I WANT TO TALK ABOUT THIS FOR A QUICK MINUTE
And no don’t expect a rant or anything related to PPGR that’s just calling the show garbage.
I want to talk about the *4th POWERPUFF GIRL* for something besides the publicity stunt.
Her design.
Recently Cartoon Network has announced that PowerPuff Girls 2016 will introduce a brand new member to the PPG:
Now me personally? I never really cared for this new show. I didn’t even want to watch it solely on it’s marketing, controversy, and often bad aesthetic design. So don’t expect anything really harping on the show itself.
But this right her caught my attention, namely my artistic side.
Character design is very important in cartoons in every era. More than you may realize. Characters are meant to be designed in a way that not only should look appealing, but recognizable, easy to read, and easy to understand. Characters are meant to be designed in a way that should tell you everything you need to know about them.
As simple and round of a design as the Loud Kids are, you can easily tell everything about these characters and how they act and might even sound like just from one look. Even if you aren’t familiar with them.
Now take a look at some famous Disney characters. Notice the extreme difference between the characters on the left and the characters on the right. (And no it’s not that the left are animals). It’s how they’re designed to tell you what kind of character they have. The left are rounder, friendlier, cuter looking to tell you they’re the good guys. And ones on the right? All designed to look menacing, scary, evil in their own specific way. You know exactly the kind of villain they’re supposed to be and that they’re villains in general. There’s no redeeming these villains like today.
Even the original 3 members, with the most simplistic design as they could have in the show, have very subtle character designs that tell you everything about them and make them stand out. They’re the perfect combination of round, colorful, and simple mixed with appeal and you’ve got the PowerPuff Girls.
Now what does the new member bring to the table?
First off, her design is COMPLETELY different from the trio. She stands out far too much and messes with the natural order of the team. Her design doesn’t compliment nor mix and feels more like a add on.
Now is this new? Well of course not. Because there already WAS a 4th PPG with a drastic character design difference, Bunny:
And for as horrifying as she looked, even she had the most basic character design to make her not only stand out from the group, but mix too. She’s a monstrous experiment gone wrong but that smile tells you she’s got sweetness matched with that of Bubbles. Her purple color makes her match with the girls and hairstyle is simple yet different.
Now look at the new girl and tell me the difference between Bunny and her:
First off. The hair. THE BLOODY HAIR! Who in their right mind thought BLUE hair of all things would mix here? It looks like her hair is stained with ice slushies you get at gas stations. The design of it doesn’t even make sense, are they bangs? Why are that cut different? Why is her hair so long and so big in the back? Why is she so much taller than the girls? And why for the love of HIM does she have WIDE HIPS FOR A POWERPUFF GIRL?
(And honestly I don’t care about the skin color that just raises other controversies I don’t wish to involve myself in)
All in all this character design is bad. It’s just bad. It’s messy, it’s eye-straining, the colors don’t match, and her design doesn’t tell you anything about her character. It’s one note UNAPPEALING.
Now there are other questions I could ask like what is she going to add to the team? Why is she so differently designed from them? Why does her design not mix with the trio? WHO THE BLOODY HELL CHOSE THAT HAIR COLOR? But I wanted to focus on one attribute and that’s character design in of itself.
PPG 2016 has ALOT of controversy behind it, moreso than I think it deserves and some it earns on its own, and I really don’t like to talk about it that often. But this right here speaks to me as an art enthusiast and a someone that has studied character design for years and am still trying to get better at it. Because it matters to me and it should matter to you. Because you see it every time you look at a cartoon character. Whether you know them or not the most famous ones that stick in your memory are the ones that have that purposeful design to make you remember who they are.