Genre: Comedy/Family/Superhero
Director: Paul King
Writer: Chad Taylor
Based on the Cartoon Network series
Cast: Emma Stone, Amanda Seyfried, Ellen Page, Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux, Millie Bobby Brown, Mckenna Grace, Ella Anderson, Zach Galifianakis
Plot: In 2030, Townsville University chemistry professor Eric Utonium (Ben Stiller) is hard at work in his laboratory. On his chalkboard reads “Perfect Little Girl” as he collects the chemicals he has listed on his board and puts them into the mixer. After constantly tweaking with his formula, he thinks he has found the right combination. He adds sugar and spices to a container that reads “Everything Nice” and sprinkles the mixture into lab for good luck. Just as he is about to initiate the sequence, he accidentally knocks a vile of Chemical X into his work and he panics.
After a minor explosion in his lab, three young girls emerge from a glowing light: Blossom (Ella Anderson), Bubbles (McKenna Grace), and Buttercup (Millie Bobbie Brown). They already speak perfect English and walk perfectly fine. It soon becomes obvious that the girls have superpowers – including super-strength and the ability to fly. Utonium’s first instinct is to keep the girls secret but decides to enroll them into school upon their insistence. They each develop a distinct personality – Blossom is bold and talkative, Bubbles is fun-loving but also more emotionally vulnerable, while Buttercup is both the toughest and most introverted of the three. She is fascinated by Utonium's work and likes to help him with his experiments.
There is an incident at school where Bubbles is being bullied and Buttercup comes to her rescue. She pushes the bully away, but ends up sending her thirty feet across the hall. Blossom rushes to help the bully, to cover up their powers but the bully rejects the offer. When she tries to push Blossom away, Blossom doesn’t move an inch and the bully’s wrist is consequently sprained from the failed push. The principal immediately calls Utonium, who rushes to get there. Although he expects them to be in trouble, he is met by a surprise guest in the principal’s office – The Mayor of Townsville (Zach Galifianakis), a short plump old man who looks like the Monopoly Man.
While Utonium expects The Mayor to punish him for the ethics of his experiment, The Mayor is neck-deep in dealing with various criminals in the city and says he could use someone with the girls’ powers to help defeat them. Utonium is initially reluctant but the girls are actually excited and want to put their powers to good use. Utonium gives in and The Mayor has a hotline established from his office to Utonium’s house. Their first task is to take down HIM (Justin Theroux) – a gender-fluid demon who wears a ballerina’s outfit and speaks in a fake French accent. He uses his mind-control abilities to cause chaos in Townsville for his own enjoyment.
HIM uses his powers to control the minds of every pizza restaurant owner in Townsville and convince them to close down their restaurant. When the citizens of Townsville nearly riot and flood the Mayor’s office with phone calls, HIM simply says he thinks the towns people should eat healthy, which only angers them more as he gives off a mischievous laugh. As their grand introduction to the general public, the girls defeat HIM and send him back to the underworld. He vows to return to Townsville. The townspeople rejoice and celebrate the Powerpuff Girls as heroes.
The film shows a montage of the girls facing and defeating multiple foes over the course of time.
In 2030, 5 years into their careers as pre-pubescent crime fighters, the girls start to grow fatigued from their lifestyle and are frustrated with the realization that they will never grow up. They have now reached a point where every villain in Townsville is in jail and they dream of growing up to be teenagers and eventually adults. After successfully putting away all of their nemeses, Bubbles is the first to dissent, and Buttercup not long after. Once Blossom gets on board, they lodge their complaint to Utonium. He is heartbroken but tells the girls he may know the solution to allowing them to grow up: he must extract the Chemical X from their DNA.
Through a flashback with Utonium’s narration, we learn the true origin of the girls. We come to the understanding that Utonium previously had a wife and 4 foster kids (including three girls who look just like the Powerpuff Girls). His wife and son are killed in a car accident and Utonium breaks down emotionally. Instead of telling his other three daughters about the accident, he decides to turn to science instead. He tests his special Chemical X on his pet monkey Jojo. Jojo's head starts to grow in size, he becomes more agile and learns things at an accelerated rate. When Utonium wakes up the next day, Jojo has broken out of the lab and is nowhere to be found. Utonium is convinced that the chemical can make his girls invincible and hopefully immortal thus preventing him from ever having to deal with losing a loved one again. He intentionally injects them with Chemical X and upon them waking up, discovers they do not retain any memory of their life before the operation.
Back in 2030, when he tells the girls this, they become angry at him for lying to them for the last 5 years and demand he take the Chemical X out of them so they can live their own lives. He is defeated and feels extremely guilty about lying to them. He agrees to their request and they become normal girls after the operation. There is a montage of them growing up and going through high school, college, first jobs, etc. This is simultaneous with Utonium informing the Mayor of their decision, the Mayor unplugging the hotline, and Utonium re-decorating their rooms once they move out. There also glimpses of most of their foes.
2055, the girls are now all grown up. Blossom - now Hannah - (Emma Stone) is a journalist in New York City. Bubbles - Katie (Amanda Seyfried) - is a famous actress in Hollywood. Buttercup (Ellen Page) is the only one still in Townsville, following in the footsteps of Utonium as a scientist. Since she stayed behind, she is the only one who is in regular contact with Utonium as he mentored her through her schooling to her career. She also still goes by her Powerpuff Girl nickname, wearing it like a badge of honor. The other two still feel wronged by his past actions and have excluded Utonium (who is now in his late 50s) from their life.
Hannah and Buttercup are visiting Katie in L.A. They are at lunch reminiscing about their crime-fighing days when they all receive a call from Utonium. Hannah and Katie suggest they ignore the call and ask Buttercup how he is doing. When he calls again, Buttercup says they oughtta pick and when she does, it is the Mayor (now in his 70s but still in office) who is in a panic. He says that Utonium is suicidal and is threatening to jump from his office’s window at the university. They all three spring into action and book high-speed flights back to Townsville.
When they get to the school, they find Utonium to be perfectly fine in his office. He admits that he is surprised to see them all visit him but he is so happy. Hannah and Katie feel irritated and think that Buttercup must’ve got in contact with the Mayor and made a plan to re-unite them with Utonium. She denies this, and says the Mayor must have been… Before she can finish her sentence, they all come to the realization that HIM must have controlled the Mayor’s mind. As they rush to the Mayor’s office, HIM actually emerges beside Professor Utonium and takes him hostage.
At the Mayor’s office, the Mayor is traumatized from having his mind controlled but says that he has regained his own thought. The girls are hesitant to believe him they get another call from Utonium, this time with HIM is on the line. He tells the girls to look out the window and when they do, they see that the Townsville’s prisoners have been released (presumably because he took control of the guards’ minds) and are wreaking havoc around the city. The girls hear Utonium yell in the background of the call and realize he has really taken him hostage this time. He tells them to meet him at the Professor’s lab.
HIM, ever the cocky villain, says he wanted to reunite the girls back in their hometown so they could see firsthand the re-introduction of chaos and feel helpless all the same. He makes them watch as he executes his master plan: forcing the professor to destroy his existing Chemical X and its formula. When the professor starts to talk, HIM threatens to cut off his tongue in fear that he is going to shout out the formula. He destroys the container and burns the formula as the girls watch on. He looks up at Buttercup and winks twice at her as he does it. HIM tells them he is going to keep the Professor for safe keeping while chaos reigns supreme over Townsville.
The girls debate what they can do to save the Professor and the people of Townsville without their powers. Buttercup reveals that when the Professor was teaching her chemistry, he hinted at a secret formula and winked twice when discussing it – but never revealed what it was. She now understands that it is the Chemical X formula. Although a part of each of them wants to live life as they do now, the girls come to a consensus that their calling as saviors of Townsville is bigger than any of them and that they must re-inject themselves with the Chemical X.
Buttercup makes the formula and the girls gain their powers back. Their ability to use the powers are a bit rusty but they quickly become proficient again in a cheesy training montage. Using their patented teamwork and intuition, they take HIM by surprise and defeat him. Professor Utonium hugs them as the girls apologize for holding a grudge against him. They now realize what it is like to face the threat of losing a loved one and understand why he injected them with the Chemical X in the first place. He tells them he can retract the Chemical X from them again but they tell him no. They want to be The Powerpuff Girls - Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup - and they have work to do. The Mayor announces his retirement after 40 years in the role and Utonium assumes the job. His first act is to plug back in the hotline - now connecting to the residents of each of the girls.
The local TV news reports on the return of The Powerpuff Girls but the broadcast is interrupted by static before a black screen appears. “Good evening, Townsville”, a voice says. Jojo the chimp, now with humanlike posture and wearing a purple cape, emerges from the darkness and sports a sinister grin on his face.
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