My negative review of Powerpuff Movie

[A. Piett]

Hello all,

I saw the Powerpuff movie and I thought I'd get my two cents in about the movie and other things.

I didn't think it was that good. It had its moments, but the story didn't quite work. It might satisfy the fans of the TV show (and browsing this forum, I can see that it has), but it's not really a good movie for the general public in its own right.

And I really wanted to like the movie going in, since I like the Powerpuff girls very much.

The dialogue and character behavior could've used better direction. What I mean by character behavior is how the characters act and respond to various things that happen in the movie.

For example, the girls inadvertently destroy a good portion of the city while playing superpowered tag. They seem to have no idea that buildings and cars are valuable property and that people will be upset if you destroy them. But that's okay, they're newborn babies and they haven't learned yet.

The Professor chases them in his car in exasperation trying to stop them. We saw that. So now at the end of the day, you would expect the Professor to explain to the girls that destroying other people's buildings and cars is NOT OKAY. And that since they caused millions of dollars of damage to the city, people will be very upset and that they should apologize, or at least the Professor should apologize for them and lay low for a while. Or something along this line. That's what you or I would do, that's the normal reaction/behavior to a situation like this.

But no... the professor does no such explaining. He simply says "You girls are special and people won't understand you because you're different" (paraphrased from memory).

Stuff like that. It's not really the dialogue that's at fault as it is the script and the plot. It just wasn't written all that well.

I also got the feeling that some scenes were stretched out way too long. Recently I saw the TV episode "Nano of the North" in which I got the exact same feeling.

It's not that I "don't get it" when it comes to Powerpuff Girls. I've actually watched every episode on TV and I get the show. My favorites are Cover Up, Bare Facts, Very Special Blossom, and Down & Dirty, to name a few. The movie just didn't work as well as these TV episodes.

Now I realize that there's a big difference between writing for a full-length movie and writing for a 11 minute TV episode. And that the crew who wrote the screenplay are the same folks who write the TV episodes. All in all, it's not too bad for a first try. Could I have done better? No, of course not. That's why I'm just a viewer posting messages on a fan forum while they're making real shows. But getting some help or at least a little input from professional movie writers might have helped.

As far as the LOOKS and the technical aspects of the movie, I have nothing but praise. The animation looks very professional and the special effects are seamless. None of my gripes are with the art in the film.

I read the stuff posted on Animation Nation which disses the movie saying it looks cheap compared to Disney movies. I would vehemently disagree with that. That's just Disney animators and wanna-be Disney animators trashing something that they fear will take jobs away from them if it becomes successful. I have no problem with the fact that the movie was animated overseas, and I think the movie looks fine. Most people who see the movie will have no problem with how it looks, in my opinion.

Another positive thing is the voice acting. Very well done as with the TV shows. Ok maybe Bubbles giggled a bit too much, and in a higher pitch than usual -- that's my only gripe.

I've been checking out this forum and the Powerpuff forums, and I know that everyone who posts on those forums loved the movie and thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Except for me and John Crighton. Well, I've seen this exact thing happen on Star Wars forums. Everyone LOVED the new Attack of the Clones movie, but I hated it. I used to be a rabid Star Wars fan myself. So I'm kind of used to being in the minority on fansites...

Although I think Powerpuff Movie is not as bad as Attack of the Clones, many of the same things apply. "Clones" had beautiful visuals, spectacular special effects, awesome fight scenes. I hated the movie because these things are not that important if you don't have a good plot and dialogue. Unfortunately the plot in "Clones" was horrible. The dialogue was worse than bad -- it was so bad, that even world-class actors like Samual L. Jackson looked inept while reciting the lines. Movies are about storytelling: this movie didn't have a good story to tell and it didn't tell it very well to boot.

But the fans who loved it went to see STAR WARS. They went to see jedi knights wielding their light sabres and 3PO clowning around with R2D2. They didn't go to see a movie.

I suppose the fans who loved the Powerpuff Movie went to see their beloved girls, not just a movie.

[CookieS]

Hey, I respect that you didn't like the movie. You even explained why you didn't like it in a mature manner, its cool.

Anyways, I'm thinking the girls wrecking the city was just supposed to be comedic. When you think about kids playing, they rarely sit and wonder if anything is valuable until something breaks. Plus I don't think that the Professor explaining it would have helped. Haven't you met one of those parents that think "My baby can do no wrong"? Heck, I think I met one in the grocery store. The damn kid was running around and ran into me because he wasn't being watched. Instead of the parent apologizing to me, she gives me a dirty look, as if it was my fault.

Anyways, I appericate your honest thoughts. I know the majority of the board enjoyed it, and I'm glad about that.

[Killtacular]

Your opinion's definitely valid. It's padded, the characters are a bit irritional, and some sequences stretch too thin.

One thing about PPG is that the characters are supposed to be that way. The professor not explaining to the girls is no different than, say, the Born and Raised in Townsville commercial in which a guy goes about his life, going to the bank, going to work, while monsters are wreaking havoc and zapping everyone around him with lasers.

It's just a weird quirky aspect of the show, and I guess it's somewhat represented in the movie too.

Another example of its quirky nature is that supervillains get released from jail after only a day, no matter how large the crime, which is why they keep coming back. They made note of this in the movie, where the Professor is released from jail after only having served a day. I thought that was a pretty interesting, and continuitous, detail.

On the stretching, I think that the team is kind of unaware as to how far they stretch a scene. If you've ever seen Behind the Scenes looks at Craig McCracken and his crew, they write as they draw.. and they love art just a little more than the rest of us.. it's obvious that they have great joy and laughter over the storyboards they create.. they enjoy telling stories with art just as much as dialogue.

I really don't know if that works for the PPG though. It works for Samurai Jack, a show where (save for a few episodes) a lot of the dialogue only takes place for a couple of minutes, and the rest is ambient music. That kind of show is where the art is a powerful storytelling factor..

But I don't think that PPG needs to have art tell the story so much.. PPG is at large a comedy show and I think that it allows for serious moments but I dunno if PPG works with drama, even for an origin story. Mojo's rant when the girls discover him in the cardboard box seemed to take WAY too long.. And then when he started talking about his machine, he speaks too fast for people to get the gag.

Anyway, I don't usually like to compare, but when you at least stack it up against other film adaptions of TV cartoons, PPG is miles above the rest (to be fair, the only TV-cartoon-based movie that really had any sort of decent plot was the Beavis and Butthead movie).

[Thundercleese]

Finally, someone gives an their opinions without bashing the Powerpuff Girls. Yeah, your reasons are backed up with good info. Gotta respect your opinion.

[mbaker]

Your opinion was surprisingly good. You had some valid reasons for it, and you treated us fans with respect. Congradulations. I was talking to cjshoup about this, and he makes A similar point that you made. The show's writers (Charlie Bean, Lauren Faust, Don Shank, & Paul Ridish, ) are only good for either 10 minute, or 20 minute episodes. The movie was their first attempt at writing something beyond their usual time limit. (With Craig McCracken helping out.) If they hired someone who's had more experience in writing 90 minute long movies, then they would've had something A little more polished. But for A first time effort, The did A pretty good job.

[Behonkiss]

Originally posted by Matt Wilson
Another example of its quirky nature is that supervillains get released from jail after only a day, no matter how large the crime, which is why they keep coming back. They made note of this in the movie, where the Professor is released from jail after only having served a day. I thought that was a pretty interesting, and continuitous, detail.

Aaah....Thanks, Matt. Up till now, I honestly had kept pondering why the Professor was thrown back in his house.