It’s sugar, spice, and one animated film, as Warner Bros. Pictures Animation gears up for a Powerpuff Girls comeback. Following a scrapped live-action television series by the CW, the trio of Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup is set for their second big-screen outing, more than 20 years after The Powerpuff Girls Movie.
The project was announced at this year’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival, with Variety confirming that no deal is in place just yet. Since it’s in development without an official green light, plot details are being kept under wraps, and whether it will tie into the upcoming reboot by original creator Craig McCracken remains unclear. If everything goes well, the movie marks the franchise’s first revival since the cancelled 2020 show, which would have centred on the adult versions of the Powerpuff Girls, who return to Townsville years later after growing apart.
The original Cartoon Network series premiered from 1998 to 2005 across six seasons and was nominated for several awards during its run. It follows Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, three kindergarten-aged girls with superpowers — a result of Professor Utonium’s accidental mixture of a mysterious ingredient called Chemical X into sugar, spice, and everything nice. Having “dedicated their lives to fighting crime and the forces of evil,” the trio are often called upon by the mayor of Townville to fight nearby criminals and other enemies using their powers.
While The Powerpuff Girls Movie received positive reviews, the 2002 animated feature bombed at the box office with a global haul of US$16.4 million against a US$11 million budget. A 2016 reboot had no luck, either, and would later become one of the worst animated series ever made. This upcoming Powerpuff Girls film could prove to be the second chance it needs, and is but one of the theatrical ventures in the studio’s pipeline, set to kick off with the Bill Hader-led The Cat in the Hat, which releases in November. A ThunderCats animated film was also unveiled during its Annecy showcase, with no release date attached.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
