Charile Bean, Lauren Faust, Craig McCracken, Paul Rudish and Don Shank
Cast:
Blossom: Catherine Cavadini
Bubbles: Tara Strong
Buttercup: E.G. Daily
Proffessor: Tom Kane
Mojo JoJo: Roger L. Jackson
Mayor: Tom Kenny
The formula for creating a feature film from a cartoon is
relatively simple:
darken the color palette, have about at least 8 people write the
story, add about 40 nauseating minutes to show length, and stir for 12
months to allow word of mouth circulate. Well The Powerpuff Girls Movie
followed this formula well and you know what? It doesn't pay off.
Instead it comes off as a slapdash effort to capitalize on a show that
wasn't that great to begin with.
The plot deals with the origin of the girls, their powers, and their
arch nemesis: Mojo JoJo (the real star of the movie if you ask me). When
the girls tear the city of Townsville apart by simply playing tag they
feel like outcasts. Mojo tricks them into helping him build a machine
that will turn other apes smart like him. In a hysterical scene the apes
take over Townsville and each fights over who will the King of the
Planet of the Apes. Now the girls must find a way to rid the people of
Townsville of their fear and stop Mojo JoJo.
Not a bad plot at all but the script feels like it was put together in a
couple of days. Too many authors have spoiled the broth here and it
shows. While the show itself is cleaver the movie just feels winded and
stretched out to fill the short 73 minutes.
The casting is great on the other hand. Some animated films have the
worst voice actors but all have returned from the show and given a good
performance. The score is actually absent from most of the movie but
when it's there it's mostly just generic drum beats and techno.
Like I said before, the color pallete is considerably darker than the
show and it pays off. This transfer is perfect. Blacks are deep and
colors are bright and sharp. The color pallete looks like it was
destined for DVD. But there's just one problem: FULL FRAME ONLY!!!.
Anybody who has read some of my previous reviews knows how much I hate
full frame. I think this one problem actually hurt my enjoyment of the
movie. But wait could this have been filmed at this frame and matted for
theaters? I wondered that too but after seeing the deleted scenes and
storyboards clearly widescreen at 1.85:1 I knew the truth. Warner has
obviously not learned from the whole Willy Wonka widescreen fiasco. And
considering the short extras, would it have been too much for Warner to
put a widescreen transfer on the disc like New Line did with the Ninja
Turtle movies? Since full frame lops of 50% of the picture (give or
take) I'm lopping this score in half. Too bad too because this is one of
the best transfers from Warner in a long time.
Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. At first the track seems
generic and plain but once the action picks up is when it picks up as
well. Watch the scene of the Girls playing tag in Townsville and tell me
that's not loud. The track won't knock your socks off but it gets the
job done.
Even though the film failed pretty miserably at the theater (what were
they thinking, releasing it the same day as Men in Black II?) that
hasn't stopped Warner from putting some extras on the platter. Here's
how it stacks up:
Audio Commentary:
Featuring the director/creator and the producer.
This is funny, I can't imagine any kids listening to this. Could it have
been made for a once widescreen release? They never state they're
watching a full frame transfer.
Cast Interviews:
Short 1 minute mock interviews with the actual
characters. Come off as promos of some sort. Features the Girls, the
mayor, and Mojo JoJo.
Director's Chair:
A Behind the Scenes segment is featured here that
runs 4 minutes and in non anamorphic widescreen. The featurette is your
standard interviews and movie clips. Two of the same early test
sequences are presented as well, both running little over 2 minutes and
in non-anamorphic widescreen. The clips are identical except the second
features narration by the Mayor.
Character Commentaries:
Select scenes are dlsplayed with audio
commentary by each character. This is a cool idea and it actually works
for the most part. Features commentaries by the Girls, the Mayor, and
Mojo JoJo.
Dexter's Laboratory: Chicken Scratch:
This show should have recieved the movie treatment. Runs 8 minutes and is full
frame. This preceded the film at the theaters.
Theatrical Trailer:
Runs about 1 minute and is anamorphic 1.85:1
widescreen. Pretty bad and shows how studios don't even really try to
market their cartoons at the movies... wait a second
Cartoon Networks:
4 shameless promos for CN mechandise like the GBA
game of Ed, Edd, and Eddy (that should get a movie too).
At least Warner didn't make it bare bones but it still feels slapped
together like the movie. The only supplements that standout are the
character commentaries and the Dexter short.
Packaging is snapper case and uses the decent theatrical poster as its
cover. There are only 8 chapters to split up the film and I thought
Touchstone's
Big Trouble
was bad with only 12.
Overall, the lack of a widescreen transfer and a movie that isn't that
good anyway is destined to doom this DVD. I've heard rumors of Cartoon
Network producing a special edition of their own with a widescreen
transfer but this is unlikely considering the film's success. If you're
a fan and you can get past the horrors of full frame then knock yourself
out you'll be happy with the release.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
