The Powerpuff Girls Movie film review

certificate_PG

THE POWERPUFF GIRLS MOVIE

Warner Bros expands its cult TV animated series into a breezy and entertaining big screen romp that should play well to half-term audiences.

Fans of the show will undoubtedly get more out of The Powerpuff Girls Movie than newcomers, but there's plenty to enjoy, from the heroines' almost inexhaustible energy to the faux-retro visuals. And at a sprightly 73 minutes, the film doesn't over stay its welcome.

Professor Utonium (Tom Kane) longs to create the perfect little girl, and hopes to achieve his goal by following the instructions of the popular nursery rhyme, and mixing sugar and spice and all things nice. Unfortunately, the experiment goes dreadfully wrong when his clumsy ape assistant, Mojo Jojo (Roger L Jackson), knocks the mysterious Chemical X into the brew.

Thus, Blossom (voiced by Cathy Cavadini), Bubbles (Tara Strong) and Buttercup (EG Daily) are born.

They look like normal, healthy little girls, with big bright eyes, sweet natures and a boundless capacity to love. They also have distinct personalities: Blossom is the level-headed leader of the pack, Bubbles the cutesy is girly, and Buttercup is feisty and liable to explode under provocation.

Professor Utonium soon discovers that the trio are also blessed with superhuman strength, infra-red vision and the ability to fly. Evidently, Chemical X has radically altered his creations' genetic make-up.

The other inhabitants of Townsville are frightened of the girls' strange powers and quickly ostracise them, at the behest of the bumbling mayor (Tom Kenny). The locals soon change their opinions of the girls, when the now disgraced Mojo Jojo steals Chemical X to manufacture an army of evil apes, with which to take over Townsville, and then the world.

Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup bravely fly into action, battling against the forces of evil, for the good of all animated mankind.

The Powerpuff Girls Movie is essentially an extended episode of the television series, spruced up with some nifty computer graphics. Tom Kenny's narrator is as droll and dead-pan as ever, although some of the puckish humour and pop culture references have been pared down.

Animation is crisp and colourful, and the underlying message - a kind of feminism for pre-schoolers - certainly strikes a chord. You go girls!