Where The Live-Action Powerpuff Girls Went Wrong (And How It Could Work)

Cartoon Network’s beloved animated series The Powerpuff Girls was slated to be produced as a live-action series for CW, but development ended after a few setbacks. Created by animator Craig McCracken, The Powerpuff Girls is an animated series that follows the heroics of three lab-created little girls with superpowers. It’s a show that was born for animation. Trying to adapt it for live-action may have been the filmmakers’ first misstep.

Bubbles, Blossom, and Buttercup are kindergarten-aged sisters created by Professor Drake Utonium in a lab experiment gone awry. With the accidentally added ingredient, Chemical-X, the sisters were born with superpowers that granted them flight, super strength, and many more abilities they would learn to develop over the series. They used their powers to fight crime, do chores, and sometimes help the Mayor open a pickle jar. The Powerpuff Girls is a strange yet charming action-adventure animated comedy. Its shift from the creator’s original premise, however, is where the live-action adaptation, Powerpuff, first became an issue, according to Craig McCracken.

Why The Creator Disliked The Live-Action Powerpuff Girls

WBD’s canned Powerpuff series was pitched as three disillusioned former crime fighters in their twenties with superpowers are forced to reunite to fight crime. This more adult angle of The Powerpuff Girls was already a stretch for a series that fans remember as featuring 5-year-old girls. Positioning them as adult women is where the creator also believes the live-action adaptation was doomed before it started. In an interview with the L.A. Times, Craig McCracken stated:

McCracken’s concerns are valid. It can be difficult to translate a campy, charming children’s animation into live-action while maintaining the tone and personalities of the characters that fans loved as children, especially when they are suddenly turned into adults. Adapted superhero fantasy series remain a popular genre, yet many are toned down relative to their medium of origin to better fit the constraints of live-action. It’s an even more difficult balancing act when that fantasy relies on its whimsical world and exaggerated characters (and monsters) as a selling point, like The Powerpuff Girls. Mojo Jojo being human can be a hard sell for fans who favor the talking monkey. Without seeing the pilot, no one can say whether what was produced would have satisfied fans or been successful.

Whether the fantasy elements translate the live-action Powerpuff is a major concern. After a version of the pilot script for Powerpuff found its way onto the internet, many fans disliked the direction of the story. Related to public criticism or not, the outcry was followed by the writers having to rewrite the pilot after going into production. Although Dove Cameron, who was cast to portray Bubbles, has stated how she enjoyed working on the pilot, Powerpuff was later challenged by another issue. Chloe Bennet, the series’ Blossom, had to drop out due to a scheduling conflict.

All these issues put together have contributed to the unfortunate outcome of shelving the Powerpuff series. Still, there may be hope for a live-action adaptation of The Powerpuff Girls, if the filmmakers go back to the creator’s original premise.

How a Live-Action Powerpuff Girls Can Still Work

Craig McCracken’s complaint that the “super girls” in Powerpuff were no longer the Powerpuff Girls is a valid one. This viewpoint may provide some insight into how WBD could move forward with Powerpuff. Taking a step in a different direction that pivots away from disillusioned twenty-something women to high school teenagers is closer to McCracken’s intent.

Rites of passage and life-cycle transitions can happen at any age, not just for children. A coming-of-age story for women in their twenties could technically work. However, the personalities of the Powerpuff Girls and the premise of children fighting crime are tied together for McCracken. For one, the sisters are likely to be drastically different at 25 years old than, say, the age of 15, full of teenage angst, hormones, and rebellion. The latter is closer to the original characters’ age and level of maturity to remain in line with the tone and premise of the animation.

In addition, the role of Professor Utonium as their parental caretaker would also be closer to his role in the animation in this version. Fans would be treated to seeing how his parenting skills are challenged by the teenage Powerpuff Girls allowing the character to grow. It would be something a bit more akin to the crime-fighting eighth-graders of Powerpuff Girls Z.

The significance of the premise for the star heroes to be children is about more than kids fighting crime. The Powerpuff Girls illustrates the increasing responsibilities of three sisters who sometimes just want to be children, or whose immaturity simply gets the better of them because they’re kids. They might fight over concert tickets while a monster attacks, or play with dolls instead of answering the Mayor’s emergency phone call. The important life lessons they learn at the end of each episode are what make the original Powerpuff Girls more than mere super girls.

A more faithful live-action Powerpuff adapation has to capture this facet of the animated series. If Bubbles, Blossom, and Buttercup are rewritten to be teenagers, audiences could see them struggling to date, grow up maturely, or have a normal high school experience due to their imposed responsibilities of saving Townsville. This premise would better illustrate Craig McCracken’s original premise and comical tone, and expand on the characters that fans know and love. This alternative Powerpuff story would present a new layer of bizarre whimsy to love about The Powerpuff Girls.

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