#this song is so extremely aren coded

[mac33cheese]

Love the head canon that kuboyasu would call saiki "baby doll"

Saiki would get kinda flustered and act like it's cringy but secretly really love it, and aren would be aware that saiki actually likes it and so when saiki gets really overwhelmed and in need comforting aren hold his hand and cup his face and call him "baby doll" while comforting him

Anyways this song is extremely aren coded

[fly-pow-bye]

DuckTales 2017 - “The 87 Cent Solution!”

Story by: Francisco Angones, Madison Bateman, Colleen Evanson, Christian Magalhaes, Bob Snow

Written by: Bob Snow

Storyboard by: Stephanie Gonzala, Vaughn Tada, Brandon Warren

Directed by: Matthew Humphreys

The last part of the big catch-up!

The episode begins with Huey's concern for Scrooge McDuck's stuffed nose. It took him until now to realize that all of this adventuring must be taking a hard toll on Scrooge's, ahem, advanced age. Of course, Scrooge shoves him away.

Manny the Headless Horse shows up in what seems like another appearance just to prove that, hee hee, it's Scrooge's head on a horse, but there will be a point to this. It's quite clear Scrooge has more important things to attend to than putting away science waste, like taking a dive in the money bin!

After closing the vault, he dives in, swims a little, and realizes that something is horribly wrong. He looks to the left, he looks to the right, and makes a startling announcement to himself: he got robbed!

Anyone can see the joke in this: it doesn't look like he lost a significant amount. Unless this is the first episode of DuckTales 2017 you ever watched, and noticed how shallow the money bin is compared the original. Trust me, it's a different reason, and you should start with a different episode than this one.

After the theme song, we see Zan Owlson trying to give a lecture to Glomgold on how to run his business while doing _n_o _e_laborate _s_chemes _t_oday. She even has a acronym ready for it, and Glomgold desperately tries to find a loophole, only to suggest times that also start with the letter T. While the last episode continued the Louie Inc. plot, though there is a very, very slight nod to that later in the episode, this episode focuses on the bet made in The Ballad of Duke Baloney. I was waiting for that to continue.

Scrooge barges in, accusing Glomgold of doing this wrongdoing. It's a pretty good guess, considering that aforementioned bet, so I can't say he accuses him out of nothing. Glomgold starts gloating that he bested the richest duck in the world, though doesn't understand what exactly he did. Owlson tells Scrooge that he's acting the opposite of sane, as if it was any better than outright saying the antonym, and that doesn't make anything better. This will only be the beginning for Scrooge.

Leading absolutely nowhere, Scrooge decides he needs to amp up the security, only allow authorized employees at the bin, and find out who or what could possibly be behind this. He's going to need his top men!

Sudden cut to three children coming out of an elevator. It is a bit heartwarming to see that he sees his next of kin as "top men". Sure, it may be alluding to child labor, but try not to think too hard about that. Thankfully, he probably meant something different than what that cut suggested.

He walks into Gyro's security room, where Gyro shows off all of the new security features he has installed in the bin, complete with some test footage. This includes Donald Duck running into a force field of Gyro's creation, becoming a duck-blur while Gyro is standing by him. Besides the different victim, another big difference is that this Gyro is just taking notes, with no real shocked expression on his face like the original cartoon's Gyro.

Not the least bit comforted about this, and ignoring Huey's offers of chicken soup, Scrooge wants more. He wants Gizmoduck.

We get Gizmoduck in this episode, in a rare episode where we only see him as Gizmoduck and not his not-so-secret identity. Gizmo is able to give the location of all the villains, at least the ones that would be interested in stealing money. The most interesting suspect brought up is Magica De Spell, whose location is unknown. Her appearance has been teased since the first time they changed the opening to include her, and while it will remain a tease, it is interesting to see her nonetheless.

With all of the security set up, he still can't get over how anyone could just waltz in and steal his money. Speaking of waltzing in, Louie appears just as worried as Scrooge. Louie instantly loses all of his worry when Scrooge tells him the total value that he knew was stolen: the titular 87 cents. Louie and Dewey utterly scoff at this.

But, Scrooge tells them it's not about the money, it's about how the bin was compromised by someone undetectable! If he can't outwit his thieves, he wouldn't be "smarter than the smarties"! He spends a lot of time on this one saying. Smart and the opposite of sane aren't mutually exclusive, but his actions will cross that line eventually.

Huey tries to reason with him with a bit of realism: Scrooge couldn't have possibly known that those coins were stolen from him! They'd have to count every coin in the bin, and that would be crazy!

Much to the annoyance of everyone involved, this leads to the kids having to count every coin in the bin. Dewey even takes the time to insult Huey for this. Thankfully, the kids don't have to do the insurmountable task, because the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook ends up giving them a big distraction. He decides to look into what could make Scrooge so out there with this really minor theft...

...and the page was turned right to this rather large-print section of the symptoms of a fatal disease called Gold Fever. They look at Scrooge, who is walking back and forth in confusion, itching himself, and knowing fully well he's going to outlandish extremes, and Huey makes the one conclusion: he has it.

After realizing this, Huey puts on a surgical mask. This will be used to separate the "gold fever" believers from the skeptics. It's a neat visual trait that gets more apparent throughout the episode, though nothing in this page says it's contagious.

If he does have Gold Fever, it's only going to get worse from here, as Scrooge decides to record a special message for the news, offering a bounty of way more than 87 cents for the 87 cents. I get it, he loves his money so much, he will spend a lot of money to protect it. It's a good reason for Louie to put on his surgical mask. They happened to know when to carry those on them.

Webby's still of the opinion that this isn't too out of character for Scrooge. Yes, she does use that kind of wording!

He gets more and more coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs throughout the episode, even down to commanding Gizmoduck to shoot missiles at the invisible demon that was stealing. Yes, that ends up being his hypothesis. It's not too out of the ordinary for this series. Gizmoduck tries to open his copter, only to find that he can't open it.

This leads to him accidentally shooting missiles at Launchpad's plane, which almost lands on Dewey. It's supposed to be dramatic, but you just kind of feel sorry for everyone.

Thanks to all of this craziness, McDuck Enterprises's stocks start going to low levels, causing his investors to switch sides to certain other companies. Even Roxanne can't believe that Glomgold's company is getting the most of it. You'd think Waddle would have been the better choice; Mark Beaks at least has the courtesy of not being outright evil. Yet. I'm sure something like that would be his slogan if Disney can get it past Google's lawyers.

Scrooge doesn't even think about this news, as he's still staring at all the monitors. Suddenly, GizmoDuck shows up to tell him there's been a breach!

However, this turns out to be an intervention from his increasingly masked "top men." His actions are even harming his reputation, as shown with Dewey also putting on the mask. Apparently, Dewey only cared that his uncle's actions almost led to him getting hurt. Eh, I guess?

Sadly, that didn't work, as Scrooge has gone full invisible demon theorist, complete with the "strings around photos on a board" trope, and he plans to dive right into the gold to truly protect it from him. Even Webby, the honorary sibling that's the closest to him, decides to put on the surgical mask. She doesn't disagree with the demon hypothesis, but she knows that Scrooge needs his sleep. He ain't having it, as we see that he gets the strength of 10 Scrooges when he's kept from his money.

I usually don't want to outright spoil episodes. I spoiled the vast majority of the last episode, but left out the plot twist that may be important to the rest of the series. Unfortunately, because it would kind of weird if I just jump to my final opinion of this episode without talking about my major sticking points with it, I have to talk about two of the biggest twists, one happening right after the other.

Let's start with the first real doozy of the episode: thanks to those stock market investments, Glomgold became the richest duck in the world, with him winning the bet! He can't wait to gloat at his arch-enemy's face about this! A major breaking news shows up, and those plans have to change.

This episode goes for the ultimate amount of shock value and attempted tear jerker, as it turns out that Scrooge has succumbed to gold fever. I'll admit that, while I certainly never believed they would actually go through with this. They don't pull any punches, they say he's dead. They do have one joke, though: Donald runs crying saying that he died so young! Get it, because of his advanced age!

No villain decided to show up to see that their nemesis is truly dead. Right when Gizmoduck takes out his appropriate bagpipes, we see there is one minor exception, though.

Suddenly, Glomgold crashes the funeral, dancing to "All I Do Is Win" by DJ Khaled. No, not a generic rap song that happens to sound like that song, they actually licensed the real DJ Khaled song to play over this scene. The only recent cartoon I can think of that did that is that one episode of Rugrats that managed to get "Vacation" by the Go-Gos to play during the beginning of the episode. Oh, and the Super Mario Bros Super Show. Kind of easy to forget since they removed them from the DVDs.

This is probably the closest this reboot has ever gotten to the infamous literally-can't-even into butt-shaking scene from the other reboot...

...maybe a little too close to that scene! But, I actually don't agree with that for two reasons.

This action fits Glomgold perfectly. He would be the kind of person who would wear shades and a backward cap, invade a high-school, and say, "how you doing, fellow dude-meisters?"

His main goal is to win, win, win, so why not have a song about winning?

Regardless of anyone's opinion of this, nobody in-universe liked this crashing of the funeral...

...especially not Zan Owlson, who shows up to apologize for Glomgold's actions. Eventually, he's pacified with a lollipop. Zan Owlson also explains that this does not mean he won the bet he made in Duke Baloney, because that bet was Glomgold beating Scrooge, not a disease beating him. Glad that was cleared up.

They go back to being a heartfelt tribute to the fallen hero...at least that's what it seems to be when Huey comes up to the podium. Instead of talking about all the great adventures they had, or how he was a great uncle, he talks about how whoever did this must be a mastermind! If this wasn't some big scheme, this would be very inappropriate! "Yeah, he may have been murdered, but wow, that murder method was so impressive!" However, it was not a mastermind who defeated him, but gold fever.

Glomgold finally snaps, and decides to take the credit that was rightfully his! He's even going to explain exactly how he did it, because it would be convenient for the audience, because there is no way anyone would guess what exactly he did.

It just so happened that, along with all of the science junk Manny was carrying, there was a kind of stopwatch that managed to drop to the ground. Glomgold just happened to be in the same room as Scrooge at that point, and he decided to pick it up. Hey, he may not be able to get into the room, but he's got to steal something!

Fiddling around with that stopwatch, he hits a button, and everything becomes blue, not like him, inside and outside. He tries to talk to Owlson, but for some reason, she won't respond back. He yells at her, but still, no response, she just keeps that one expression that looks like she's still talking.

It's like that Twilight Zone episode with the stopwatch, except, thankfully for him, he never breaks it. The big joke is that he's a maroon and didn't get what was actually happening until a year later, the vast majority of that year trying to beat a time-stopped baby at a staring contest.

Finally realizing that watch's power, he caused everything that went wrong in this episode. I think this isn't supposed to be all at the same time, so I shouldn't complain about how he was able to predict, say, GizmoDuck using his head copter. I can also appreciate that he can play the part of Scrooge's money stealing demon. In fact, Glomgold is one of this episode's saving graces.

Unfortunately for Glomgold, a certain someone gets up, and it's not exactly who anyone watching this thinks it is.

Turns out, it was Manny that was playing the role of Dead Scrooge. Got to say, if nothing else, this was a pretty good episode for Manny getting involved beyond a cheap joke. If you actually thought that they were going to kill off one of the most iconic Disney characters...

...you get indirectly called an idiot by Scrooge, who is very much alive and was just in disguise at his own funeral.

But, how did he survive? We do get a few more flashbacks showing that, just before he jumped into the gold, he decided at the last second to get some rest, and, after regaining his sanity, he saw that page slip off of the book. Either everything Scrooge did before that was genuine, or he played an act that involved endangering his kin, spending a ton of money, lowering his stock value, and making himself look like he wasn't "smarter than the smarties" despite wanting to keep that title earlier in the episode. I don't buy the latter, and I don't buy the former. I just don't buy anything.

Outside of Glomgold and Zan Owlson, it appears that everyone in the room was in on it, judging by their expressions. It does makes sense for certain characters; while I don't think he wouldn't be crying, I'm sure Louie wouldn't be able to hide being joyous about any kind of inheritance. Especially after saying a line like "what happened to my, er, your money?" But one question that was on my mind constantly is how this affected the citizens of Duckberg. None of my screenshots show it, but Roxanne Featherly, the newsreporter that announced his death, was there as well. It's possible Scrooge paid for her to make a fake news segment.

Then again, we do see proof that being there doesn't mean they're in on it, as Donald comes back in the room and is shocked that his uncle is still alive! The only other explanation is that Donald Duck is stupid, which would not be very fitting.

Unless that stock price drop was fake too, how was that reversed? Now that Scrooge is now alive, does that mean Glomgold is the richest duck now, or did that not count? Honestly, I kind of stopped thinking at this point, so I might as well get to the end. The rivalry continues, and the episode ends with Mrs. Beakley saying that they could have just asked her to deal with Scrooge's behavior. Oh, and Scrooge gets his 87 cents back. I'm sure that would have kept people up at night if that wasn't resolved.

How does it stack up?

I just couldn't get into this one. It just wasn't funny, and the serious parts were just convoluted. We do get some good Glomgold parts, but that's about it.

The streak of Happy Deweys had to end eventually. People might disagree with me on this one, and that's fine. Maybe this catch-up week has given me DuckTales Fever, symptoms including bad opinions, but the better solution is to just skip this one and just watch that "A Sea Monster Ate My Ice Cream" scene from the original on a loop.

And that's it for the catch-up week. I'm going back to one DuckTales 2017 review a week next week, and it's a big one. See you on Wednesday!

← The Outlaw Scrooge McDuck! 🦆 The Golden Spear! →

[flickdirect]

Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment are bringing us the third movie in the Despicable Me franchise this holiday season. This is clearly not the last movie, as the fourth is scheduled to be released in 2024, which after watching number 3, is exciting. Despicable Me 3 built upon the franchise, introduced new characters and further developed the characters it had already introduced us to and that we have come to know and love. One thing that really shines with this franchise is that every movie adds new characters to keep the audience's attention but never too many that overwhelms the storyline. Every character has a purpose and their purpose assists in keeping a cohesive and easily followed plot.

In Despicable Me 3, Gru (Steve Carell; Despicable Me) loses his job with the Anti-Villain League and, in turn, loses perspective on his identity. Out of the blue, Gru finds out that not only does he have a brother he never knew about but that he is one half of a twin set! To complicate matters, Gru's brother, Dru (also voiced by Steve Carell) flies Gru's family to his estate on Freedonia, where it is clear that Dru is extremely wealthy and appears to be successful - two characteristics that Gru is presently struggling with in regards to his own identity. It turns out that Dru isn't as successful as he presents and desperately needs Gru's help. Love ultimately trumps everything and Gru finds himself again, with the help of his family, now one member bigger when he leaves Freedonia than when he started his self-reflection journey.

While the film centers around Dru and Gru, there is another storyline that is presented with amazing details that comes across just right and that is the story about the sisters and the stepmom. Kristin Wiig (The Martian) voices Lucy, wife of Gru and step-mother to Margo, Edith, and Agnes. Agnes (Nev Scharrel; Fun Size Horror: Volume One) only wants a unicorn as a pet, while Margo (Miranda Cosgrove; iCarly) ends up unknowingly engaged and all the girls are having a really hard time acknowledging Lucy as their mom. Luckily, Lucy is able to handle all the girls' situations by herself (as Gru is too busy playing the bad guy with Dru) and the relationship between girls and stepmom becomes one of daughters and mom.

The cast brings their all when providing voices, intonation, and emotion to their characters but Steve Carell is absolutely entertaining as the voices of both Gru and Dru. The difference in each character's tone is brilliant and, yet, Carell kept a similarity in each character so that the audience can recognize a biological bond, not just the physical resemblance. The reset of the cast compliment him well and the combination is enjoyable and aurally pleasant.

The video is presented in 4K Ultra HD 2160p, with an aspect ratio of 2.40:1. The details are much finer and clearer than on the HD disc. The High Dynamic Range (HDR) of colors is always enhanced on the 4K UHD Blu-rays, but on an animation, especially Despicable Me 3 with the yellows of the Minions, the contrast of the black and white of the Gru brother's outfits, and the crisp bright colors in the scenery, artwork, and landscape, the colors just pop out of the screen. You can see the shine in Lucy's strawberry-blonde hair that isn't quite present on the HD version. The blacks aren't as inky as they probably could be but they are certainly deeper and darker than on the HD version.

Audio is presented in Dolby DTS-X, which is amazing quality, especially in a movie in where sound effects are so important. Audio is crisp and clear. The sound effects, such as the car engine revving, water splashing, and luggage closing, are all heard clearly. Background noise is minimal to non-existent and there is no struggle to hear the dialogue. The pop songs scattered throughout the movie provide an energetic vibe for the movie.

Bonus features can be found on both the 4K UHD and the HD Blu-ray. You very rarely find a 4K UHD extra features, so Universal has provided such a treat with the mini-movie The Secret Life of Kyle. This mini-movie can also be found on the HD Blu-ray, along with Minions Moments (two micro-movies about the Minions); a deleted scene about Edith; and Character Profiles (cast sharing their feelings on the characters they voice); The Making of Despicable Me 3; Developing Dru; The ACL Files (interactive bonus feature- choose who you want to learn more about!); Freedonia Visitors Guide (another interactive bonus feature allowing you learn more about setting locations); Despicable Me TV; "Doowit" Sing Along; Music Video "Yellow Light"; Minion Mug Shots; and Wanted Posters (for the Minions). Very few studios include as many- and as meaningful- bonus features as Universal/Illumination presents on Despicable Me 3. In addition, this version also comes with a Digital Code so you can watch the movie on the go.

Despicable Me 3 is a highly entertaining movie for the entire family. Between the actual movie itself, both in script and picture/audio, as well as the amazing bonus features provided, there is no reason to miss the purchase of this home release. It is a welcome addition to every home.

Grade: A

About Jennifer Broderick A graduate of The George Washington University and Nova Southeastern Law School Jennifer Fischer Broderick’s fascination with the movie world started when she first saw Snow White on the big screen as a young child. When the producers of the movie Annie held auditions in NYC, Jennifer stood on line in the cold to try out for a part and actually made it past the first few try-outs. A vivacious reader, she is fascinated watching books and stories brought to life on the big screen. Jennifer has passed her love of movies onto her children and they are often found planning their weekends around opening premieres.

Read more reviews and content by Jennifer Broderick.

via FlickDirect Entertainment News and Film Reviews

[fly-pow-bye]

Powerpuff Girls 2016 - “Imagine That”

Written by: Jake Goldman

Written & Storyboarded by: Kyle Neswald, Benjamin P. Carow

Directed by: Nick Jennings, Bob Boyle

Power-Noia MIN ~Crappy Mix~

The episode starts with a candy train in a candy-themed world, conducted by Bubbles and her Scottish bagpipe-horse friend, Bagstripes, who acts as the train's horn. Definitely not in the City of Townsville, but in the City of Bubbles' own mind. Can you believe this is a mind of a coder? It's just so wacky!

In this world of nonsense, Bagstripes tells Bubbles that there’s trouble in Milkshake Junction. Queen Shmallow, a rather large marshmallow queen, shows up, constantly snorts, and does a raspberry just so we can have a fart joke. Is this supposed to be their parody of Princess Bubblegum?

The big trouble Bubbles has to fix? The milkshakes aren’t shaking! Get it, because milk “shakes”. I don't have a drum set handy to do the "ba dum tsh", but I can imagine it.

Bubbles: This looks like a job for...the train conductooor!

See, Bubbles’ imagination knows no bounds with such a creative title like “train conductor”. They might be going for “train of thought”, because this whole episode is about imagination, but I am going with a lack of creativity here. Bubbles knows how to get these milkshakes a-shaking. Thankfully, it’s not by showing them how. I got worried for a second, mostly because this whole scene reminds me of Painbow.

Instead, she turns her head into a boombox with the help of her magic hat! She gathers around all of the dust bunnies to do a Dust Bunny Disco. Yeah, her candy world is full of dust bunnies, too, because imagination. They already did a dust bunny joke in Memory Lane of Pain which was far more fitting; is this supposed to be a reference to that?

What do dust bunnies have to do with candy? How does a life of superheroics inspire a dream like this? Worst of all, why is not one of these guys voiced by Dana Snyder? I wouldn't blame him if he didn't want to be in this, but Master Shake would have distracted me from all of these questions!

She swings around one of the milkshakes, and all I’m doing is waiting for someone to start yelling “Bubbles” so this dream sequence can end.

That is indeed what happens, as this is all just a daydream by Bubbles, and she was actually swinging around Buttercup. She flings her right into a show and tell, where Blossom is showing off an ant farm filled with dangerous fire ants. Is it just me, or is this class nothing but show and tell? Buttercup gets flinged into the glass, and the fire ant farm falls on them, covering them with fire ants, sand, and, presumably, broken glass.

How do the rest of the students react to this? By laughing at them, of course. I must say, the Powerpuff Girls aren't making a lot of friends at this school; they call them babies, and they have no hesitation to laugh at them when they get covered with broken glass. The fire ants eventually catch up to the rest of the class, including Ms. Keane. She orders the girls to go to the Principal's office. Yes, even the two that were victims of Bubbles' imagination get in trouble, too. How dare they become victims!

On the plus side, we'll finally get to see Principal Jennings! Maybe we’ll even get to see Miss Boyle, too. Finally, some new characters that would give some world-building, or at least some school-building. That above image is the only proof that the school even has a name as of this episode; that's how desperate this poor school needs something like this.

That school-building will have to wait, but we do get to see that mysterious student from Secret Swapper of Doom again, commenting on how Bubbles has such an imagination. His big twist in that episode was that he was actually Him in disguise. This episode doesn't even try to hide it, as he instantly turns into Him after the Powerpuff Girls walk away. They didn't really hide it in Secret Swapper of Doom, either.

There is one other point to his appearance other than to explain how Him knows the problem of the episode, and that he's planning something evil. We finally get to learn Him's student form's name: Harvey. Like Harvey Comics? One of their characters was Hot Stuff the Little Devil.

At the Powerpuff house, Bubbles explains why she did something that would endanger Blossom, Bubbles, and all of those jerks in the classroom, and give them all detention. Yes, even Blossom and Buttercup get punished for their heinous crime of being thrown into glass! I do get that they had to find a reason for Blossom and Buttercup to get angry at Bubbles, such as undeserved detention, but I would say having to go to the school nurse to treat those wounds would be good enough. Yes, this reboot does make me believe these superheroes would be wounded.

But Bubbles can't help it, she has an overactive imagination! Buttercup tells her to shut it down while saying whatever this is:

Buttercup: Overactive! It couldn’t be more active if it was a Labrador on a bicycle chasing squirrels made of bacon!

This random word blender humor is very fitting for the kind of humor that is spread throughout this episode. If that’s not the humor one is looking for, they might as well turn the TV off now. Most people did when the theme song started.

Blossom tells Buttercup to go to bed, so they can be angry at Bubbles in the morning. While the Powerpuff Girls go to sleep, Him shows up, turns into mist, and invades their room. They must have been really afraid that viewers might not have gotten that Him is going to do something bad!

Bubbles wakes up, and finds that the bed has been transported to Milkshake Junction. Blossom and Buttercup wake up too, and wonder if they're dreaming. Buttercup tests this out by punching Blossom in the face. It's supposed to be funny, because you're supposed to be pinched, but Buttercup would rather be violent! Bubbles is super excited to be in her world of milkshakes. It's all about the power of her imagination!

Or imagjinashuln(tm), as she spells it. She can talk to animals, which has been shown to include at least one other human language in the original, but she can’t spell. The joke is that the blonde one is a maroon, don’t you know! It's weird to think she's into a profession where misspelling words leads to serious errors!

The opening sequence was enough of this random land of milkshakes and dust for anyone to stand, and it seems that even the episode itself agrees. Immediately after the imagjinashuln™ joke, Him pops out from one of the milkshake’s straws and steals Bubbles’ magical hat. Forgot to animate said magical hat? Don’t worry, it just magically appears right before it gets stolen! Nobody will notice.

Using the magical imagination hat, he turns Milkshake Junction into a hellscape. The dust bunnies, originally just a kind and out-of-place decoration, now have fangs and apparently have a taste for sugar, spice, and everything nice!

As an aside, thoughout this episode, I felt something off about Him. It's not his actions, as this is a very poor man's version of Power-Noia. It wasn't until I rewatched this episode that I realized that Him doesn't have his echoey voice filter throughout this entire episode. Sure, you can still tell it's Him's voice, but that filter gave it the otherworldly quality it had. That's how little they cared, and I probably shouldn't.

Speaking of voices that don't sound right, the lack of imagination turns Bubbles into a monochrome version of herself who can only speak in monotone. Sounds like a Raven impression; so good to know not even Tara Strong's other roles are safe from this reboot.

Buttercup flies in to stop Him, only to get bounced back by an evil Queen Shmallow. Buttercup says they should never speak of this, as if this was any more embarrassing than all the other Monster Punch Girls Down scenes. Then Blossom eye lasers Shmallow, which makes her fly away into another Spongebob Squarepants explosion gag. After Blossom makes a s'mores pun, which comes with, big surprise, a fist bump, they get surrounded by dust bunnies led by a now evil Bagstripes!

The Powerpuff Girls fly for their lives, as they are chased by the now evil dust bunnies. It would be an easy assumption to believe that dying in a Him dream would lead to their death in the waking world. Blossom finds a door to a supply closet that just happened to be there, which leads to them falling into a dark crater. They try to ask Bubbles to imagine something, but of course, she doesn’t have her imagination. It’s up to Blossom and Buttercup to realize this power of imagination.

Buttercup: What could be do, imagine a flying hamburger turtle to give us sagely advice?

As soon as Buttercup says that, a flying hamburger turtle appears! So good to know that not even Craig McCracken’s other cartoons are safe from this reboot. Blossom congratulates Buttercup on giving them a great idea, and we cut back to Buttercup eating that turtle. Because Buttercup is a rascal that will happily eat sentient creatures.

Speaking of which, Him is sitting on his throne, sucking one of the milkshakes dry. What do you know, Reboot Buttercup and the Devil are pretty similar! Really, I don't need to make any more commentary on this, as that scene speaks for itself. This sucking, of the milkshake kind and not the reboot's usual kind, gets interrupted by a flash of imagination light.

Blossom pops out of the ground as the Office Valkyrie, with a “pen is mightier than the sword” sword and some ruler wings! You'd think the math queen/mathlete should be the one handling rulers, but instead, Buttercup is the Laser Eagle. She's an eagle who has lasers. Doesn't she already have laser eyes? I think they used all of their creativity points on Blossom.

Him: Oh caaandy critters...get them.

Yeah, there's this weird hidden joke where they keep using the word "get" where the word "destroy" would have been less awkward. This is seen earlier in the episode, too.

Buttercup: Why is everything trying to get us?!

Maybe they were going to say "kill", were told not to use that word, and didn't want to reanimate the lip movements. Blossom and Buttercup easily take care of the dust bunnies, and they have to face off against two of Bubbles' imaginary friends. Evil Bagstripes does a dance, using his pipes as swords, and Blossom just throws her pen at him, causing him to deflate. Indiana Jones may or may not be pleased.

Bubbles: Good job, he was always my least favorite.

Then why did you imagine him? As for Buttercup, she faces off against Evil Queen Shmallow again. This match lasts an even shorter time, as Queen Shmallow just gets lasered in half, because apparently Laser Eagle's lasers are stronger than Blossom's, and Bubbles just goes "you sure got her". Again, I think they used all of their creativity points on Blossom.

While his candy critters went down without much of a fight, there's still Him himself. Using his imagination train conductor hat, he turns into a train! It's here that I realize that this is the first reboot Him episode that doesn't involve an evil item. That's good. In this episode, even Buttercup says this train form is cool looking; essentially a verbal form of the fistbump joke. That's bad.

They repeat the same “punch punch uh-oh“ scene they did with Silico with a more fitting villain, as Him files the Office Valkyrie "under "P" for pathetic", which is an okay joke. The Laser Eagle goes down pretty easily, too, as the Him train reflects the lasers back at her. The Puffs defenseless, Him gets ready to "get" them, but what happened to Bubbles?

It turns out, this whole thing was just a distraction, as monotone Bubbles steals the imagination cap, and explodes in a boom of creativity. Blossom and Buttercup wonder where Bubbles, and she comes out in the most creative way she can muster...

...by ripping off the Teletubbies! For an episode that’s supposed to be a tribute to being creative, they sure are making some un-imaginary friends out of themselves. Without the hat, Him no longer has control over Bubbles' world, and is just a simple little devil now. Like Hot Stuff!

Of course, being the sun isn't the only thing Bubbles is going to do. She's also going to imagine a creative way to defeat Him: more milkshakes! They're going to do it for Joey. Not Big Joey, not Joey the Camp Director, but Joey the Sucked Milkshake From A Minute Ago. We even get to see him on a hospital bed.

Joey The Sucked Milkshake From A Minute Ago Go...get...him...guys...

Yeah, more of that getting! I will give this episode some credit: it’s only implied that the ultimate evil the Powerpuff Girls have and will ever face could be taken down by a bunch of anthropomorphic milkshakes. He leaves before the milkshakes could even "get" him. They're disappointed that they couldn't avenge their fallen friend.

And we cut to Joey flatlining in vain. And that's how the dream ends: with a reminder of death and disappointment. Who said the reboot can't be dark? Not funny, but that's kind of a given at this point.

The Powerpuff Girls wake up, and wonder if it was all a dream, even though it was already shown that it was, indeed, a Him plot. At least Bubbles got to save the day this time, something the reboot has dedicated an entire episode to showing that she never does. However, it's in a surreal dream world she had absolute control over, so it's not much of an accomplishment.

We get the weekly apology scene, with them saying sorry that they doubted the beauty of a great imagination. Bubbles is sorry too, for letting her imagination get the best of her. Hopefully, she won’t try to throw her friends that can’t survive broken glass, if she even has any. Her only friends seems to either imaginary or Donny the Hell-Horn, and the latter is happy to dump her for someone cooler.

The episode ends with them playing, pretending they’re the personas they used in the dream world. Even on non-rainy days, the Powerpuff Girls seem to have time to pretend to be superheroes. Episode end.

Does the title fit?

It's about imagination, and imagination saved the day. Buttercup even directly quotes the title in this episode.

How does it stack up?

I tried to imagine the positives of this episode, but I think monochrome Bubbles has the right idea.

Bubbles: Okay. I'll try. (pause) I got nuttin'.

Joking aside, it's finally cool to see Him do something other than hand a weird mysterious item that turns out to be evil. The Powerpuff Girls do indeed get the villain to the point where he has to escape, something that this reboot does rarely. Is that even a positive?

This episode is about how you shouldn't be afraid to use your imagination, written by people who are afraid to use their imaginations. Considering Painbow, that may be a positive, but what does this episode have? The humor is just random, with no real wit to be found.

As it stands, I'd rather not imagine this episode. Not a terrible moral, but I wasn't a fan.

Next for PPG 2016, Jared freakin' Shapiro. Man, I really need to think of something else to prepare for that one. All I can say is that life is like a hurricane.

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