(AfroGamers.com) One of the biggest pieces of geek news for 90s and 00s kids is not only is Powerpuff Girls getting a live-action show but the leads of Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup have already been cast.
The show will be a part of The CW’s teen-oriented broadcasting which includes a number of comic book adaptations past and present. Personally, I’m excited for the series.
I’ve never been big on episodic television and always preferred an ongoing story with developing backstories. The original Powerpuff Girls never really encouraged that since it was a cartoon geared at kids.
Going the live action route is a risky task since PPG has always been cartoon-y but seeing this attempt will be interesting. The true risk comes in how their villains are depicted.
Let’s look at the three villains the series might tackle that could prove a problem.
Fuzzy Lumpkins
The CW’s writers have always been strong at depicting bumbling powerhouses and backwoods brutes in its numerous shows. However, Fuzzy Lumpkins is someone different.
He looks more like a minor league baseball or kids’ pizza place mascot than a brutal powerhouse of destruction. I’m sure an actor can do the character justice in the story but his physical portrayal is another matter.
Will he just be a big country guy? Or will they make him some kind of mutant or man-beast? Maybe he’ll be a big hairy country guy going through a mutation.
We’ll have to wait and see but it’ll be interesting to see what they do with him.
HIM
Of their rogue’s gallery, HIM is my favorite. The most powerful villain in the franchise, he’s one of the few who have given the Girls an asterisk on their win-loss record.
He’s also difficult to explain but the closest would be an effeminate, gender-bending depiction of Satan. HIM has red skin, a tight coat with a fluffy collar, fishnet stockings, high heels, claw hands, and a slender face.
It was the 90s and cartoons just kind of threw concepts at the wall. Usually, it would land Better than it would now.
Just look at how long Pepe LePew and Johnny Bravo were allowed to cook before there social media allowed people who watched the shows back then to elaborate on why those two characters were rape-y.
The difficulty here lies in both the character’s physical depiction and their character in general. I believe that The CW could actually push things with HIM without reaching the levels of the original character and not get angry letters and tweets.
It’ll be much easier if the show is well received in the first season or two. Having good will with viewers will at least allow for The CW to stumble on HIM.
If the show is panned or gets mixed reactions out the gate then bringing in HIM will be a risk. It could be something that salvages the show or sinks it entirely.
I just hope the cool effect of the character’s voice is present. It doesn’t have to be all the time but the way that voice actor Tom Kane’s voice is echoed added to just how powerful HIM was in the series.
It’s important that he’s depicted in a way that doesn’t harm or use any underrepresented groups.
Mojo Jojo: The Greatest Villain of the Powerpuff Girls
While not the most powerful villain in the franchise, he was a consistent threat to Townsville and really gave the Powerpuff Girls a run for their money on several occasions.
Unlike most villains in the series who end up fighting the Girls for a variety of minor reasons, Mojo Jojo has history with the Girls and Professor Utonium as he was once the Professor’s lab monkey/assistant.
It is later revealed that he broke the flask of Chemical X that made the Powerpuff Girls while the Professor was trying to create the perfect little girl. As a character, he would reason to hate the Girls since he was pretty much abandoned.
Living in a volcano in Townsville, he uses his super intelligence to create machines and devise plots to take over the town and get revenge on the Girls.
He’s basically the perfect, basic but dangerous, reoccurring villain for a comic or cartoon. Mojo Jojo is basically how all of these iconic villains in DC and Marvel Comics were depicted between the 1940s and into the late 1960s. He’s always defeated but he always returns.
So, where’s the difficulty? It’s the same with Fuzzy Lumpkins and to a degree HIM: the physical depiction.
Never mind his voice and dialogue, I’m sure there’s an actor who can nail the mix of comedic over-the-top villainy and legit threat that is Mojo Jojo. Well, they might have to do something about his “sinister Japanese” voice.
The character is a mutated chimp that has an exposed brain underneath his turban, sports a cape, and has his own costume. It’s obvious that The CW will need to modernize his attire but how exactly do they depict him?
That’s why this new live-action PPG is so exciting: how will everything be translated to live-action? The answer to all of this is that we’ll just have to wait and see.
Staff Writer; M. Swift
This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.