#og Professor utonium was such a great dad in classic PPG!

[gch1995]

I just did a rewatch of the classic PPG cartoon, and Professor Utonium is such a Dad™️ to the girls. It alternates between being beautifully heartwarming and endearingly embarrassing with just how doting, loving, and protective of the girls Professor Utonium is.

There are just not enough genuinely good dads in cartoon sitcoms.

[gch1995]

@moonsiechild The Professor of the OG PPG cartoon was definitely handsome, and he generally was portrayed as being a pretty attentive and selfless dad to the girls in the og cartoon, though he had some OOC moments in some bad episodes here and there, In character, though he was flawed in the sense that he was prone to sometimes being a cute, but embarrassingly absentminded, cheesy, dorky, doting, and overprotective dad, too. His intentions were good, though.

Also, the writers of the OG classic PPG actually did do an entire episode where Professor Utonium made a supersuit to fight crime with the girls, so they could spend more time together. It was the eleventh episode of season three called “Powerprof.” The girls genuinely had fun fighting crime with their dad at first, but then they got annoyed with him when he started being an embarrassingly doting, old-fashioned, and overprotective parent. He kept talking to them with outdated lingo and slang from the seventies by saying things like “Word up,” and “groovy.” He called the girls his “pumpkins,” “honey bear, “and snookums.”

When Buttercup beat up a bad guy in front of him, he embarrassed her by dotingly calling her his “Butterball.” After Bubbles beat up a criminal in front of the Professor wearing the suit, he became that embarrassingly doting Dad™️, and says something along the lines of “Aww...Isn’t she cute when she’s being tough...You’d never guess she’d wet the bed last week,” which caused all the robbers to start laughing, and caused Bubbles to feel so mortified that she put a brown paper bag over her head. He made the girls wear elbow-pads, knee-pads, and helmets when they went to battle MoJo Jojo to avoid getting “boo-boos,” even though they had superpowers and had beaten up Mojo and other enemies far worse than him a hundred times before without any sort of protective headgear or body armor before.

It was actually a pretty cute episode because the Professor obviously meant well, in spite of being completely oblivious to just how embarrassing he really was being for the girls, and no matter bad you felt for the girls when he started embarrassing by being such a Dad™️ fighting crime with them. The only thing that made it somewhat less than as great as it could have been for me was the way the writers set up the ending.

I totally understand the girls feeling too afraid to hurt their dad’s feelings by telling him that they didn’t want him to fight crime with them anymore because he was embarrassing them, but they could have found a better way to convince him to give up fighting crime at their side than they did at the end. The way they got him to give up fighting crime with them at the end by having Mojo beat him up seemed a kind of uncharacteristically cruel of the girls, not to mention very stupid. It turned out in the Professor’s favor, he beat Mojo, and he saved the girls because the plot demanded it. However, when you really think about it, it so easily could not have turned out it in their favor, and the Professor could have been killed right in front of them, while they were helpless to do anything.

It easily could have gone wrong with Mojo turning on the girls by going too far in beating up, or even killing their dad, and they would have been forced to helplessly stand by in horror and watch it happen when locked up in those cages by him. The Professor had been kidnapped and nearly killed by Mojo to get vengeance before. Seems uncharacteristically careless, cruel, reckless, and stupid of the girls to just trust Mojo, and not think about that possibility in “PowerProf” to me.

It also often felt weird how the girls occasionally went to Mojo for help, believing he could be trusted, and he occasionally actually honored his word to them in those cases when the the plot demanded it. Of course, he played them in “Candy is Dandy,” and stole the candy from the Mayor to mess with them. Yet, he was also still their main antagonist on several other occasions. The team up between Mojo and the girls in the 2002 prequel movie made sense because they had just been born, and they had only just met him. In the 2002 prequel movie, he deceived and emotionally manipulated the girls to convince them that he was a misunderstood outcast, who wanted to “make the world a better place,” so he could trick them into helping him for his own evil purposes, and it made sense because the girls didn’t know who he was yet. The team up between the girls and Mojo in “Forced Kin” against an even worse threat actually made sense because it was a begrudging temporary truce made between them to band together against an even worse common enemy that was going to destroy them all.

However, in episodes and segments of classic PPG, such as “Candy is Dandy,” “PowerProf.,” and “Moral Decay” (at least with Blossom and Bubbles against Buttercup), they didn’t really need to team up with Mojo to get the resolutions they wanted at the end. It just felt like unnecessary twists thrown in to try to be clever or shocking, but they actually made the girls look uncharacteristically bad, devious, and stupid by doing it.

If we went with the same story at the end of “Powerprof,” it would have been better if that battle between the Professor and Mojo had just happened by chance, and then the Professor was convinced that it was too tiring to keep being a hero with the girls after winning. At the very least, it wouldn’t have created a pointless twist that made the girls look bad for no real reason at all, other than to create a twist for its own sake.

Also, wouldn’t the Professor feel more desperate to keep fighting crime with the girls to protect them after they got locked up by Mojo, rendered powerless to fight back, and he had to fight back Mojo by himself to save them? There was a bit of a logical flaw in this sort of writing for the resolution at the end.

I liked how protective, selfless, and sweet of a dad the Professor was portrayed as being in “Powerprof.” However, the execution could have been done better at the end of the episode with the Professor being convinced that it was too tiring to fight crime with the girls, then realizing that they didn’t need him in a battle when he got defeated in a battle that happened by chance against Mojo and/or another villain, and the girls had to save them. I get that they wanted for the Professor to go out as a hero for the girls in “Powerprof,” and that they wanted the girls to feel embarrassed by them when he became such an embarrassingly cheesy, doting, and overprotective Dad™️ But you can’t always have it both ways you want it in a story with good writing that makes sense.

If the girls feel too embarrassed by their dad to keep fighting crime with him, but feel too afraid to tell him, then that’s perfectly understandable within the context of the episode. However, it would have made much more sense, if the girls got called to fight a crime with their dad spontaneously, he got defeated by chance in battle, and the girls had to save him, which then convinced him to give up crime fighting because he realized it was too tiring and the girls could handle themselves. He would still look like a great dad within the context of the episode “Powerprof.” Sure, a misguidedly embarrassing and overprotective one at times, but still one who was admirably caring and selfless enough to make a supersuit, so he could try to spend more time with his crime fighting kids when they had to go save the day.

@rollingrabbit BTW, great artwork! I love all the detail!

professor

[gch1995]

I’m 25 going on 26 now, and I grew up loving the classic Powerpuff Girls cartoon series when I was a kid. Even now when I rewatch it as an adult, it’s still a cute and funny cartoon, especially now that I’m old enough to recognize all of the adult jokes. Like, there’s no way it was a coincidence that Professor Utonium’s despicably dishonest, greedy, lazy, manipulative, selfish, and sleazy former roommate from college was given the name Professor Dick Hardly by accident.

Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup actually are pretty relatable little girls who have believable flaws and insecurities. They make believable bad choices for little girls. Those issues actually get dealt with seriously, rather than just being brushed aside as no big deal with no negative consequences. They are still endearing and sympathetic in spite of their flaws.

While he had a few OOC moments of bad parenting in some bad episodes here and there, generally speaking, Professor Utonium from the classic Powerpuff Girls is actually one of the best dads in cartoons that I’ve ever seen, which is sadly pretty rare in most cartoon sitcoms, even the ones that are actually aimed at a children audience.

Most cartoon dads are abusive, lazy, neglectful, selfish, and stupid oafs. Granted, those type of dads in cartoon sitcoms can actually be entertaining and funny to watch when they are actually being well-written as shitty and slow-witted, but still essentially well-meaning people in regards to their families, such as S1-S8 Homer Simpson from The Simpsons and even S1-S3 Peter Griffin from Family Guy. However, the entertainment quality of those shitty, but well-meaning cartoon dads was mostly lost when the writers flanderdized their negative traits to the point of making Homer and especially Peter downright despicable with little to no redeeming or sympathetic qualities much of the time anymore. They went from being shitty, but essentially well-meaning parents and husbands to downright bratty and spoiled man-children who were much more intentionally abusive, childish, cruel, neglectful, petty, and selfish in regards to their families and others around them with little to no sympathetic or redeeming qualities much of the time anymore, and that’s one of the biggest reasons why The Simpsons went downhill in quality after S8, and why Family Guy went downhill in quality after S3.

Nonetheless, even as they were originally written on their shows pre-flanderdization when they were still well-meaning, but misguided parents and spouses, cartoon dads like Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin, weren’t good dads on the whole. There were still plenty of recurring plot lines and/or gags of them being abusive, lazy, neglectful, reckless, and selfish. Back in early seasons pre-flanderdization, it was more forgivable, though, because they also still had their fair share of kind and selfless moments with their families, and their shittiness as parents wasn’t intentionally abusive, malicious, premeditated, and selfish in nature, which balanced them out enough to still be entertaining and likable characters in spite of their flaws.

Realistically speaking, though, dads like Peter Griffin and Homer Simpson would be better off having their kids taken away from them by CPS. Their good qualities and lack of malicious intent, particularly in earlier seasons pre-flanderdization, would still not hold up as legitimate excuse as to why they should be allowed to keep their kids. Bart would have bruises all over his neck, fractures in his neck, and he could possibly be killed if Homer strangled him hard enough to actually break his neck and/or cut off his air supply long enough in real life just once. Meg, Chris, and even Stewie would not only be injured, but actually outright killed in real life from some of the abuse and neglect that Peter and Lois put them through in later seasons of FG. All of these kids, especially Meg, would have serious self-esteem issues for the rest of their lives because Peter, Lois’, and Homer’s abuse and neglect of their kids went beyond just a pattern of being physical in nature, but emotionally and verbally abusive as well.

So yeah, Peter Griffin and Homer Simpson are really not good fathers who you’d ever want to deal with for a parent in real life, even pre-flanderdization. The major reoccurrence of the abusive, bumbling, idiotic, lazy, drunken, neglectful, and selfish dad trope in cartoon sitcoms is exactly why I really love Professor Utonium from the classic PPG cartoon. I don’t necessarily mind it in absurdist cartoon sitcoms when it’s done well as a trope, but I’m also getting tired of mostly just seeing bad and stupid dads in cartoon sitcoms, and not enough good ones.

For the most part, the OG Professor Utonium is a great dad who goes above and beyond to make sure Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup are happy, healthy, disciplined, and safe. He’s usually the parent most of us wish we could have in real life, if we don’t already. It’s refreshing to actually see a good dad in an animated sitcom for once.

Professor Utonium in the classic PPG cartoon is generally a very kind, loving, selfless, and supportive dad to girls. However, he also knows when he has to discipline them and be strict without ever being mean about it. He gives them good advice. He’s very selfless, and even though the girls are superheroes with superhuman abilities, he’ll still risk and/or sacrifice anything to protect them when they’re unable to protect themselves with their powers, including his own life. He didn’t need to be the stereotypical cartoon sitcom abusive, bumbling, dumb, and neglectful dad in order to be funny either. He was funny because he could sometimes be overprotective of the girls, and he could sometimes embarrass them by calling them sickly sweet terms of endearment and telling embarrassing stories that he shouldn’t have about them in public. He was socially awkward. These are relatable flaws in parents that even the best ones have.

While the girls don’t have a mother, Ms. Bellum and Ms. Keane were very brave, kind, and intelligent strong women who were good role models.

Also, the Professor did many activities with the girls and chores around the house that get gender-coded as “mother’s work.” Some of these things include begrudgingly playing dress up as Bubbles to make her happy when she was playing PowerPuff Girls with Buttercup and Blossom on a rainy day inside of no crime when he saw that she was upset that no one wanted to be her, cooking, cleaning, and actually sitting down to talk with the girls, listen to them, emotionally support them, and give them advice. He’s also not afraid to be openly affectionate, doting, and emotional with the girls. There’s just not enough good dads in cartoon sitcoms, which is why I really like Professor Utonium from the OG PowerPuff Girls cartoon and movie. He mostly defied all the bad dad stereotypes, and was a really great one to the girls more often than not.

The main villains from the classic PowerPuff Girls cartoon are incredibly entertaining, especially MoJo JoJo. Him was always the creepiest to me because he was the most devious, insidious, and manipulative one. All of the psychological abuse and manipulation he put the girls and Townsville through was always the scariest to me when I was a kid because out of all the villains on the show, the torment that he wreaked upon the girls and Townsville by brainwashing them, gaslighting them, and/or exploiting their fears and insecurities often was played as dead serious with really scary results, especially in early seasons of classic PPG. While Him had a few human moments here and there, for the most part, he was pretty consistently played off as being seriously scary and dangerous.

MoJo JoJo was an egomaniacal asshole hellbent on destroying the PowerPuff Girls and world domination, and on a few occasions, he actually came close to succeeding. On a few occasions, he genuinely was more scary than camp evil. But he still had a lot of humorous, human, fallible, and relatable moments, too. My favorite MoJo moments are the ones where he is making jokes, irritably going grocery shopping to get eggs, getting too frustrated by the girls antics and childish behaviors and reactions to actually go through with his plans to destroy them at certain points, and getting angry and jealous enough to actually destroy the alien/robot invader from another planet who was destroying Townsville in all the evil ways that he always wanted to himself. He was highly intelligent at coming up with clever schemes and inventions with all his science and technology to take over the world, destroy Townsville, and/or destroy the PowerPuff Girls. However, his arrogance, impatience, and impulsivity always doomed him to fail to succeed in the end, though he did come pretty close on a few occasions, especially in the 2002 prequel origin story movie, and he did actually get to rule the world in “The PowerPuff Girls Rule the World!” Surprisingly, he actually was a kindhearted ruler who did good things, but then he gave it all up and went back to being evil because he got bored.

Originally, MoJo was a well-intentioned extremist who wanted to create a utopia ruled by primates where they would never be controlled or rejected by humans again. As much as Professor Utonium’s irritation with JoJo for being a destructive chimp lab assistant was completely justified, it’s also hard not to feel kind of sorry for Mojo Jojo and understand where he’s coming from in his motivations to become evil, particularly in the 2002 prequel movie because originally all he really wanted was to be loved by his owner, too. He understandably felt rejected when Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup became the center of his universe instead. Of course, that doesn’t excuse him for choosing to respond to the Professor’s rejection by becoming an arrogant, evil, cruel, hateful, hypocritical, domineering, manipulative, petty, selfish, and vengeful villain going on a quest for world domination, attempting to commit homicide several times, probably committing voluntary manslaughter of citizens several times that we didn’t see on screen when destroying Townsville all those times, turning the rest of the world into dogs to try to take over the world, and trying to destroy the girls. However, you understand why Mojo became the villain he did with his backstory. He’s relatable. Occasionally, he does have some genuinely sympathetic moments where he’s actually willing to be friendly with the girls, team up with them, and do the right thing.

HIM was just the personification of evil for no other reason than the fact that he was satan. While MoJo was a complex, human, and relatable anti-villain with his origin story as the Professor’s lab chimp, who gained genius-level human intellect from having Chemical X splashed on his brain, and then chose to become evil after feeling rejected by the Professor when he saw how he pretty much forget about him once the girls became the center of his universe instead, HIM was evil, manipulative, and hateful for no other reason than the fact that those traits were a part of his nature as the very embodiment of evil. Many times, a fictional villain being portrayed as one-dimensional with no sympathetic qualities or relatable motivations will annoy me, but with HIM being evil just because that’s who he is, it actually works because he is literally Satan. There doesn’t need to be a deeper sympathetic story behind why he is evil. Committing crimes, wreaking havoc, corrupting people, manipulating people, turning people against others, exploiting the fears of others, and deceiving others for his own amusement is just who he is, and in the early seasons of classic PPG in particular, that made him really scary to me when I was a six year old little girl watching the cartoon on TV.

You get the idea...The classic PowerPuff Girls was a fantastic cartoon, particularly the first four seasons. Granted, there was some series seasonal rot going on in the writing in S5 and S6 after the 2002 prequel movie, and Craig Mcracken and Gennedy Tartakovsky’s departure from the crew. Like, the characterizations of the characters and/or storylines in S5 and S6 felt comparably flanderdized, ooc, immature, inconsistent, pointless, shallow, and underwhelming at certain times to fit the plot, such as in the episodes “Keen on Keane,” “Pee Pee G’s,” “Seed No Evil,” “Reeking Havoc,” “Toast of the Town,” “Say Uncle,” “City of Clipsville,” “”Bubble Boy,” A Made Up Story,” “Mo’linguish,” and “Simian Says.” Even the good episodes of S5-S6 still didn’t ever reach the same level of greatness of the ones from S1-S4. However, the seasonal rot in the classic PPG cartoon of S5-S6 after Craig McCracken and Gennedy Tartakovsky’s departure still wasn’t nearly as bad as the seasonal rot on The Simpsons after S8, Family Guy after S3, and SpongeBob SquarePants post S3–S4 ish, so I’m still willing to consider most of S5-S6 of classic PPG legit canon.

However, it sounds like the 2016 PPG reboot fucked up everything that was originally good about it to go for a more slapstick comedic feel without substance without consistency, depth, and intelligence. Now, I hear that the CW is making a live-action TV show spin-off of the PowerPuff Girls being jaded and resentful young women who’ve given up crime fighting as result! No, no, no! Why? Why does the CW keep making dark, nitty, and gritty live action teen soap operas out of beloved childhood cartoons?

Yeah, the original PowerPuff Girls cartoon and movie had dark moments. The girls could be bratty and make bad choices sometimes. However, it was still very much a fun show about normal little girls born with superpowers, which they chose to use to defend their father, their city, and on some occasions, the whole world, from crime. No one ultimately forced them to be superheroes for everyone in the classic PPG cartoon and movie. They chose to do it because they had brave and selfless hearts. There was ultimately no obligation for them to be superheroes in the classic PPG cartoon and movie. Sure, they got tired of fighting crime at times, but they still ultimately enjoyed doing it when push came to shove. They weren’t weighed down by the darkness of the world, hatred, and resentment. They still were relatively normal little girls with happy, peaceful, and normal lives of little girls whenever they weren’t fighting crime after the events of the prequel movie about their origins. That’s what made the PowerPuff Girls classic cartoon so special.

By turning Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup into jaded young women, who have given up on being superheroes because they’ve grown resentful of “losing the normal childhood to crime fighting” that they basically are shown to have in the original series for the most part in their spare time aside from having superpowers that they chose to use to fight crime to defend their dad and Townsville from, anyway, where is the fun in that?

[gch1995]

I’m actually watching the 2016 PPG reboot. While in some ways it is actually nice to see the girls hanging out and interacting more like sisters in slice of life scenarios, it is irritating that they aren’t really doing a ton of saving the day.

Remember the occasional flaw in the writing for the OG cartoon of Buttercup getting subject to mean spirited centrics where she and/or her loved ones were subject to character derailment in order for her to be punished, suffer, and/or get double standards? Well, that’s not a problem in the 2016 reboot anymore? She does most of the saving, and gets a most of the attention in the reboot.

Unfortunately, they’ve created a new problem by focusing too much on Buttercup in the reboot, however. Now, Blossom and Bubbles don’t have much relevance.

While the OG PPG classic cartoon was a great show overall, I won’t deny that there were bad episodes and ooc moments here and there, but what have they done to the girls personalities here in the reboot on the whole, though?

Blossom has become a butt-monkey, a Yandere, and a neat freak. She still likes getting good grades, but she’s more bossy and naggy than the intelligent, mature, and resilient leader she was in original.

Bubbles has become “cute, but psycho” trope most of the time in the reboot, whereas in the OG cartoon, “Bubblevicious” was mostly just a one time thing when she went off the rails because she wanted to stop being seen as a “baby.”

Buttercup originally was the “toughest fighter” with a tomboyish personality and a bit of an instigator side, but like, she had restraint and common sense most of the time. Here in the reboot, she destroys an entire state fair and accidentally gives Bubbles a black eye because a villain called her “Princess.” Really? WTF? Also, she just seems to have become much more openly obnoxious and bratty. Like, why would she make fun of Ms. Keane for teaching a grammar lesson? Why would she steal Octi from Bubbles without provocation? She didn’t always respect authority in the original cartoon, and she did like to mess with Bubbles in the OG cartoon. However, she’d never been this petty and disrespectful in the og cartoon.

Don’t get me started on how wrong the writers got the Professor in the 2016 reboot...It’s probably the worst character assassination in the reboot, actually. While he had some OOC moments in the original cartoon of bad parenting in some bad episodes that didn’t make any sense, such as “Moral Decay,” “Daylight Savings,” and “Keen on Keane,” for the most part, Professor Utonium from the OG cartoon was a really great dad to the girls. He was attentive, brave, kind, caring, intelligent, reasonably strict, protective, and selfless more often than not in the og cartoon “Boogie Frights,” “PowerProf,” “Collect Her,” “Knock it Off,” “Beat Your Greens,” “Little Miss Interprets,” the 2002 prequel movie, “Film Flam,” “Get Back Jojo,” “Nano of the North,” “Helter Shelter,” “Supper Villain,” “Just Desserts,” “The PowerPuff Girls Best Rainy Day Adventure,” “Pet Feud,” “The Mane Event,” “Stray Bullet,” “Meet The Beat-Alls,” “Octi-Gone,” “Oops, I did it Again,” and “Members Only” showed just how much he loved those girls, and just how great of a dad he could be. Sometimes he could be an absent-minded, overprotective, and embarrassingly cheesy Dad™️ in episodes like “Uh Oh, Dynamo” and “Powerprof.” However, he really did love Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup more than anything, and would risk anything to protect them. He really loved to hang out with them, and he usually took a genuine interest in what they were doing.

In the 2016 reboot, however, the Professor is more often than not a completely idiotic, insensitive, neglectful, reckless, and selfish manchild. Whenever he has centrics, the girls actually parent him more than he actually parents them. He barely seems to care about them at all. He is such an idiot that he actively endangers them by locking them up all in a room together where they can’t escape when he thinks one of them is about to turn into a monster, rather than isolating them all in separate chambers, which is something that the OG Professor never would have ever done before with any of the girls, not even in his most OOC moments. In the original cartoon, Professor Utonium created the girls because he wanted to raise some kids, and make the world a better place. In the reboot, he actually created a PowerPuff Girl before Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup called Bliss, just because he wanted to win a science fair. Really?

While there were occasional hints that Buttercup was kind of the black sheep of the family in the OG cartoon, mostly thanks to the writers not knowing how to write centrics around a tomboy in a positive light, in my opinion, rather than the characters themselves, Professor Utonium never once told any of the girls he had any favorites between them. In the reboot, he lets it slip that Bliss was “his favorite daughter,” which instantly makes Buttercup feel hurt. Though he tries to reassure that he doesn’t actually have any favorites, the damage is already kind of done. In the reboot, when Blossom is concerned about not ever leveling up in her powers like her sisters, the Professor actually makes it worse by telling her that she might never level up in her powers, and might just become a normal little girl. In the OG cartoon, if the girls ever confided in the Professor, he was never this insensitive and stupid.

Also, why did they take out the backstory of Mojo’s connection to the girls in the reboot? Now, he’s just a boring one-note chimpanzee villain with a big brain, who talks in the third person, and who acts stupid more often than not. It also just makes the Professor look more incompetent than he originally was in the og cartoon.

However, I’m going to get through this whole thing, no matter how stupid and insulting to the original it gets.

[gch1995]

While the classic PPG show was a great cartoon overall, I’m not going to pretend like it was perfect. Even in the early seasons before Craig McCracken’s departure, there were occasionally episodes and segments where the writers sacrificed too much of what normally made Blossom, Bubbles, Buttercup, Professor Utonium, Ms. Keane, the Mayor, and the citizens of Townsville admirable, heroic, intelligent, interesting, likable, and relatable characters otherwise to fit cheaply shocking, contrived, hypocritical, exceedingly cruel, and/or idiotic storylines and twists in the plots of certain episodes, such as “Keen on Keane,” “Cover Up,” “Daylight Savings,” “Reeking Havoc,” “Bubblevicious,” “Bubblevision,” “Sun Scream,” and worst of all, in my opinion, was “Moral Decay.”

“Moral Decay” is the worst offender to me because Craig McCracken and Lauren Faust made everyone in the Utonium family very uncharacteristically mean-spirited, indifferent, and/or unlikable in order to turn Buttercup into the villain and punching bag of the segment with an incredibly hypocritical and exceedingly cruel punishment that her own sisters set up, and then got away with. Luckily, it’s one of those segments that never got mentioned or referenced in the OG series ever again because I don’t know how Buttercup would be able to believably reconcile with her sisters after they sadistically sold her out to get beat up like that, then watched it happen, or how Blossom and Bubbles would ever forgive Buttercup for attempting to knock out their teeth by abusing Bubbles/plotting to knock out Blossom’s without much remorse either, only stopping because the Professor said she couldn’t. Not to mention the fact that the Professor, who was normally a very kind, caring, protective, reasonable, and selfless dad on the og show, sometimes to the point of overdoing it, didn’t seem to care what happened to Buttercup at the end of “Moral Decay” either because he never found out what Blossom and Bubbles did to set Buttercup up in a trap to get beat up, or because he found out, but doesn’t care because he thinks Buttercup deserved it for being a greedy little monster.

However, the og cartoon acted as though “Moral Decay” never happened after that, so most of us in the fandom try to do the same, too, because most of us realize that what the writers did by derailing the entire Utonium family to put Buttercup in a negative light was wildly ooc, mean-spirited, and unforgivably bad cheaply shocking plot-driven writing that made no fucking sense!

But, for the most part, in-character, the Professor Utonium from the og PPG cartoon was a really great dad to Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup. He was actually one of the few cartoon sitcom dads out there, who was, generally speaking, a really great dad, normally portrayed in a positive light. Normally, he was attentive, caring, compassionate, doting, protective, reasonable, and selfless parent to the girls, sometimes to the point of overdoing it, such as in episodes like “Powerprof” and “Uh Oh, Dynamo,” but he meant well, so it was cute.

The 2016 reboot did the Professor dirty by taking his occasionally absent-minded, bumbling, innocently insensitive, and oblivious dad moments from the OG cartoon, and flanderdized him into a majorly idiotic, immature, insensitive, neglectful, reckless, and selfish man-child, who often endangers both himself, his children, and the world around him with said ridiculous levels of immaturity, neglectfulness, recklessness, selfishness, and stupidity. Even pre-flanderdized Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin could be considered better fathers than the reboot version of the Professor from what I’ve seen and read, and even at their best, those dads weren’t objectively that great of parents either.

Most of the Professor’s compassion, intelligence, and wisdom as a parent and as a scientist in the reboot has been watered so down that it’s genuinely shocking that he somehow became a scientist at at all, let alone made it through life on his own at all. In the reboot, he actually created a little girl to try before Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, not to make the world a better place like in the OG cartoon/2002 movie, but because he wanted to win a science contest. Really? Then, when telling the girls about Bliss’s origin story/creation, he actually lets it slip that Bliss was his favorite little girl, which is something that the OG Professor would never have said to Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup in the OG cartoon. Yeah, occasionally when she got centrics, there were some hints that Buttercup was the black sheep of her sisters, though I really blame that on the writers not knowing how to portray a tomboyish five year old girl with the dub of the “toughest fighter” in a positive light, but it was generally pretty clear that the Professor loved Buttercup just as much as her sisters otherwise. Even at his most wildly ooc in the og cartoon, though, he would never outright tell Blossom, Bubbles, or Buttercup that he favored one of them over their other sisters. He wasn’t that sort of dad.

But yeah, narcissistic was generally not who the Professor’s character was in the original cartoon. And honestly, I really don’t want to see it made more “realistic” by making it so the girls have grown up to resent their father. They generally had really positive relationships with each other in the OG cartoon, so do they really have to ruin that?

I just want to talk about the new Powerpuff Girls live action for a second.

When the series was announced, I was skeptical. It was on the CW, which is obviously not known for quality writing. I didn't want to see it, they were going to butcher my favorite TV show as a kid, I was distraught. But as more information about the series has come out, I'm slightly less skeptical than before.

Diablo Cody is one of the main writers, and she's a pretty darn good writer too. I loved Juno and I've heard so many great things about Jennifer's Body, so she knows how to write women characters.

The casting raised some red flags for me. I thought Dove Cameron as Bubbles made sense, I had seen her in a few fancasts before and I agreed with it back then. But having Chloe Bennet (a half Asian woman) as the smart one + Yana Perrault (who has darker skin then the prior two) as the angry one just rubbed me the wrong way.

But, after reading the synopsis of the show and what they're doing with each character, I'm thinking of giving it the benefit of the doubt. Yes, the casting gives weird vibes because of racial stereotypes, but those traits aren't the focus of their story is about in the live action.

Buttercup's story focuses on her trying to open up and show/explore her sensitive side, and even if Blossom is highly accomplished, she deals with intense anxiety, and she's trying to reclaim her self confidence and leadership role in her terms, which is great because we don't tend to see a lot of Asian women in leadership roles.

Don't get me wrong, they could still fuck this up more than we could ever imagine, but I think maybe this could slightly turn out better than I initially thought.

However if they try to make Professor Utonium anything else but an exemplary, loving dad I'm dropkicking all of the writers and rereading SBJ's More Than Human.

[gch1995]

Of course, the writers of the CW reboot did Professor Utonium’s character dirty by turning him into an all-around shitty father and person. It wasn’t like they hadn’t done enough damage to his character as it already was in the 2016 reboot...At least that Professor Utonium was too much of an oblivious dumbass to realize he was a shitty parent to his three kids...The one in the CW live action seems smart enough to be fully self-aware of the abuse he’s put his kids through by deliberately creating them with superpowers, being controlling of their image, calling the press on them, treating them like products, and forcing them to be superheroes. It’s also implied at the ending of the pilot that he may be at least partially responsible for the crime and monsters coming back to Townsville in his desperation to make the girls be heroes again, so that he can be famous and relevant again.

Meanwhile, the OG Professor Utonium would probably beat up both of these shitty parent incarnations of his character for severely abusing, endangering, exploiting, and neglecting their kids emotional, mental, and physical well-being like this. Yeah, he had a few OOC idiot ball and/or neglectful parent moments in the classic cartoon, too in order to fit certain plots that didn’t make much sense, such as “Daylight Savings,” “Moral Decay,” “Town ‘n’ Out,” “Keen on Keane,” and “Coupe’detat,” but at the very least, those moments were pretty far and few between, and he would generally realize when he messed up as a parent, feel guilty, and make things right, so it usually felt redeemable. The worst was “Moral Decay,” in my opinion, but that episode was such an atrociously hateful and nonsensical wildly OOC clusterfuck of bad writing for the entire Utonium family to force Buttercup into the role of the villain and get her punished in ways that didn’t make any sense. Since it’s never mentioned or referenced in the classic series ever again, anyway, almost everyone in the fandom pretends it never happened, too.

However, even at his most OOC in the classic cartoon, Professor Utonium was still a far better dad to his kids than either of the versions of his character in the 2016 reboot. He never outright endangered their lives, forced them to be superheroes, or exploited them for money in the classic cartoon, whereas the 2016 reboot one and CW one have done both of those things.

More often than not, the Professor Utonium from the classic PPG cartoon was a good person and a great dad to his three little girls, who raised them and treated them well. No one wanted for Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup to be happy, healthy, and good little girls with the opportunities for normal childhoods more than Professor Utonium in the classic cartoon. No one loved Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup for the brave, bubbly, cute, kindhearted, feisty, funny, fun-loving, intelligent, mischievous, resilient, selfless, and tough little girls, rather than just Townsville’s saviors, more than their creator/father Professor Utonium in the the classic cartoon. No one saw Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup as people worthy of consideration, love, and respect in the classic cartoon, more than Professor Utonium.

In the classic cartoon, Professor Utonium usually gave the girls strong emotional support, good advice, and/or taught them valuable lessons when they needed it most of the time in “Boogie Frights,” “The Mane Event,” “Ploys R’ Us,” “Beat Your Greens,” “Bubblevision,” “Meet The Beat Alls,” “Members Only,” “Not So Awesome Blossom,” and “Helter Shelter.” He built a super suit to hang out with them when they kept getting busy saving the day because he wanted to spend more time with them, and because he wanted for them to be able to have their dad to protect them in “PowerProf.”

In the classic PPG cartoon, Professor Utonium held a birthday party for the girls in “Birthday Bash.” He let them have a slumber party with their friends in “Slumbering With The Enemy.” He did everything to save them when he saw they were being hurt or in danger, even if it meant risking his life or sacrificing himself to keep them safe at times in episodes like “Uh Oh, Dynamo,” “Collect Her,” “Film Flam,” “PowerProf,” and “Knock It Off.”

In the classic cartoon, Professor Utonium pretended to like Citysville because he misguidedly believed the girls would be happier living a more normal life outside of Townsville in “Town ‘n’ Out” without being superheroes all the time, even though he hated it. He stressed out when their cake designs were less than perfect for a surprise party he was planning for them in “Little Miss Interprets.” He let them take time off when they were stressed or wanted to play with their friends when the Mayor called for trivial things in episodes like “Super Friends.” He took the girls on family trips and outings together from Townsville whenever they were free, and he wanted for them to relax at times, rather than constantly thinking about crime fighting in episodes like “Uh Oh, Dynamo,” “PowerProf,” and “Roughening It Up.”

Even in awful episodes like “Sun Scream,” he was looking out for their well-being on a trip to the beach by telling them not to forget to wear sun screen, and then freaked out when he saw that they were hurt and unable to move after getting sunburned. He doted on the three of them, and saw them as his “little angels” and his “babies” in episodes like “Uh Oh, Dynamo,” “PowerProf.,” “Ploys R’ Us,” “Little Miss Interprets,” “Members Only,” “Twisted Sister,” and the 2002 prequel movie, even though they were far from the “perfect little girls.” He built a giant fighting robot because he wanted to keep them safe in “Uh Oh, Dynamo.” He bought them gifts and toys in the 2002 prequel movie, “Ploys R Us,” “Birthday Bash,” and “Little Miss Interprets.” He built them the perfect pet that only needed to be fed once, but also thought to build in a failsafe to keep them safe in case they overfed Beebo in “Pet Feud.” He generally was pretty reasonably strict when he disciplined them in episodes like “Helter Shelter,” “Pet Feud,” “Twisted Sister,” and “Beat Your Greens.” He wanted for the girls to get a good education, and to do well in school.

In the classic cartoon, there was no one who wanted for Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup to grow up to be good, happy, and healthy, little girls with normal childhoods as much as possible, while also letting them be superheroes on the side, more than Professor Utonium.

The classic PPG episode, “Film Flam” is actually a pretty good example of how much Professor Utonium was the antithesis of a narcissistic and shallow stage parent. He was actually pretty uneasy about signing a contract for his little girls to be in a movie contract, given to him by the “director” Bernie Bernstein. He went along with it at first by signing the contract because he saw how much Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup wanted to do it, and he wanted for them to be happy because they were his kids and he loved them. However, as soon as he saw Bernie Bernstein yelling at Bubbles and grabbing her jaw harshly for pointing out the truth, Professor Utonium got pissed off, and went down to the set to save his three kids. Then, when he found out that Bernie Bernstein was a fraud, trying to scam everyone to rob the bank by making a fake movie about the PPGs, Professor Utonium warned his little girls about what was going on by disguising himself to get on the set, and punched Bernie Bernstein in the face for fucking with his kids to steal money.

Yeah, Professor Utonium could be overprotective of them at times, particularly within the first three seasons of the classic cartoon. However, he meant well, and he learned to ease up on them over time. Professor Utonium was the only adult in the city, who pretty consistently saw Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup as his daughters, and who believed deserved the chance to be normal little girls every now and then in addition to being superheroes.

He took care of them, protected them, and worried about their safety because he loved Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup as his daughters in the classic cartoon. It was not because they made him famous by using their superpowers to save him and the city.

This version of Professor Utonium in the CW seems to see Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup as products to market, to show off to the media, and to make money off of by calling up the press to shine the spotlight on them, and pressuring them to use their superpowers to save the day in Townsville again to make him famous, rather than genuinely wanting to do good in the world, loving the girls as his children, or seeing them as people at all, which is like Professor Dick Hardly, who he hated for wanting to make artificial superhuman children to mass market to people for crime fighting in the classic episode “Knock It Off.”

I don’t have a huge problem with the girls calling Professor Utonium dad, though it seems unearned in this live action reboot since this Professor Utonium is an all around terrible father, who doesn’t even deserve that title here. Either way, one thing about the OG cartoon that made it even more meaningful and sweet was that it was generally a pretty rare occurrence that came up in little moments here and there to remind the audience just how much the girls loved him. Bubbles called Professor Utonium “dad” the first time after he bought her her first gift after she and her sisters were born to thank him. Buttercup called him “Daddy-o” once in the movie when he came to talk to them for the first time as a parent in the movie about being careful not to use their superpowers in public. They all referred to him as “dad” when Major Glory asked them about who did everything around the house in “Members Only.” Bubbles called Professor Utonium “dad” when she, Blossom, and Buttercup were all convinced that he wanted to get rid of them in “Little Miss Interprets,” and wanted to change his mind.

My current mood.

[gch1995]

OG PPG that ran from 98’-2005. It’s the one I grew up with, it’s the only one I ever watched, and it’s the only one I mostly consider canon (there were a few duds here and there, even in classic PPG, great of a show as it was overall, especially after S4 and the 2002 movie).

I haven’t watched a full episode of the PPG16 reboot before, but from all of the clips and reviews I’ve seen of it on YouTube, I’m getting that the writers completely ruined Blossom, Bubbles, Buttercup, and especially Professor Utonium. Like, he wasn’t perfect in the OG cartoon either, no parent is in real life either, but, for the most part, Professor Utonium was actually a really great dad to the girls and he was actually intelligent, which is so rare in animated sitcoms. Not that I always mind the dysfunctional and bumbling cartoon sitcom dad when it’s done right. In spite of their obvious flaws, S1-S8 Homer Simpson from The Simpsons and S1-S3 Peter Griffin from Family Guy were actually still mostly sympathetic and entertaining bumbling and dysfunctional, but still well-meaning, dads. Then, the well-meaning part of their personality mostly got erased by flanderdization, and they mostly just became downright despicable.

However, for the most part, the OG Professor Utonium was great because he usually avoided all of those bad, bumbling, and selfish dad tropes. He was usually very caring, selfless, and supportive. He could be prone to being overprotective of the girls at times when he got afraid of losing them, and he could be that embarrassingly cheesy, doting, old-fashioned, and sentimental Dad™️ with the girls in public when he tried to fight crime with them, so that they could have more time to hang out together in “Powerprof.”

In the reboot, he’s just another dumb dad, who the girls parent more often than he actually parents them.

Like for PPG16, reblog for PPG98