tek's rating: ½

The Powerpuff Girls, Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network; CN UK; IMDb; Retro Junk; TV.com; TV Tropes; Wikipedia

"Sugar... spice... and everything nice.... These were the ingredients chosen to create the perfect little girls. But Professor Utonium accidentally added an extra ingredient to the concoction- Chemical X. Thus, the Powerpuff Girls were born! Using their ultra-super powers, Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup have dedicated their lives to fighting crime, and the forces of evil." That's the intro to the main theme of the show, and it sums it up pretty nicely. The show has a pretty simple premise, so I don't think there's much else I can say to describe it. It's very cute, and funny, and cool, something people of any age can appreciate. It has a very childlike feel to it, of course, but it also has enough wit, irony, and, um, knowingness, about it. It can even be a bit risqué at times; sometimes I think this works well for the show, sometimes not.

Anyway, aside from the girls and their "father," Professor Utonium, there's a pretty large cast of recurring characters. They live in the City of Townsville, whose mayor is simply called "The Mayor." He's pretty addle-brained. He has a very intelligent (and hot) secretary named Sara Bellum, whose face we never see, and who is often exasperated with her boss's dim-wittedness. The girls attend Pokey Oaks kindergarden, which is taught by Ms. Keane, and there are a number of students who are also recurring characters. And various other people around town I suppose, as well as a talking dog. And the show is narrated by, um, the Narrator. And of course there are lots of recurring supervillains, the main one being an evil monkey named Mojo Jojo. But there's also Fuzzy Lumpkins, Him (who is kind of supposed to be the Devil, I guess), the Gangreen Gang (the leader is Ace, the others are Snake, Grubber, Big Billy, and Li'l Arturo), and then there's Sedusa, the Rowdyruff Boys (who were created by Mojo Jojo), a spoiled little rich girl named Princess Morbucks, and others. As well as plenty of one-shot villains.

I'd like to say more, because it really is a great show. I love the action and the humor and the cuteness and everything... I also recommend the album "Heroes & Villains," which totally rocks. Plus they have a movie (IMDb) which is a prequel to the series, about when the girls were first created. It rocks, so you should see it. I gotta write up a review of that someday. There was also a Christmas special called The Fight Before Christmas, which was pretty cool.


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