The Powerpuff Girls Movie

****Excellent

***Good

**Fair

*Poor

As a recurrent viewer of the Powerpuff Girls cartoon series I was a bit hyped to catch this film. The film is a prequel to the cartoon series and it is meant to explain how everything came about. However, the Professor isn't developed to the maximum. The film begins with his character and quickly explains how he is fed up with society and wants to create his `own' perfect race.

With sugar, spice, everything nice, and Chemical X he not only created the crime fighting perfect little girls (Bubbles, Blossom, and Buttercup) but he created the evil Mojo Jojo as well.

Mojo Jojo is perhaps the best part of the Powerpuff universe. It's great how his character is also suffering the same things as the heroes and he takes advantage of the situation to battle his own demons.

Like the cartoon series the film is full of action, charm, and a lot of social and pop culture satire. It's fun for the whole family.

RATING: 3 STARS

Whoo! Talk about the noisiest roller coaster ride you can watch right now! The Powerpuff Girls is 90 minutes of bright neon fun, and it is definitely worth a look, but be warned: some kids and adults may find that the experience is too loud or taxing. I think the creators of the film just didn't know when to quit at some points, throwing a thousand images at the screen in succession for over half a minute until my eyes were just watering. Like when the monkeys are screaming, "I!" "I!" "I!" at the screen one right after the other, or when the Girls are punching everything in sight. After a while, it gets tiresome. If you can take the ride, however, it's a hoot and a holler. There are some groovy action sequences (like the destructive game of tag), great jokes for the kids, adults, and movie-buffs (Jay and Silent Bob are there, man, just look for them!), and some amazing animation. More humor would have been welcome, however, since the Mayor doesn't get a lot of screen time and the Narrator, who's always good for a laugh, only talks at the opening and closing of the movie. Also, we don't get nearly enough of the Girls just by themselves, in moments where the audience can have some down time and just connect with the characters before moving on to the next action sequence. Despite these flaws, PPG is still a must-see flick for those who can bear down and take the pulse-pounding imagery (seriously, Grampa may have a seizure with this one). 3 out of 4 stars.

The success of "The Rugrats Movie" inspired a whole host of animated TV shows to hit the big screen, but none of their movies - apart from the first "Rugrats" sequel - have had anything like the same popularity (don't bet on a sequel to "Hey Arnold! The Movie" turning up any time ever). The Cartoon Network's first movie "The Powerpuff Girls" does deserve credit for ambition; this is an origins movie (and unlike some movies based on TV shows, this does feel like a proper movie) and it's not afraid to be serious. In fact, that's the biggest problem with the tale - for a lot of the time it's almost too serious to be as much fun as its source.

As explained on one TV episode (and here - score points for continuity), Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup were invented when Professor Utonium's chimp assistant pushed him while he was blending sugar, spice and everything nice, and caused him to accidentally add an extra ingredient to the concoction... Chemical X. Here we learn that their superpowers did more harm than good at first, which said chimp turned to his advantage. The movie assumes enough familiarity with the series so you'll know that the Professor threw the chimp out after the Girls were born, and that chimp (also affected in the explosion) was Mojo Jojo, who hogs the screen here as well - the show's other recurring villains either have walk-ons (notably the Gangrene Gang) or don't appear (Him is particularly missed).

The low point is, sad to say, from the Powerpuffs themselves; not their characters, but the scene where they play the most destructive game of tag in history (it does set up a reason for the crime-ravaged city of Townsville to hate them, but it also goes on far, far longer than necessary). And as said before, a lot of the fun and energy of the source is lost here (as is, apart from the opening and closing scenes, the narrator) - but the design is still great, the action speedy, we're spared songs (except for the end credits) and when the movie gets its act together it's as inventive as the source at its best (it can't resist making pop culture references to the likes of "Planet of the Apes" and other simian jokes, but at least they're good ones). So it's hardly a pain to watch, but being a fan is a prerequisite. And happily, I remain one. Plus it's infinitely better than the "Dexter's Laboratory" short that precedes it.

Oh yeah, they rock hard.

Well, I can't say I was not entertained! But the endless repetitions of everything made the movie a bit tedious at times.

Genius to see all the different creatures they've created for this movie. And thankfully, the PPG's haven't been made into family friendly puppets in the movie.. they can still kick ass and even kill.. which they certainly do..!

What has been done to strengthen the PPG's as a movie:

Far too many puns and playoffs of movie classics and far too many tedious repetitions, as mentioned. Many things for some reason happen in rhythm and sequence as they would in a musical, this is also cool sometimes in the series, but only in small portions at a time. None of these elements add too much positive stuff to the movie.

In addition to special effects and an avalanche of cool characters (which are both good stuff), this is what has been done. They also seem to have changed the mayor's voice and behaviour somewhat - he's not really that funny in the movie.

If the entire movie was going to be set in Townsville (except a small scene on an asteroid), it might've been better to play off the misc. genius characters from the movie, Fuzzy Lumpkins, Him, etc..

And/or take the girls on a voyage/trial (underwater? space?) that would give us a different setting than (misc tall grey concrete buildings) in faceless Townsville (which we've seen so much from already).

Boring, unchanging setting, some annoying bad elements, annoyingly different mayor character - BUT - some phat effects, fun story, exiting graphics and interesting characters. Ah well! 7/10

I have been a big fan of the Powerpuff Girls for a long time now. As far as I can see all they are meant to be is some rock em sock em cute entertainment for the kids and also, as a bonus, some very very funny entertainment for the adults as well. There are many jokes for the adults that would go nicely over the kids heads but retain their humour for the adults.

Anyone who would go to see this movie is either a) a kid or b) an adult with kids or c) just an adult fan. I fit into the last category and saw it with a friend of mine and haven't laughed so hard for quite a while. The kids in the cinema were also laughing a lot, just at different times to us.

Anyone who goes along and says "This movie is only to market some toys" kinda missed the point of some harmless yet funny entertainment. Of course it's there to market the toys, companies are there to make as much money as they can and if they are providing a good entertaining product then who is to deny them the fruits of their labour.

All up this is a hilarious movie about the genesis of the Powerpuff Girls which has never really been covered beyond the opening credits and as such was interesting for the completion of a storyline and also very funny for the foibles of 3 pre-school aged girls with super powers trying to come to terms with their place in the world.

Many funny moments such as the game of tag through the city (causing massive destruction of course) as well as many many funny monkey jokes, corny as they are.

Enjoy the movie, it doesn't answer any of lifes deep questions, but does fulfil one of lifes deep needs. That of laughter!

9/10