December in the 80's was a magical time of year to be a kid. Not only did we get all the fantastic toys for Christmas, but every year, throughout the holiday season, the television would segue from regularly scheduled programing to air animated holiday specials. They'd come on just late enough that it could be a family event, but early enough that we'd get to enjoy it just before bedtime.
Each half hour block was special. Perfectly crafted with just the right number of advertisements to remind us of all the toys on store shelves, the treats to be had from local restaurants and grocery stores, and all other manners of consumption in between. But at the heart of it was that cartoon which would come out of hiding just once a year, fill your eyes with wonder, bringing smiles, laughter, action, adventure, drama, but at the root of it, a classic holiday message of peace, giving, love, and joy.
It's become my own personal tradition each year to pull a holiday special off the DVD shelf each day to enjoy. It's a ritual which not only has become my way of counting down the twenty-four days of December leading up to my favorite holiday, but my way of reminding myself that no matter what's happening in the world, my day-to-day grind of work, life, health, trials, and tribulations, that for a moment, all of that can be put a side, and I can simply become a kid again, even if it's just at heart.
While I wish I could share the actual special with all of you, be it by inviting you all to my home to join me in front of the fireplace with a bowl of popcorn, sadly, that's just not feasible. However, between sites such as Youtube, Arhcive.org, Dailymotion, and Vimeo, you can probably find them to watch. Of course, for those of you so bold, you could also pick them up on DVD yourself, something I would highly recommend. If not for yourself, for your children.
It is the day before Christmas Eve in Townsville, and the students at Pokey Oaks Kindergarten, including the Powerpuff Girls, are all anxiously awaiting Santa Claus' annual journey. When the Powerpuff Girls discuss their requests to Santa, Princess comes upon them and declares that, since her father is rich and can buy her any material goods, her desire to be a Powerpuff Girl is what she has requested from Santa. However, the Girls tell Princess she will not be getting her wish from Santa and will instead only be getting coal since she is most definitely naughty, citing her actions in previous episodes and her overall personality as proof like when Princess bought the city and legalized crime, hired Mojo Jojo to destroy them, gave them a bomb for their birthday, teamed up with Mojo, HIM, and Fuzzy Lumpkins and went on a crime spree, tricked Robin Snyder into stealing and then tattled on her, and that she's a brat who's greedy and jealous and doesn't care that she walks all over people in order to get what she wants. To this point, Princess furiously refuses to believe them, but when her servants become afraid to answer when she asks them if it is true, she decides to investigate. Princess had asked her family members if they think that she is naughty and they knew she was but didn't want to upset her so they all made excuses because they’re all afraid to be crushed by her wrath. While everyone else in Townsville (even Mojo Jojo) gets their houses prepared for Santa's arrival, Princess flies her private jet to the North Pole and sneaks into Santa's workshop. When she finds his documents, to her dismay, she finds out she is the only child in the world who is on the naughty list (which is a Post-It note). In response, she erases the headlines of the lists and switches them around, making it now look like she is the world's only nice child and that everyone else is naughty.
During Christmas Eve, Bubbles wakes up after hearing Santa come and goes downstairs to get an early look at the presents, but is devastated when she not only finds no presents under the tree and the milk and cookies untouched, but also lumps of coal in her stocking. She then gets suspicious when she finds coal in Blossom and Buttercup's stockings as well and then, using her x-ray vision, sees all the other children in Townsville have no presents and untouched milk and cookies and have also received coal as well. She wakes up her sisters and tells them of this strange occurrence. The Girls decide to confront Santa, thinking he must have made a mistake. However, as soon as they get outside, they are suddenly attacked by a now-superpowered Princess, who gloats over the fact she has now gotten what she wanted. She then says she knew they wouldn't accept that and is going to go tell Santa that the Girls are coming to destroy his workshop and ruin Christmas forever for branding them naughty.
The Girls chase Princess all the way to the North Pole, trying to deter her progress on the way until the four of them eventually crash through the roof of Santa's workshop, resulting in their battle wrecking the place. Santa, who is exhausted by a night of delivering coal to everyone and disheartened over the delusion of all the children in the world being naughty, comes in on their battle. Princess tries to selfishly convince Santa in a bullying manner not to listen to the Girls. However, Santa has a hard time feeling that he isn't supposed to, since he already knows that the Powerpuff Girls are actually good people. In addition, Santa also notes that the girls have a very positive, heroic reputation of always helping people and saving the day from danger as a team, to which they all happily confirm together. Frustrated and jealous over being ignored and unacknowledged, Princess throws a verbally abusive tantrum in front of both Santa and the Powerpuff Girls. She then proceeds to instigate even more trouble by verbally insulting him and disrespectfully threatening to have her father build a parking lot over the workshop unless she is given what she wants, even at the cost of making all the other children in the world feel left out and so miserable. She even went as far as to cap off her abusive, instigating tantrum with the final insult of disrespectfully calling him "Santa Clod", which utterly shocks and embarrasses both Santa and the Powerpuff Girls.
Realizing both the deception that Princess deliberately tampered with his nice and naughty lists and the truth that she earlier instigated trouble by manipulating him into satisfying both her selfish greed and continual disrespect for others, Santa furiously rips up the Post-It note. In addition, Santa then angrily declares that he doesn't need some list to determine whether who is truly naughty or nice because he knows 100% better. Also declaring this to be the very last straw, Santa angrily puts Princess's name on the Permanent Naughty Plaque (for children who are so naughty beyond redemption and which, unlike the lists, they can’t tamper with) as eternal punishment for her multitude of actions. This means that she'll never get any presents from him for the rest of her life. Horrified by this, Princess angrily flies off to tell her father on Santa, only for the latter to strip her of her superpowers. He then says he shall rectify his mistake of giving all the children coal, but upon seeing his reindeer running around scared and his sleigh's destroyed as a result of the battle, realizing he'll not be able to do so. Fortunately, since the Girls can fly so quickly, he asks them to deliver the presents. The Girls happily agree to do so, dropping Princess off in jail on the way. After finishing the job, the Girls return home to bed, but they do not stay asleep for long because it is now Christmas morning and open presents with the Professor. As the narrator says at the end, Christmas is saved, thanks to the Powerpuff Girls.
The Powerpuff Girls is one of the last cartoon series I actively watched as a young adult after high school as part of the What A Cartoon block on Cartoon Network. It's among the last bastions of what I'd call, "good cartoons". One of the great things about the network was how it created all sorts of special and programing for the holiday seasons, and among them was Twas the Fight Before Christmas.
It's fairly formulaic to the average Powerpuff Girls episode, and candidly could have easily been included in the regular series. Really, there's not much more to say about it. It's heroes vs. a villain. It doesn't try to be anything more than that, it it doesn't need to.
Wanting to get a little more holiday joy, I pulled out a couple more DVD's and enjoyed some random Christmas themed episodes. Today's picks were:
- Bob Rest Ye Merry Gentle-Mannequins, Christmas In the Car, Dog Christmas Day Afternoon, Father of the Bob, Gene's Christmas Break, Have Yourself A Maily Linda Christmas, Tex's Terrible Night, The Bleakening (part 1 and 2), The Nightmare 2 Days Before Christmas, The Plight Before Christmas, and Yachty or Nice, all from Bob's Burgers
- Frosty the Snowman, the 1969 Rankin / Bass classic
Click "HERE" to go back to the home page. For more posts related to this one, please click the labels below.
No comments:
Post a Comment