The Powerpuff Girls (2016): The Reboot That Crashed and Burned (Part 2)
So continuing from where I left off.
You know how I said that this reboot possibly didn't have the highest budget?
Well that's because of everyone's favorite: animation errors!
During season 1, there were tons of these.
While they did stop appearing as much by season 2, they didn't exactly leave a good impression.
From blatant coloring issues.....
To layering issues....
To parts of characters' bodies suddenly disappearing.....
To the use of shock photos with the actual watermarks from the sites they were found on still being left in......
To even blatant spelling errors!
This was shocking to many people since it's pretty rare to see animation errors in modern day animated shows and ESPECIALLY movies.
And if they are, they're most likely the result of not having a particularly high budget.
However, I'm not sure if that is the case because of the backgrounds, which were done by Eusong Lee.
They are genuinely gorgeous to look at, and feel like a true evolution of the backgrounds of the original.
I'm guessing they cooked so much with backgrounds that there wasn't much left for the actual character animation.
Plus there is the likely chance that the animators were forced to crunch, thus not allowing them to refine or fix anything.
The Characters:
Now we come to perhaps the most important part of the show: the characters.
And the way they were handled in this reboot is enough to make a grown man want to kill himself.
For this part, I'm gonna compare the characters from how they were in the original, to how they're portrayed in the reboot.
First up, we have Blossom.
Blossom is the leader of the trio.
She's analytical, organized, and focused on formulating plans for victory.
She's also very much intelligent and fairly mature for her age, is very confident, and acts as the voice of reason for the sister.
She can be at times fussy, overbearing, vain, and occasionally overly analytical, sometimes leading to tension with her sisters.
But she does care for them, as well as the people of Townsville.
Plus she has a strong moral compass, being quick to own up to her mistakes and shows remorse when she acts wrongly.
Now let's look at 2016 Blossom.
She's still the leader of the trio and intelligent and analytical.
However, you're gonna be questioning throughout why she's even the leader.
Because she's not a good one.
And that's because of the new traits the reboot gave him.
She's portrayed as neurotic and anxious to an often irrational degree, is an overachieving perfectionist with WAY too high of standards, and often breaks down when she feels her leadership is inadequate or when she fails to meet her aforementioned high standards.
She also has a bit of a superiority complex, feeling that she needs to be better than everyone else.
This already makes her far less endearing than her original counterpart.
But like I said before, it also makes her less competent as a leader.
No leader is gonna be perfect, I know.
But the prominent traits that reboot Blossom has doesn't really lend themselves to a good leader at all.
She doesn't have all too many positive traits and her strengths as a leader are heavily downplayed.
Once again, you gotta wonder why she was even made into the leader.
But that's probably because when compared to her sisters, she just looks a hell of a lot better.
Next up we have Bubbles.
Bubbles is the heart of the trio.
She's sweet, sensitive, joyful, innocent and bubbly.
She also has a fondness for art and for animals.
However, she can be a tad overemotional at times, naive, and a little timid.
And despite for sweet and soft nature, she also has a deep-seated furious and deadly since to her, which comes out whenever she's pushed to her limit.
Becoming even a challenge for her sisters to handle!
And of course, she loves her stuffed octopus Octi.
Now let's look at 2016 Bubbles.
Admittedly, she isn't too different from her original counterpart.
But there are a few differences.
She's even more emotional here than in the original.
Being quick to cry or just straight up rage quit over the smallest of inconveniences.
She also doesn't really have her hidden badass anymore, given how much she already freaks out.
She's also more naive than OG Bubbles.
To the point of low-key being kinda of an idiot.
And while she still has her love for animals, her artistic skills has been thrown out in place of computer skills.
Even though everyone's in agreement that would've made more sense for Blossom.
Now we come to Buttercup.
Buttercup is the fighter of the trio.
She's brash, aggressive, hot-headed, rebellious and spunky.
She's also often reckless, stubborn, and dismissive of "girly" things.
But in spite of that, she's very much courageous, takes her role as a superhero seriously, and deeply cares about her sisters.
Now we have 2016 Buttercup.
Let me go ahead and get this out of the way.....
This version of Buttercup is INSUFFERABLE.
She has most of the traits of her original counterpart, but amplified to a ridiculous degree.
And they made her into a such a little shit!
She's very sarcastic to a ridiculous degree, regularly picks on and mock people for no good reason, and has a massive ego.
And most of her dialogue is her complaining about something.
Which is not helped by her voice, which makes her sound like even more of a whinier.
And lastly, she's also really selfish in the series.
And has done some pretty terrible things throughout the series.
Such as....
Letting her sisters get captured by a villain in order to find a rare and valuable bottle cap.
Purposefully hiding and eventually losing Octi from Bubbles just to get back at her for losing a kickball game, despite knowing how much he means to her.
Neglecting her sisters' illness even though she was left in charge of them and letting them turn into giant hogs in order to watch television.
Trading her sisters' SOULS in for a guitar because she was obsessed with becoming a rock star.
Letting her sisters get captured by a villain yet again because she was obsessed with becoming uncomfortably muscular.
Having her sisters travel into her hair to stop a society of lice from drilling into her brain, ultimately killing her, just because she refused to cut it.
Tampering with the code of Bubbles' artificial intelligence, prompting it to take over the house and try to kill them.
And posing as a villain known as The Fog in order to encourage the villains of Townsville to do what they do best (you know, causing mass chaos and destruction and regularly terrorizing the innocent) so she could use it as an excuse to keep beating them up for her own satisfaction.
Now Buttercup did have her selfish moments in the original.
But even then, she would either realize what she did was wrong in the end and try to fix it, or end up facing the consequences of her actions.
But in the reboot, she doesn't really learn from her selfish actions and often doesn't face any sort of consequences.
And unfortunately, her actually redeeming qualities are heavily downplayed.
As for the trio's dynamic as a whole.....
The girls in the reboot have this incessant need to whine, complain, scream and argue in just about every episode.
Their bickering takes up like, 95% of the damn show.
Now I know siblings are gonna argue.
I should know. I'm the youngest of four.
And the girls had their fair share of arguments in the original, namely between Blossom and Buttercup.
But the reboot does to such an excessive degree.
I'm certain most of the moments in the reboot between the girls that most people would think about, has them being at each other's throats to some capacity.
And lastly, there's their capability as superheroes.
I already covered this in my PPG World Swap post, but just for recap, the girls fucking SUCK!
1#) While clearly superhuman, they do not have the same feats as the OG Girls, especially when it comes to physicality. It’s probably the most notorious when it comes to their durability. In some episodes, they can withstand getting hit and stomped on by giant monsters. But in an episode such as Strong Armed, getting lightly knocked into a pillar by a villain who I know isn’t even that physically strong (Packrat to be exact) can break their arms….or in this case, Bubbles’. Or in another episode, getting hit by a flying van can seemingly kill them!
2#) Their teamwork is….kinda shit, largely thanks to the aforementioned constant arguing.
3#) They virtually never save the day. Or more correctly, on their own. Hell, they notoriously often find themselves having to be saved by someone else in just about every episode.
And 4#) They’ve gotten stop by some pretty stupid things, even though a lot of these they should easily be able to break through. From a massive glass cage, to rope, to even a simple punch from Mojo Jojo, who's not even canonically that strong!
And the funny thing is. They should realistically be more powerful than the OG girls, given that they have all their powers, plus the new hardlight, Green Lantern-esque powers
This is one of the very few things I can give the reboot on.
The hardlight powers are a pretty neat concept.
Feeling like a evolution of their iconic colored energy trails.
And it was smart to have what forms the girls can take have something to say about their respective personalities.
Blossom being able to morph into organizational tools, to reflect her orderly and organized nature.
Bubbles animals, to reflect her love for them.
And Buttercup weaponry, to reflect her hardcore attitude.
However, after season 1, these powers appeared very sporadically.
It gets to the point where you kinda forget they even have them.
Seems kinda strange since these new powers were a major selling point for the reboot.
But anyway, the girls being so weak and incompetent is completely antithetical to the point of the original.
Being that in spite of how cute and innocent they look, they were actually incredibly powerful and competent.
Plus it's pretty oxymoronic to the show's intended focus on girl power, given how they virtually never handle a situation on their own.
But anyway, let's talk about the other characters.
First with the characters from the original.
Starting off we have Professor Utonium.
The Professor is the creator and father of the girls.
He's kind, intelligent, nurturing and responsible.
But he can also be a bit overprotective of the girls at times, a little skittish in dangerous situations, and somewhat socially awkward.
The Professor is widely regard as one of the best cartoon parents of all time.
With how he constantly made sure that even with their superhero responsibilities, the girls still had happy and normal childhoods, and actively being there when they needed him most.
Especially since he was a single father, which back in the 1990s, was something not commonly seen in animation.
Now let's look at 2016 Professor Utonium.
Good lord this character......
Now while the girls suffered a good amount of character butchering, they don't even come close to the level of The Professor.
He is TERRIBLE!
Pretty much all the traits that made him so great in the original have been banished to The Shadow Realm!
This version is often portrayed as being incompetent and a total doofus.
Now OG Professor could be a little clumsy, goofy and silly at times.
But here, that's pretty much most of his character.
Not helped by the fact that he's a total dumbass in this series!
From creating various faulty inventions, to somehow not understanding how computers work.
Oh how about in an episode like "Professor Proofed", where after an incident (caused by Buttercup), plus constant over-protection from the girls, leads to him to become a literal child afraid of his own shadow!
Despite being a grown ass man!
He's also a lot more neglectful of the girls.
Frequently being shown ignoring or blowing off the girls' concerns and is often completely oblivious to obvious issues happening in their lives.
Not only that, but he does shit that actively put them in danger!
The best example of this would have to be in the episode"Quarantine", where after the girls are exposed to a dangerous virus that would result in one of them turning into a deadly monster, although he does quarantine them, he fails to actually separate them, which would be the logical thing to do.
Pretty much risking all their lives!
The Professor also doesn't seem to have much of genuine passion for science like the original, often being driven by shallow and selfish reasons.
And this becomes very apparent when we come to one of the later characters.
Honestly, The Professor feels less like the OG Professor, and more like Mr. Fucking Turner!
Which I guess I shouldn't be too surprised by since one of the showrunners was a writer on The Fairly OddParents.
Now we come to The Mayor.
He's the mayor of all Townsville.
He's typically portrayed as being pretty dim-witted, incompetent, and even kind of childish.
Haven called the girls for the most minor inconveniences.
But despite of that, he's still a very kind man and does deeply care about Townsville and its people.
And of course, he LOVES pickles!
Now let's look at 2016 Mayor.
Admittedly, he's not that different from how he was portrayed in the original series.
Though there are two differences.
1#) He doesn't showcase the same amount of care for Townsville and its people as he did in the original.
And 2#) He's surprisingly more competent when compared to the OG Mayor. Being capable of taming the monsters of Monster Island and even saving the girls.....TWICE!
And lastly, we have Ms. Keane.
She was the sole teacher of Pokey Oaks Kindergarten.
She was patient, caring, kind, protective of her students, wise, but was strict and disciplined when needed.
She was served as a prominent mentor to the girls, being essentially like a mother figure to them.
Now we have 2016 Ms. Keane.
She's honestly the most unchanged from her original counterpart.
However, she's portrayed more like standard, generic teacher as opposed to the mentor figure she was in the original.
Hell, she barely really interacts with the girls.
Not helped by how she doesn't appear all that much throughout the series.
But that's all the returning major characters.
Though you all probably noticed that I didn't mentioned one character.
Well I'm saving that for near the end of this retrospective, and chances are, you all know who it is.
But moving on, the reboot also introduces a few new recurring characters.
The first is Donny, a goofy and dim-witted unicorn who's Bubbles' best friend.
He sucks.
He serves the role of comic relief, and in a show that's as painfully unfunny as this one, you better believe it's as painful as you would expect.
Every word that comes out of his doofus' mouth makes me want to send him to the glue factory!
Donny's also pretty notorious for his debut episode, but that'll also be served for near the end of the retrospective.
Then there's Jared Shapiro, a kind nerdy kid who serves as Blossom's love interest.
Out of all the characters of this reboot, he's the most notorious of them all.
But once again, that'll be saved for later.
But when putting aside his notoriety, he's a pretty nothing character.
He's so bland and generic, and I have no clue what Blossom really sees in him.
And lastly, there's Blisstina, the fourth Powerpuff Girl, who was created by The Professor 10 years before the girls.
Okay, there’s a lot to unpack with this character.
And not for the best.
1#) Her design. Bliss’ design is really weird to look at. For starters, her physical build. I know she's suppose to be a teenager, but she looks more like she's the same age as the girls, just freakishly tall and with really curvy hips for some reason.
It's even stranger since the original show actually showed what the girls would look like as teenagers.
Why didn't they just use this as a reference?
Then there's her color scheme.
While I think something like yellow would've fit her much better, the purple does work just fine.
However, I can't say the same for her hair color.
It clashes heavily with the girls, who all have natural hair colors.
2#) Her backstory. As I said before, Bliss is revealed to be the original Powerpuff Girl, who was created by The Professor 10 years before the present day, but with Chemical W instead of Chemical X.
This reveal got a lot of backlash for understandable reasons.
For starters, it completely strip aways what made The Powerpuff Girls unique.
Being that their creation was a total accident.
In the reboot, their creation was basically the end result of a product in the making.
And most importantly, it makes The Professor look like a massive piece of shit.
Since it's revealed that he created Bliss for the sole purpose of showing up a fellow scientist, who created a super-powered little boy.
In the original series, The Professor created the girls in order to bring some happiness to his life.
Given how before they were created, he lived a pretty lonely life.
Not having all too many friends or a special somebody.
Not helping was how before the girls were created, Townsville was basically Gotham on CRACK!
Where you couldn't even go five minutes without having to worry about a monster attack, muggings and beatings, or an act of domestic terrorism.
But here, The Professor created the girls not out of the desire for a family, but instead for glory and to satisfy his own ego!
And just to add salt to the wound, it's revealed that after Bliss and before the girls, he frequently attempted to do it again with Chemicals A through V.
And 3#) Her character. Bliss is.....and I really hate to use this term because of how much it's been beaten into the ground, but it unfortunately fits her, a Mary Sue.
And the funny thing is, at first glance, she wouldn't really appear this way.
From her introduction, she's portrayed as being deeply insecure and emotionally unstable.
However, that becomes overpowered by her immense power.
She's portrayed as being far more powerful than her sisters.
Not just from being older and more experienced, but also because her own unique special abilities.
In the original series, it was showcased that each of the girls had their own unique abilities.
Blossom was the most intelligent and strategic and had ice breath.
Bubbles could talk to animals and unleash a supersonic scream.
And Buttercup was the physically strongest and fastest, and the special ability to.....curl up her tongue.
But in the reboot, there's literally no difference between the girls in terms of their powers and abilities.
The only one I can recall is Blossom still having her ice breath, but even, it was only featured in like, one episode.
But Bliss regularly showcases her unique abilities.
Those being telekinesis, teleportation. and energy manipulation.
As a result, she regularly outshines the girls, which is not a good look.
Not help by, once again, the show's utter insistence on making the girls as weak and incompetent as possible.
But what really gets Bliss slapped with the Mary Sue allegations is how much she steals the spotlight whenever she's around.
This is especially the case in debut, the TV movie "The Power of Four".
There, the conflict sees HIM enter a super-powered form, and the characters actively tells Bliss how she's the only one powerful enough to stop him.
You see the problem, right?
They're actively pushing aside the titular protagonists for the sake for a new character who's essentially portrayed as being much better than them.
A lot of people have said it before, but Bliss really does feel like a fanfic OC.
You know the ones.
The ones that are portrayed as essentially being in the right all the time, overshadowing the actual main characters and becoming the lead, and even being more powerful than everyone else.
And the funny thing about all this......Bliss was actually a perfect example of wasted potential!
The concept of a fourth Powerpuff Girl has been toyed with since the original series, but they never really stuck around.
The reboot could've actually explored that concept and had Bliss becoming a main character.
But alas, she never did.
Because at end of The Power of Four, she fucks off to space to in order to fix the cosmos, which got fucked up.
Sounds familiar?
And after that, she only makes three appearances.
Two actually major, and a very minor one.
In the end, Bliss ended up being a pretty pointless character.
Especially since she got so hyped up in the movie and the promotion for it, only to barely be used after it.
