History Of The Powerpuff Girls

‘Sugar, spice, and everything nice; these are the ingredients to the perfect little girl; But Professor Utonium accidentally added one ingredient to the concoction: Chemical X. Thus, the Powerpuff Girls were born. Using their ultra superpowers, Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup have dedicated their lives to fighting crime and the forces of evil!’

 

The Powerpuff Girls is an Emmy-award winning American cartoon series, based on the adventures of three little kindergarten girls with superpowers - Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup. A brainwork of Craig McCracken, The Powerpuff Girls was launched more as a spoof on American superheroes as well as Japanese Tokusatsu heroes like Super Sentai. Blessed with superpowers, these three cute young little girls use their forces to defend their town, Townsville, against the outlaws. However, what makes these young girls all the more adorable is that their power is combined with their little age and all the issues that tag along with it, such as bed wetting and dependence on a security blanket. Another fascinating feature about this show, which has widely added to its popularity, is its endless reference to culture and parody. There is often a particular emphasis on cultural phenomenon and art styles from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s that has made this show a rage among one and all.

 

The Powerpuff Girls stormed into the TV screens in the year 1998 and instantly became the most highly rated animated series in the history of a premiere cartoon channel, Cartoon Network. This show was widely lauded by both young and old alike. Craig McCracken, then a student of California Institute of Arts, had come up with ‘The Whoopass Girls’, in his short film ‘The Whoopass Stew! A Sticky Situation’ which laid ground for The Powerpuff Girls to follow. As depicted in the opening sequence, the Powerpuff Girls were fashioned by Professor Utonium in an attempt to produce the ‘perfect little girl’ using a mixture of sugar, spice, and everything nice, when he fortuitously spilled ‘Chemical X’ into the mixture. What then emerged were little girls with superpower of flight, super strength, super speed, limited invulnerability, x-ray vision, super senses, heat vision and energy projection.

 

The Powerpuff Girls, with their oval-shaped heads, abnormally large eyes, stubby arms and legs, lacking noses, ears, fingers and flat feet with toes, became an immediate hit among the cartoon lovers and since then, the series has been one uphill ride for the makers of this show. After the immense popularity of this show, a Japanese animated version of the same, titled as Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z was released in the year 2005 that aired 52 half-hour episodes, and ruled the charts till 2007, before it finally went off air. The Japanese spin off of the show, however, was remarkably different from its predecessor, in terms of style, storyline, and characterization. In August 2008, McCracken announced a new half-hour Powerpuff Girls special to celebrate the series' 10th-year anniversary. The special series was aired on the Pan-Euro version of Cartoon Network on November 29, 2008, on the Powerpuff Girls Birthday Marathon, and in the US on January 19, 2009 on North America Cartoon Network, as a part of its PPG 10th Anniversary marathon.