The Powerpuff Girls is an Emmy award-winning American animated television series about three kindergarten-aged girls who have superpowers. Created by animator Craig McCracken, the program was produced by Hanna-Barbera until 2001 when Cartoon Network Studios took over production for Cartoon Network.
The show's animation director is Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack), who also directed many episodes himself. James L. Venable composed the opening theme of the series and Scottish band Bis performed the ending theme song, as played during the credits. Tom Kenny narrated the introduction, and also acted as narrator through the series era.
The Powerpuff Girls revolves around the adventures of Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, three little girls with superpowers. The plot of a typical episode is some humorous variation of standard superhero and/or tokusatsu fare, with the girls using their powers to defend their town from various supervillains, bank robbers, mad scientists, aliens, or giant monsters. In addition, the girls also have to deal with normal issues young children face, such as bed wetting or dependence on a security blanket.
The show mainly takes place in the fictional city of Townsville, USA. Townsville is depicted as a major American city, with a cityscape consisting of several major skyscrapers. The physical location of Townsville has never been determined. Cities like Los Angeles, New York City, Paris, London, and Tokyo have been shown throughout the series.
The show has a highly stylized, minimalistic visual look, reminiscent of 1950s and '60s pop art. In his review of The Powerpuff Girls Movie, movie critic Bob Longino of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said that "the intricate drawings emanate 1950s futuristic pizazz like a David Hockney scenescape", and that The Powerpuff Girls is "one of the few American creations that is both gleeful pop culture and exquisite high art".
The show has come under criticism for its rather excessive violence (including images of characters gushing blood from their mouths when hit), and for what have been perceived as morally questionable actions on part of the main characters, such as sometimes using more brutal force than necessary.
As depicted in the opening sequence of each episode, the Powerpuff Girls were created by Professor Utonium in an attempt to create the perfect little girl using a mixture of sugar, spice, and everything nice. However, he accidentally spilled a mysterious substance called Chemical X into the mixture, granting the girls superpowers commonly including flight, super strength, super speed, and heat vision. Each girl is similar in appearance, having oval-shaped heads, abnormally large eyes, stubby arms and legs, and lacking visible noses, ears, fingers and toes. They wear matching dresses with a black stripe in each that match the colors of their eyes, as well as white pantyhose and black Mary Janes. The closing theme to the cartoon, performed by Bis, includes the lyrics Blossom, commander and the leader; Bubbles, she is the joy and the laughter; Buttercup, she's the toughest fighter. This offers a nutshell description of the three Powerpuff girls' personalities.(Wikipedia)
Powerpuff Girls American animated television series
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