by Sharren Bates

The City of Townsville… is being attacked by marauding, genetically-altered, mutant monkeys. Good thing the Powerpuff Girls are here to save the day.

If that was the extent of the Powerpuff Girls Movie, it would still be a very cute, fun kids’ movie but the best thing about this very cute, fun kids’ movie is that it does so much more than tell a simple good guys vs. bad guys story.

There are good animated movies and bad animated movies. The bad ones show good guys and bad guys fighting and eventually the good guys win some hollow victory and the kids go home and bug their parents to buy the Happy Meal tie-in and the action figures and wait for the straight-to-video sequel. The good ones accomplish what all good movies do - they help the audience connect with the characters so that when the good guys do win, we cheer because we’ve begun to care about them.

Creator and director, Craig McCracken and the Powerpuff Girls writing team have accomplished just that. As a fan of the series, I knew that Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup were bound to get into some kind of trouble and end up saving the day (before bedtime). What surprised me was the character development that the story would be able to accomplish within the hour and a half of expected cuteness and butt kicking.

The Powerpuff Girls Movie shares one of its primary themes with the comic-inspired, live-action blockbuster, Spiderman. The girls soon learn that “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility” but instead of swinging through the city of New York to vanquish the megalomaniac and win the love of the pretty girl, the Powerpuff Girls tear up Townesville to vanquish the marauding, genetically-altered, mutant monkeys and figure out what it means to help people, make the world a better place and be part of a family.

Unlike Peter Parker, the girls and their family know that they have special powers right from the start. Professor Utonium, their dear, doting father, created the girls in his lab one night. He saw crime and corruption running rampant and thought that if he could only create three perfect girls, he could bring some peace to Townesville. Unexpectedly, his experiment had unintentional consequences when some Chemical X splashed into his mix of sugar, spice and everything nice - and when his perfect little girls started flying around his sweet, mod bachelor pad and cutting the crusts off their PB&Js with laser vision, he realized he had a bit of a challenge on his hands.

The family quickly had to learn how to deal with the girls’ special powers. At first, the rambunctious munchkins were excited and happy and very popular at Pokey Oaks kindergarten - until a game of tag tore up the school, and the playground, and the neighborhood, and basically reduced all of Townesville to a pile of smoldering rubble - terrifying their classmates and infuriating their city.

The girls struggle to balance their special powers with their desire to be normal and accepted but by not being true to themselves, they get hurt and manipulated and ostracized. It’s only when they begin to understand how special they really are and what’s really important to them that they are able to come to the aid of their dear Professor and the city - and we all cheer when they save the day.

Yes, this is an animated movie about kindergartener superheroes and mutant monkeys. If that doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, you’ll skip this movie and I’ll forgive you. But it has cuteness and butt kicking, a great visual style and smart jokes (look for Craig McCracken’s plea for advice in the Classified Ads.) If you’re a fan, you’ve already seen it. If you’ve caught a few episodes on Cartoon Network and have contemplated buying the plush dolls (you know who you are) go give it a whirl. Take your kids, or your friend’s kids, or rent a kid, or come to realize how special you really are and buy a ticket for yourself.