Original air date: 4/9/2004
Production code: PPG-517
Silent Treatment: At the silent movie theater the girls reluctantly attend, a silent film star captures the Professor.
Sweet 'n' Sour: Townsville is being robbed by a group of cute little animals, whose innocent looks lets them get away with everything.
Silent Treatment provides examples of:
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: In-Universe example. Max von Nitrate talks (through text cards of course) directly to the girls from within his movie. And can hear the girls when they talk back to him.
- Born in the Theatre: When they are falling from the plane, Bubbles grabs the edge of the film and tears it apart, sending the girls, the police officers and Max back into the real world.
- Brought Down to Badass: The Girls don’t have their powers within the silent movie. It doesn’t keep them from going after Max Von Nitrate though.
- Car Chase: Between Max Von Nitrate and the Professor in one car, and the girls + a group of police officers in another car.
- Chain of People: When Max Von Nitrate tries to escape in an airplane, Buttercup is able to grab the wheels just in time, and her sisters and the police officers all hang onto her (except for one fat cop who doesn’t make it).
- Dastardly Whiplash: Max Von Nitrate, the villain of this episode. Justified, since he is from the era of silent movies after all.
- Don't Explain the Joke: After witnessing Nitrate Swallow the Key.Buttercup: He's swallowing the key whole!
Bubbles: Keyhole. Get it? [giggles] - Expy: An Expy of Charlie Chaplin (in his trademark bowler hat and cane) gets knocked over by Max von Nitrate’s car, and the police car.
- Later, a man who looks an awful lot like Harold Lloyd is seen dangling from a clock tower.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: The villain and supposed damsel reacting to the girls' commentary indicate this is more than an average movie.
- Food Fight: The silent movie features a scene with people throwing pies at each other, for some reason. They only briefly stop to let the police car pass.
- Maniac Monkeys: when Max von Nitrate’s plan reaches Africa, with the girls and the police officers still dangling from the wheels, they accidentally snatch up a piano playing monkey, who quickly climbs all the way up the chain and drops the girls and officers from the plane. He then proceeds to drop Max from the plane as well and hijacks the plane, with the Professor still inside.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: If the Professor had taken the Girls to the megaplex instead of the Silent Theater, like they wanted in the first place, he never would've gotten kidnapped by the silent movie villain.
- Older Is Better: The Professor is far more fond of old fashioned silent films than modern day ones. The girls don’t agree.
- Oh, Crap!: The Girls' reaction when they realize that the woman held hostage by Max von Nitrate is actually the Professor with a wig.
- Shout-Out: In a reference to Mystery Science Theater 3000, the girls make assorted comments about the movie while their silhouettes are shown in the bottom right corner.
- Silent Movie: The Girls and the Professor end up in one.
- Swallow the Key: Max Von Nitrate does this after locking a door. Later, when the girls make their way into the movie, he pulls the key out of his mouth again to unlock the door.
- Tragic Villain: Max is eventually revealed to be the old man running the silent movie theater, who admits to being a former great actor who lost his job when talkies replaced the silent movies due to his bad voice. He hoped to change his luck by acquiring the professor's voice.
- Trapped in TV Land: Max Von Nitrate pulls the professor into the movie, forcing the girls to follow.
- White-Dwarf Starlet: Max Von Nitrate, a.k.a. the owner of the silent movie theater.
Sweet ‘n’ Sour provides examples of:
- All of the Other Reindeer: The girls get made out to be jerks by the citizens of Townsville for trying to stop the baby animals.
- All There in the Script: The critters are named in the credits as Fluffy Kitty, Cuddly Bunny, and Puppy Wuppy.
- Cute Is Evil: A very cute pink rabbit, dog and cat. And they happily commit crimes.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Uh, Townsville? Should you be solving the girl's so-called "animal cruelty" by treating the former with what is essentially bullying and child cruelty?
- Hero with Bad Publicity: The girls get this treatment from Townsville after they try to confront the Fluffy Bunch.
- Hypocrite: The townspeople accuse the girls of "bullying" the critters, yet they themselves are perfectly willing to bully the girls just for trying to stand up to the critters.
- On top of that, they allow the Fluffy Bunch to get away with all crimes, yet in episodes like Powerpuff Bluff and A Very Special Blossom, the girls were sent to jail for crimes they had committed. (Only Blossom's case for the latter; and in the former, the girls were framed. And even after clearing their names, they had to go back to jail for breaking out in the first place.)
- Jerkass: The citizens of Townsville side with the Fluffy Bunch and constantly treat the girls like crap.
- Karma Houdini: While the Fluffy Bunch get punished for their crimes, The City of Townsville on the other hand never gets punished for their mistreatment of the Powerpuff Girls, nor do they realize that they were being used by the Fluffy Bunch, nor do they apologize to the girls, and yet they're on good terms with the girls by the next episode as if nothing ever happened.
- Kick the Dog: Nearly everyone in Townsville behaves this way towards the girls in favor of the Fluffy Bunch.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The critters get harassed by a bunch school children at the end due to their cuteness.
- Made Out to Be a Jerkass: The girls try to stop the critters from committing crimes over Townsville, yet the townspeople accuse them of harassing them and ostracize them for it.
- Produce Pelting: The citizens throw an egg at Bubbles of all people.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: The villains of this episode are a bunch of these, and they milk their cuteness for all it’s worth in order to rob people or convince the girls to give them one more chance. The Girls eventually turn it against them by luring them to room full of young children, who happily cuddle the critters into submission.
- Suckiness Is Painful: Fuzzy’s bad banjo playing has this effect on people.
- Talking Animal: All three critters can talk.
- Ungrateful Townsfolk: The girls try to stop the Fluffy Bunch, only to get reprimanded for it.
- Villain with Good Publicity: The Fluffy Bunch are admired by the townsfolk and the girls get vilified for trying to confront them. When the girls actually do successfully take them to jail the second time they encounter them, they're released early for being so adorable. Even the prisoners they temporarily shared a jail cell with loved them.
- Waving Signs Around: A group of citizens shows up at the Utonium house to protest against the girls trying to stop the criminal critters.
- Would Hurt a Child: The townspeople have no qualms against mistreating a bunch of 5-year-old girls.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: The critters pull these off a couple of times to make the girls look bad.
