More Power, Less Puff
Powerpuff Girls makes the big-screen transition, with mixed results
Craig McCracken’s animated creation The Powerpuff Girls became a cult hit long before it became a merchandising phenomenon. When it debuted on the Cartoon Network in 1998, The Powerpuff Girls scratched all the usual postmodern ironists’ itches, slamming together the minimalist cuteness of girl-friendly Saturday-morning cartoons, the electronica-pumped hyper-violence of Japanese sci-fi movies, and fragments of kitsch from the exploded remains of ’50s pulp. Central to the show’s success has been McCracken’s willingness to toy with the formula: to go an entire episode without focusing on his heroines, or to radically alter the art style to reflect shifts in points of view. And amid all the pop culture mix-’em-ups, The Powerpuff Girls almost never fails to deliver entertaining, action-packed superhero adventures in watchable 10-minute hunks, punctuated by adrenalized, bone-crunching, blood-spurting fight scenes.
The violence has become such an inextricable part of the self-aware energy of the TV show that it’s surprising to see how brutal the action sequences appear in The Powerpuff Girls Movie. Contrary to the cartoon shorts’ zippy pacing, just about every scene in the film is stretched out, putting a drag on the story and raising the ferocity of the punch-outs to near intolerable levels. The large under-10 audience will likely leave the theater with their aggression level at an all-time high.
Even more disappointing for fans is that The Powerpuff Girls Movie tones down the cunning stylistic digressions of the series in favor of a fairly bland origin story. We see how tall, blocky Professor Utonium blended sugar, spice, everything nice and the special ingredient Chemical X to create the super-powered, big-eyed cutie-pies Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup. We also see how the same experiment altered the professor’s lab monkey Jojo, whose brain and capacity for evil expanded, transforming him into the Powerpuffs’ arch-nemesis, Mojo Jojo. The Powerpuff Girls Movie arcs from the creation of the superfolk to their first big battle, dwelling on the heroes’ and villain’s initial rejection by the citizens of Townsville. Flat and somewhat dark, the plot doesn’t allow for much high-spirited high jinks.
Despite the sluggish pace—broken up by moments of exhausting frenzy—The Powerpuff Girls Movie flashes signs of brightness and wit. When Mojo Jojo enacts his plan to take over the world by recruiting a simian army, McCracken runs off a string of monkey jokes with the snap and cleverness familiar from TV. And through all the sludge, the minimalist design of the characters and their world still looks pretty cool when blown up to theater screen size. The Nickelodeon school of animation has led to ugly-looking movie versions of the already lumpen Rugrats, Hey Arnold and Jimmy Neutron, but Cartoon Network product generally has a cleaner, thicker line, and The Powerpuff Girls especially relies on bold colors and uncluttered space. This may not be much of a recommendation, but in both story and style, The Powerpuff Girls Movie resembles an 80-minute opening credits sequence.
—Noel Murray
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