The Powerpuff Girls (2016) | A Cartoon Network Original - USA: April 4th, 2016 | UK: April 25th | Escape from Monster Island / Princess Buttercup

[Tornado]

I'm kinda stuck. I forgot about this until a couple of minutes ago, but I can't watch it on the West Coast feeds when it is on later because then Archer is on.

 

D:

[Soniman]

I have no idea what I watched exactly, but i sure did like IT!

[Nintendoga]

Alright that was pretty good. It took a while to get used to the animation, and while I still find things like the Professor's animation odd, I wasn't really bothered by the animation or lighting or designs. Otherwise the writing was good, and it was pretty funny.  I honestly wouldn't mind if they made a new series based off this design.

Although, the pacing felt weird. Like jesus christ, what the fuck happened in the last 10 minutes? They needed to slow the fuck down and explain stuff to us.

And Ms. Bellum is still the best waifu

Edit: Ughhh. I got Proud Family Move flashbacks during the dancing battles. The horror.
 

[T-Min]

I'm kinda stuck. I forgot about this until a couple of minutes ago, but I can't watch it on the West Coast feeds when it is on later because then Archer is on.

 

D:

That's fine, you're better off. It was pretty cringe worthy.

 

The only joke I laughed at was that last bit with the Mayor and Miss Bellum. Everything else was horribly unfunny. It's the same manic, over-the-top sugar-high five-year-old fanfiction that The Powerpuff Girls Rule was, except really, really ugly. The characterization was completely off. Most of the characters were flanderized if they were even in-character at all, and the Professor isn't even remotely close to his actual personality - and also really annoying. In fact, that's how I'd describe the whole thing. Annoying. Annoyingly written, annoying to look at, generally annoying to watch. It's like it hardly even tried to capture the spirit of the original show, and the whole thing just felt completely soulless. "But it's just different!" Yeah, okay, so it's "different", but even as something "different", it's just flat-out bad. The animation was off-putting enough as it was, and actually watching it makes me glad I tempered my expectations. That awful double rainbow reference towards the end pretty much summed up the whole thing.

 

But I'm pretty sure almost no one is going to agree with me, so whatever.

 

(i really hope i don't sound like some sort of snob this is seriously just how i feel)

[Dejimon11]

I enjoyed it. The characters were the same as I remembered them, the pacing was decent and the plot as pretty much a regular episode. I do however have some complaints.

1) the animation it's not the art style that bothers me its just a general thing that bothers me with shows using cgi they spend a lot of time focusing on the animation at times but that's just a me thing so it doesn't lose points

2) I feel that they were going with this trend CN is going with adding a few randomness moments that just feel ok what was that like the mayors subplot with ms V

Overall i really liked this special and if they make a series with this animation I will find myself watching this religiously in the meantime there's always the IDW comics

[JAiRO]

2) I feel that they were going with this trend CN is going with adding a few randomness moments that just feel ok what was that like the mayors subplot with ms V

 

I think the writers just have a different sense of humor from the original ones. If it is the original writers than perhaps their sense of humor/writing style changed.

[Cyrus]

Eeeeeh. That was... Eech. It felt so shallow. The art direction was really pretty, (though the colors were kinda over-saturated. My eyes still hurt.) I'll give it that, but the writers didn't do as good of a job as the art director. This special felt like a friendly parody of the show. The pacing was bad, everything just flew by. The 10 minute episodes were somehow better paced than this special. I can't really go into much detail about why I think this was meh to me, but most of this tumblr post explains most of my problems with it.

http://tiaxdellaxluna.tumblr.com/post/74010559047/heres-the-thing

I am disappoint

[JAiRO]

The art direction was really pretty, (though the colors were kinda over-saturated. My eyes still hurt.) I'll give it that, but the writers didn't do as good of a job as the art director. This special felt like a friendly parody of the show. The pacing was bad, everything just flew by. The 10 minute episodes were somehow better paced than this special.

 

It definitely felt like it was written to be a much longer special (Hour?) or even a movie, too much was happening too quickly. While I enjoyed it, I honestly couldn't tell you what the major plot points of the movie were. All the jokes fell in line with my sense of humor and it was really pretty, but the plot kept jumping.

[Nintendoga]

(i really hope i don't sound like some sort of snob this is seriously just how i feel)

Nah not at all. I won't deny that this special was extremely polarizing. They tried bringing alot of aspects and elements from the show into this (like that blog in two posts above me explains) while throwing away a bunch of other stuff and bringing a ton of inconsistencies into this.

The characters did act off (Professor was weird and silly, the girls acted a bit bratty, though I suppose they acted a little bratty in the show sometimes too) and they retcon'd the professor's backstory (which is weird since they just showed the episode about his backstory yesterday) and other stuff like Bubbles having ice breath and not Blossom.

Eh, I let some of this slide because I viewed it more as a reboot than anything else. I guess in the end it just goes down to different strokes for different folks. It tried bringing in new viewers (you could tell by that 30 second long exposition speech at the beginning by Blossom, along with adding in that randomness aspect alot of CN shows have nowadays) by changing things while trying to attract old viewers by bringing some elements back. In the end some people think it succeeded while others say it failed.

I will say, I can't excuse the pacing. It wasn't 10th anniversary levels of bad, but stuff was moving so fast at some points that I got way too confused with what was going on.

semi-Edit: Damn those CN advertisements. I didn't get to hear the credits song at the end. I wanted to nostalgia.

[Sami]

I only saw the four minute preview just now, but I can say that the art style has grown on me a lot as far as backgrounds go. The city really pops and I love the paper craft look it has. All the over saturated colors as well just gives it a really distinct feel that I haven't really seen from any show before, and I dig that. It's a lot better in motion than in still pictures.

The girls still look bad though, I liked how in the original show a lot of the civilians looked really weird and misshapen, whereas the girls had their own very distinct shape. That still kind of applies now, but now they look just as "messy" as everyone else which I didn't really like.

Humor was okay. I laughed at Buttercup getting slapped by the robot, but "operation broccolini" (just the phrase, the preview ended right before they actually did anything) got a cringe. The part with the mayor did as well. Writing seems mediocre.

Oh well. At least it has some visual flair.

[Kevin]

Eh it was ok. I still find the new animation style so jarring compared to how it was in the original series. Regardless, it was nice to relive the glory days again.

[Tornado]

The art style on this was really cool, actually. Too bad it was colored by the Gears of War developers.

 

 

 

 

 

Ms. Bellum has lady abs.

 

: O

[goku262002]

That's fine, you're better off. It was pretty cringe worthy.

The only joke I laughed at was that last bit with the Mayor and Miss Bellum. Everything else was horribly unfunny. It's the same manic, over-the-top sugar-high five-year-old fanfiction that The Powerpuff Girls Rule was, except really, really ugly. The characterization was completely off. Most of the characters were flanderized if they were even in-character at all, and the Professor isn't even remotely close to his actual personality - and also really annoying. In fact, that's how I'd describe the whole thing. Annoying. Annoyingly written, annoying to look at, generally annoying to watch. It's like it hardly even tried to capture the spirit of the original show, and the whole thing just felt completely soulless. "But it's just different!" Yeah, okay, so it's "different", but even as something "different", it's just flat-out bad. The animation was off-putting enough as it was, and actually watching it makes me glad I tempered my expectations. That awful double rainbow reference towards the end pretty much summed up the whole thing.

But I'm pretty sure almost no one is going to agree with me, so whatever.

(i really hope i don't sound like some sort of snob this is seriously just how i feel)

Don't worry bro, You have pretty much summed it up for me. I literally don't have to say much else except Ms. Bellum is still best character and WHY THE FUCK DOES BUBBLES HAVE ICE BREATH?!?!?!? AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGG YOU FUCKED WITH MY CONSISTENCY!!! *Tableflip followed by heavy breathing*

[Blue Blood]

... stuff like Bubbles having ice breath and not Blossom.

What WHAT Why would they show such little regard for something that was quite a major character point?

[goku262002]

What

WHAT

Why would they show such little regard for something that was quite a major character point?

+ They retcon'd Professor Utonium's origin story and why he got into science. now appearently he never grew up in townsville and saw the PPGs when he was younger.

God I hope this is non-canon to the original series.

[Dejimon11]

Its an ok special it's not the best revival but its certainly not the worst(that still goes to Alvin and the chimpmunks)

[Nintendoga]

It's up on Dailymotion if you haven't seen it yet.
 

 

What

WHAT

Why would they show such little regard for something that was quite a major character point?

 

 

u mad bro?

They did give Blossom a new power to make up for it

 

Uh....Cross-eyed Mouth Laser abilities go!?

[goku262002]

Its like their special ablities were shuffled. Buttercup was usually known for her eye beams, Blossom was known for her ice breath, and Bubbles has her rarely used supersonic scream.

Someone really didn't do their research before going through with their ideas. 

[Dejimon11]

I thought they all had the same powers but just 1 special ability that makes them different

Blossom-freeze breath

Bubbles-speak Spanish

Buttercup-roll her tounge(I'm not joking theirs an episode about that)

[Dantemustdie00]

I only had a problem with them retconning the Prof's origin, I mean shoot they showed the episode during the marathon yesterday too.

 

But other than that and bubbles somehow getting ice breath, it was was a cute little revival, I liked the hair of the girls the most through.

[Faseeh]

I'll be honest... at first I hated this....

 

By the first trailer, I absolutely love this. I know, I still miss the original's charm but this was my childhood since I was 3 so I can't wait!

[pppp]

So yeah...that was a thing? a godawful thing indeed. Here are my reactions over the course of the special:

 

"Yeah screaming fat ladies are so funny, i can't stand it".

 

"WHY THE HELL DOES BUBBLES HAVE ICE BREATH? DID THE RETARD WHO WROTE THIS EVER EVEN SEEN THE SHOW?"

 

"Hum....so....where's the story?"

 

"So...where are the characters from the show? They don't look like the characters from the show, they DEFINITELY don't act like the characters from the show should act. I thought i was gonna be watching the Powerpuff Girls, not Johnny Test"

 

"Oh look, they're taking a jab at motion control gaming!!! Oh how genius! It's not like this joke has been done a million times before in the previous 6 years!"

 

"Hum...NO! THAT'S NOT THE PROFESSOR'S BACKSTORY! THEY'RE ACTUALLY TRYING TO PISS ME OFF!"

 

I'll just quote what i said before:

 

In the original show characters deliver their lines straight as if this is actually happening, which helps drawing the viewer into the story, and the jokes are a direct result of each plot point.

 

In this special however, the characters talk in an over the top way like they know this is scripted and just roll with it, which is unnecessary and doesn't draw me into the world, and the humor is just characters acting over the top saying cheesy lines.

 

To me this looks like the writers and directors don't get the Powerpuff Girls, there's no sincerity to how the characters talk. Powerpuff Girls wasn't just about cartoon humor, the characters and stories were charming thanks to how sincerely they were written.

 

Oh and those final 10 minutes....Wow. "LET'S SAVE THE GIRLS BY DANCING!"

 

The last 10 minutes in a nutshell:

 

http://www.tubechop.com/watch/1876885

 

 

For those that liked it, good for you, but honestly, it makes me question if you really understood what made the show great.

 

Now, was it at least better than "PPG Rule"?.....I don't know. I'd have to watch Rule again for a definitive opinion, but right now I'd say they're both equally shitty.

 

This special is an insult to me as a fan of the show and it's an insult to me as an appreciator of good entertainment.

 

Now to adress the "Oh you just don't like it cause it's different" complaints:  Yes. the fact that it is different disgusts me. Now i ask you: Why isn't that a good reason to hate it? If they're going to make a PpG special, shouldn't it actually TRY to capture what made the show great? Otherwise what's the point of making the special besides high ratings?  "Well the show's writers are gone, maybe these new ones can't really do it exactly like it". OK, then don't make your special. If you want to make a special of an old beloved cartoon, do it right or just don't make it. Don't make a cartoon with your own characters and childish humor and then slap that script into this already established property.

 

There have been old properties that were sucessfully brought back with the spirit of its original incarnation intact, like the new Muppet movie, and the 2011 Beavis and Butt-Head season. These revivals were made by people who loved these properties and did their best to capture the feel of the old days while at the same time adding their own unique touches to not feel like just the old stuff again.

 

And even if you forget that it's the PpG and pretend its a new original thing, it's still annoyingly written, the pacing is terrible, there's no story and it makes no sense.

 

So yeah, the reason me and other people hate this special is not because we want to hate it. Why would we? I would love to be surprised and say "OMG, I was surprised! It was awesome!" like I did in 2011 with Beavis and Butt-Head.

 

We hate it cause it just plain sucks. That is all i wanted to say, thank you for your attention.

[DarkLight]

Another thing that annoyed me about this special (aside from the frost-breath and Prof.'s backstory retcon) was the "clever" way it ended with what Mojo's real plan was.

 

Really man, you did all this shit just for some softball game?

 

I expected Him to do that kind of dickish stuff, not a super-intelligent monkey who only desires global domination. What a downgrade from what I've come to expect from Mojo, even though I'll admit he's never been one of my favorite PPG villains.

 

And did he really need to get the girls to do the kidnappings? When he could've easily done it himself aside from the obviously trying to plot connect his plan to the video game sub-plot? (Which, BTW, was pointless). C'mon, if he could put on a shoddy disguise amongst Townsville and no one batting an eye over it, he should've been fine.

 

And, oh yeah.....HE HAD THE GIRLS UNDER HIS CONTROL. Did he just not know there was some missed potential when making up this stupid video game scheme that would give him complete control over them? Screw the Chemical X you planned on *not* getting and have the girls wreck shit up for you. But no, you just get them to kidnap some filler characters that were completely unnecessary to the plot. What a load.

 

So, while I'm glad I was able to watch this to form a solid opinion, I can't say I actually enjoyed it that much in the end. I kept an open mind and gave it a fair chance, but nothing this special did really made laugh or even smile, which was something I was counting on despite my issues with the models and animation.

 

If any of y'all liked it, cool, but I just wasn't that enthused after it ended.

 

Plus, that badger thing got annoying real fast. 

 

EDIT: You know upon mentioning Him, I wonder how he would've translated into this animation and style.

[Dejimon11]

Oh yeah I forgot mojo's plan was stupid. He could build robots instead of going through all that mess. It's not as bad as the last episode of the show but it was really bad and inexcusable I know the shoe was done some stupid plot twist in the past(the mayor was controlling dynamo) but those were funny(especially if it involves Him) but wow

[pppp]

Oh look, turns out it is possible to take a beloved old property, updating/putting a new twist on it and STILL remain true to its original appeal, show them Zooey:

 

 

Who would have thought, huh?