The Powerpuff Girls ''The Powerpuff Girls'' is an American Superhero fiction, superhero animated television series created by animator Craig McCracken and produced by Hanna-Barbera (later Cartoon Network Studios) for Cartoon Network. The show centers on Blossom ...

'' is an American animated television series created by

Craig McCracken Craig McCracken (born March 31, 1971) is an American cartoonist, animator, director, writer, and producer known for creating Cartoon Network's ''The Powerpuff Girls'' and ''Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends'', Disney Channel and Disney XD's ''W ...

for

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...

. The series began as a student film called ''Whoopass Stew'', made by McCracken while he attended the

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a Private university, private art school in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for ...

in 1992. Two additional shorts, "Meat Fuzzy Lumpkins" and "Crime 101", later aired on Cartoon Network's '' World Premiere Toons''. The series officially premiered on November 18, 1998, lasting 6 seasons with 78 episodes total. A

feature film A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (Film, motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole present ...

, a Christmas special, and a 10th anniversary special were produced for the series. Episodes of ''The Powerpuff Girls'' have seen numerous

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

releases as well. The musical episode "See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey" was never aired in the United States, but was broadcast on YTV in Canada in 2004–2005 as well as in other countries (including Japan), and is included on the complete series DVD box set.

Series overview

Episodes

Whoopass Stew

Craig McCracken made a short titled "Whoopass Stew! The Whoopass Girls in: A Sticky Situation" as a student at the

. Four shorts were intended, though only the first one was finished. The other three were presented on the Complete Series DVD set accompanied by the original storyboards and their original audio. McCracken submitted "A Sticky Situation" to Cartoon Network, and some time later the name "Whoopass Stew!" was changed to "The Powerpuff Girls".

''What a Cartoon!'' shorts

Both shorts are written and directed by

, with

Genndy Tartakovsky Gennady Borisovich "Genndy" Tartakovsky (; born January 17, 1970) is a Soviet-born American animation, animator, screenwriter, film producer, and film director, director. He is best known as the creator of various animated television series on ...

as animation director,

Paul Rudish Paul Rudish is an American animator, storyboard artist, writer, and voice actor, originally known for his art, writing, and design work at Cartoon Network Studios on series created by Genndy Tartakovsky. He went on to co-create the series '' Sym-B ...

as art director and Mike Moon as layout designer.

Season 1 (1998–99)

Series creator

directs every episode alongside co-directors. Craig Kellman serves as art director of each episode.

Season 2 (1999–2000)

directs every episode alongside co-directors.

Season 3 (2000–01)

As with previous seasons,

directs every episode with different co-directors. Don Shank serves as art director of every episode, with Craig Kellman co-directing the art in "Monkey See, Doggy Two".

Season 4 (2001–02)

For the final time,

directs every episode of the season. Don Shank serves as art director for the final time.

Season 5 (2002–04)

For the remainder of the series, Paul Stec serves as art director, although he is uncredited for the first two episodes of the season.

Season 6 (2004–05)

Specials

Christmas special (2003)

10th anniversary special (2009)

A special 22-minute episode titled "The Powerpuff Girls Rule!!!" was produced to celebrate the series' 10th anniversary. The episode aired on January 19, 2009, and is included as a bonus feature on the 10th anniversary DVD box set.

CGI special (2014)

On January 28, 2013, it was announced that a new CGI special titled "Dance Pantsed" starring the girls would premiere late 2013. By the end of the year however, it was announced that the special would air on January 20, 2014. Craig McCracken did not participate in the production and has had no say regarding the special.

Home media

The following is a list of VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray releases for ''The Powerpuff Girls''. Season one was first released in 2007 on Region 1 (US) and Region 4 (Australia); no other seasons were released separately in the United States, though seasons 2 and 3 were released in Australia. To mark the 10th anniversary of the show in 2009, the complete series DVD box set containing all the seasons, the Christmas TV movie, and "The Powerpuff Girls Rule!!!" special was released in the US; in 2015, the complete series was released on DVD in Australia.

VHS

At least eight different VHS tapes were released before the format gradually switched to DVD & Blu-ray. Some of the releases mentioned below were subsequently re-released on DVD, the VHS format came to an end in 2003 for the series.

DVD

Complete collections

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Powerpuff Girls (1998) Lists of American children's animated television series episodes

episodes Episodes may refer to: * Episode, a part of a dramatic work * Episodes (TV series), ''Episodes'' (TV series), a British/American television sitcom which premiered in 2011 * Episodes (journal), ''Episodes'' (journal), a geological science journal ...

Lists of Cartoon Network television series episodes 1990s television-related lists 2000s television-related lists