When Craig McKracken first came up with The Whoopass Girls in the early 90's, there were three girls created using sugar, spice, and everything nice plus an accidental dosage of "whoopass". When Cartoon Network picked it up as a series of shorts, they toned it down for a more kid friendly audience by making them superheros and a new name....The Powerpuff Girls. With the exception of "whoopass" being replaced by Chemical X, the concept was still the same. The ingredients, sugar, spice, and everything nice, plus Chemical X created Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup. Therefore, it was always standard that there were three Powerpuff Girls. Sure there were some exceptions over the course of its history, but each time on the show, it resolves itself back to three because in doing cartoons like this, you want to make sure that each episode flows well so that you can reset your characters for another new episode or an upcoming rerun.
Flash forward to 2017. Well....that original staff at its creator are gone. The people behind the new Powerpuff Girls series are people wanting to cash in on cartoons popular today even by their own network. We are looking at you Teen Titans Go you piece of...well anyways...... Sure the Powerpuff Girls themselves look fine unlike previous reboots, but the writing eventually showed for itself that the episodes were less about being superheros and more about comedy. Gone were epic stories and clever ideas (remember The Beat Alls????? Wasn't that a clever idea???). Gone also are the original voices who were ready, willing, and able to lend their voices again only to get the doors slammed at their faces for a younger voice cast (and I do mean YOUNG). Then you turn around and you see at least one of the Powerpuff Girls.......TWERKING!!!!! Excuse me, I thought this was a kids show. When has twerking become appropriate for kids?
You thought twerking was the biggest insult? Well here comes one even bigger.....they are adding a fourth Powerpuff Girl. Wait a minute....you are thinking "didn't you just say there is no way to be a fourth Powerpuff Girl?" Not only did I say it, I proved it. Well, that proof doesn't matter. Cartoon Network just announced a fourth Powerpuff Girl named Bliss is coming. In fact, in Russia she's already here. Whether or not this is a permanent change has yet to be determined, but chances are, she's here to stay.
So now the question is, why did this happen? My first guess is that since there is no black Powerpuff Girl there was a need of one. And I don't want to turn this into a race issue as that's not my problem. She could be a Smurf for all I care and I still would have a problem with it. My next guess would be this.........MONEY! If we have a fourth Powerpuff Girl, girls will then wanna by more toys with Bliss to help complete the toy collection to play with. What happens then when all Bliss toys sell? Will there be a fifth Powerpuff Girl? Sixth? Tenth even?
Whenever changes like this happen, you alienate the die hard fans and they will never ever watch. Many will disagree with me about the Chipettes being one of those changes on Alvin. How about Loonatics Unleashed (which was so horrible you either don't remember or you did but erased from your memory for the sake of humanity)?? Yes, reboots need to have some sort of change in order to compete, but if they are done in a style such as the new Mickey Mouse shorts and what was Wabbit now called New Looney Tunes, you may succeed. But if the changes are without caring about the property, there's a problem. If you like the Pink Panther, for example, you don't want him to talk. If you don't know the Pink Panther....YOU DON'T CARE if he talks. The Pink Panther is indeed talking in this case (metaphorically speaking of course).
So what can be done? First, don't watch this show or any episodes featuring Bliss. Second, support the original series for what it is. All the episodes of the original series are currently on Hulu. There's also the complete collection which you can still find on Amazon. Supporting that may get the message that we don't these new reboots to be corporate but creative. Once creativity dies, people notice. Until then, the world of The Powerpuff Girls will never be the same, and I for one do not look forward to this.
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