Powerpuff Girls 10th Anniversary!

I love the Powerpuff Girls. Back when I still lived in my mother's house (which was long ago while I was still relatively young) I had a poster of them up on my bedroom door, looking as menacing as three kindergarten girls can.

Yesterday was the 10th anniversary marathon of Powerpuff Girls on Cartoon Network (which is odd, cause I thought they debuted in '98). I was lucky enough to catch a few episodes before my wife walked in and questioned my sanity.

In most movies, shows, and to a lesser extent, comics/games, I find that too many female characters fall within a stereotype, of being either too emotional, or too butch. Take, for example, almost any role that Michelle Rodriguez has played. In movies or on TV, she's always the same person. Mean, bitchy, alpha-female wannabe badass (well, to be honest, most of the time she isn't a wannabe, she is badass). Back when she did Girlfight in '00, this was something that was fresh for her. But then she did it over and over again, in things like Resident Evil, SWAT, and Lost.

Now, look at Jennifer Garner in Alias. She manages to balance a cold-blooded ingenious badass with a caring a loving civilian life. She plays a character with amazing depth, that doesn't need to be sexed up to be appealing, doesn't need to be a bitch to be badass, and doesn't need to be heartless to be scary (heartless=/=coldblooded). Quite obviously, it's not impossible to play the female lead in an action/drama scenario without having to fall back on the female equivalent of Schwarzenegger.

And that's the big appeal of Powerpuff Girls to me. One moment they're firing eye lasers and upper-cutting Godzilla, the next they're at home having a bedtime story read to them. It sends a message to young children, especially girls, that you don't see often; you can be the badass hero by just being yourself. Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup have no secret identity, no lair, no double life. They're the Powerpuff Girls from the moment they wake up till the moment the fall to sleep again, and every second in between.

The action in the show is ridiculous, to say the least. There is blood, both villain and hero end up pretty banged up, and the city is quite literally reduced to ruble on what seems like a weekly basis. Each one is even as strong as Superman. In fact, they manage to fly so fast they went back in time without having to circle Earth, I'd like to see the Man of Steel do that.

But even beyond the message it sends, or how strong they are depicted as being, the writing of the show in of itself is amazing. If you watch enough, you can find references and direct quotes from such films as The Big Lebowski, Taxi Driver, and This is Spinal Tap. They also poke fun at other super-heroes, like Wonder Woman and Spawn, or show the political dynamic explaining the motivation for all the random giant monster attacks (that was all one episode, actually). The show was even featured in the movie Blade 2, being the only show that ever came on when they flipped on the TV (the vampires dig that show, apparently).

If I had to compile a list of what I thought was the best animated features of all time, Powerpuff Girls would go on it. It's really that good.