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Western Animation / The Powerpuff Girls (1998)

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This is the page for the original 1998 series. If you're looking for the 2016 reboot, go here.

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"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-superpowers, Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup have dedicated their lives to fighting crime and the forces of evil!"
The oh-so-Interactive Narrator

One of Cartoon Network's most popular original series and the first entry in its eponymous franchise, The Powerpuff Girls is a superhero-comedy series revolving around a Power Trio of Little Miss Badasses who fight crime and evil forces in the fictional city of Townsville. These Artificial Human girls, who have no fingers, toes, flat feet, ears, or noses, were created when Professor Utonium (Tom Kane) accidentally added a mutagenic substance called Chemical X to his mixture of sugar, spice, and everything nice while trying to "create the perfect little girls."

The series' heroes are Blossom (Cathy Cavadini), "commander and the leader," Bubbles (Tara Strong), "the joy and the laughter," whose personality is very similar to that of her namesake from Jabberjaw (but not quite a Dumb Blonde), and Buttercup (E.G. Daily), "the toughest fighter," and a tomboy with a bad attitude. Their simian Arch-Enemy Mojo Jojo (Roger L. Jackson) wears a helmet to cover his enlarged brain and speaks in a manner reminiscent of bad anime dubbing.

The concept began life as creator Craig McCracken's CalArts thesis film, titled "The Whoopass Girls" (they were created with "sugar, spice, everything nice," and a can of Whoopass) and was then adapted, with a slightly safer-for-work name, into two pilots for the What A Cartoon! Show. Cartoon Network decided to go with one of the other shorts, created by McCracken's friend and former 2 Stupid Dogs colleague Genndy Tartakovsky, as their first series, giving McCracken a little more experience before his show finally went to series in 1998. Both artists worked on one another's respective shows.note 

Warner Bros. released a feature film, The Powerpuff Girls Movie, in 2002 (which bombed at the theaters, likely due to a severe decline in popularity that began in early 2001). A comic book series (from DC Comics no less). An anime version, Powerpuff Girls Z, hit the airwaves in Japan on July 1st, 2006.

The original series was the final production to be created under Hanna-Barbera, with the company's current productions — including The Powerpuff Girls being taken over by Cartoon Network Studios, while the studio's other assets were absorbed into Warner Bros. Animation.

In July 2022, it was announced that Craig McCracken and his wife/long-time collaborator Lauren Faust would be returning to spearhead a revival of the series with Hanna-Barbera Europe, Cartoon Network's UK-based animation studio.


Tropes, spice, and everything nice:

General examples



Blossom! Commander and the leader!
Bubbles! She is the joy and the laughter!
Buttercup! She is the toughest fighter!
Powerpuffs save the day!
Fighting crime, trying to save the world!
Here they come just in time, the Powerpuff Girls!
Fighting crime, trying to save the world!
Here they come just in time, the Powerpuff Girls!
Powerpuff!

Alternative Title(s): The Powerpuff Girls Classic, Tropes A To I

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The Rowdyruff Boys

The episode introduces the titular mischief-making, gender-flipped versions of the Powerpuff Girls; who were all equal to the girls in power, combat and unique fighting styles but also being on the opposite side of morality, wanting to cause nothing but mayhem and destruction.

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