Powerpuff Girls and Samurai Jack: Are they the same universe?

[Red]

I will tell you right now I am straight up stealing this from Digg.com, but here is their user-voted top story of the past 24 hours, I found this interesting.



So is Samurai Jack's world just a past-day Townsville? I have no idea, but I think this is pretty awesome.

[the greenman]

I haven't seen all the PPG's episodes to give a clear answer on this question.

But with all clear certainty, Samurai Jack is in the shared Hanna-Barbera universe, simply because Quick-Draw McGraw appears. I always wondered if Two Stupid Dogs, Secret Squirrel, or someone from the Dexter universe would show up, but never happened.

[Spaceman]

It's just a visual in-joke thrown in for the amusement of longtime viewers. You can find many shout-outs throughout all of CN's shows.

Mac, Bloo and Frankie appeared in the Powerpuff Girls' 10th Anniversary special, so obviously PPG and Foster's share the same universe -- and by association, so does Foster's and SJ.

And Ed Edd n Eddy appeared in an episode of Foster's, so EEnE is part of the shared universe... and didn't Ms. Bellum appear in an episode of Chowder?

[veemonjosh]

You can actually connect most of the CN originals together...

Dexter appeared in at least one episode of PPG, along with a full PPG episode involving the Justice Friends; various PPG references in Fosters' (some of which can be interpreted as the PPGs being a cartoon in the Fosters' universe, but I think it's just that they're world-famous celebrities); the Eds made a cameo in Fosters'; the CN Invaded event brought together Fosters', Ed Edd n Eddy, Gym Partner, Camp Lazlo, and Billy & Mandy; Evil Con Carne is obviously in the same universe as B&M; Billy & Mandy had a crossover with Kids Next Door; the "destroyed Townsville" in Samurai Jack; Ms. Bellum's appearance in Chowder. Also of note is that several Hanna-Barbera characters appeared in Dexter's Lab and Billy & Mandy, so they're all overall in some strange Hannah-Barbera universe.

Though, I don't count Chowder as part of the overall continuity for several reasons, so Ms. Bellum's appearance may have been an alternate Ms. Bellum. I also don't consider Samurai Jack as part of the overall continuity, HOWEVER...as crazy as this may sound, Aku and Him may be the same being. The future that Samurai Jack takes place in could very well be the same future seen in the PPG episode "Speed Demons", only several hundred years later.

In terms of still-running shows, I don't see any proof as to Flapjack being part of this continuity (but no reason why it can't, seeing as Flapjack takes place approximately 110 years ago). Adventure Time is probably in another possible post-apocalyptic future, but again, no real evidence of connection to other shows. No idea about Regular Show yet, but I doubt it. There IS a very good chance that Symbiotic Titan may, in some way, be connected to this, considering who's in charge of the show...

Overall, the old Cartoon Network/Hannah-Barbera continuity is pretty much dead. But, in a way, it's fitting, seeing as to how different the network is from those days.

[Nexonius]

Ahem, the characters from Evil Con Carne (namely Skarr after he joined the show) appear on The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy on a regular basis.

And yes, Ms. Bellum did appear on Chowder (The Hot Date). Bubbles also appeared on the show (The Heist). And then there's the Cartoon Network Invaded campaign from 2007 where charaters made cameos in the five shows (The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Camp Lazlo, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Ed, Edd n' Eddy, and My Gym Partner's A Monkey).

There's also Billy and Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure, where Numbuh 3 (yes folks, that one) from Codename: Kids Next Door took Grim's job as the Reaper.

Oh, There's The Grim Adventures of the Kids Next Door, where there was a big crossover of both series (which ended a couple of months apart from each other). The Eds also appear in the opening, and the end credits had cameos from other Cartoon Network characters. and the special Underfist had Chowder making a cameo.

This is the thing I like about Cartoon Network is the crossovers between the comedies on a almost regular basis, unlike what Nickelodeon and Disney Channel does.

Oh, both Duck Dodgers and What's New Scooby Doo? had Hanna-Barbera and Looney Tunes characters making cameos. And the upcoming Batman: The Brave and the Bold/ Scooby Doo!: Mystery Incoporated crossover on the former.

[Dudley]

I remember seeing that episode of Samurai Jack and thinking the same thing. But if anything, the PPG and all shows connected to that takes place in an alternate timeline to Samurai Jack, since there's no traces of Aku ruling.

[trance2009]

I know Dexter and the PPG definitely inhabit the same one, with the whole thing with Justice Friends, Puppet Pals, and what not.

[Soul]

See, connecting Jack to Gendy's other shows is hard due to one thing: Aku.
So it could be seen as a Alternative Timeline or you know, everything in Jack gets reversed if Jack ever got back to the past and defeated Aku.

[the greenman]

It would be nice to see them do a modern Wacky Races with the CN characters. Provided the creators allow, unless they're owned by wb.

[Blackstar]

Well, we know that Dexter's Lab and The Powerpuff Girls both take place in the same universe, since TV Puppet Pals and members of the Justice Friends have appeared on both shows. The PPGs interacted with members of the JF in the episode "Members Only". Also, Dexter has made a few unbilled cameo appearances on PPG. Dee-Dee and Monkey (from Dial 'M' for Monkey) have also appeared on PPG (as dolls) in the short "Ploys R Us". Quakor (Monkey's rival) also makes a brief cameo in the opening of the PPG short "Bought and Scold".

As previously stated, Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy made a cameo in the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends pilot. Earlier in this episode, we see an imaginary friend version of Mojo Jojo. Some might interpret this to mean that PPG is just a TV show in the Foster's universe, but personally, I agree with veemonjosh that this could just mean that the PPGs are so famous that they have a TV show based on their exploits.

The decaying ruins of Townsville shots on Samurai Jack could just be a nod to the shows' fans, but given the above examples of crossovers, I'd say that the notion of all of the Cartoon-Cartoons taking place in a single universe is entirely possible.

[Silverstar]

Well, we know that Dexter's Lab and The Powerpuff Girls both take place in the same universe, since TV Puppet Pals and members of the Justice Friends have appeared on both shows. The PPGs interacted with members of the JF in the episode "Members Only". Also, Dexter has made a few unbilled cameo appearances on PPG. Dee-Dee and Monkey (from Dial 'M' for Monkey) have also appeared on PPG (as dolls) in the short "Ploys R Us". Quakor (Monkey's rival) also makes a brief cameo in the opening of the PPG short "Bought and Scold".

Also, Dee-Dee's imaginary friend the Koosimagoolagoop (sp?) was referenced twice in the PPG episode "Imaginary Fiend" as "that jerk" that "no one likes".

We know that Kids Next Door and Billy & Mandy are in the same universe, since they've officially crossed over. And as previously mentioned, the Eds have made cameo appearances in Foster's.

I personally tend to think that there's just a shared Cartoon-Cartoonverse, where all of the CN characters intersect at some point. Basically like the old City bumps, except that each show is its' own world/neighborhood, but they're all connected by the CN City, so characters from 1 show/neighborhood can occasionally turn up in another. This theory only gets tricky when you toss in shows like Samurai Jack, Flapjack and Adventure Time, which take place in different (or alternate) time periods, and Chowder, which seems to be in a world completely separate from Earth.

[Raidon Makoto]

I haven't seen all the PPG's episodes to give a clear answer on this question.

But with all clear certainty, Samurai Jack is in the shared Hanna-Barbera universe, simply because Quick-Draw McGraw appears. I always wondered if Two Stupid Dogs, Secret Squirrel, or someone from the Dexter universe would show up, but never happened.

The Two Stupid Dogs were in the first three episodes of Samurai Jack. They were background characters in the dog battle.

[Dr.Pepper]

I am fairly certain that all of the CN originals take place in the same world.

A bit off the topic, but did Flapjack make a cameo in anything and/or something make a cameo in it? Because that wouldn't really make that much sense since that show takes place around the turn of the 20th century, I think

[Mickialla]

To be honest, why can't it just be inside jokes that the creators of the show threw in? Back in the early 2000's (and even into the mid 2000's), a good deal of Cartoon Network animators were colleagues and had worked on each others shows. They're really just references that are meant only to hint to the fans that the creators of one show acknowledge/respect their colleagues' shows. Sorry to ruin anyone's fun You can still go on believing that every Cartoon Network show happens in the same world, but IMO, some Cartoon Network shows are just far too different to all happen in the same world, aside from maybe PPG, Dexter, and Samurai Jack, and maybe Foster's (the former three all had basically the same crew, and Foster's had a lot of key Dexter/PPJ/Jack people working on it too).

[veemonjosh]

I am fairly certain that all of the CN originals take place in the same world.

Well, I wouldn't say all of them...The comedies, maybe, but Samurai Jack and KND are probably the only action cartoons (yes, I consider KND an action cartoon) that could possibly be part of this. Ben 10 and Generator Rex are just too "realistic" (if that makes any sense, given the premise of both franchises) to fit in. Symbiotic Titan, though, we'll just have to wait and see.

Though, on a side-note, I recall Jay Stephens (the creator of Secret Saturdays) did say once that he considers Ben 10 to be in the same universe as his show.

[BrendaBat]

Originally posted by Mickialla
To be honest, why can't it just be inside jokes that the creators of the show threw in?

Because nerds can't help over-analyzing stuff to death. Seriously, you're on a message board called "Toonzone", you should know this already.

Seriously, the only CN shows I can see being in the same universe are Dexter and Powerpuff Girls; and even that is a bit of a stretch. Back in the late 90s/early 00s, a very small group of people worked on virtually every original show on Cartoon Network. So it's not surprising that a lot of similarities, cameos, inside jokes, and shout outs happened.

[CartoonOverlord]

It can't, Aku was ruling the world since Jack's original time, which was in antiquity. If PPG and Jack were in continuity with each other Aku would be ruling the PPG's world.

[Romperstoomper]

Well, I never thought about all the cameos, not everything anyway, cool.

And the upcoming Batman: The Brave and the Bold/ Scooby Doo!: Mystery Incoporated crossover on the former.

NO WAY! That's really coolER seeing as they had crossovers before....

O, just had to clear that out and now it's out there.. so back to topic..

[Fillet-O-Fish]

I'm not sure if this has been pointed out before (though I didn't see it here) but in the same episode of Foster's with the Eds you can see Dexter too (and Pikachu, although considering the episode it was probably an imaginairy friend based off of him.)

I've always thought all the CN shows took place in the same universe, since there's not a lot of evidence that they don't. Chowder and Regular Show are the only shows I can't fit in because of the weirdness. (AT takes place a long time in the future after a nuclear war, like Penn Ward has said before). Samurai Jack takes place in an alternate timeline, and the events of PPG and everything takes place after he goes back and time and defeats Aku. Flapjack takes place sometime in the 1800s.