The Powerpuff Girls: Twas the Fight Before Christmas Review

Beyond good, beyond evil, beyond your wildest

imagination. It was the city of Townsville and

all through the town all the townsfolk are stirring

as snows falling down It's bitter and freezing

in the dead of December But there's reason for

joy if you can remember For it's this time of

year that our story unfolds when our hearts are

the warmest despite all the cold Yes, it is Christmas

just two days before and all through the town

none can wait anymore For the timely arrival

of one certain fat guy who brings us all goodies

from out of the sky Full of anticipation are

these urban folks none more so than the students

and old pokey oaks Hello and welcome to day five

of the 25 days to cast me on Christmas here on

the geek cast or didn't work I am of course TF2

and Mike As always, joining me once again is

Doug Abel from Talking About My Generation. Hello.

Hello, sir. Quit talking behind my back about

my generation. Anyway, today it's going to be

a little bit of a longer episode since it's a

little bit longer of a cartoon. We're going to

be talking about the Powerpuff Girls. Everybody

loves the Powerpuff Girls and the Rowdy Ruff

Boys. This is Twas the Fight Before Christmas.

This was a... movie special that was first released

on home video video vhs and dvd october 7th 2003

what's the vhs sir yeah i do know what vhs means

anymore somebody get me the beta max god yes

we're old you can tell we know what vhs is I...

I'm not even gonna go there. Alright, so... I've

talked with Tara Strong like two or three times

over the years that I've been podcasting. One

of the first times was specifically we were doing...

My friend Jenny C and I, we were gonna do a Powerpuff

Girls episode or we just did it or we were planning

on doing one. And this was the first time I interviewed

Tara, and we basically mostly talked. The way

I like to do my interviews, folks, is the first

time I ever have a celebrity on or voice actor,

whatever, get their whole story, everything that

I can possibly get out of them. And then when

they come back, you know, it's more of an update

kind of thing like, hey, how's it going? What

do you got going on? That kind of thing. So when

we first talked to her, most of it was all about

Powerpuff Girls. Some of it was about Batgirl

because she was Batgirl in the DC Anime Universe,

that kind of stuff. So we actually have, I actually

still have Bubbles promos from that old interview.

So I thought that was hilarious. The Powerpuff

Girls. Overall, I enjoyed this show. Not I didn't

watch it all that much back in the day, but I've

seen it. You know, when I would catch an episode

and be like, oh, hey, cool. Yeah, there were

some great episodes throughout the series. I

mean, I I was kind of like you. I didn't really

watch the show all that often, but there was,

you know, there was a Beatles episode they did

where they basically were. Riffing off of all

these old Beatles songs There was one where they

had a disco ball that turned out to be the death

star that they had to go and destroy You know

little things like that. I kind of went holy

crap to these kids nowadays You know do these

kids when the show was on? Understand what half

of this pop culture references are you know and

that was You know that was my thought and I'm

watching it and I kind of went okay the powerpuff

girls are pretty damn funny You know it's pretty

good This the Christmas episode was right in

that same vein. I loved it for what it was Yeah,

we've also actually talked with EG EG daily who

was buttercup So wow, I've talked to powerpuff

girls out of three gotta make it that trifecta

eventually, but anyway I think for me outside

of the the narrator of townsville I think for

me, my favorite character out of the series is

Mojo Jojo. I love Mojo. He's so hilarious. I

love it. So this features the villain. I almost

said Professor Princess, but that's not it. It's

Princess Morbucks. Because, yeah. Clearly a riff

on Annie and Daddy Warbucks. Yeah, oh yeah, very

much so. Basically the plot here is that the

Powerpuff Girls are awaiting Santa Claus' annual

trek. Princess Morbucks, as the Powerpuff Girls

are discussing their requests, comes upon them

and declares that since her father is rich and

can buy her any material goods, Her desire is

to be a powerpuff girl. That is what she wants.

And so the whole thing here is the whole episode

is her wanting to be a powerpuff girl. And she

basically becomes the naughtiest child in Townsville

or the world. You know, yes. Her making the naughty

list of being the only one on there. That was

pretty good that, you know, that was one of my

favorite things that and the reference to the.

200 round pump -action model air rifle the Red

Ryder BB gun you'll shoot your eye out Princess

even says that I just kind of went. Oh my god.

That's hilarious And again, these are cartoons

that most of the time they are for kids, but

You know these creators also work in stuff for

adults and things like that and it's it's very

fun when they do so As the plot moves along here,

you know, she ends up going to the North Pole

she ends up changing the nice and naughty list

she Basically makes herself the only nice person

and everyone else in the world naughty So everyone

including the powerpuff girls get coal and I

loved her reading that list Mitch Mitchson actually

made the nice list? Now you had mentioned that

the chase, because essentially after she does

that, Bubbles wakes up in the middle of the night

and sees that everybody in Townsville has coal

in their stocking including all three of the

Powerpuff Girls. And they then, you know, meet

up with Princess Morbox again. They then have

this extended chase from Townsville to the North

Pole. Now, you say this is a little bit too long.

Yeah, it was. I thought it could have been a

little shorter. I mean, it felt like it was about

10 minutes too long for what it was. Right. Well,

it probably was 10 minutes total, but they probably

could have shortened it in half. It was I'm watching

it. My first thought was. And I know you hate

Family Guy, but I'm gonna bring this up They

have an episode It was one of the very first

episodes they did for New Year's Eve And they

have Peter fighting a chicken and it just goes

on way too long This flight scene this flight

battle and going back and forth felt like Peter

fighting the chicken And it just I'm watching

them going. Oh my god. This is this needs to

Can we just stop with this? You know, I mean

There were other things in the in this episode

that were long but they were still funny and

they were good For example when when bubble starts

going off on her whole tangent about well I was

I was seeing this and I was you know I met this

guy who was like a dog and he was wearing a gorilla

suit and he woke me up Yeah, you know that was

hilarious because it was going on and she just

puts in these little non sequiturs in the middle

of her whole speech of explaining Why she was

checking out everybody's presence? Thought that

was great, but you know this the flight just

like oh god get there already damage Yeah, the

aerial battle did you know like what like you

said it was if they Cut it back from what it

was to about five minutes like this is a 44 minute

special folks, so I mean cutting the the There's

a way to balance time between events to events

so they meet up with princess again they then

have a battle that battle takes to the skies

From Townsville the North Pole. I don't know

what that kind of you know mileage is but still

I mean they fly at supersonic speed so you'd

think that they'd be able to get their lickety

split like not within ten minutes, but Some sort

of resemblance of time that would work for the

story that didn't make you feel like it was going

on too long I gotta say though all three of the

girls are all three of the voice actresses here

are great as uh, blossom bubbles and buttercup,

but really honestly, bubbles steals, Tara steals

the show when it comes to the whole Christmas

thing. Oh, God. She just does. You know, I, I,

I hate having to pick favorites, but yeah, for

this one, Tara was my favorite. Yeah. Yeah. Because

I think out of the three of them she has the

most lines I I'm not looking at anything to to

confirm that but she how she even has her own

song in this You know Yeah, yeah, no, so stop

and think about like made a song. Yeah, you're

right Well, I'm looking at the powerpuff girl

wiki to find that out. So yeah Yeah that and

then Santa I think was the other was the only

other person who had longer You know more amount

of lines than yeah, you know than the other girls,

but I Said it was hilarious too because you know

they showed up and you got princess Yelling and

screaming about how she wants everything and

she's gonna have her daddy build a parking lot

over this You know North Pole arts and crafts

shop Mm -hmm That that I kept you know I laughed

at that I'm like oh my god I've heard people

who threaten things like that before and they're

They're princesses Yeah Yeah, they're divas essentially.

Yeah What I find interesting about this one is

When it comes to some of the trivia for this

the special did air during the 2003 holiday season

However, while this was released on home video

two months before it aired on TV on December

12th This is the only episode To not be available

in any digital store including iTunes and Google

Play Which is kind of sad when you think about

it Yeah, that is kind of sad because this is

a really good one I mean, I can't imagine why

you'd want to hide it like that Yeah, put it

out there so people can see this one Yeah, exactly

Let's see the first episode special to have a

different ending theme which is interesting Let's

see apparently I don't know which came first

whether it was powerpuff girls or spongebob but

spongebob's episode it's a spongebob Christmas

is noted for having a similar plot she's so there's

there's well you know flattery you know invitation

is the best form of flattery yeah I guess but

no this one was super fun I really enjoyed watching

this As we said, the girls adventure here is

wonderfully done. Princess Morbucks as a villain

was really cool. The fact that they referenced

five other Powerpuff Girls episodes in this one's

special is interesting because they've mentioned

various adventures from previous episodes. All

things that Princess Morbucks did like... Well,

you bought the town and then legalized crime

Yeah, this you did that they're like naming off

all these things. They're like, what do you mean?

You're not naughty Yeah, that's very very true

And it kind of balances out most of the time,

you know I mean unless you know, you're inherent,

you know, you know, you're born inherently evil

the naughty nice thing. It kind of balances it

Itself out, you know, yeah, I mean, you know,

you're not gonna get Santa's not gonna put you

on the naughty list for jaywalking You know Santa's

not gonna put you on the naughty list for you

know I'm trying to think You know Lying to your

parents about your homework, you know or something

like that You might put you on a naughty list

for throwing the snowball at somebody who's got

you know a big target on their head No Mitch

Mitch Mitch Mitchell some almost Mitch Mitch

son almost got that Yeah, and you know, this

is Keenan's like Mitch remembering Watching he's

always watching watching. Yeah uh... i thought

this is really well done the animation is great

on in the voice acting is great the story as

we said is good and it's fun uh... the only thing

going completely the one of us has about it is

that the aerial flight fight scene is a little

too long that like we said we couldn't shorten

that you know at craig mccracken shorten that

up just a little bit you know and i think it

would have been okay for that But you know, I

would put this up there as something to watch

again. I mean this is For this episode. This

is the very first time I'd ever seen this one

And I would definitely come back and watch this

again every year, you know, this is this is kind

of one of those things it's it's up there with

my wife watching year without a Santa Claus and

You know for me a Christmas story and you know

all the Christmas stuff that we normally watch

Charlie Brown Christmas, for example, you know

Rudolph all those things we watch that this one

will be in there now I think mm -hmm absolutely

for me I can watch it every now and then every

couple of years I don't know if it's something

that I would put in my regular rotation but I

did very much enjoy it because it had been years

since I'd seen this so and as I said I did not

remember did not that it did not even know that

this was you know an hour -long special I thought

this was just another standard you know five

or seven or ten minute cartoon or whatever and

uh it's nice to know that that uh craig mcraken

and his team put together something like this

especially for a holiday season because if you

at the holiday times you know like this year

if you turn on abc or wherever it's supposed

to be now or probably Yeah, well you got you

know Charlie Brown Christmas with ads in it and

whatever else That's why I love you know a few

number of years ago when they finally released

all this stuff on DVD all the Charlie Brown stuff

all the The Rudolph stuff and everything else

I'm like yeah, I can just watch it without having

to worry about the commercialization So yeah,

there's that Alright folks, coming up, the next

two days we've got some interesting stuff. We're

going to be talking about Doug's Christmas story.

I have no idea. Sorry. I don't think you have

a pork chop, do you? You know, it would be nice

had we been able to name the dog Pork Chop, but

no, my wife said Tinkerbell. What yes, that's

the name of our dog Tinkerbell so Hopefully my

fiance Jen will be showing up. She has two of

her cats that are her and her mom have Tink and

tank Okay, I like Tank. Yeah, I could go with

that. Yeah. So that's gonna be day six, and then

Steve Megatron's gonna be back for day seven,

where for the first time ever in the history

of Tooncast Classic, Tooncast Beyond, or the

Geekcast Radio Network, I actually talk about

Wren and Stimpy. Yes, that's right. A scooter

for Yaxmas. Christ, please help me. Oh God. Ren

and Stimpy. You know, I can stomach Family Guy.

I just don't like the humor in Family Guy, but

Ren and Stimpy, I tried watching that a number

of years ago. I nearly vomited all over the carpet.

Oh my God, that show is just so horribly animated.

Anyway. I will say that early stuff was funny

and then it got really gross and got nasty and

yeah. Yeah. Gross nasty is not welcome so Thank

you for joining us here on 25 days to cast me

on Christmas We talked about powerpuff girls

twas the fight before Christmas you can visit

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your name 502 -526 -5821 We hope you enjoyed

this episode of to cast beyond 25 days of Christmas

and join us tomorrow We'll be talking about Doug's

Christmas story from Nickelodeon and for now

I am TF2 and Mike with Doug Abel from talking

about my generation Merry Christmas, you filthy

animal, and a Happy New Year. Alrighty. Now all

the nice kids of the world won't get stiffed.

They'll look on with pure joy at every wrapped

gift. So papers torn open and ribbon unfurls.

Cause Christmas was saved thanks to the Powerpuff

Girls!