Throughout its long history, Cartoon Network has been a major player in the world of animation. With the cable network creating critically acclaimed series, including Dexter’s Laboratory, Courage The Cowardly Dog, Ed Edd ‘n Eddy, and too many others to count, not every entry has been a winner with fans and critics alike. One decade ago, one of the most controversial revivals that Cartoon Network has ever produced hit the channel’s network, recreating a classic crime-fighting trio in a way that viewers weren’t too thrilled to see. Despite this stumble, the history of The Powerpuff Girls remains a big part of Warner Bros, though the same can’t be said for its 2016 reboot.
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The Powerpuff Girls (2016) landed on Cartoon Network a little over ten years ago, airing on April 4th. While the franchise had become one of the biggest in Cartoon Network history, the original series ended after six seasons with seventy-eight episodes total. Surprisingly, despite the backlash, the revival series garnered three seasons of its own, scoring close to one hundred and twenty episodes. There are multiple reasons as to why the reboot was disliked by fans worldwide, but needless to say, it’s a chapter in Cartoon Network’s history that is widely forgotten.
To start, 2016’s The Powerpuff Girls had much more subject matter focusing on the jokes and “memes” of the day, routinely poking fun at current events and the digital landscape. The animated revival also saw its heroines portrayed in quite a different manner than the original series, moving on from their pre-school environment to a far older locale, even though they physically hadn’t changed. Many viewers thought that the humor wasn’t able to live up to its predecessor, to put it nicely, and wrote off the Cartoon Network series as a result. Perhaps most notoriously, one scene saw the girls “twerking,” throwing many viewers for a loop. Ever since this series ended following its three seasons, Blossom, Buttercup, and Bubbles have yet to return. Ironically enough, franchise creator Craig McCracken had previously commented on the failure of the revival.
Why The Powerpuff Girls Failed in 2016
Craig McCracken, the show’s original creator, didn’t have a part to play in the 2016 revival, though this didn’t stop him from sharing his thoughts. In 2023, the legendary animator laid it out, “We were first and foremost making a superhero show, but they happened to be kids who then happened to be little girls. What they were doing was making a show about little girls who had superpowers. Because the focus changed, the tone changed.”
In speaking with The Los Angeles Times, McCracken broke down what made the trio of crime fighters a success when they first debuted, “The girls represent body, mind, and spirit. Together they make a whole person,” he said. “They always play off each other. If you remove one, the balance is off. When writing them, I’m thinking about what Blossom would say, and I immediately go, ‘Bubbles would react this way, and Buttercup would do this.’ They function as a single character to me.”
While The Powerpuff Girls hasn’t created new installments in years, this doesn’t mean that the Cartoon Network series has been outside of the limelight. Most recently, the animated show returned to the screen thanks to Tubi, the free streaming service that acquired quite a few animated originals from the cable network. Ironically enough, the franchise had also made headlines thanks to the CW’s failed live-action adaptation, which had quite a lot of controversy surrounding it, thanks to leaks regarding its story.
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