The Powerpuff Girls Movie is, of course, the feature film based on the TV show, starring Tara Strong, E.G. Daily, Catherine Cavadini, Roger Jackson, Tom Kenny, Tom Kane, Jennifer Hale, Jennifer Martin, and Frank Welker.
The movie is an origin story, starting with the creation of the girls by Professor Utonium (Kane). If you're a fan of the show, you know that the lab-chimp destined to become the evil Mojo Jojo (Jackson) pushed the professor and accidentally added an extra ingredient to the concoction (CHEMICAL X), and I was happy to see that little nod to canon because I'm a nerd, apparently.
Anyway, the movie takes things a step further and posits that Townsville was under siege by crime and hopelessness, and that the professor created Blossom (Cavadini), Bubbles (Strong), and Buttercup (Daily) in an attempt to improve the city by teaching his kids right from wrong. Of course, they come out superpowered, and promptly wreck the city playing tag.
Plot-wise, it's pretty standard super-hero origin fare. What makes the movie work, I think, is that the show was so popular and the IP so well-established that no one has to waste any time explaining anything. Everyone knows that Mojo Jojo is going to be the big bad, so there's no point pretending he's really a good guy. Everyone knows that the Mayor (Kenny) is an idiot, so just have him go for a pickle in the midst of a crisis right off the bat. The entertainment in the movie is seeing these characters in a longer format and finding their feet as superheroes, and it works.
The writing is typical for the show, a lot of the wordplay is clever, and Mojo's turns of phrase are smart if you pay attention to Jackson's rapid-fire delivery. The voice cast is on form (better be, given how long they'd been doing this). I appreciate, too, that apart from some cameos from Gang Green and Fuzzy Lumpkins, they didn't overload the movie with show characters and references. This is the origin of the Girls as superheroes and Mojo as the villain, and it doesn't need to be any bigger than that (not when Mojo becomes Kong-sized).
My Grade: B+
Rewatch Value: Medium
Next up: Practical Magic
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