It is highly likely that the trailer for the scrapped live-action adaptation ofPowerpuff Girls, calledPowerpuff, has reached your desk. While technically not an official trailer ever intended to be released to the public, the existing footage from the planned series was stitched together into a trailer that showcased what might have been…and it was something.The idea of a live-actionPowerpuff Girlsseries following the trio as they’ve grown up and reunited in their early 30s sounds like a joke premise, and the footage shown off features green screen compositing that looks straight out of aFunny or Diesketch.
Initially announced in 2020,Powerpuff’s strange premise and the news that Academy Award winner Diablo Cody would write it certainly raised a few eyebrows but led to some curiosity about what might have been the most high-profile pilot that season. Despite an impressive cast that included Chloe Bennett (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) as Blossom, Dove Cameron (The Descendents), and singer Yana Perrault as Buttercup, The CW passed on the pilot in May 2021 and decided to rework it. Bennett later dropped out of the series, and by May 2022, the series was still in development before beingofficially canceled in May 2023by CW’s new owners, Nextstar.
After having watched the footage, many are likely happy to seePowerpuffnever made it to air.Despite all the flaws of the footage (and there are PLENTY), it isn’t the major trainwreck one would expect. It is clear that Diablo Cody had a creative vision forPowerpuff, one that would have explored some exciting themes in theory that was also doomed from the start.
Powerpuff Girls
Diablo Cody’s ‘Powerpuff’ Looked to be a Superhero and Child Star Deconstruction
WhenPowerpuffwas first announced, and the idea of a dark, gritty take on older versions of a popular wholesome kids' cartoon airing on the CW, many pointed out that this would be theRiverdaleversion ofPowerpuff Girls.Riverdalewas a dark reimagingof the beloved Archie comics that also amped up the teen drama angle and the sex, violence, and eventually occult elements.Riverdaletook the formula of other successful teen dramas likeBuffy the Vampire Slayer,Pretty Little Liars, andGossip Girland brought it into the world of Archie. This teen drama comic, while wholesome, was likely a major influence on those same television series, making it a strong match and leading to one of the CW’s most successful and bonkers shows ever. Yet, doing theRiverdaleversion ofPowerpuff Girlsfelt odd since these were child superheroes, and this type of story felt wrong.
Looking past the bad VFX work in thePowerpufftrailer,it is clear that Diablo Cody’s pitch is “Watchmenbut forPowerpuff Girls.“The trailer immediately establishes this will be a deconstruction of the superhero material, even making the meta-joke that thePowerpuff Girlscartoon fans loved the literal and figurative whitewashed version of their stories the same wayLogandid by making the X-Men comic books and, by extension, the other movies, fictional tales.Cody’s version of the Powerpuff Girls is supposed to flip these characters on their head from what audiences expect them to be. Blossom, “commander and the leader,” is the most aimless in life. Bubbles, the former “joy and the laughter” and now likely the most cynical, is selling her merch to stay relevant. Buttercup, “the toughest fighter,” is now seemingly a first responder and a protector.
Taking children’s characters and trying to do the dark, “gritty” version of them is often a mixed bag. In some cases, it feels like a juvenile attempt to make something aimed at kids and make it adult in a performative way, as seen in thePoohniverse horror filmsor even the Michael BayTransformersfilms putting so much emphasis on the United States military. Yet this type of deconstruction of beloved pieces of children’s characters can also be illuminating, as seen with the works of Alan Moore. Through bothWatchmenandMiracle Man, Moore took the inherently childlike whimsy of superheroes and presented them in a more topical way that often led to dark, traumatic realizations.Powerpuff Girlsbeing a superhero story means it seemingly would lend itself to this type of deconstruction, andPowerpuffdid seemingly have something to say.
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Cody is using thePowerpuff Girlsas a springboard to discuss the nature of childhood stars. What is it like to grow up in the public spotlight, and what happens when a child, particularly a young girl, is not the sweet, innocent person the public made them out to be? When a girl becomes a woman, and is no longer the ultimate symbol of purity to the public, but instead has flaws and desires that make them human. This is an interesting idea as a starting place for a revitalization ofPowerpuff Girlsthat offers something new rather than being a carbon copy shot-for-shot remake of the original animated cartoon (looking at you, Netflix’sAvatar: The Last Airbender).
Many themes Cody seemingly wantedPowerpuffto tackle align with her previous work. A major throughline for Juno is how people in Juno’s life view her differently when they know she is sexually active, and the pregnancy only highlights. Her father even says,“I thought you were the kind of girl who knew when to say when,” to which Juno responds, “I don’t know what kind of girl I am.” InYoung Adult,Charlize Theron plays a woman who has a hard time letting go of the past, whileTullyexamines post-partum depression and dives into a woman’s younger self and who they become, contrasting and complimenting one another.Jennifer’s BodyandLisa Frankensteinboth use the horror genre to tap into the ruthless nature of high school and how teenage girls are treated and viewed by their peers and society.
With all that in mind, it certainly makes sense why Diablo Cody was drawn to this version of thePowerpuff Girlsand had something to say. The question is, does that make it good?
Execution Was Always Going to Be Key, and ‘Powerpuff’ Wasn’t Going to Deliver
DespitePowerpuffhaving a theoretically interesting idea and themes to explore on paper, it all comes down to execution.One look at the leaked footage showed a severe disconnect between intent and finished product. The aesthetic of the series alone feels hampered by its budget. It tries to recreate the iconic animated locations in live-action. Instead of looking impressive, they look cheap and artificial, which clashes with much of the series going for a more naturalistic vibe, including Bubbles selling merchandise on Hollywood Blvd.
It has its foot in both worlds but can’t decide what it should be. Had it either gone theOne Pieceroute of imagining a cartoon world in live-action or theRiverdaleroute of reimagining how the very 1950s aesthetic of Archie comics translates to the 2017 setting and grounding it,Powerpuffmight have worked.But the split between campy and grounded highlights its obvious budgetary restrictions.
As seen by the footage ofPowerpuff,one of the biggest things holding the series back was its status as a CW seriesand how much money was at its disposal. The CW series always had a limited budget, so there were always clear limitations, even when they were doing big DC storylines in their Arrowverse series. Anyone who was a fan of the Arrowverse knows that sometimes you have to look past some shoddy VFX work.
Most of the time, people could do this because they remembered how bad TV CGI used to look and realized how far we’ve come, and the stories and the characters themselves were engaging. So the final fight with the Anti-MonitorinCrisis on Infinite Earthsmight have looked a little fake, but it was hard to care when the CW delivered five nights of fan-favorite characters meeting, dying, and beloved characters like Brandon Routh’s Superman or Tom Welling’s Smallville Clark Kent appearing in a satisfying epic story.
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While the CW Arrowverse series was sincere,Powerpuff, by its very nature, was a very cynical show, so it makes the barrier to accepting the cheap-looking effects more difficult. It was a series whose ambitions were likely more significant than the network it would have aired on, and given thatPowerpuffwas first pitched two years before Nextstar purchased the CW and would later cancel most of their television lineup,Powerpuffwouldn’t have lasted long even if it got picked up. Maybe ifPowerpuffhad an HBO budget, it could have somewhat pulled itself off. That cynical nature ofPowerpuffmight also have been a major problem for the series in terms of long-term longevity. The trailer forPowerpuffseems to hammer home the series' one central joke:“Isn’t it funny to see the Powerpuff Girls grown up?”
This idea likely could have supported a feature film or a limited series, but a 13 to 22-episode series on the CW that theoretically was aiming to last multiple seasons? That joke likely would have gotten old fast.Riverdaleis the best example, as after an excellent Season 1 that had a solid murder mystery with hints of a supernatural twist, the more the series went on, itstrayed far from its original visionwhere the final seasons had witchcraft and a meteor heading for Riverdale and alternate realities (TheRiverdalewriters room was a place where they took the motto ‘no idea is a bad idea’ very seriously).
HadPowerpuffmade it to air and not been canceled, the series creators likely would have needed a new central hook. It almost feels like they would have eventually teased a shared universe ofCartoon Network charactersbut grown up.Powerpufflikely would have had to resort to the girls meeting an older version of Dexter fromDexter LaboratoryorEd, Edd, and Eddymaking their live-action debut as a potential love interest or even theCodename Kids Next Doorcoming out of retirement to become the Codename Older Millenials Next Door. At that point, it becomes a parody of shared universe stories, but it is done with a straight face.
Powerpufflooks fascinating. Fascinating isn’t the same as good, and it is likely that had the show made it to air, it would have been widely mocked and later canceled by The CW’s new corporate owners. Yet, in a time when every IP franchise is up for revivals and reboots,Powerpuffat least looked like the result of a strong voice like Diablo Cody, who had something to say as opposed to a studio idea of trying to get blood from a stone, like, say,Madame WeborKraven the Hunter. However, likeJoker: Folie à Deuxshowed, being the product of a singular voice also doesn’t inherently make something good.
