The Powerpuff Girls (2008 film)

"The three heroes are back. Better and more powerpuff-ier than ever."

- Tagline of the film

The Powerpuff Girls is a 2008 American animated action superhero film directed by Craig McCracken and is based on the 1998 Cartoon Network animated television series of the same name. The film is produced by showrunner Chris Savino and Donna Castricone, and is based on a screenplay by Lauren Faust and a story by Charlie Bean, Lauren Faust, Craig McCracken, Paul Rudish, Amy Keating Rogers and Don Shank. The film is an essential remake of the original 2002 film, The Powerpuff Girls Movie, which was released on July 3, 2002 to become a box office bomb, though was mixed-positively received by critics. The film reprises the cast of the original film, being Cathy Cavadini, Tara Strong, E. G. Daily, Roger L. Jackson, Tom Kane, Tom Kenny, and Jennifer Hale.

As a 2008 reboot to the original 2002 film, The Powerpuff Girls was produced by Cartoon Network Studios and Warner Bros. Animation. It was premiered at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre on June 27, 2008 and was released theatrically in the United States on July 4 by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film received critical acclaim, with critics praising its cast, voice acting (particularly Cavadini, Strong and Daily), animation, soundtrack, humor, tones, and its reliability on its source material. It was also a critical box office success, grossing $436.8 million against its $15 million production budget, with critics claiming it as a significant improvement over its predecessor. A sequel, The Powerpuff Girls: Mission II, was released in 2013.

Synopsis
The Mayor of Townsville (Tom Kenny) has mysteriously disappeared, and soon, Townsville spirals into chaos. But, all hope is not lost. Blossom (Cathy Cavadini), Bubbles (Tara Strong) and Buttercup (E. G. Daily), three kindergarten-aged girls, known by their group hero alias "The Powerpuff Girls", quickly find out on the disappearance of the Mayor, as it was Mojo Jojo (Roger L. Jackson) who took him out of business. The three girls must save the Mayor before Townsville is doomed.

Plot
TBA

Voice cast
"Main article: List of The Powerpuff Girls characters"


 * Cathy Cavadini as Blossom
 * Tara Strong as Bubbles
 * E. G. Daily as Buttercup
 * Roger L. Jackson as Mojo Jojo
 * Tom Kane as Professor Utonium and Talking Dog
 * Tom Kenny as the Mayor of Townsville, Narrator, Mitch Mitchelson, Snake, and Lil' Arturo
 * Jennifer Hale as Ms. Sandy Keane
 * Jennifer Martin as Ms. Sarah Bellum
 * Jeff Bennett as Ace, Big Billy, and Grubber
 * Grey DeLisle and Phil LaMarr as additional character voices
 * Frank Welker as various evil primates
 * Kevin Michael Richardson as Rocko Socko and Ojo Tango
 * Rob Paulsen as Hotta Watta and Killa Drilla

Production
In 2005, the original 1998 series came to an end. However, in March 2006, showrunner Craig McCracken had started development on a storyboard for a film based on the series. The production on the film soon began in June, with showrunner Chris Savino signing to produce the film. Show writers Charlie Bean and Paul Rudish wrote scripts for the film, with Lauren Faust producing a screenplay for the film.

The casting for the film went underway in August 2006, with Cathy Cavadini, Tara Strong and E. G. Daily reprising their roles as the three titular characters. Roger L. Jackson reprises his role as the antagonist of the film, Mojo Jojo, with Tom Kane reprising his role as Professor Utonium and Talking Dog. Tom Kenny also reprises his roles as the Mayor of Townsville, the Narrator, Mitch Mitchelson, Snake, and Lil' Arturo. Jennifer Hale reprised her role as Ms. Sandy Keane, Jennifer Martin as Ms. Sarah Bellum, Jeff Bennett as Ace, Big Billy and Grubber, and Grey DeLisle and Phil LaMarr as additional character voices. Frank Welker voiced various evil primates in the film, and features Kevin Michael Richardson as Rocko Socko and Ojo Tango, and Rob Paulsen as Hotta Watta and Killa Drilla. The voice lines were recorded at the Abbey Road Studios in London, England.

The film's animation was produced at Warner Bros. Animation, and was produced through Rough Draft Studios' division Rough Draft Korea. Additional digital animation and imagery, along with VFX was produced at Mercury Filmworks, with additional animation produced at Munich Animation Film. All work done overseas was later shipped to Los Angeles, California, where the team compiled every shot of the film and compressed it digitally at Cartoon Network Studios. The film, like the original 2002 film, keeps the staple look of the television series with minimal changes, with characters such as the Girls and the Professor having a mostly geometric look. Backgrounds for the film were directly similar to the original 2002 film, and were similar to the Nickelodeon film Hey Arnold!: The Movie, released in 2002.

Music
James L. Venable, who worked on the television series and the 2002 film, composed the film's score, blending traditional orchestration with electronica.

Promotion and release
In January 2008, the film was promoted on Warner Bros. Pictures' website and Cartoon Network's website. The trailer of the film was shown in advertisements on live television for commercial breaks on Cartoon Network. The film was sponsored by fast food chains, including McDonald's and Burger King.

The 78 minute The Powerpuff Girls debuted in competition at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival on May 19, 2008. It then premiered at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre on June 27, 2008 and was theatrically released on July 4, 2008 by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film was later theatrically released in other territories on July 11. In the United States, the film was rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for "non-stop frenetic animated action", "mild humor" and "brief language". The film made its television broadcasting debut on Cartoon Network on May 29, 2009.

Critical response
Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 91% based on 194 critic reviews, with an average rating of 8.15/10. Its critical consensus reads, "Beautifully animated, heroic, moving, and very thrilling, The Powerpuff Girls is even more fun and humorous for a whole family to enjoy." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 81 out of 100, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on its A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak surveyed filmgoers and reported an 89% approval rating, with 81% of filmgoers saying they would definitely recommend it.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four, and wrote "The Powerpuff Girls is conveniently inventive with its storytelling, plot and characters. They've learnt from the 2002 film, and they went all out with this film." He also wrote that the animation and visual effects were "beyond incredible", and said the plot was "very coherent" and "clear to process". Todd McCarthy of Variety gave the film a three-and-a-half stars out of four, saying that "The Powerpuff Girls works almost flawlessly. The characters, animation, voice acting, storytelling, plot; pretty much everything that is present in the film almost works perfectly." He stated that he enjoyed that the film was a definite improvement over its 2002 predecessor. The Guardian gave the film four stars out of five, saying the plot and voice cast was "astounding" and said the animation was "beyond amazing", though criticized the runtime.

However, there were mixed reviews to the film. Patrick J. Ford of The American Conservative said that The Powerpuff Girls was "an overall okay experience", saying he didn't overall approve of the source material's liability. Kyle Smith of the New York Post wrote that The Powerpuff Girls is "motivating for younger viewers", but said that adults who watch the film will be "at the very least disappointed".

Box office
The Powerpuff Girls was theatrically released in the United States by Warner Bros. Pictures on July 4, 2008, and in other territories on July 11. The film grossed $189.3 million in the United States and Canada and $247.5 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $436.8 million against a production budget of $15 million.

In the United States and Canada, the estimated projections for the film was around $20-35 million. In its opening weekend, The Powerpuff Girls opened on Independence Day of 2008 with $48.9 million ($42.4 million + $6.5 million in Friday night previews) at the domestic box office, topping the US box office charts and broke the box office projections. In its opening week, it had a very well performance at the domestic box office, grossing $58.2 million that week. Projection estimates soon were upped to $50-55 million for its second weekend, and it once again broke the projections, grossing $62.5 million ($56.3 million + $6.2 million in Friday night previews).

In other territories, The Powerpuff Girls broke multiple overseas box office records, hitting #1 at the international box office. Its countries that garnered the most revenue were the United Kingdom ($89.2 million), Italy ($67.3 million), Germany ($56.6 million) and Japan ($34.4 million). It continued its streak until its fourth opening weekend, when it fell behind with $68 million lost in box office revenue, causing a downgrade in its overseas performance. Its domestic streak kept a steady lead, until it went to #3 on the domestic box office charts.

Box office projections finished on December 28, 2008, and the film grossed a total of $189.3 million in the United States and Canada and $247.5 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $436.8 million ($601.1 million in 2022), becoming the tenth-highest-grossing film of 2008, the fourth-highest-grossing animated film of 2008 behind Disney-Pixar's WALL-E, and barely made it into the highest-grossing animated films of all time, and didn't come close to being in the list of highest-grossing films of all time. According to Box Office Mojo, The Powerpuff Girls is presumably around the 57th-highest-grossing animated film of all time.