Powerpuff Girls Reboot

[Rosenakahara]

Just came back to post this shit: http://vilcurio.tumblr.com/post/142417829082/llimus-bugeyedfreaks-titaniumbadger
Because as a powerpuff girls fan I need to say somewhere that this is absolute bollocks.

[zlink64]

If they get rid of her don't they gotta get rid of the mayor too. I mean he's too dumb lol. Have they said anything about adding new characters?

[Sachi]

^the concern is likely over sexism, rather than her in-universe importance such as supporting the Mayor.

[NemZ]

Ms. Bellum was a fantastic character who actively stood up against terrible warped versions of feminism that are all too common now.

[zlink64]

Yeah It's weird that sexism would be the reason since in memory she was kinda like the girl's role model. @nemz I think you are talking about an episode I remember. It was an episode with female super villain who had blond hair who I think suppose to be parody of feminism. She kept tricking the girls. Eventually Miss bellom and their school teacher had to interfere and told the girls to go beat her up. Like that episode was definitely a jab at over the top feminism. In hindsight that was a pretty adult episode lol.

Maybe they don't like that stereo type of behind every guy is a good women. Which is what she is but still I dunno, as lil kid I though she was fine. Like the show made it pretty clear to my kid mind that she was the brains behind the operation.

I'm a give the show a try. If I like it I'll watch it. I'm a 90's kid and I like teen titans go so if they have humor I'll forgive what ever they do. Also I looked it up and the old creators don't seem to be involved so I guess different directions are to be expected. Different sense of humor and different moral lessons,etc.

[zlink64]

Saw first three episode. I think it sucks. New voices are boring. Characters are acting out of character and I dunno show is just boring.

[Bagheera]

I never watched PPG for Miss Bellum anyway, so I could give a toss one way or the other. I really don't think the show needed a reboot, though; it was great the first time through, so better to come up with something new and just let it lie.

[zlink64]

^Yeah people are saying same thing on YouTube. But They seem to like it. People saying it similar to the original. I'd disagree but w\e.I think l'm just gonna pretend it doesn't exist.

[Defectron]

So I saw the first few episodes of it and side from the miss bellum controversy here's what I think so far.

I guess it's ok, couldve been worse, but imo its not as good as the first one. One thing I find kind of jarring is they keep on having bubbles make these weird exagerated animeesque faces all the time and I don't really think I care much for that. Also is it just me or are they trying too hard to make the ppg's act like teen girls in this? I mean arent they supposed to be in kindergarten?

[zlink64]

I think they are trying to modernize it by making them act teenage like not sure though but I had a similar vide from it too. I notice a bunch of stuff that I though was slightly out of character but what bothered me the most was how mean they where to each other. Like it was just strange.

And also in the first bunch of episodes they where reusing a bunch of old plot lines so it felt like I was watching a bad remake with bootleg PPG. I think new writing team ain't as good as the old one but who knows maybe they'll get better over time. It might help if they came up with original stories instead of reusing old episodes.

[Defectron]

I think new writing team ain't as good as the old one but who knows maybe they'll get better over time. It might help if they came up with original stories instead of reusing old episodes.

To be fair I didnt care much for the first few episodes of the original ppg but it did get much better over time. It could here too, but I think that the problems these episodes have are a bit harder to overcome then the issues the early ppg episodes had. To me the early ppg episodes were still kind of exploring what ppg was supposed to be and as such the early eps seemed kind of forced compared to the ones that came later to me but once the writers got more experience writing the ppg universe the show got a lot better. This new show however has the opposite problem, the people making it seem to want to force ppg to be something that it originally wasn't and as such the show feels fake and pretentious to me on some level. And I have hunch that unless they get new writers they aren't just going to let this new angle their trying to push the show in go.

I really hope they stop trying to make the girls act older then they should be, and also that weird stuff Bubbles keeps doing whenever she emotes. If it wasn't for those two things I think the show could be a lot more enjoyable at least for me. Would also be nice to get miss Bellum back but unless people make like the mlp fans did with Derpy that might not happen.

[zlink64]

What! You crazy Ep 1 of power puff girl is my fav. Something about fuzzy lumpkins spoke to me when I was a kid lol. Anyway, Yeah I get what you mean about the the shows getting better over time, like you can definitely tell the difference in quality between first season and later seasons.

The new writer having to deal with the old stuff and history while trying to do their own thing could be stifling I'd imagine. We'll see though. Hopefully they'll find their voice and make it work by season 2 because I agree with your hunch about them not changing.

[Bagheera]

I saw (half of) the first episode and couldn't stand it. It just seemed so . . . I dunno, mean-spirited. The original was fun and playful, but this is acting like it's trying to be edgy or something. Nothing likable about it at all.

[Defectron]

So anyway I've been thinking about why the overall vibe of this reboot bothers me, the girls acting adult, bubbles weird faces, ms bellum getting the ax, all seem to be the symptoms of some weird direction someone was trying to push the series in. I couldnt put my finger on what that was and why exactly it rubbed me the wrong way until recently when I thought about the openings of the old and new ppg's.

Old ppg's opening managed to perfectly convey what the series was supposed to be, culminating in the girls kicking the crap out of an army of villains in a pretty badass way.

I think the new ppg's opening also conveys the new direction the show is heading in, it seems to be trying to make the girls look more hip and cool then they used to be, but overall is coming off fake. Something about the styalised crayon opening reminded me of something, something that isn't good but I couldnt put my finger on what exactly it was until I remembered this https://awesomelyshitty.wordpress.com/2 ... -hipsters/

I now think I know why this series rubs me the wrong way, I think it has been taken over by hipsters!

[zlink64]

Lmao...you might be right bud. I like your critic of this show. Also I know I said I'd pretend that this show doesn't exist but I saw one more episode because of the title. Newest episode It's called Bye Bye miss Bellum. She is in the episode. It was like an episode explaining her away. Apparently she has accumulated 1000 vacation days and she is being forced to used them. So technically she is in the show but we probably won't see her again for a while if at all. There where some parts of the episode that I liked but then there where a lot parts that didn't make sense to me so it was mediocre experience. Like a lot of random cartoon stuff happened for no reason. Like they kept making pointless video game references while fighting a fashion themed villain because I guess video games are cool now? Like they just mixed a lot of unrelated stuff together during this episode which is okay but it'd seemed random to me. Mixing fashion and video games is very hipster-ish now that I think about it and that's what this episode did....

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

There's WAY too much Steven Universe aesthetic going on in a show that was originally a throw-back to 60's shoe-string budget animated cartoons. The original show was a love-letter to The Adventure of Rocky and Bullwinkle, and even ended its series run with the perfect homage episode to it.

Modern PPG is Cartoon Network masturbating to its own visual styles and ideas. On that alone I find it a misguided prodigal show at best. And everything else about it either supports that claim or simply caters to the overly sensitive on Tumblr.

[zlink64]

For anyone else interested in watching this show who is an old time fan this is the mentality behind the writing that you should expect:

About the decision to phase Ms. Bellum out of the show, Executive Producer Nick Jennings told the Los Angeles Times that, “We felt like Ms. Bellum wasn’t quite indicative of the kind of messaging we wanted to be giving out at this time, so we sort of had her move on. And that was a good choice I think on our part.”


We’re(article author) not sure we agree – especially considering what he also said about the decision to add a new villain called Manboy, whom Jennings says “is a perfect kind of villain for us. He’s an old-thinking type of male character set into this modern-day world.”

Also they are full of shit because manboy is rip off from an older bad guy called Mascumax(like masculine). Same exact kind of episode idea and character except old writers where better and they came off way less self-rightous.

The old mascumax episode didn't criticize gender roles. It only questioned and made fun of them. It showed the girls learning and dealing with gender stereo types for the first time.

The new manboy episode straight up implies being manly is bad and shows buttercup the Tom boy and toughest fighter needing to work on her violent tendency. They even go as far as having Blossom scoff the word "Men". Like that is some sexest shit to have Blossom say. Like seriously I cringed so hard when I heard it.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

^ Oh, jeez. So, we're going straight-up Angry Red-Head sexism here. Nice.

[Defectron]

a new villain called Manboy, whom Jennings says “is a perfect kind of villain for us. He’s an old-thinking type of male character set into this modern-day world.”

Manboy? Oh jeez unless they get a really good writer I can only see that going in terrible places.

Edit: So I just watched the bye bye belum episode and holy crap I was right, this show is written by Hipsters! I felt I like I was watching a bad ripoff of scott pilgrim vs the world when the mayor was fighting the fasion sisters.

Also damn... http://jitterbugjive.tumblr.com/post/14 ... terbugjive

[zlink64]

Wow I'm surprised they are actually tackling trans issues. It's crazy how kid cartoons can reflect trends in modern culture. Like comparing the old and new powerpuff girls is actually a really interesting thing to do. Going off my experience with the man boy episode I'm gonna guess that they are gonna handle the fake unicorn transgender metaphor badly but I'm too curious to not check it out.


Edit: So I finish reading the blog you linked and then I watched the episode and holy shit it was horrible lol. The blogger was right in their analysis. And gender issues aside that really was a really bad episode.

Makes me think about the character "Him". They probably should've used Him since his gender is questionable. I wonder how people like that blogger felt about Him. The new powerpuff girl managed to be a lot more disrespectful with a transgender unicorn than the old powerpuff did with Him and he is a gender ambiguous devil....like how do you that. You'd think an ambiguous gendered devil would be more offensive than transgendered unicorn metaphor. I guess it just goes to show the difference in talent between the creators.