months or so.Still, THE RUGRATS MOVIE was no classic, and the other big screen TV show adaptations which followed in its wake were mostly forgettable. The one major exception is, ironically, the one which was perhaps the biggest Box Office disappointment.THE POWERPUFF GIRLS MOVIE is fast, funny and smart entertainment. The plot provides an origin story for the characters from the TV show, a set-up which may have confused some of the younger fans at the time, but nonetheless is savvy mirroring of the standard format for live action remakes of TV shows, as well as a standard trope of the comic books which inspired the characters, and had in turn been echoed by cinematic treatments including Richard Donner's SUPERMAN and the same summer's SPIDER-MAN. The animation tastefully enhances the look of the TV show for 35mm, neither negating or overwhelming the minimalist visual charms, nor letting the expanded canvas feel wasted. James L. Venable's score is able to enhance the excitement of the action scenes, and pour on the charm for the domestic sequences, ranging from lush orchestral sweeps to then fashionable techno stabs; a little of its time perhaps, but to my ears not in a bad way.Completely subjective of course, but I do also find the humour very funny (with one particular stand-out involving a series of speeches by a group of monkeys) and the characters themselves either funny, endearing or both. In these regards, those who have seen the series that spawned the movie will know what to expect, and it is to the film's credit that this is accurately recreated in the film.So the film holds up as entertainment, and even popular art, very well. But what really makes it striking in 2017 is how timely it feels; there may be no other animated film so suited to an audience who have been turning out for superhero movies again and again every year for the past five years. With the understated yet prominent theme of female empowerment and subversion of gender stereotypes for both its characters and audience, the POWERPUFF GIRLS concept as a whole feels almost tailor made for the audience which made WONDER WOMAN quite possibly the most beloved and debated popular hit of the year. Even more so the comically exaggerated scenes of urban destruction, which at the time left some people with a bad taste in the wake of 9/11, feel very much like a response to the similar but often less self-aware scenes of destruction in many recent superhero movies, particularly MAN OF STEEL and THE AVENGERS. And I do mean very much so; I believe if this were shown to someone with no knowledge of the historical context of the film or overall franchise they would believe it to be a parody of the MCU and DCEU films dominating our cultural landscape. But this film addresses the fallout from the damage with far more wit than BATMAN V SUPERMAN managed.It is a shame that the current reboot of THE POWERPUFF GIRLS airing on Cartoon Network seems (from my limited firsthand experience, and from the overall reception) to be a bland facsimile, lacking in the pop super-heroics which gave the original POWERPUFFs such potency, and failing to connect with new and old audiences, for this is truly one property which does feel as if it could be more relevant than ever now. Perhaps one day Craig McCracken and the original team will be granted the opportunity to return to these characters and find a way to revitalise them, or perhaps simply without the reboot more people would have had the chance to discover or rediscover the original body of work. Still, THE POWERPUFF GIRLS MOVIE stands as a monument to memorable animation phenomenon which more than holds up all these years later, with enough unique strengths in and of itself that I hope it one day achieves a cult status of its own in the vein of TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE, the only other big screen TV cartoon adaptation I believe to have received this level of care and consideration. For now, it's out there for fans and new fans to discover.

A professor mixes several things together, including an experimental chemical, creating three bug-eyed, sweet little girls. Unsure of how to look after them, he names them Bubbles, Blossom and Buttercup and enrolls them in school. They are unable to handle their destructive secret powers and mayhem ensues; meanwhile the professor's old lab experiment money has been altered by the chemical and has escaped with a genius but corrupt mind, bent on purposeful destruction.This film by far beats the Lorax (2012), Frozen (2013) and Despicable Me (2010). Although a dangerous chemical is involved, there is thankfully no preachy hippie environmental messages shoved into the plot. The soundtrack is catchy and at times funny, the voice acting was good and the animation was well-done. The three girls are slightly dorky as the do-good sweethearts, and they speak in whiny baby voices sometimes, but for a children's film it remains entertaining and comedic without the use of fart jokes or bad CGI effects. It certainly isn't bad as far as kid's movies go.

The Powerpuff Girls Movie plays less like a film and more like an adrenaline rush for one of the most breakneck seventy-three minutes of your life. The show, unseen by me, was an apparent cult success for Cartoon Network, around the same time as Dexter's Laboratory, along with boasting a similar fast-paced style and brightly colored atmospheres. All kidding aside, this film provided me with some of the most eventful cartoon action sequences in a long time and some of the most rapid fire events in recent memory.The film gives us the simplistic origins story of the girls who were created by a straight-laced scientist named "The Professor" (voiced by Tom Kane). The girls, named Blossom (Cathy Cavadini), Bubbles (Tara Strong), and Buttercup (E.G. Daily) seem to be normal, bug-eyed sprouts, but they possess uncanny superpowers such as the ability to fly, utilize eye-lasers, and run at speeds unimaginable.After their game of tag kindly ventures out beyond school boundaries and their damage to the city is ubiquitous and devastating, the girls are reprimanded by The Professor, who urges them not to use their powers in public. But when The Professor is arrested in connection with the girls' destruction, the girls must find their way home from school without guidance. They are misled into the clutches of an ominous figure named "Jojo" (Roger L. Jackson) who forces the girls to utilize their powers for his project that he states will bring good to society. Upon completion, it does the opposite and unleashes a hellish wrath on the town of Townsville with Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup to blame. They must figure out a way to stop "Mojo Jojo," a name he adopts upon creating this plan, and win back the trust of their kind professor and the rest of the town.A majority of the skinny film is action; almost nonstop carnage. It's quite the blink-and-you-miss-it entertainment. In the day and age of genial sincerity, more often than not with a burdening life lesson, brought to you by Pixar, The Powerpuff Girls Movie is rather low on the meter of animated entertainment, but the film's concise runtime, kinetic action scenes, a cheerily comforting family story elevate it to a level that I can recommend. Its theatrical release is somewhat strange. This kind of thing could fit nicely on Cartoon Network's daytime lineup. And it would be nice if everyone would talk about three octaves lower, but these petty problems do not distract from the kinetic style and animation clearly at hand here.Voiced by: Cathy Cavadini, Tara Strong, E.G. Daily, Roger L. Jackson, and Tom Kenny. Directed by: Craig McCracken.

Thoughts from after I saw this in the theaters after its original release: In all the talk about why the Powerpuff Girls Movie failed, they have mentioned almost every excuse from too many animated films to the fact most theatres were not showing it past dinner time, to over saturation of the market, to the "fact TV spin offs usually don't work while the show is still on TV.What I find curious is that with all the talk no one at any point mentioned the fact is that the movie isn't all that wonderful. Don't get me wrong its not bad, its just not all that great.I went to see this when the movie was on the verge of disappearing from theaters going to the only one in literally 25 miles that was showing the movie. It was packed with kids and their parents, mostly kids under 7, which isn't a bad thing especially when you have a three or four year old repeating every line of Buttercup's, and the whole thing takes on a surreal Rocky Horror sort of feel.The movie is essentially the story of how the girls and Mojo Jo Jo were created. In the early going things weren't bad. It was like a good TV episode on the big screen. However once the second act hits- where the girls are shunned after a game of tag goes horribly wrong - the whole thing grinds to a halt. Yes, it has it moments but it tends to just go on and on. Then the movie shifts gears again once the third act hits and Mojo is revealed to be the villain and all of the other monkeys attempt to take over the world. Everything is rapid fire and I know I missed several of the references and jokes that litter the screen. (I didn't catch the words spelled out in the girls color trails until they were fading from the screen.) Where act two was too slow act three is too fast and I couldn't help the feeling that this was taking the term throw away gag to a new level, so much was happening that it was all lost.Its not bad mind you its just that its an extended TV episode with no real reason to be on the big screen. Hell I bet you there isn't a sharp eyed viewer who won't be able to pick out every place a commercial will appear when Cartoon runs it next spring or summer.Yes I laughed. No, I don't hate it. But in a year where animated cartoons are coming into their own, with Ice Age, Lilo, Metropolis, Escaflowne, Spirit, Jimmy Neutron and Monsters Inc, in less than 12 months (plus Cowboy Bebop , Spirited Away and Treasure Planet before years end) I really can't see the point of putting out a movie thats just the TV show only bigger. (Is it any wonder Hey Arnold also tanked?) Frankly I'm glad is bombing at the box office since I can not see any reason that this movie exists other than to cash in on the Powerpuff Girls bandwagon. This was a movie that was released for the sake of greed (and to have Baboon Butt Bombs) and no other reason. This was not a story that needed to be told on the big screen since they do nothing with it. Frankly other than a louder ("mommy my ears hurt") soundtrack and "funky" hip movie like freeze frames and shots there is nothing that says to me there was any thought put into how make it a movie, it was simply was and is more of the same.Even the 5.75 bargain matinée was too much to ask.I look forward to seeing the DVD. I want to hear the commentary and go back and see what I missed- I want to know the in jokes which I sense are there. But beyond that...Who knows.