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transcribed by Alan Back (ajback@yahoo.com)
Note: This transcript has been prepared from a viewing of the DVD, which is in the 1.33:1 full-frame aspect ratio. As a result, there may very well be differences between the camera cuts described here and those in the theatrical (widescreen) release. Also, although these events technically take place before the series, I am assuming that the reader has sufficient familiarity with the characters and locales to make introductory descriptions unnecessary. Finally, I have split the movie into several parts owing to its length. The divisions between acts are somewhat arbitrary; I tried to place them in such a way as to mark key points where the action shifts gears.
(Fade in to a movie theater auditorium whose seats are filled with characters from many of the shows that air on CN. The camera, which points from the front of the house over the audience, pulls back slowly to the sounds of talking, eating, and a ringing cell phone or two. There are two empty spots near the front, one on either side of Mojo Jojo. After a moment, the Powerpuff Girls zip in; Blossom and Buttercup each take one of the seats, while Bubbles sits on Mojo’s lap. The lights go down to leave only the whites of everyone’s eyes visible, and the noise subsides. The pull continues as the whites resolve into the CN logo and the projector starts. Fade to black.) (Opening shot: the city skyline at night. Zoom in slowly.) Narrator: The city of Townsville… (We hear an explosion and see its flash emanate from ground level and play over the buildings. An alarm begins to sound.) Narrator: …is in some serious, serious, serious trouble. (Dissolve to the bank, where smoke pours from a large hole in the front wall—blasted by the explosion—and the alarm screams out. The building exterior is in disarray, and a car is crookedly parked in front. Zoom in slowly.) Narrator: Day after day, crime, lawlessness, and evil are running rampant. (Dissolve to a donut shop with several police cars parked in front and their drivers inside. The alarm now sounds as from a distance. Zoom in slowly.) Narrator: Its citizens have lost all hope. They are utterly helpless and in desperate need of a true hero. (Dissolve to the exterior of Malph’s Market. A single car, a sporty little model, is parked outside. Zoom in slowly; the alarm is still heard muted.) Narrator: But who? Is there no one who can help this forsaken town and make it a better place? (Dissolve to an aisle of the market; soft Muzak is now heard instead of the alarm. The Professor rounds a corner, shopping basket in hand, and approaches the camera on the next line. He wears an expression of quiet resolve. As he comes closer, the view gradually tilts up to keep his face in frame until we are nearly looking straight up at the ceiling.) Narrator: Fear not, fair viewers. For there is a man. A man of science. A forward-thinking man who looks back. (He stops and looks over his shoulder on this last; cut to a close-up of a checkout price scanner. A box of sugar is swept across it by a cashier’s hand.) Narrator: Back to a sweeter time— (Four small jars of spices are scanned next.) —when there was a spice to life— (Cut to the Professor, smiling and picking up his bagged purchases.) —and everything was… (His face falls at the sound of a weapon being cocked; pull back down the counter to put Fuzzy Lumkins in the foreground. He has his old shotgun trained on one very scared cashier.) Narrator: …nice. (The woman reaches into her register and pulls out a handful of cash. The pink hick smiles at this as the Professor sadly carries his groceries out.) [Note: The four spices are parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme, all of which are mentioned in the song “Scarborough Fair.”] (Cut to just outside the driver’s-side door of the parked car, which is his—he approaches with keys in hand. This is a change from the various vehicles he has driven on the show. The alarm is heard, again muted, as the Gangrene Gang’s reflections appear behind his in the window.) Narrator: I must profess, sir, this man holds the ingredients to Townsville’s salvation. (On the end of this, he catches sight of the Gang and turns, startled; cut to his perspective of them. Ace stands at the front of the group, fist cocked back.) Narrator: This man, known simply as… (The fist flies at the camera. Snap to black, accompanied by the sound of the punch landing.) Narrator: …the Professor. (Snap to an extreme close-up of a screaming, pink-faced, diaper-clad monkey and pull back. This is Jojo, as seen in flashbacks during “Mr. Mojo’s Rising.” He is on a shelf loaded with beakers and flasks—this is the Professor’s lab at home. He leaps from here to other shelves, sending the glassware flying, and makes his way down the floor before running across it. Pull back across the room as the Professor trudges in with the groceries; he looks somewhat the worse for wear after the parking lot encounter.) (Jojo leaps up to grab hold of a wall-mounted TV, then punches out the screen. Freeze frame.) A CARTOON NETWORK PRODUCTION (He jumps down, the groceries are set on a countertop, and a tall bank of computer equipment becomes a climbing wall for the monkey. When he reaches the top, he pulls a tape reel loose and throws it down, the tape unwinding behind it. Freeze frame.) Starring CATHERINE CAVADINI, TARA STRONG, E.G. DAILY, ROGER L. JACKSON, TOM KANE, TOM KENNY (Jojo drops from his perch; cut to the Professor at his mixing bowl. He is pouring sugar in from the box. Back to Jojo, now running along the top of a file cabinet. When he reaches the front, he opens the top drawer and throws papers everywhere. Freeze frame.) Written and storyboarded by CHARLIE BEAN, LAUREN FAUST, CRAIG McCRACKEN, PAUL RUDISH, DON SHANK (Jojo jumps down; back to the Professor, who is now shaking spices into the bowl. The monkey leaps up from a countertop and grabs hold of a rack of glassware. This shatters and collapses under his weight, releasing a shower of chemicals and sending him down. Freeze frame.) Art direction by MIKE MOON (Jojo and the remains fall out of sight; back to the Professor once more. Now he is pouring in the “everything nice” mixture as seen in the show’s opening credits. Jojo climbs another rack until he reaches a wall clock, which he promptly punches out. Freeze frame.) Animation direction by GENNDY TARTAKOVSKY (He slides back down; now the Professor is stirring merrily away at the bowl. Alternate repeatedly between him and Jojo barreling across the lab, ending at the bowl—as Jojo pops up and shoves the Professor, knocking him off balance. The end of his spoon breaks a flask of black liquid that hangs nearby, and the lights go red. Freeze frame, then snap to black after a moment.) Directed by CRAIG McCRACKEN (The black drains away to reveal the label on the broken flask: “Chemical X.” Pull back; the bowl’s contents have begun to glow ominously and bubble a bit, and the Professor is momentarily paralyzed with fear. He finally starts to back away as Jojo watches from a short distance. The mixture now bubbles more fiercely, and the Professor dives for cover—but Jojo moves closer and eases his head up to look into the bowl.) (Snap to black to the sound of a huge explosion. As it dies away, the main title appears as it does on the show and backs away from the camera before fading out. This is accompanied by the girls’ giggling and the first seven notes of the theme tapped out on a glockenspiel.)
(The black screen wipes partially to a view of the lab, whose floor is now littered with bits of broken glassware. The lighting is back to normal. The camera is sitting just next to and behind the mixing bowl—the black area that is still visible; the Professor is at the far end, having been blown across the room to land up against a cabinet and knocked out. He sits motionless for a moment, then slowly opens his eyes partway. They suddenly pop wide open, and he shoots to his feet and backs up as far as the cabinet will allow.) (Cut to just behind him, the view filled by the back of his lab coat, as he slowly steps across the room; his footsteps echo in the space. After a moment, the view shifts again to point toward the ceiling at an angle. He advances, his eyes wide and his jaw hanging slack in surprise, and finally leans down. Ever so slowly, he tilts his head to one side, trying to sort out what he sees.) (Cut to his perspective—the mixing bowl, the ingredients, and the familiar three new arrivals, who are looking up at him and smiling. L to R: Bubbles, Blossom, Buttercup. Long silence.) Blossom: Hi! (Back to the Professor; he cries out and recoils in shock.) Blossom: What’s your name? Professor: Oh! Um…my name is, um…uh, Professor. Professor Utonium. Hello! Girls: Hello, Professor Utonium. It’s very nice to meet you. Professor: It’s very nice to meet you too. Um…uh, what are your names? Blossom: Well, you made us, so shouldn’t you also name us? Professor: Um…okay. (to himself) Oh, this is so cool! (to the girls, kneeling) Well, now, let’s see. (pointing to Blossom) Because of your directness and opening right up to me, I think I’ll call you… (His perspective of them.) …Blossom. (She beams at this. Bubbles giggles; the other two look over at her. The whole group again.) Professor: (to her) Well, aren’t you all cute and bubbly? That’s it! You’ll be my little Bubbles. (She smiles.) (Close-up of Blossom.) Professor: (from o.c.) So, we have Blossom… (Pan to Bubbles, jumping in place.) Bubbles… (To Buttercup, waiting eagerly.) …and…mmm, Buttercup, because…it also begins with a B. (She looks a little put out at this rationale.) Buttercup: Hmph! (Pull back to frame all four.) Professor: And together you are three perfect little g…g… (suddenly panicked) …gifts! Birthday! It’s your birthday! I should get gifts! (He runs o.c.; we hear the door open and close.) (Cut to a flight of stairs; he runs up them and through the house on the next line.) Professor: Wow! I can’t believe it! I wanted to make some kids that I could teach good and bad, right and wrong, and in turn maybe they’d do some good for this terrible town, and now I can! (A door is heard opening and closing o.c.; cut to the exterior of the house. There are no round windows on the top floor. The garage door opens, and the Professor’s car rolls out.) Professor: All I gotta do is be a good parent. (The car speeds o.c.; after several moments, it pulls up and re-enters the garage. The back seat is piled high with boxes.) Professor: Note to self: good parents don’t leave their kids home alone. (The garage door closes.) (Back to the living room as he carries the boxes in.) Professor: Sugar, spice, and everything nice? Who woulda guessed that’s what little girls were actually made of? (descending the stairs) I still can’t believe it worked—that I actually made three perfect little girls! (Just inside the closed lab door; he opens it and starts in, descending more stairs.) Three perfect, normal little gi— (He loses his footing, and the boxes fly everywhere; close-up of him yelling in midair. There is a sudden flash of pink; cut to just above him. Blossom has caught him and is holding him above the stairs, while her sisters watch from farther down in midair.) Blossom: (setting him down) Professor, you should be more careful when coming down the steps. You could get hurt. (He just stands there, half-slumped over and too stunned to talk, as Bubbles and Buttercup fly over with several of the packages.) Buttercup: Hey, are these for us? (He nods weakly. Pause; all three zip away on the next lines.) Buttercup: Yeah! Bubbles: Yippee! Blossom: Thanks, Professor! (Sounds of the girls flying about and tearing wrapping paper are heard o.c.; he raises his hand as if to try to get their attention, then gives it up and drops to his knees. Cut to behind him and tilt up slowly. They are giggling and attacking the pile of presents with gusto. As he stares, still at a loss for words, the camera moves from the girls over to the mixing bowl and the broken flask that had held the Chemical X. A bit of residue drips out; back to the Professor, who looks o.c. to it, then toward the girls. The bewildered look finally gives way to a warm, bemused smile.) (Buttercup flies over with a pile of action toys: pogo stick, stuffed alligator, video game, and such.) Buttercup: Hey, thanks! (She flies o.c.; next is Blossom, with books and a globe.) Blossom: Yes, Professor, thank you. (She flies o.c.; last is Bubbles, carrying a stuffed octopus—Octi.) Bubbles: This is the best gift ever…Dad. (She kisses him on the cheek and floats o.c. after her sisters. He remains where he is, then smiles broadly and tenderly.) Professor: (to himself, looking up after them) Yes, it is. (Pull back across the room. The girls are flying happily around with their presents and giggling over the booty—but, as the pull continues, we see one spectator who has a rather lower opinion of the situation: Jojo stands up into view, hiding around the corner of a large piece of equipment; his skin has turned green, the top of his skull is gone, and his brain has swollen—all the characteristics of the future Mojo Jojo. He watches with disgust for a moment, then turns his back on the scene and walks o.c. Fade to black.) (Snap to the exterior of the house the next day. Inside, the Professor and the girls are in an empty room whose floor is covered with tarps. Each of the four has a paint roller, and cans and a flat paint pan are nearby.) Professor: Okay, girls. Now watch me. (He paints a pink streak on the wall; the screen immediately fills with splashes of the same color as the girls catch on. A moment more and they have stopped—the room is completely pink from floor to ceiling, but he is nowhere to be seen. His outline appears against the fresh coat of paint, and he steps away from the wall; his entire back half has been painted pink, while the area shielded by his body has not. He turns his head to look back at them, revealing his face as another area that did not get painted. The girls clap their hands to their mouths in surprise.) Professor: (chuckling) I think you missed a spot. (He runs the roller over his face; they have a good laugh at this. Now he heads for the door, the bare spot having been painted—as was the rest of his front from the neck down, apparently.) Professor: (walking out) I’ll go wash up. Then we’ll bring in the furniture. (This, then, is to be the girls’ bedroom. Close-up of the bathroom sink, where he is washing his hands, then pull back to frame him and his reflection in the mirror. He has taken off his lab coat, rolled up his shirt sleeves, and scrubbed all the paint off. In the open doorway behind him, we see the girls flash past and down over the railing at the top of the stairs. The sound causes him to look up in surprise; cut to outside the door as he steps out and dries his face with a towel.) Professor: Girls, wait! You should let me… (He trails off as the camera pulls back. Pieces of furniture are being hurled into view from the ground floor, flying over the railing and neatly through the open bedroom door.) Professor: (bewildered) …help? (When the barrage of home furnishings ends, the girls fly in after it. Cut to inside the room, which has now been made up as we know it on the show—including the vanity with heart-shaped mirror and the wide bed with three-color blanket. The Professor walks in to have a look around as the girls float overhead. He has ditched his towel.) Professor: Whoa! This looks pretty good. What do you think? Bubbles: Mmm—I think it’s a little dark. Buttercup: Well, I like it dark. Blossom: Some windows might be nice. (Cut to a patch of the far wall.) Professor: (from o.c.) Yeah. I could see some windows… (walking into view, indicating a spot) …right about here. I’ll call a contractor tomor— (He cuts himself off suddenly; back to the girls, whose eyes have begun to glow red—their lasers warming up. Cut to the exterior of the house as their beams, in a row, pierce the wall and trace out one large circle each. The cut sections tumble to the front lawn after the girls stop firing; inside, the Professor cowers near one of the openings, his hair singed and total shock written all over his face. The cut edges still glow red from the heat, and wisps of smoke rise around him.) Professor: (a bit rattled) Or that works too. (The red glow stops; he regains his composure.) Who’s hungry? (Cut to the kitchen. Blossom pops up, holding a loaf of bread.) Blossom: Ready? (Bubbles and Buttercup pop up across the room. Both have knives ready to dig into jars of jelly and peanut butter, respectively.) Bubbles, Buttercup: Ready! (The Professor looks in the refrigerator, taking no notice. He has fixed his hair and sleeves and put his lab coat on again.) Blossom: Go! (She machine-guns slices of bread at her sisters, who in turn fire back with globs of peanut butter and jelly. When he closes the fridge and turns to face the camera, with an armload of milk and fruit, he throws himself back against the door to try and avoid the barrage. The components collide in midair and fall to the kitchen table to form a tall stack of PB&J sandwiches; the girls, sitting around the table, then strafe this with their eye lasers and the crusts fall off, neatly trimmed. They are a bit taken aback at the approach of the Professor, whose splattered face and clothes show that he was unable to get out of the line of fire. He smiles and sets down a tray with three glasses of milk and the carton.) (Cut to the exterior of the house as the laughter of all four makes itself heard from inside. It dies away after a moment, and the sky fades into evening while the house lights come on. Inside, he walks into the living room and wipes his hands on a towel. He has cleaned up and again taken off the coat and rolled up his sleeves.) Professor: Okay, girls. Time for… (Once again he stops short; this time, the reason is that all three of them have completely conked out. Blossom, on the floor, has books and notes piled around her; Buttercup is on the couch, with various action toys nearby and the TV remote in hand; Bubbles, also on the floor, has crayons and paper scattered about, and Octi is nearby as well. Close-up of Blossom, panning to each of the others in the order given, then back to the Professor.) Professor: (softly) …bed. (Cut to the bathroom, where he washes Blossom’s face, then to the bed, where he pulls Buttercup’s nightgown down over her arms. The last one seen is Bubbles, already in bed and with her clothes changed. He reaches down and tucks Octi under her arm; she smiles and snuggles with the doll. None of the girls looks anywhere close to being awake in this sequence. With all three in bed, he pulls up the blanket to cover them—this is the first time we can see the headboard, which has its trademark pink heart but no PPG initials as in the series. Cut to the bedroom door; now looking tenderly in from outside, he switches off the lights and pulls it shut behind him as the scene fades to black.) (Snap to the living room, the camera angled up to frame the second-story balcony. The Professor walks away from the door and down the stairs. As he sets to the job of tidying up the clutter left by the girls, he picks up one of Bubbles’ drawings and looks at it. His expression melts into one of gentle affection; after a moment, cut to a close-up of the drawing, a rough, scribbly crayon rendition of all four. Fade to black.) [Possible animation goof: Although he gave Octi to Bubbles in the bedroom, the doll is still on the floor in this scene. He may have brought home more than one of them, however.] [Note: The drawing is one of two art contest entries selected by Cartoon Network to appear in this movie.] (Snap to the exterior of the house the next morning. Inside, the Professor approaches the girls’ bed, their dresses over his arm, and they wake up.) Professor: Wake up, girls, Time for school. Girls: What’s school? (The exterior of Pokey Oaks Kindergarten, with the Professor’s car parked on the street in front. He and the girls are near the open classroom door, and Ms. Keane is hunched down to the girls. We can hear the other kids in the class laughing and playing inside.) Ms. Keane: This is school. I’m your teacher, Ms. Keane, and this is where kids come to learn. (gesturing toward door) See? (Inside, the other kids are doing various things: reading, drawing, playing with toys, and so forth. Mitch Mitchellson and Harry Pitt are among them. One boy approaches.) Boy: Hey, you wanna play? (The girls think it over for a moment, then look eagerly up at Ms. Keane, who nods happily. Giggling, they follow the boy o.c., and she stands up to talk to the Professor.) [Animation goof: Her lipstick changes suddenly between this scene and her next.] Professor: (nervously) Um…do you think they’ll be okay? ’Cause I’m new at this parenting thing, and I wanted to come and meet you and see them off on their first day ’cause they’re really special. I mean, really special, and I just want to make sure they’ll be okay. So what do you think? Do you think they’ll be… (Cut to the class, in which the girls have instantly made themselves at home.) Professor: (from o.c.) …okay? (Back to him and Ms. Keane.) Ms. Keane: They’ll be just fine, Professor. We’ll see you at noon. Professor: Okay. Bye, girls! Bye! Bye! Bye-bye! Bye! Bye! (Through this last, she rolls her eyes and pushes him gently but firmly out the door. Walking back in, she closes it and turns her attention to the class.) Ms. Keane: Okay, class. Take your seats. (The Professor, at the window, waves a last goodbye.) Girl 1: Ms. Keane? Can Blossom sit with us? Girl 2: Can we sit with Bubbles? Mitch: Can Buttercup sit over here? (Each girl looks up happily as she is mentioned; Bubbles even finds herself being pulled along by the girl who asks about her. Ms. Keane, however, gathers them up and deposits them at a center desk as she crosses the room on the next line. Julie Bean and Elmer Sglue are seen in this shot.) Ms. Keane: The girls can sit right here in the middle— (The whole class is now seen; she continues o.c.) —so they’ll be next to everyone. Class: Yaaaay! Ms. Keane: (now at chalkboard) Now, let’s begin. (Tilt up to the wall clock above the board; it shows 9:00. It dissolves to 11:00 and then noon, at which point a knock on the door is heard o.c. Cut to just inside it—Ms. Keane’s perspective—as it opens to reveal the Professor on the step.) Ms. Keane: Hello, Professor. Right on time. (Pull back across the room as both adults cross to the back door. The place is littered with toys, crayons, paints, and other kindergarten diversions.) Ms. Keane: Your girls are right outside with the other children. Professor: Oh, no! Look at this mess. Oh, I knew the girls would be a handful, but…I’m so sorry. Ms. Keane: What, this? (sighing patiently) This is what happens when you put twenty little kids in one room. (Cut to just outside the back door; they step out.) Your girls were perfect. Perfect, normal, well-behaved little girls. (He is a bit surprised at this.) Professor: Nothing out of the ordinary? Ms. Keane: No. Like what? (On the playground, the girls are gathered around a hopscotch layout. It is Bubbles’ turn to play; she tosses a stone onto a square and jumps to it. Blossom seems to like the game, but Buttercup scowls at it. Another girl watches from the far end of the layout.) Blossom: That was sweet! Buttercup: What’s the point of this game, anyway? Mitch: (running up, tagging girl, running o.c.) Tag! You’re it! (She laughs and runs o.c. as other kids nearby run from her. In an overhead shot, we wee them scattering everywhere for a game of tag. The girls are momentarily at a loss.) Blossom: Whoa! Everyone’s running from that girl. It’s like she’s been infected. Buttercup: Maybe she’s a freak. Bubbles: Yeah, and they hate her. (The girl who was pulling Bubbles toward her own desk now runs up and tags her.) Girl 2: Tag! You’re it! Bubbles: (distraught) Oh, no! I’ve been affected! Mitch: (walking to them) All right, what’s goin’ on here? Bubbles: I’ve been affected. (Mitch claps a hand to his face.) Mitch: You’re not in-fected. It’s just a game! Bubbles: It is? Mitch: Yeah. Blossom: A game, neat! Buttercup: Yeah! How do we play? Mitch: (groaning wearily) Okay, look. It’s very simple. (crossing to Bubbles, holding out one hand) Bubbles, tag me. (She does not move.) Come on, it’s okay. (After a moment, she cautiously reaches out and touches his hand, yanking her own back immediately after doing so.) Mitch: (crossing to Buttercup) All right. Now I’m it. And all you gots to do to play— (tagging her) —is tag someone else, and they’re it. (He runs o.c.; she realizes what he has done, and he returns.) By the way, you’re it! (He runs o.c. again.) Buttercup: Awesome, I’m it! What do I do, what do I do, what do I do? (Cut to Mitch, running across the playground.) Mitch: (voice fading) Just tag someone else— (Back to the girls; he continues o.c.) —and they’re it! (Buttercup throws a wicked glance back at her sisters, who look at each other and then smile nervously back at her. They start to run, giggling as they go, and she gives chase. After a few moments, Blossom looks back to see where she is and does not like the result.) Blossom: Time to put it into overdrive, Bubbles! (They begin to run faster, but Buttercup speeds up as well. This pattern repeats itself twice more, but on the last time, green sparks start to fly from behind the pursuer, merging into a solid trail, and she streaks across the playground to leave a ribbon of burning asphalt behind her. Blossom and Bubbles keep running like sixty; Buttercup finally catches up and gives Bubbles a hearty shove that sends her skidding across the playground; she cuts a furrow as she goes, and the camera tracks her away from Buttercup on the next line.) Buttercup: Tag! Yoooouuuu’rrrreeee…IT! (Bubbles crashes into the school wall, just missing Ms. Keane, the Professor, and the other kids. Her impact leaves a huge hole in the windows and masonry. Everyone stares in disbelief for a silent moment, which ends abruptly when she crashes out through the roof, does a quick ascent, and then dives on her sisters. Camera follows her.) Bubbles: I’m gonna tag you guys now! (Back to ground level; the two girls find themselves in her growing shadow, but back out of the way an instant before she hits the ground. Their retreat takes them through the chain-link fence that encloses the playground. When the dust clears, there is a large crater where they were standing; Bubbles slowly pokes her head out.) Buttercup: Ha-ha! You missed us! (Overhead view of the three: Bubbles in her crater, the others in the street. She charges at them, but they dodge and she slams into a house behind them. Head-on view of the wrecked structure, pulling back to the playground so that the Townsville skyline is visible in the distance. We hear the girls thoroughly enjoying this new game—as trees, cars, and even an unsuspecting cow go flying. Smoke and fire start to billow from distant points as car alarms are set off by the impacts. Pan slowly away from this scene to the stunned kids; stop at Ms. Keane and the Professor and zoom in. While she too watches in total puzzlement, he gives her a cheerful grin and bails out.) (Cut to just behind his car—license plate: “PRFDADY”—as he speeds toward the city proper, then to a view of the skyline itself. All is peaceful for a moment until the camera pulls back a bit to reveal it as part of a billboard. Across the top are the words “YOU ARE NOW LEAVING.” Bubbles and Buttercup fly into view over it and race along.) Bubbles: Whee! (Buttercup laughs along with her; after their voices have faded, the camera pulls back some more and we can read the entire message: “YOU ARE NOW LEAVING THE CITY OF TOWNSVILLE.” Laughing, Blossom smashes through the center of the billboard and charges after the others toward the city. The Professor chases all three of them.) Professor: Girls, no! Wait! (Now the game of tag moves into the heart of the city, with Bubbles and Buttercup cutting one maneuver after another and Blossom keeping the heat on. Cars and debris go flying in their wake, and the shock waves of their passage break more than a few windows. A red rubber ball starts to bounce down the street after them.) (Continuing her pursuit, Blossom suddenly gasps in surprise, drops to the ground, and slams on the brakes. She cuts a long gash in the pavement, going through an intersection and finally coming to a stop in front of two startled people on the sidewalk. She cocks her head and cups a hand to her ear; we can hear Bubbles and Buttercup laughing and see the sound waves reaching her—her high-powered hearing at work.) Bubbles: (from o.c., at great distance) Can’t catch me! (After a moment’s indecision, Blossom zips off down the street. The two onlookers stare a bit longer, then suddenly scream and run o.c.—just before a car slides into view and strikes the building they were standing next to. The impact is seen three times, from a head-on, overhead, and pulled-back view; after this last, the Professor skids into view and stops.) [Note: During the previous sequence, we see that the building hit by the car is number 801—corresponding to the movie’s PPG-801 production code.] Professor: (weakly) Oh, no! (The red ball bounces off his car and away.) (Now Blossom races down a street and cuts impossibly tight turns that would make an F-16 pilot black out from the G-forces involved. As she goes, the strip of pavement behind her starts to crack and glow, finally exploding into dust to mark her passage. Buttercup flies along, turning into a side street just as Blossom passes her; a screech of heels on asphalt, and the redhead swings back into view and corrects her mistake to get after the brunette again. They rocket through yet more hairpin turns, after which the camera cuts to inside a vehicle driven by two stoner types, one skinny with blond hair, the other short and fat with dark curly hair. The chase flashes across just in front of them; they scream and lose control.) (On the street, the vehicle—a van—plows into a record shop. Blossom dashes along, swerving to miss several cars, and looks back with satisfaction at her maneuvering. When she looks ahead again, though, she gasps in shock. Overhead view of a stretch of traffic-jammed street; she weaves through several, then climbs a few floors up one of the buildings and starts to run along their fronts. The trail of damage continues.) (Head-on view of her racing along in this fashion; the camera is rotated 90 degrees from its usual orientation. Cut to Bubbles, flying along at ground level.) Bubbles: Whee! (Back to Blossom; the blue streak of her sister passes her.) Blossom: Huh? (The camera now rights itself, and she drops to ground level and stops at a street corner. The light is red; when it goes green, she is off again, crossing the intersection and hurtling back the way she came. Bubbles pulls ahead, with Blossom trying to keep up. The latter stops in the middle of another intersection and looks around herself, finally smiling and charging in a new direction. Her perspective of a few blocks’ run, then cut to yet another intersection, where she stops and looks around again. This time, she ends by turning her gaze upward and letting out a happy little gasp. Zoom in on her as her pupils contract.) (Her perspective: she is looking up at a large mirrored globe that sits atop one of the buildings. Its surface reflects the rest of the city and shows Bubbles’ and Buttercup’s light trails. The view zooms in on a certain area three times, ending with a greatly magnified shot of the entrance to a subway station and Bubbles zipping into it. We have just witnessed Blossom’s magnified vision at work. Back to her, the pupils dilating again.) Blossom: Subway, huh? (Quick pan to a nearby station entrance: “SUBWAY EAST.” She flies down and into the underground tunnel. Back to Bubbles, who is still zipping merrily along.) Bubbles: (giggling) Whee! (Blossom charges down the track, cutting a corkscrew path into the tunnel walls, and emerges at the “SUBWAY WEST” entrance to stop dead. Bubbles again, her face going slack with shock.) Bubbles: No! (She skids to a halt just in front of Blossom.) Blossom: (tagging her, floating away) Tag. You’re it. (She blows a raspberry toward ground level as she goes, while Buttercup watches from higher up. Bubbles stands silently—first dejected, then angry and determined—before blasting straight up into the air. Her liftoff makes a fresh crater and sends pieces of the pavement flying everywhere; one of them takes out a store window just before the Professor drives by it.) Professor: (gasping) There they a— (He gets no further, as he drives into Bubbles’ crater and goes airborne off its lip. The car lands neatly on all four tires and does not suffer any visible damage from doing so—and the red ball once again bounces into view and off the vehicle.)
(Long shot of the mirrored globe. Blossom and Buttercup stop near it.) Blossom: Watch out! Here she comes! (They zip away. Chasing after them, Bubbles hits the globe and ricochets off it. As her sisters’ laughter echoes in the air, the structure overbalances from the force of her impact and tumbles free of its moorings. As people in the streets scream in abject terror, it crashes down and starts to roll, cutting its own groove and damaging every building it bounces off.) (The chase continues, with Blossom and Buttercup in the air and Bubbles leaping between rooftops and the ground. Now the globe rolls down another street as the three charge past. Bubbles does a quick dive and hits the pavement hard enough to make it ripple like a tidal wave. Cars are thrown everywhere as the three reach a corner and go in different directions. Buttercup pokes her head out from around a building and, seeing her sisters worried mainly about one another, chuckles to herself. The tidal wave rolls down another street, sending more cars flying, and she watches the other action from the middle of the street.) Buttercup: Ha! Suckers! (The wave reaches her and catapults her into the air; she passes a car on the way up. Bubbles flies up as she comes to rest.) Bubbles: (tagging her) Tag! You’re it! (Cut to inside an upper-story apartment that looks like an art-deco love nest. A loverboy and a woman are sitting on a long couch in the corner, with their backs to the expansive windows. She does not seem particularly susceptible to his approach—and neither of them notices that the car which Buttercup passed is now on its way toward those windows.) Loverboy: (French accent) You know, I’ve got a nice car. (Cut to the Professor, who is now motoring slowly through a ravaged street. A crash of glass is heard o.c., and he looks up as shards fall all around him. His perspective: the airborne car has crashed into the apartment’s windows. Back to him; as glass sprinkles his hood and windshield, he looks up in a new direction.) Professor: Huh? (Long shot of the girls together in midair; they are giggling. This leads into a short dispute over who is now it, which ends with Blossom and Bubbles zipping away and Buttercup looking angrily after them—she is the loser.) Buttercup: Hey! (She gives chase.) (Her sisters rocket toward a building and split up to detour around it; she flies over and stops, trying to figure out what to do next. After looking back and forth for a clue, she screams in frustration and simply crashes straight through the building and two others behind it. Cut to the others, now perched on the roof of a tower that looks very much like the Space Needle in Seattle.) Blossom: She’ll never find us up here! (Quick shot of Buttercup crashing through more buildings, then the two again.) Do you hear something? (Buttercup hits the sign atop a gas company’s office building; there is a huge explosion, from which she emerges to bull-charge the camera.) Blossom, Bubbles: Whoa! Blossom: Run! (They try to do so, but the tower simply rotates in the opposite direction, leaving them running in place. Buttercup easily catches up to them now.) Buttercup: (tagging both) Tag! You’re both it! (They float off the roof.) Blossom: Hey! We can’t both be it! Buttercup: Why not? Bubbles: (tagging Blossom) Tag! Blossom: What?! I can’t be it twice! Bubbles: Why not? Blossom: Okay, then. (tagging Bubbles and Buttercup) Tag! Now you guys are it. Buttercup: (tagging Bubbles) Tag! Bubbles: (tagging Blossom and Buttercup) Tags! Buttercup: Hey, no tag-backs! (tagging Blossom) Tag! Blossom: (tagging Bubbles) Tag! (All three begin to fly in a tight circle, tagging one another and saying, “Tag! Tag! Tag!” repeatedly. Back to ground level; the Professor speeds around a corner into view and hits the brakes, gasping at the view that greets him. His perspective: he is looking straight through the holes in the buildings Buttercup plowed into, with the burning gas sign and the rotating tower visible beyond them. Even at this distance, we can hear the girls. Back to their level; the argument, now back on the topic of who is it, gives way to another chase, the girls in the air and the Professor on wheels. Cut to a long shot of the tower and pull back as the girls fly all around the city, their light trails making patterns of all sorts—including Bubbles’ name, which she traces in lowercase cursive to the sound of all three laughing.) (The camera continues to pull back through a window and into the Mayor’s office. He stands and looks out at the destruction the girls have inadvertently caused.) Mayor: Oh boy. (Just outside the office doors; he opens them and steps into the hall.) Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. (Outside, the girls race happily through the city as the Professor lays rubber to keep up. Cut to another corridor of Townsville Hall; the Mayor walks along it.) Mayor: Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. (The girls again. Now the Professor has to dodge wrecked cars and craters as he drives. Cut to a set of doors at the top of a staircase inside Townsville Hall; these are thrown open by the Mayor, who then descends the steps.) Mayor: Oh boy. (Ms. Bellum catches up to him, clipboard in hand.) Ms. Bellum: “Oh boy” is right, Mayor. It’s terrible. The town is being destroyed by three girls with freakish powers! This is a very serious situation. What action do you propose we take? (The girls. The Professor. A long shot of the staircase—this is a third corridor in Townsville Hall—with the Mayor and Ms. Bellum at the bottom of it and walking toward the camera. Aides scurry everywhere; two of them walk along with the pair and thrust papers into Ms. Bellum’s face, hiding it from view.) Ms. Bellum: Don’t worry, gentlemen. The Mayor and I have the situation under control. Mayor: Oh boy! Ms. Bellum: I know, sir. (The girls. The Professor. The front doors of Townsville Hall; these burst open and the crowd pours out.) Mayor: Oh boy! Ms. Bellum: You tell ’em, Mayor! Townsville will not stand for this kind of behavior! (The girls. The Professor, closing in on Townsville Hall; he sees them fly toward it and lets out a surprised grunt. The building’s front colonnade, with the crowd passing behind it.) Ms. Bellum: Uh, Mayor, hel-lo? City being destroyed? Where are you going? Mayor: Oh boy! (The girls. The Professor. The crowd. On the end of the next line, they approach a cart labeled “CUCOR’S PICKLES,” with someone hunched down behind it.) Ms. Bellum: Mayor, what are you doing? We’re in a serious pickle! Mayor: EXACTLY! (This brings everyone up short.) (The girls, closing in on the seat of government with the Professor not far behind. Back to him.) Professor: Girls, no! (The pickle cart.) Mayor: (clearing throat) Hel-lo. (The figure behind the cart straightens up. It is a short fellow who looks very much like the Mayor. Differences: black hair and mustache rather than white; a single thick eyebrow that goes over both eyes; no monocle; white paper cap instead of top hat—it too floats just above his head; nose wrinkled and warty like a pickle. This is Cucor, who speaks with a thick Italian accent but otherwise sounds quite a bit like the Mayor.) Cucor: Hel-lo. Mayor: The usual, Cucor. (The girls, then the pickle cart.) Cucor: (kissing fingertips, fishing around) Yes! I have a fine vintage for you here—picked fresh today. (Close-up of a fat green pickle as it is held up in a set of tongs; juice drips from all its crevices.) Mayor: (from o.c., happily) Oh boy! (Alternate between shots of the girls and the Mayor, with the pickle now in hand and slowly bringing it to his mouth; each successive shot is zoomed in closer on its subject. The final shot is of the crowd near Cucor’s cart. Just before the little man can enjoy his treat, the girls slam head-on into it. The scene is lost beneath a flash of light and a huge cloud of dust. When the view clears, the cart is in ruins, the pickle jars smashed and their contents scattered about. Cucor and the Mayor lie unconscious in the wreckage, while Ms. Bellum and the aides are in a heap off to one side. The girls have taken out the pickle cart and put a hole through Townsville Hall’s front wall to boot. However, they take no notice, laughing and talking excitedly about their game.) (Car tires screech o.c., a door slams, and the Professor runs up.) Professor: (out of breath) Girls, girls, are you okay? Girls: (jumping up, tagging him) Tag! You’re it, Professor! (They laugh again as the camera pulls back from Townsville Hall and retreats several blocks. The streets are pockmarked with trashed cars, the buildings are full of holes, and the mirrored globe rolls into view and finally comes to rest, knocking one last dent in a structure. Pull back quickly into the suburbs to frame the entire skyline, which stands in shambles. After a moment, an explosion is seen near the top of the rotating tower’s shaft, and the upper portion tilts and finally falls to earth, landing spire down. Fade to black.) (Snap to the interior of the house, the camera pointing down from the top of the stairs. The girls burst in through the front door and fly all around the place, still wired from the game of tag. The Professor walks in after them and shuts the door.) Professor: Okay, girls. Girls? It’s almost bedtime, okay? Girls? Blossom: Come on, Professor, you’re it! You gotta catch us! Professor: (wearily) Yes, I suppose I do, don’t I? (As they continue to flash past, he climbs the stairs and watches their moves. Suddenly, he shoots his hands out over the second-floor railing and catches Bubbles.) Bubbles: Eep! Professor: Gotcha, you little bunny! (With her under one arm, he peeks out from behind the fireplace chimney and manages to snag Buttercup in his free hand. Blossom flies up and hovers out of reach.) Buttercup: Help! I got gotted! Blossom, watch out! Bubbles: You’re the sole survivor! (Blossom drops down and starts jumping on the couch.) Blossom: No way, Professor! You can’t catch me! Professor: (sternly) Oh, yes, I can, because the game’s over and it’s your bedtime. (Cut to a dejected Blossom; he continues o.c.) Now come up here so we can catch you. (She floats up to the railing, the camera following, and is promptly grabbed.) Girls: Ha! (They giggle; he starts off down the hall with them.) Professor: Well, now. Three little girls had a very busy day today, didn’t they? Bubbles: Yeah! It was fun! We met lots of kids. Blossom: And we learned things. Buttercup: And we played tag! (They reach the bedroom door.) Professor: (opening it) Mmm-hmm. Well, I’m glad you had so much fun, because tomorrow will be a busy day too. (walking in) So let’s get your nighties on and into bed. There’s something we should talk about. (He kicks the door shut behind himself.) (Cut to inside the room; he is tucking them into bed.) Professor: Okay, everybody in? Buttercup: Yep. What’s up, daddy-o? Professor: Well, it’s your superpowers. I’m not sure how to say this, but…I don’t think you should use them in public anymore. Girls: Why? Professor: Well, your powers are very special and unique. And although we have a lot of fun doing unique things around the house, out in Townsville people don’t really understand just how special you girls are yet. And unfortunately, people often get scared or angry when they don’t understand something special or unique. Blossom: That’s silly. Professor: Well, I think so too. But nonetheless, uh, take it easy with the powers tomorrow. Just give Townsville a little time to understand your specialness. Okay? Bubbles: Okay. Blossom: Okay. Buttercup: Yeah, yeah. Blossom: But people here are nice. Things’ll be fine. (Cut to a piece of sidewalk in the city proper. A bundle of newspapers—the Townsville Tribune—is thrown down. On the front page is a photo of the girls, with the bottom half cut off by the paper’s fold, and the headline “FREAKY BUG-EYED WEIRDO GIRLS BROKE EVERYTHING.” The top copy is picked up by a pair of very familiar and evil-looking hands that emerge from the sleeves of an old trenchcoat; cut to a head-on view of the paper as it is lifted by the owner of said hands. Hidden in shadow, the figure is visible only as a pair of eyes—but the voice gives him away as (Mojo) Jojo.) [Note: The paper’s masthead carries a picture of Craig McCracken, the movie’s US premiere date of July 3, 2002, and the PPG-801 code.] Jojo: Hmmm… (He begins to laugh—softly at first, then louder as the camera pulls back across the street. The shadow in which he hides is the interior of a cardboard box in an alley, just around the corner from a newsstand. A Tribune delivery truck pulls away; the rest of the papers lie in front of the stand. It is now early in the morning of the next day.) (The laughter dies away at the scene dissolves to the suburbs a few hours later. The girls are on the sidewalk, while the Professor addresses them from his car.) Professor: So I’ll be waiting here to pick you up when school gets out, okay? Blossom; Okay. But don’t worry, Professor. (as they walk away) Things are gonna be fine. (They approach the door of Pokey Oaks Kindergarten, the sound of the Professor’s car fading out as he drives off. The door opens to reveal that the classroom is still as they left it the day before: a disaster area. Construction workers are on a scaffolding by the holes in the ceiling and back wall, all the overhead lights are broken, and water gushes from a damaged sink and runs through a deep gash in the floor. Other furnishings have also been damaged—cabinets, American flag, and so on. Ms. Keane, at the front of the room, looks toward the door with no small amount of surprise; the other kids glare in unbridled hostility. She raises her voice in order to make herself heard over the workers’ noise.) Ms. Keane: OH, GIRLS! WE DIDN’T KNOW IF YOU’D BE JOINING US TODAY! (Cut to the girls, the door slamming behind them; she continues o.c.) TAKE YOUR SEATS! (Cut to their desk in the center of the room; as they look uneasily around themselves, the other kids push their desks toward the walls to get away from them. The girls are hurt by this. Back to the front of the room, panning along its length as she speaks; there is now a plumber at the sink.) Ms. Keane: I’M SORRY TO SAY THERE WON’T BE ANY RECESS FOR A WHILE, DUE TO ALL THE RECONSTRUCTION! (As she continues, cut to one desk and tilt up to a broken light, then cut to the sink—which now has a plumber working on it.) Ms. Keane: (from o.c.) SECONDLY, I’M AFRAID WE WON’T HAVE ANY LIGHTS OR WATER FOR A WHILE! (Cut to a smashed fridge in the back corner; Harry looks sadly back at it.) AND A BROKEN REFRIGERATOR MEANS SNACK TIME IS OUT! (Cut to Mitch and his deskmates; they cover their ears as work goes on just behind them.) SO LET’S TRY TO IGNORE ALL THE WORKMEN AND NOISE AND SUCH— (Back to Ms. Keane.) —AND GET RIGHT TO WORK, SHALL WE?…GIRLS! CAN YOU RECITE THE ALPHABET FOR US? (Buttercup forces a sheepish little grin, which is more than either of her sisters can do at this point. All around them are multitudes of kids who look as if they would be quite happy to tar and feather them and run them out of town on a rail. During the next line, cut back to the girls and tilt up to Ms. Keane.) Ms. Keane: GIRLS! ABC’S? Girls: (softly) A…B…C…D… (A board falls into view and breaks over their heads.) …Eee! (They look up toward the ceiling as Buttercup rubs her head, and the camera follows their gaze on the next line. Above them, visible through the ceiling hole, are two construction workers. One is sawing a board, while the other holds another steady. This latter is the speaker.) Construction worker: Hey, gol-dang it, you done dern broke my board! Flamdangling consarglers! (Back to the girls.) Girls: (crushed) F… (Fade to black.)
(Opening shot: another close-up of the open Tribune. The hands holding it indicate that this is not Jojo’s copy; pull back to show it as the Professor’s. He is reading it while lounging in his study at home. A beeping noise draws his attention and he looks at the source, his watch.) Professor: Oh! Almost time to pick up the girls. (Cut to the living room; he walks across to the front door.) Better motor. (Outside on the stoop, he closes the door and locks it. Camera turns around to point down the front walk toward the street. The Mayor, two beefy policemen, a group of aides, and an angry, sign-carrying mob are waiting for him.) Mayor: That’s him, boys! (Cut to just between the cops; the Professor backs up in surprise as he continues o.c.) He’s in cahoots with the evil pickle cart-killers! (Back to him.) Cucumber crushers! Vinegar varlets! Dill-stroyers! Why, it’s just not kosher! It’s in— Ms. Bellum: (stepping into view) Let it go, Mayor, let it go. (Cut to her; she holds up a WANTED poster that depicts a rough drawing of the family and accuses them of mass destruction. The picture is marked as an “Artist’s Interpretation” and is closer to the mark than Bubbles’ crayon sketch.) [Note: This picture was the other winning entry in Cartoon Network’s art contest.] Ms. Bellum: Are these your babies? Professor: (from o.c.) Why, yes. (Cut to him.) But they were just playing. They’re really very good little girls—and I need to pick them up from school. Ms. Bellum: I understand, sir. (The cops move in on him.) But we really would like for you to come downtown with us so we can ask you a few questions. (He is escorted down the front walk, the cops cuffing his hands behind his back as they go.) Professor: (grunting in discomfort) You guys, my kids. I really oughta pick ’em up. (He is tossed into a waiting squad car and grunts when he lands on the seat. After the door is closed, he pokes his head up into the window.) Professor: (through glass) I can’t just leave them there… (Cut to the exterior of Pokey Oaks Kindergarten. There are no kids in sight save the girls, who are on the front lawn.) Professor: (voice over) …alone… (In a series of three dissolves, the sky darkens to evening and finally night while they remain where they are. Several seconds after the last transition, Buttercup finally breaks the silence.) Buttercup: He’s not coming. He hates us, he totally hates us! (Bubbles starts crying.) Blossom: (thinking fast) No, he…probably just got held up, or…maybe the car broke, or—or maybe he just forgot, or… (giving it up; Bubbles quiets down) …maybe he hates us. Come on. Let’s try and find our way home. (Bubbles and Buttercup float up o.c., but Blossom stays put. Pause.) Blossom: We’re not supposed to use our powers. (They float back down; all three join hands in a row.) Come on, girls. (They start off down the sidewalk, and the camera pulls back to show just how far away from the city proper they really are. Fade to black.) (Snap to a TV screen on which an anchorman is delivering a news bulletin. Around him are video screens and clocks, and stock prices scroll across the bottom—this is a channel such as CNN, and an onscreen logo identifies it as CTN.) [Note: Though partially cropped out on the DVD, the time displayed on screen is 8:01 p.m.—yet another reference to PPG-801.] CTN anchor: The cause? Three superpowered little girls. (Quick pan to another screen displaying a talk show: Incorrect Politics. The guests: a spike-haired punk who looks rather like 2-D, a member of the animated group Gorillaz; an irritated-looking, thin white woman, a snobbish man, and a fat black woman. The host wears a bad suit and a brush cut.) IP Host: Should the manufacturing of superpowered children be illegal? (Pan to another screen showing the Mayor at his desk.) Mayor: (solemnly) A great travesty has befallen our beloved city. (Pan to another screen, which shows the record shop where the stoners’ van crashed—it is still stuck in the window. A reporter holds a microphone toward them as protesters mill in the background. A news station’s logo—channel 5, KTTVL—is in the bottom corner.) Blond stoner: I was reachin’ down between my legs to ease the seat back, when this atomic punk flies in with no fair warning. (Now the camera moves from screen to screen. IP = Incorrect Politics.)
CTN anchor: The devastation? Devastating. White female IP guest: Of course it should be illegal. Mayor: (now angry) Used to be a time when you could buy an honest pickle! Blond stoner: And they were causin’ an eruption and lightin’ up the sky. CTN anchor: Estimated dollars in damages? A whopping twenty-five million. Punk IP guest: I’m offended just lookin’ at ’em! Mayor: (holding up photos of chalk outlines of cart and pickles) The kind that you can only find at a pickle cart! Blond stoner: (as his friend sobs silently) Now, Jamie’s cryin’. KTTVL reporter: Well, it seems that— CTN anchor: —the hatred is running rampant for— Black IP guest: —those mutant bug-eyed— Mayor: —PICKLE CART-KILLING— KTTVL reporter: (as the blond stoner consoles his friend) —freaks. Back to you, Linda. [Note: The figure quoted by the CTN anchor is actually the movie’s budget.] (Cut to the KTTVL newsroom; two anchors, one male, one female—Linda—are delivering the broadcast.) Linda: (smiling) They are little freaks, aren’t they? With more on this subject is— (Pull back from the collection of screens to show it as part of a display in the window of a TV shop. The girls stand before the lot and watch; cut to a slow pan across them, from Bubbles to Blossom to Buttercup. The disbelief and hurt on their faces are clear enough to be read a mile away Their heads hanging, they shuffle o.c. down the street. Several seconds after they have departed, static flickers across all the screens and gives way to a news flash graphic that looks very much like the one used on Sesame Street. During the following, the camera zooms in slowly on the large TV in the center of the window.) Announcer: We interrupt this program for an important news flash. (A mug shot of a very haggard Professor appears on every screen.) Arrested today in connection with the tag incident was the mad scientist responsible for creating the destructive girls, Professor Utonium. (The report cuts to him in a jail cell; still handcuffed; the door slams shut and he runs to it.) Upon incarceration, the Professor had this statement to make. Professor: Please, just let me go. My girls, they need me. (Fade to black. The Professor’s next several lines, all voice-overs, still sound as if they are coming from a TV.) Professor: They don’t know I’m in jail. (Fade in to the girls as they walk down a ruined street, with trenches cut into the pavement and the building behind them—this is where Blossom crossed the street to double back after Bubbles. Fade to black.) Professor: What if they try to go home themselves? (Fade in to them on a buckled stretch of street—the aftermath of Bubbles’ concrete tsunami. Buttercup leads the way over the dips and peaks. Fade to black.) Professor: They can’t find their way if they don’t fly! (Fade in to a cratered stretch with a trench running down the block. The girls follow this. Fade to black.) Professor: Please, they’re only little girls— (Fade in to a close-up of the mirrored globe. As he continues, the girls’ reflections pass across it, in the order Buttercup, Blossom, Bubbles. None of them looks the slightest bit at ease.) Professor: —who are probably cold…scared…and maybe even…lost. (On this last word, pull back to frame the girls themselves as they continue past the globe. Dissolve to them at the entrance to a parking lot; they stop in time with their next lines.) Buttercup: Well, it’s official. I have no idea where we are. Blossom: Well, I can’t say it’s been the best day. Bubbles: But it probably couldn’t get much worse. (She is immediately proven wrong when a thunderstorm suddenly kicks up, and cries while Buttercup yells in frustration. Blossom waits until both have calmed down.) Blossom: Hey, it’s okay. Maybe there’s a box we can get in around back. (Overhead view of the area; they are outside a damaged Malph’s.) Come on! (She leads them around the building toward the back; a flash of lightning, and they are there.) Blossom: (pointing o.c.) See? There’s a whole bunch of boxes. (She leads them on. Cut to her perspective, approaching a pile of cartons. Just as she reaches then, though, Little Arturo pops out and snarls at her. Back to the girls, who cry out in fear as they find their retreat cut off by Snake and Big Billy. The shadows in which the sisters are standing slowly part to reveal the outline of two skinny, bell-bottomed legs cast by an o.c. figure. The girls are stunned into silence by this emergence, which is revealed as Ace opening the back of a tractor-trailer from inside when the camera cuts to him. He jumps down, straightens up, and regards the girls with malicious glee for a moment as Big Billy and Snake step in behind him.) Ace: (baby talk) Aww, what’s the matter? Did somebody get wost? (The three start to laugh wickedly. The girls, backed up against a fence, look toward the boxes only to see Arturo still among them and joining in the torment. They look in the other direction; cut to their perspective, which shows a clear path between some trucks—but it does not stay clear once Grubber jumps down and blows a healthy raspberry at them. They scream in terror as the camera cuts back to them, with the new arrival’s foot planting itself near the camera.) (Now the view shifts to behind them as he approaches, arms reaching out to seize them and a deranged grin fixed on his face. Just before he gets to them, there is a flash of light and a loud clang. When the view clears, he stands stock-still, his face and tongue slack, and then tumbles to the ground. Something has dealt him a mighty blow—a flying trash can lid, to be exact. Bouncing off walls and fences, it takes out Snake, Billy, Ace, and Arturo, then hurtles toward the girls. It ricochets off the ground just in front of them and sails overhead as they look up at it with relief and delight. Close-up of it as it is caught, then pull back as it is tucked away. The catcher stands on a rooftop and is a short figure in an old trenchcoat and tattered scarf that blows in the wind, with a paper bag on its head. We can see no features other than the narrowed eyes, even when a flash of lightning illuminates it for a moment and exposes a ratty vest under the coat, which is open. The scarf is pulled up to hide everything between the eyes and neck.) (Back to the girls, then to the figure again on the next line. It runs away.) Girls: Wow, than— (The girls again.) Blossom: Hey, wait! Come back! (Their rescuer’s shadow flits across trucks and walls, and the girls follow. Passing through the clutter that lines a path, it is still mostly hidden, but brief flashes of the face seen through gaps in the mess are enough to establish this individual as none other than Jojo; the scarf is purple, the vest blue with stripes. He runs into an open box.) (Cut to the end of the path, the camera pointing back toward the girls as they approach cautiously, looking for some sign of Jojo. Blossom is the first to hit paydirt.) Blossom: Hey, guys, over here! (to the camera) Hi. What’s your name? I’m Blossom. Buttercup: Buttercup. Bubbles: And I’m Bubbles! (Pull back a bit to show blackness surrounding this view—this is Jojo’s perspective from within the darkness of the box’s interior.) Jojo: (morosely) Go away, please. Do not look at me. Blossom: But we just wanted to thank you for saving us from those green gangsters back there. Buttercup: Yeah, that was amazing with the trash can lid! It was all THWOOSH! BANG! SPLASH! BAM! BOOM! Bubbles: Yeah, you rock! (Cut to behind the girls; zoom in slowly. Jojo is still hidden.) Jojo: (from inside box) No, please. (His eyes open.) I dare not listen. For I have been lashed by harsh tongues for too long. Alas, my little ones, I do not rock. For I, Jojo, am…a monster. (A flash of lightning illuminates his face—the first completely clear shot of it since he left the Professor’s lab—and dies away. The girls are not put off by his self-loathing.) Blossom: You’re not a monster. Monsters are evil. Buttercup: Yeah, and anybody who would save us like you did is so not evil. Bubbles: You’re no monster, mister. You’re just really dirty. (Close-up of the box; Jojo has retreated again.) Jojo: (from inside) Please. You’re just trying to make me feel better. But my pain is not for you to understand. (His perspective.) Besides, how could you? For you are pure and innocent and most certainly loved. (The girls trade an uneasy look.) How could you know what it is to be cast out into a world that only offers misery? How could you know what it’s like for people to fear and despise you— (They hang their heads.) –for the very things that make you special— (Head-on view of the box; he continues from inside.) —because you don’t fit in? Because you are… (He leans out of the box, pulling the bag from his head and exposing his brain. Lightning flashes across his visage.) Jojo: …A FREAK?!?! (The girls look sorrowfully back at him.) Blossom: Because… (They float up a distance; cut to their perspective—he looks up, stunned.) …we’re freaks too. (Cut back to ground level, just behind Jojo.) Jojo: What amazing powers! Blossom: No! They’re terrible! Jojo: I bet everyone hates them. Buttercup: Yeah! Jojo: And they hate you too. Bubbles: (small voice) Yes. (He turns away, his eyes tearing up.) Jojo: I am in the same boat. This brain is full of brilliant ideas. But will anyone listen? No. Nothing in this gray matters— (walking back into box) —so what’s the point? (The girls land in front of it.) Bubbles: Oh, Jojo, don’t be sad. (Just inside; the girls are seen around his silhouette, and the rain stops.) Our dad says that sometimes people get angry when they don’t understand something special or unique. (His eyes open—narrowed and calculating; he faces us.) Blossom: And if you just give people time, they’ll start to understand your specialness. Buttercup: Yeah. You just gotta believe in yourself. (He grins nastily.) (Outside the box again; he pokes his head out.) Jojo: (eagerly, rapid fire) You mean, if I take the time to construct my most ingenious plan, the “Help the Town and Make It a Better Place Machine,” then people will come to understand my specialness? Buttercup: Uh… Jojo: Okay! I’ll do it! But I’ll need your help. (Long shot of the volcano in the middle of the park. There is no observatory on its peak. At this distance, neither the girls nor Jojo is visible.) Girls: What?!? (Close-up of the crater, all four at its edge. Jojo has his bag on again and is holding a piece of equipment shaped like a large, thick, stubby pencil. Even though the weather is now calm, his scarf continues to billow under its own power—just like the cape that will ultimately replace it.) Jojo: Jump in, take this device I’ve built into the volcano; we need to harness the energy of the Earth’s core for power. Blossom: What are you talking about? Jojo: The plan. Buttercup: What plan? Jojo: Our plan. Bubbles: To do what? Jojo: To make the town better, of course. Girls: What? Jojo: You know. (pulling out a blueprint) Using my ideas and your powers— (His perspective; he spreads out the plans in front of them. They show the observatory as we now know it, with detailed views of a cluster of globes and a cylindrical enclosure.) [Note; These plans carry the PPG-801 designation, and when Jojo moves his hand, we can see that they were approved by Cartoon Network Studios.] Jojo: —we will build the “Help the Town and Make It a Better Place Machine.” That way, everyone will see that our special abilities are good; then everyone will love us. Remember? It was your idea. Blossom: (uneasily) Uh…oh, yeah! But…use our powers? (Back and forth between Jojo and the girls.) Jojo: Yes! Buttercup: No way! Jojo: Come on. Bubbles: Nuh-uh. We’re never using our powers again. Jojo: Oh, girls, don’t be sad. Your powers are great. You just gotta believe in yourself. (He gives them a calculating, sly grin—the sort they would never trust if they had run into him before this encounter—and they look to each other, then toward the crater. Their images are reflected from the surface of the boiling lava within; from here, the camera tilts up to point across the crater and into the night. After a long moment, a tri-colored light streak flashes down from above and splashes into the volcano. Jojo grins broadly at the sight.) (Inside the volcano, the girls plunge through the lava, holding their breath and hauling the equipment. They go deeper and deeper as the glow from the subterranean heat finally turns pure white and fills the screen. The girls fade into view and let go of their payload, point down; it remains in place, the pointed end opens, and a small platform shoots up from the blunt end. Tethered to the body by a cable, it emerges from the core and zooms toward the surface, with the girls keeping pace.) (Back to the crater; they and the platform emerge, throwing gobbets of lava everywhere. Jojo pays no mind to the hazard, instead jumping for joy.) Jojo: Yes! Yes! Yes! Blossom: We did good? Jojo: You did very good. Very good indeed. Buttercup: Now what do we do? (His perspective of the plans.) Jojo: First we construct the superstructure. (Cut to a frozen wasteland and pan across it as the girls fly into view. They land on a patch of snow and ice beneath which the outline of a large meteorite is dimly visible, then start firing their eye lasers at this. The screen fills with steam from the vaporizing snow; when it clears, the camera has shifted into the hole they have made, which is considerable. They step to the edge and look in for a moment before Buttercup slides down, the camera following. She disappears behind the meteorite, which begins to shake and then lift away from the snow under her efforts.) (Back to Jojo on the crater’s lip; now a support rod protrudes into view from the o.c. platform and is anchored to the interior wall. He gives directions as the camera pulls back to show the girls holding the meteorite above the platform. Other rods anchor it to the crater wall. From here, cut to Blossom and Buttercup in midair, firing their eye lasers toward the space debris as Bubbles holds it. A stream of liquid metal pours down from it to fill an I-beam mold being held in place by Jojo, who is giving more directions.) (Now we see a framework of such beams under construction. Buttercup swings one over so that Bubbles can weld it to another with her eye lasers; pan to Blossom, who is bending another one into an arc to connect with one already in place. She then zaps the joint. Pull back to a long shot of the volcano, which now has the lower portion of what will become the observatory in place.) (Cut to the ocean floor as the girls dive toward it; sunken ships dot the view. They zip among and through several of the wrecks before arriving at a submarine whose windows glow with light, even though there is a large rip in the hull. This is promptly lifted free, and the lights flicker and go out as their source—a school of angler fish, each with a small light on the end of a stalk extending from the head—emerges and swims away.) (Around the sub, the scene dissolves to the night sky; the girls are holding it above the partially completed dome support frame. Jojo calls instructions from its base. Cut to a close-up of Bubbles, now standing on the floor with a beam slung over her shoulder, and pull back to show the sub now held up by her sisters as their boss looks on. She swings the beam, breaking the hull like a piñata and releasing a shower of components. Blossom and Buttercup fly back and forth and catch as many falling pieces as they can, Jojo looks over two of them, and Bubbles watches happily. He plugs two cords together and is rewarded with the glow of vacuum tubes; pull back as the walls and floor in the now-completed dome start to glow green and flash. Main power is functioning, much to the delight of all four. Jojo is at a partially built control panel in the center of the floor, with cables running toward the walls. Long shot of the volcano; now the observatory exterior has taken on its current form, complete with telescope.) (The girls fly away from the city, and the scene dissolves around them to a desert. Flying together in a tight circle, they create a tornado to stir up clouds of sand that fill the screen. These give way to the observatory’s interior, where the sand they picked up during this run lies in drifts near the wall. Jojo directs the girls’ work as they melt the material with their eye lasers; dissolve to them in midair, blowing the molten glass. Each ends up with a large globe that has a thin tube attached.) [Note: There is no dialogue through the preceding six paragraphs, and the girls’ actions are marked only by the occasional musical sound effect.] (Jojo wrenches on a piece of machinery. During the next line, cut to the girls as they attach the globes to a large central hub and heat-seal the joints.) Jojo: (with mounting fervor) Look! Can’t you see our plan is working? Our work is proceeding as planned! At last our lives will be better. (Back to him, standing among a row of metal bases running along the wall. The girls descend into view and each set a bell-jar-shaped glass cover onto a base to create a holding tank such as that seen in the blueprint’s details.) Jojo: At last we will be accepted! (His perspective of the blueprint’s main drawing.) At last our greatest work is comple— (On the end of this, the paper is lowered o.c. to show the interior of the completed observatory. The tanks run around the chamber’s entire perimeter, electrodes fitted to their tops, and floor cables radiate out from center to walls. The assembly of globes, also matching the blueprint’s details, is suspended within a huge globe that hangs above the completed control panel. A cable or tube runs from the underside of this to the top of each tank.) (Back to Jojo and the girls. He is looking intently at the plans.) Jojo: Oops. Blossom: What’s wrong? Jojo: (sweetly) Well, there is one last teeny tiny, itsy bitsy thing we still need. (Close-up of a flask of Chemical X, then pull back to show it in the Professor’s lab. The girls fly into view and stop in front of it; cut to the exterior of the house as they fly out through the front door, then to a long shot of the observatory as they return. It is now the following day. Inside, they stop in front of Jojo and Blossom shows him the flask, freshly purloined from the lab. He smiles and points up; the camera follows as the girls fly to the top of the huge outer globe and set the flask in a socket up there. On the ground, Jojo begins to jump for joy again.) Jojo: Yes! Yes! Yes! Blossom: We did good? Jojo: (as the girls descend) You did very good. Very good indeed. Buttercup: Now what do we do? Jojo: Well, because you’ve done so good, I’ve got a special surprise. (Snap to black, which resolves into the back of Buttercup’s head backing away from the camera. All three girls run toward the entrance of the Townsville Zoo, while Jojo walks behind.) Girls: Yaaaay! (As he moves farther away from the camera, his back comes into view—he is holding a camera behind it. Cut to the girls at a low wall.) Girls: Ohhhh… (Pull back on this; they are outside the elephant pen. Jojo pays no attention to the beasts. Cut to the girls at another wall, with him still not bothering to look.) Girls: Ahhhh… (Again, pull back as they say this to show them now watching a couple of happy seals in a pond. Cut to them at yet another wall, with Jojo still disregarding the sights.) Girls: Ooooh… (Pull back on this to frame an exhibit of lions, then cut to them flying down a path. They stop and squeal happily when they reach a sign indicating that the zebras are nearby, and they zip away in its direction. After a moment, Jojo walks into view from that direction, a quiet smile on his face and only his head and shoulders visible; cut to behind him so that we can now see three puzzled girls tucked under his arms. Pull back to show that they are on the way to Primate Plaza.) (Monkeys hang from a branch behind a fence as the four observe. The girls are enjoying the spectacle, but Jojo seems a bit down in the mouth. His face brightens as he holds up his camera. Cut to his perspective through its viewfinder; he steps back to get them into frame, along with the monkeys, and the view shifts to point over his shoulder at the girls. After a moment, he lowers the camera and waves to one side. His perspective again: they step away, finally moving out of frame altogether and leaving the viewfinder centered on a monkey’s rump. Back to Jojo, who gives a thumbs-up and clicks the shutter release, then to the viewfinder once more. Now only Bubbles and part of Blossom are in frame as the flash goes off. The monkey screeches, claps its hands to its rump, and drops out of sight.) (Another camera-eye view: the girls strike various goofy poses. Pan from them to a couple of baboons, the larger one yelling at the smaller. It stops and runs away when the flash goes off. Cut to yet another silly shot of the girls in the viewfinder, then shift quickly to a large-nosed proboscis monkey sitting in a tree. At the next flash, it tumbles from its perch.) (Normal shot: a few Japanese macaque monkeys sitting in a steaming lagoon. One of them is scratching at another’s fur and eating the lice it picks out. At a flash from the o.c. Jojo’s camera, the one being groomed starts screeching at the lice picker. Now an old orangutan is seen eating an apple; at the next flash, it spits out its mouthful. A small, light-furred monkey makes its way from vine to vine, but falls in fright upon having its picture taken. We next see a quick series of primates and simians, each of which starts in fear and shock when the flash goes off. The tempo of Jojo’s picture taking steadily increases until the subjects are flashing by.) (Cut to the left end of a poster showing the stages of man’s evolution. The girls, all o.c., read the one-word description of each stage as the camera pulls back and pans toward modern man, the seventh drawing at the far right.) Buttercup: Worthless. Blossom: Lame. Bubbles: Stupid. Buttercup: Okay. Blossom: Better. Bubbles: Almost. Girls: Awesome! (Each drawing has a time period under its caption. L to R: 4.5 million BC, 3.5 million BC, 2.5 million BC, 2.1 million BC, 750,000 BC, 250,000 BC, today. The modern man wears a suit and carries a briefcase. Pull back from the poster to frame the girls and Jojo; the girls giggle at the depictions, but he looks away with pure contempt. His eyes suddenly go wide, and the camera pulls back some distance to show what he has seen: a large black gorilla sitting atop a rock. Grinning wickedly, he raises his camera and takes a picture. When the flash subsides, the view has shifted to zoom in quickly on a patch of fur, after which it pulls back to frame the entire creature. It grunts briefly in surprise and starts to scratch at a spot near its shoulder. Extreme close-up of this, moving slowly over to a small electronic component now embedded among the hairs—shot from the camera. It beeps and has a flashing red light, and its shape and details vaguely resemble the braincap that Jojo will ultimately adopt as his headgear.) (Back to Jojo, a satisfied smile on his face; he starts o.c.) Jojo: Come, girls. Our work is fin— (Pull back; he passes the girls, who are watching animals that might be prairie dogs.) —oh, I mean… (Close-up of them; he contnues o.c.) …time to go. Girls: Awwww… (Cut to him walking toward the exit, with them trailing.) Girls: But, Jojo! (They pass a discarded baby rattle on the next lines.) Blossom: We haven’t seen the gazelles! Buttercup: Or the crocodiles! Bubbles: Or the unicorns! (pleading) Just one unico— (She trips over the rattle and ends up flat on her face. A baby is heard crying o.c.; she turns to look for it, and the camera follows her gaze to show a mother and two children—a young boy and said infant—on their way out. She runs after them with the toy.) Bubbles: Excuse me, ma’am. I think you dropped this. (On the end of this line, she reaches the mother; the boy looks at her with loathing writ large. Tilt up to the woman, whose face only shows more of the same. She snatches the rattle away and starts to drag the boy along behind her.) Mother: (contemptuous little snort) I thought the zoo kept all the animals in cages. (Tilt down to the girls; Blossom consoles Bubbles.) Buttercup: (calling after mother) Yeah, well, you’re welcome, lady! Blossom: Don’t listen, Bubbles. (Jojo’s shadow falls over all three.) Jojo: (from o.c.) That’s right, Bubbles. Do not listen. (stepping to them) All of you, deafen yourselves to their heartless words. They do not know that it is their saviors they are speaking to. They are unaware that your actions will have helped change their world forever. (This brightens the girls’ mood quite a bit, and he gathers them up in a hug.) Jojo: Because we have helped the town and made it a better place. Blossom: You think they’ll be surprised? Jojo: Oh, yeah. Buttercup: You think they’ll still be mad at us for playing tag? Jojo: No, they’ll have forgotten all about that. Bubbles: Will they love us? (Tense silence for a moment.) Jojo: Yes. Girls: Really? Jojo: Would I lie to you? (They smile at one another. Fade to black.) (Snap to the exterior of the house that evening. The girls fly toward the front door; cut to inside the living room as they make their entrance.) Blossom: I’m so excited! Buttercup: Yeah, we’ll show ’em! Bubbles: Hey, where’s— (In answer to her unfinished question, the door is kicked open by the cops who took the Professor away. They toss him to the carpet; he is still in cuffs and looking a mess from his time in custody.) Girls: Professor! (They fly to him; Buttercup burns off the cuffs.) Professor: Oh, girls, thank goodness you’re okay. I’m so sorry. I’m a terrible, terrible parent! You must hate me for not picking you up from school. But it’s not my fault. It’s this town. They’ve gone crazy! Oh, it’s like they’ve never seen kids playing before. I knew your powers would take some getting used to— (Close-up of each girl in turn; he continues o.c.) —but jail? Lawsuits? Angry mobs? (Pull back to frame all four.) What’s next? (Long shot of the observatory.) Girls: (voice over) Don’t worry, Professor. Things are gonna get better. (Close-up of Jojo at the control panel inside; he has shed his ragged garments, and red light plays over his malicious smile. He has one hand raised toward an o.c. control.) Girls: (voice over) We promise! (Pull back to frame the entire area; the glass tanks are now full of greenish fluid. He has one finger of the upraised hand extended toward a button on the panel. He presses it; cut to an extreme close-up of the device in the big gorilla’s fur. It starts to beep and flash faster than before, and the camera pulls back to fame the entire beast, sleeping. It suddenly disappears, followed by the orangutan, the macaque in the lagoon, the baboon, and the proboscis monkey. A device can been seen in the fur of each—all fired from Jojo’s camera. The rest of the animals in Primate Plaza quickly disappear as well.) (Back to the observatory, where they start to appear in the tanks, the electrodes connecting to their heads. The devices, then, were designed to transport them here. After all the tanks are filled, Jojo flips a switch and brings the syste to life; the Chemical X drains out of the top flask. The assembly of globes begins to spin, each extending on its connecting tube as some of the black liquid flows into it. Jojo throws a lever and the spinning stops; the globes remain extended. He now works another control, causing sparks to fly among the assembly. The entire area is bathed in lurid green light as the Chemical X vaporizes and is sucked down the tubes—straight into the captives’ tanks. Their faces contort in pain and shock when the doses hit them, and the lights start to crackle and spark throughout the place. Extreme close-up of a tightly closed eye as it pops wide open and its pupil contracts. The exposed skin on faces, hands, feet, chests, even rumps changes from its normal color to the same sickly green as Jojo’s own. The top of one monkey’s skull ruptures, and its brain starts to swell before a flash of white light fills the screen.) (When it subsides, we see an extreme close-up of Jojo. He is laughing madly as red and green lights flash across him; pull back to show that every tank now contains a primate with an overgrown brain and a very mean expression. The camera keeps pulling back out of one of the observatory’s windows, across the rest of the city, and finally into the girls’ bedroom, where they are fast asleep. The laughter echoes through the entire sequence. Fade to black.)
(Opening shot: the room, with them no longer in bed. It is now the following morning.) Girls: (from o.c.) Today’s the day! (They fly into view, not yet having changed out of their nightgowns.) Buttercup: Today’s the day! Blossom: Today’s the day! Bubbles: Today’s— (Cut to Jojo in the observatory; he is still unclothed.) Jojo: —the day! (Cut to a row of the girls’ dresses hanging in a closet and pan along it: pink, then green, then blue, several of each.) Blossom: (from o.c.) What to wear? Buttercup: (from o.c.) What to wear? Bubbles: (from o.c.) What to wear? (Quick pan to a row of outfits that match that worn by Mojo Jojo today. Each blue tunic has its purple cape hanging behind, and above the rack is a shelf of braincaps. This is Jojo’s closet.) Jojo: (from o.c.) Ooh, that’s nice. (Quick series of shots of the following: a stocking being pulled on, a white boot being zipped onto Jojo’s foot, Buttercup’s arm sliding into her dress, Jojo pulling on a white glove, Blossom’s hair clip being snapped on, Jojo’s belt being fastened, Bubbles’ dress being pulled down over her body, Jojo’s braincap being set in place. Now we see a freeze frame of each girl in turn; they are fully dressed, as is Jojo when the camera cuts to a long shot of him and zooms in by steps to an extreme close-up of his eyes.) (Back to the house; the girls burst out of the bedroom and fly toward the camera. Cut to Jojo as he walks away from it. The girls cut a sharp corner around the fireplace chimney. Jojo walks down a ramp to reach floor level. The girls flying through the living room. The ring of tanks, whose occupants are now sleeping, as their captor’s reflection passes along them. The girls stop at a closed door. Jojo steps to his control panel and presses a button marked “ACTIVATE.” This glows red as the camera zooms in on it.) (After the light fills the screen, pull back to show that the scene has changed to the red door of the Professor’s study, seen from inside the room. The girls throw it open and burst in as the camera pulls back again to show him asleep at his desk, phone in hand. He starts to come around on the next line.) Girls: Professor, wake up! Wake— (Pan along the tanks; the mutated monkeys have come to and are looking very angry. On the end of the next line, the camera reaches Jojo and zooms in on him.) Jojo: (from o.c.) —up! Wake up, my brothers! Wake up and seize the— (Back to the study.) Bubbles: —day! Professor: (groggily) The day? (The hallway; they carry him to the front door.) Blossom: Yeah! The day when we— (The observatory door, seen from outside; Jojo opens it and stands in the doorway as his pet projects storm out all around him. As he speaks, pull back to a long shot with monkeys tumbling out all around.) Jojo: —SHOW TOWNSVILLE JUST WHAT OUR POWERS CAN REALLY DO!! (Cut to the girls carrying the Professor up from the house.) Professor: What? Blossom: We’re gonna show Townsville just what our powers can really do. Buttercup: Yeah, we did something really good— Bubbles: —that’s gonna really, really, really, really— (Cut to a city block. The monkeys are socking it to several people, but good. The sky has taken on a bizarre green hue, similar to that seen during the mutation, that casts its tint over everyone and everything in Townsville.) Woman: HEEEELLLLLPPPP!! (Cut back and forth between the family, approaching Townsville, and Jojo.) Bubbles: Well, we met this guy… (He strides through the chaos.) Buttercup: …with powers like us… (He climbs the front steps of Townsville Hall.) Blossom: …who was also hated by everybody. (He approaches the building.) Bubbles: But he had this great idea… (Now inside, he walks the front corridor; aides are in a panic.) Buttercup: …to help the town… (Inside the Mayor’s office; Jojo bursts in.) Blossom: …and make it a better place. (He leans over the desk; the little man cowers and sweats.) Bubbles: That way the town would accept us… (The Mayor is held aloft before a crowd of monkeys outside…) Buttercup: …’cause we did something to help. (…and then thrown to the ground.) Blossom: So we used all our powers… (The big gorilla hoists a squad car overhead as people watch in fear.) Bubbles: …and abilities… (Other monkeys torment a fleeing group of people.) Buttercup: …and his ideas… (Several monkeys stare down other terrified residents.) Blossom: …to help everybody. (Jojo addresses the hordes.) Jojo: City of Townsville! Buttercup: It’s gonna be so cool! Jojo: I’d like to take this moment… (A new pattern: alternate between the girls’ perspective and the city mayhem.) Blossom: You’re gonna be so proud! (Jojo has a foot resting on the supine Mayor.) Jojo: …to thank the little people… Bubbles: Everyone’s gonna love us. (Jojo watches the monkeys do their thing; cut away from him as he speaks.) Jojo: …who helped make this day a smashing success! (Back to the girls, now flying through the city.) Girls: We did really… (suddenly stunned, as is Professor) …good? (Pull back quickly down several blocks and drop to ground level to show the street jammed with crazed monkeys as far as the eye can see. Stop, do a 180-degree turn, and zoom in quickly on the end of the street, where Townsville Hall stands. When the turn occurs, it appears as if one of the monkeys grabs the camera and spins it around. The zoom stops on Jojo, who is still using the Mayor as a footstool.) Jojo: Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup! I couldn’t have done it without you! (All three gape open-mouthed at their discovery of this fact—that their seeming friend and fellow traveler is responsible for the madness that now reigns supreme. As they fly the Professor down the street, various townspeople hurl insults up at them.) Voices: It’s their fault!…I knew they were no good! (Jojo only laughs long and loud at the havoc. By this time, the girls have reached the steps of Townsville Hall and left the Professor at their base.) Blossom: Jojo, what happened? Bubbles: This isn’t making the town a better place! Jojo: Yes, it is—for me! The hobo fo-mo-ly known as Jojo is no mo’! From this day fo-wo’d, I shall be known as…MOJO JOJO!! (Now Mojo Jojo is named as we know him today. For the benefit of those who want a translation, his line is, “The hobo formerly known as Jojo is no more! From this day forward…” etc. The girls gasp in shock; cut to the primates running amok.) Jojo (Mojo): (from o.c.) For too long, apes and monkeys have been under the thumb of man. Well. the time has come— (Close-up of one upraised hand, thumb extended.) —to oppose that thumb— (Pull back; he is in the background of the scene.) —and take hold of what is rightfully ours! (Back to him.) THE WORLD!! (The girls face the Professor, who is now at the top of the steps.) Girls: Professor! (He collapses to his knees.) We didn’t want this! Various townspeople: Liars!…Fibbers!…You’ve doomed us all! (Close-up of the Professor, his mind reeling.) Blossom: (from o.c.) Please, Professor. (He raises his head; cut to them.) Please believe us. (Tilt down from them to point toward the street—his perspective—and then cut back to him. He tries to sort out the situation for some moments before speaking again.) Professor: (softly) I don’t know who to believe. (The girls gasp.) I thought you were good. (Long shot of the skyline; the girls rocket straight up from it into space, the camera following.) Girls: NOOOOOOOO!! (After their light trails fade, the screen is completely black. Tilt down quickly to Mojo, now holding the Mayor in the air and waving him around.) Mojo: Yeah! Woo! All right! (spiking Mayor like a football) I rock! I rock so hard. For I, Mojo Jojo, have succeeded in my first, greatest, and most brilliant plan ever! And I, Mojo Jojo, shall be…KING OF THE PLANET OF THE APES!! (His arms raised, he silently revels in his triumph for a few seconds—but it is broken by a British voice, the sort you might associate with a stuffy old gent in Victorian times. We cannot see the speaker due to Mojo’s arms. By this point, he again has a foot on the Mayor.) British voice: You shall be king? (Mojo lowers his arms, and the camera zooms in on the speaker: the old orangutan from the zoo.) Orangutan: Preposterous! Mojo: What?! How dare you! (Back to the upstart on the end of this.) Orangutan: (putting on a Mojo outfit) For it is I who is the one most suited to be ruler. Mojo: (taken aback) Those are my clothes! Orangutan: I, Ojo Tango, shall be simian supreme! (He stands atop some machine.) Mojo: No Ojo, Mojo! (Back to the upstart; as he continues; he climbs down into the machine, a hatch closing behind him. This is a large, tank-treaded vehicle with two side-mounted cannons, which are pointed straight down so that it can balance on them. It throws its weight ahead, lands on its treads, and points the cannons forward.) Orangutan (Ojo): As I unleash the offensive omnipotence of the oppressive Orango-Tank! (Cut to the big black gorilla.) Gorilla: Hold on! Mojo: Oh, no! (Close-up of the gorilla’s hand, a steel glove being pulled onto it.) Gorilla: (from o.c.) It is I who shall get a grip on the situation! Mojo: You better not! (Back to the gorilla, now wearing a Mojo outfit with the steel gloves.) Gorilla: As I, Rocko Socko, seize control and rule! (He punches a hole in a building.) Mojo: Wait! (Now we see yet more of Mojo’s clothing inhabited by the baboon. From here on in, every monkey will be dressed in this fashion.) Baboon: I, Baboon Kaboom, with my Baboom-Bot, will be da bomb! (He leaps into the aforementioned contraption as he says this; it is a large robot in the shape of a baboon, with a red-and-white striped pipe sticking out from the rear end, and it stands on a rooftop.) Mojo: (scared) Uh-oh. (Back to the robot, zooming in on the tailpipe.) Baboon (Baboon): (from inside) And if you don’t like it… (One of the hands reaches back and catches three bombs as they are ejected from the pipe. These are thrown down toward the street.) Baboon: (from inside) …you can sniff my Baboom-Bot bombs! (They explode, bathing the creation in a nightmarish glare. Mojo is rather unimpressed by the display.) Mojo: (sarcastically) Oh, that’s classy. (Now a large barrel rolls down the street; the crowds have backed off to one side or the other to make room. Many voices speak from inside.) Unison voices: Gangway, gangway! (The barrel stops, flips upright, and splits in half around its circumference. The top end pops off and flips over before landing on the ground, so that both halves are open to the air. The speakers, a great many small monkeys, jump out. Their arms are curved as in the old “barrel of monkeys” game, and they look like the one that was swinging from vine to vine.) Small monkeys: For we, the Go-Go Po-Trol, as brothers in arms, are linked to form a chain of command that will reach out and take hold of your world! (On this line, they link their arms together and form a long chain that snakes among the buildings before finally securing itself to the top of a skyscraper. Cut to the macaque that was having lice picked off; it speaks in a Japanese accent and sits in a bubbling pool.) Macaque: I, Hota Wata, am boiling mad, for you are all wet behind the ears. (As he says this, pull back a bit to show some heaters submerged in the water, then again—far enough to put him out of view—to reveal the water as being held back by a large dam that towers over the city at a distance. An explosion causes the structure to start crumbling. The streets are quickly flooded, the deluge carrying its instigator along.) Macaque (Hota): Therefore I shall unleash a scalding torrent to drown you all out, for I don’t give a— Mojo: Watch your mouth! (Extreme close-up of a monkey whose voice and facial movements seem very mechanical, as if a toy.) “Toy” monkey: I, Cha-Ching Cha-Ching— (Pull back; this one stands atop a spire and holds a pair of cymbals, again as if a toy.) —symbolize chaotic calamity! (He slams the cymbals together, sending out shock waves. Cut to a group of flying monkeys with jet packs on their backs.) Flying monkeys: We, the Doot-da-Doot-da-Doo-Doos, shall rain on your parade, because… (They sing their name to the tune of the theme for the Wicked Witch of the West, from The Wizard of Oz. They all hock up loogies and let them fly toward the street; quick tilt down to several disgusted people as they are hit.) Flying monkeys (Doo-Doos): (from o.c.) …we’re the spit! Mojo: Ewww! (Cut to the proboscis monkey, standing amid bunches of bananas on an outdoor produce stand. This one sounds more than a bit like Jimmy Durante, “singing” in time to the background music.) Proboscis monkey: My name is Hacha Chacha, and here is my spiel, A diabolical pan with lots of ap-peel. (Pull back; peels litter the sidewalk.) Spreadin’ out bananas far and wide, And fixin’ up the folks for a slippery slide! (A couple of people do just that on the last line. “Spiel” takes the German pronunciation, with the S sounding like “sh.”) Mayor: That’s pretty catchy. (Mojo glares down at him; cut to a skinny monkey who is looking all around himself nervously.) Skinny monkey: (stuttering throughout) I, Blah-Blah Blah-Blah— (Quick pan to a hot plate; he pours tomato sauce into a pot on it, with empty jars all around.) —shall, uh, create a sauce of chaos— (Another pan, he wheels the hot plate through the street and stirs the pot, and a funnel cloud emerges.) —and stir up trouble— (Quick pan ahead to a few buildings; the tomato typhoon starts to rip them apart.) Skinny monkey (Blah-Blah): (from o.c., still stuttering) —with a destructive force known as…the Tormato! (He rhymes this last with the American pronunciation of “tomato.”) Mojo: Tor-mah-to. Mayor: Tor-may-to. (Mojo glares angrily down at him again, then kicks him for distance.) Mayor: Whoo-hoo! (Quick pan to a monkey driving a two-wheeled vehicle with a large drill bit mounted in front.) Monkey 1: I, Killa Drilla! (Another runs down the street, delivering headbutts.) Monkey 2: I, Bonzo Bango! (A very fat one rolls over people.) Monkey 3: I, Rolo Ovo! (A small one bites someone’s thumb.) Monkey 4: I, Cruncha Muncha! (One slaps a young man’s face.) Monkey 5: I, Wacko Smacko! (An old one in a tattered outfit slaps a senior citizen.) Monkey 6: I, Pappy Whappy! (Now we see a quick series of shots of various other monkeys, each of whom cries out, “I!”—more pretenders to the throne. The tempo steadily accelerates through this sequence, during which the ambient light goes from green to yellow and finally red. Finally the camera cuts to a long shot of Mojo and zooms in quickly. He has had entirely too much of this.) Mojo: NOOOOOOOO!! Stop! Cease! Desist! Do not continue with your ramblings, for my ramblings are the ramblings to be obeyed, for I am the king, supreme leader, and all-around dictator! Don’t you see?! All you monkeys are my plan! So your plans are my plans, because you made plans and my plan was to make you! I plan to rule the planet, not to have my plans plan to stop me! (Pull back to put him in the background and the stunned Professor in the fore.) I am your creator! I am your king! (running forward, shoving him aside) I am Mojo Jojo! OBEY ME!! (Cut to outer space; everything goes quiet. The camera starts to move through the void, passing various bits of rock and debris to zero in on a particular asteroid. As it does so, a sound gradually makes itself heard—very faint at first, then louder: it is Bubbles, crying her oversized eyes out. Think back to “All Chalked Up” and you have the idea. After the camera reaches the asteroid, dissolve to her on its surface and pan slowly across the barren landscape, the crying fading away for now. Next we see Blossom, who is sitting dejectedly on a small rock, and finally Buttercup at the far side.) Buttercup: (kicking up dust) That jerk. That big fat dumb jerk. He duped us! He planned it all along and we fell for it! (Back to Bubbles.) Bubbles: (still crying) And now everybody hates us even more! (The sound of scratching causes her to look in Buttercup’s direction; she calms down.) Bubbles: What are you doing? (Pan to her sister, digging around near some rocks.) Buttercup: What does it look like I’m doing? I’m building a house, ’cause now we have to live here! Bubbles: Live here? Buttercup: Yeah. Don’t you see? This can be the bedroom— (pointing to one rock) —and this is my bed. (She flops down, resting her head against it, and points toward another rock.) Buttercup: That can be your bed over there. (Pause.) Bubbles: I don’t wanna sleep on a rock! (She cries a bit more as the camera pulls back to put Blossom in the fore.) Blossom: (accusingly) Maybe if someone hadn’t pushed Bubbles into the school… Buttercup: (sarcastically) Oh, look. She speaks. (taking Blossom’s tone, walking to her) Well, maybe if somebody hadn’t insisted on walking home from school so’s we could run into the BIGGEST LIAR IN THE UNIVERSE!! Blossom: We weren’t allowed to use our powers, and you know it! (Bubbles watches the argument from a distance; zoon in on her, putting them out of view, on the next line.) Buttercup: Oh, look. It’s Miss Goody-Goody. (Pull back to frame all three and pan to Buttercup on the next line.) Blossom: What was I supposed to do? We weren’t gonna get people to stop hating us by breaking rules. Buttercup: Oh, yeah. And using our superpowers to make a “Help the Town and Make It a Better Place Machine”… (Pull back into space; we cannot see her from here.) …WAS FOLLOWING RULES?!? (She crosses her eyes and takes on a particularly nasty tone when she says the name of the “Machine.” Back to the asteroid’s surface.) Blossom: I didn’t see you putting up a fight! Buttercup: Well, you’re gonna now! (She hurls herself at Blossom; the two tumble back and forth across the screen. Bubbles stands back and watches the scuffle, her back to the camera.) Blossom: (as they roll around) Well, if it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t be in this stupid mess!…You stupid…! (Bubbles drops to her knees; long shot of her as she starts wailing all over again. Buttercup slams down in the foreground so that all we see is an extreme close-up of her head and arms. She is on her stomach and struggles to rise, but is unable to do so after some moments. She stops briefly, then screams and pounds her fists against the ground; pull back to show Blossom sitting on her. By this point, Bubbles’ crying is no longer heard.) Blossom: I’m not fighting with you, Buttercup. Buttercup: Oh, yeah, ’cause you know I’ll kick your butt. Blossom: (standing up) No, because I know…oh, never mind. (Pull back to frame both; they stand well apart.) I’m not fighting with you. And I’m not talking to you…EVER!! Buttercup: Well, prepare yourself for a long silence, girl, ’cause we’re gonna spend the rest of our lives here thanks to you. (On the end of this line, cut to Blossom; she steps away a bit and sits down, her back to Buttercup’s shadow. Back to the latter.) Buttercup: At least I got me a bed! (She flops down again and rests her head on a rock.) (Blossom sits silently, her face frozen in righteous anger and her head down, but after a moment her expression softens and she looks sadly into the cosmos—toward Earth, in fact..Her eyes betray the indecision that is tearing her down the middle; to try to escape it, she turns her face away from the sight and covers her eyes. Long shot of her, panning across to Buttercup and then Bubbles, who is crying a little again; the camera then zooms in on her. She suddenly stops crying and looks up with concern. The slight bit of background noise begins to grow at this point and on each successive asteroid shot.) Bubbles: Blossom? Buttercup? (Pull back to frame them all.) Do you hear that? (In Townsville, people flee in panic before the advance of Killa Drilla’s machine. The sky has gone green again. Back to an empty stretch of the asteroid.) Buttercup: (from o.c.) No! (Cut to Bubbles.) Bubbles: Blossom, what should we do? (Blossom has no immediate answer to this. In Townsville. Rocko Socko stands in an intersection and pounds his open hands against the pavement, causing buildings and people to jump. Ojo’s Orango-Tank rolls through the streets and fires missiles from its cannons, destroying a building at the end of the block. More fleeing on the part of the townspeople, naturally. Back to the asteroid, where Buttercup has not moved from her “bed.”) Buttercup: I bet Miss Goody-Goody’ll say we should take responsibility for our mistakes and go help everybody. (This stings Blossom a bit; she looks up remorsefully.) Bubbles: It sounds like they’re hurting. Buttercup: Who cares? (In Townsville, the flood released by Hota sweeps through the streets as people try to avoid being drowned, and Cruncha Muncha leaps at a woman. Blah-Blah’s Tormato tears into buildings, leaving only their structural ironwork standing. The asteroid again.) Bubbles: (near tears again) What do we do? Buttercup: Nothing! (Back and forth between Townsville and the asteroid; now we can hear the screams even up here. The city sky has turned red again. All the monkeys are getting into the act, but Mojo turns his back on the scene. Bubbles covers her eyes. Mojo walks toward Townsville Hall. Buttercup has her hands over her ears. Mojo approaches the Professor, still sprawled out on the ground after being pushed aside. Blossom covers her mouth. The Professor finds himself in Mojo’s shadow and looks up with abject fear. All three girls sit in a row, recreating the “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” monkeys’ pose, but Blossom and Buttercup have reversed positions relative to their simian counterparts. Mojo grabs the Professor by the throat; the latter lets out a strangled little grunt, which is enough to finally snap the girls out of their deep blue funk.) Girls: Professor! (Back to Townsille, the buildings half wrecked and in flames. A great flash of light tears the sky for an instant, and the girls emerge from this and go full tilt through the streets.) Girls: Professor! Professor! Professor! (The Orango-Tank fires at a statue of the Mayor on horseback—name: “Ye Olde Grey Mare”—and hits the base, causing it to start toppling. Bubbles looks aside from the headlong charge, her jaw dropping in shock; the statue is about to fall on a street full of panicked people. Among them is a blond woman who stumbles to the ground. Bubbles holds her course, then sees that the woman lies screaming in the statue’s shadow and is about to be crushed.) Blond woman: HEEEELLLLPPPP!! (Bubbles can take it no longer and peels off.) Blossom: Bubbles, wait! (Bubbles zips the woman away an instant before the statue crashes down to the street, then carries her along as the others catch up.) Blossom: Good job, Bubbles, but we really gotta save— Blond woman: (pointing down left) That baby! (Close-up of the child in question; it is in a carriage and holding a lit bomb from the Baboom-Bot. Pull back to show the carriage sitting directly under the rig’s tailpipe, which has already littered the block with bombs and is ejecting still more. Back to the girls and the blond woman.) Blossom: Holy—! (Now she is the one to break formation, diving on the carriage. The screen fills with explosions, from which she emerges carrying the baby—just in the nick of time. Back to her sisters and the woman.) Buttercup: Hey, what about— Blond woman: (pointing down right) That dog! (A small black and white canine, immediately recognizable as the Talking Dog, is being swept along in the flood. Hota, floating nearby, shoves his head under water.) Buttercup: Whoa! (She dives, leaving Bubbles flying alone with the woman in tow, and plunges into the water. The Talking Dog sinks slowly as various pieces of detritus drift around him. Back on the surface, she emerges behind Hota’s back, pooch in hand, and carries him off. Cut to a rooftop, where Bubbles has set the woman down.) [Note; One of the items in the flood is a can of Dapper Dan pomade—the brand favored by Ulysses Everett McGill in O Brother, Where Art Thou?] Bubbles: You’ll be safe now. (Blossom arrives and hands over the baby.) Blossom: Here you go, miss. Blond woman: Oh, thank you! Blossom: Come on, Bubbles, let’s… (On the end of this, cut to a screaming couple in a car. The windshield cracks; pull back to show Rocko holding the car aloft and squeezing it. Next a panicked man is seen in a phone booth; this time, when the camera pulls back, it is the Orango-Tank that poses the threat. It is standing on its cannons over the booth and looking as if to crush it. Overhead view of the rooftop, pulling back as Blossom and Bubbles fly up from it.) Blossom: …save those people! (They fly o.c.) Blond woman: Wait! This isn’t my baby! (Buttercup zips along and sets the Talking Dog down in a clear spot.) Buttercup: (out of breath) Good dog. (She takes off.) (He watches her leave as the Go-Go Po-Trol’s barrel thunders toward him; she flies up from the buildings.) Buttercup: Can we find the Professor now, please? (The barrel’s rumbling draws her attention; she looks down to see the Talking Dog shaking himself dry and not taking any notice of his impending doom.) Buttercup: Aw, man! (She zips down again.) (Bubbles yanks the car out of Rocko’s grasp, and Blossom pulls the phone booth away just before the Orango-Tank slams back to earth. Meanwhile, Buttercup whisks the Talking Dog to safety with no time to spare. Bubbles carries the car through the ranks of Doo-Doos, then looks down in surprise. She immediately zigzags through the ranks while Blossom finds herself in the midst of a storm of flying debris and people— all being sucked into the Tormato—and moves in for the rescue. Buttercup, meanwhile, has deposited the Talking Dog on a clear sidewalk.) Buttercup: (angrily) Now stay! (She takes off.) (She goes straight up the side of the building, the camera following as far as the roof—it is the CTN headquarters. Pull back to a rooftop across the street, where Cha-Ching Cha-Ching stands with cymbals poised. He claps them together three times, creating shock waves that cause the building’s expansive windows to vibrate and then shatter. The sound catches Buttercup by surprise; now there are glass shards raining down all around the Talking Dog, who is absolutely unmindful of the deadly shower.) Buttercup: Dog-gone it! (She zips down a third time.) (Once again she rescues the dog, only a split second before a great deal of glass peppers the spot. Bubbles has now got a great many people in tow; they are clinging to the car she freed from Rocko’s grip. Blossom is doing likewise, hauling the phone booth and a lot of other unfortunates along with it. Buttercup flies high and still has her charge; she blows a raspberry toward her sisters, but gets it cut off and drops her load when she runs into the linked arms of a chain of Go-Go’s. The dog plummets toward the street; Buttercup screams and barrels down after him, but Rocko snaps him out of the air first.) (When she reaches ground level, she finds the big gorilla squeezing him in those steel gloves. She screams in complete frustration—how can one dog be so much trouble?—and charges. Blossom and Buttercup, meanwhile, have now delivered their passengers to safety in a calm area. Both look and sound completely exhausted.) Blossom: Okay. You should be safe here. (to Bubbles) Oh, this is hopeless! Bubbles: I know. There’s too many monkeys! What can we do to— (The o.c. Buttercup’s scream catches them off guard; back to her. She is straining to pry Rocko’s fingers open.) Buttercup: Get your hands off him, you darn dirty ape! (She gathers herself for a mighty blow and does not disappoint, sending Rocko flying and knocking his gloves off. He sails the full length of the street, slams back first into a building, and sticks there for a moment before crashing senseless to the pavement in front of Buttercup. Her sisters swoop down to see what has happened and are completely taken aback by it, gasping in shock. Buttercup claps her hands to her mouth and is at a loss for words for a moment.) Buttercup: (nervous, stuttering throughout) I didn’t mean it! (Cut to Blossom; she continues o.c.) It was a—it was an accident! (Overhead view of Rocko.) I…he wouldn’t let go! (Back to Blossom, who looks off in an other direction.) And the dog! (Cut to the gloves, which are still clenched into fists around the Talking Dog. On the next line, he frees himself, jumps down, and urinates on them.) Buttercup: (from o.c.) That stupid dog! And then the monkeys, and he— (She yells in frustration, back to Blossom.) I couldn’t… (Blossom suddenly has a brainstorm.) …and he couldn’t…I…oh, man! Blossom: Buttercup! (Overhead view of her.) Buttercup: I-I-I… Blossom: (from o.c.) You’re a GENIUS! Buttercup: (completely bewildered) I am? (Pull back to frame all three.) Bubbles: She is? Blossom: Yeah! The one way to stop the monkeys, save the town, and find the Professor is to use our powers to— (Cut to the people who were saved earlier. They now scream in fear as the Orango-Tank towers over them and prepares to turn them into jelly. Back to the girls, who gasp in shock.) Blossom: Better yet, watch! (She charges straight at Ojo’s vehicle and angles herself for a flying kick. It connects with the head portion and sends the whole thing off balance to topple backward as the people run for their lives. Freeze frame for a moment, after which she rushes in between the collapsing Orango-Tank’s cannons, does a screaming U-turn to come overhead, and lands in front as the thing crashes to the ground and explodes. She stands in the infernal glare as the camera pulls back to show Bubbles and Buttercup looking on.) Buttercup: Wow! Bubbles: That was ama— (Spittle starts to rain down on them.) Hey! (In the sky, the Doo-Doos have gone on the offensive. Back to Bubbles on the next line.) Bubbles: Eww, gross! Cut it out! (She fires a burst from her eye lasers and hits one of them. His jet pack malfunctions, sending him veering crazily off course, and then explodes. Back to ground level, where the girls soon find themselves standing amid a barrage of falling monkeys—the blast wiped out the whole squadron.) Blossom: Come on, girls! Let’s put an end to this gorilla warfare! (They take off.) (Cha-Ching is still on his rooftop and banging those cymbals, but the girls fly in behind him and put an end to the racket in short order; Bubbles lands the final blow to send him up. Cut to Mojo, who still has the Professor by the throat, as Cha-Ching goes flying.) Blossom: (from o.c.) Ha-ha! Good one, Bubbles! (The defeated monkey crashes down.) Professor: Girl— (Mojo puts a hand over his mouth.) Mojo: Shut up! I was afraid of this. They’ve returned and found out just what their powers can really do. (Cut to Cha-Ching on the end of this, then back to Mojo as he drags the Professor off.) Come! You will make a good power-proof vest! (The flood washes around a corner as the girls land ahead of it and start digging into the pavement for all they are worth. Clouds of dust fly up; when they clear, the camera is now in the sewer with the girls—they have made a hole clear through the pavement. Overhead view of the ehole; they fly out just before the water pours into it, carrying Hota down the drain. The sound of a toilet flushing punctuates his departure.) (The Baboom-Bot leaps along, smashing buildings and releasing a shower of bombs. Blossom and Bubbles zip in and grab one hand each to pin the contraption to the pavement. However, the body swivels about the shoulders to point its tailpipe at them. Inside, Baboon watches a monitor on which their images are shown, and adjusts the controls to put a set of crosshairs on them. He gets his target lock and presses a button on a lever marked “BM”; close-up of the pipe as its red stripes start to pulsate and it warms up. Buttercup rushes in and starts to fly in tight circles around it, twisting it up. It starts to glow white, and inside the cockpit, Baboon starts in shock at the red alarm lights and the reading on his monitor: “B.M. BLOWOUT.” The Baboom-Bot blows itself to kingdom come due to the bombs that cannot be launched, and the girls flee the scene.) [Animation goof; On the monitor, the two girls stand on the pavement, not on the robot’s hands.] (Now a chain of linked Go-Go’s threads among the buildings. Close-up of the free hand of the end monkey; it is suddenly grabbed by one of the girls—Buttercup, to be exact, as we see when the camera pulls back. That monkey gives her a sheepish grin, which has absolutely no effect on her, as she proceeds to crack the entire chain like a giant whip. They slam into the street and buildings, knocked out.) (Blossom has caught the end Go-Go of another chain by his tunic and is pulling him up as hard as she can, straining the arms of all of them. When they can take no more, she lets go—and they all snap back like a huge rubber band to hit their anchor point, a streetlight. Bubbles comes into view with a third group and uses them as a jump rope as she makes her way down the block.) (At the fruit stand, Hacha Chacha has eaten all the bananas but one—which he is working on right now—and dumped their peels everywhere. He is knocked into the air by Buttercup, then spiked by Bubbles to crash down amid the peels. Banana mush flies everywhere; when it clears, he has been knocked silly and gotten another visitor: Blossom, who smacks him away to skid down the street on his own peels.) (Blah-Blah’s Tormato is still running wild, and he is still stirring the pot on his mobile hot plate to keep it going. Blossom lands and runs alongside him for a bit before snatching the mixer away. The funnel cloud disintegrates into a mess of tomato sauce, and she lets him have it. He fetches up against a building and collapses into a swamp of sauce.) (Rolo Ovo is on the move, rumbling down the street like an overgrown bowling ball—but not for long, as Buttercup charges and delivers a place kick that causes him to go airborne. Now Killa trains his drill on Blossom, who grabs its bit and stops the whole machine dead for a moment. With the bit unable to move, the rear portion in which Killa sits starts to rotate at a speed that would redline any muscle car. After a few vertigo-inducing seconds, he is thrown free.) (Cruncha leaps for an attack, but finds Bubbles in his way. His eyes go wide as if to say, “No, please, anything but that,” and then she catches him. Iinstead of beating the tar out of him, though, she hugs him happily and swings him back and forth. When she stops, she finds to her dismay that he has gone limp in her arms—she may literally have loved him to death.) (The girls start taking out the other monkeys in a series of shots whose tempo steadily increases until the images are flashing by almost too fast to follow. After a good ten seconds of this, they rear up for a final triple strike, which connects in a flash of brilliant white light and a shower of stars. The screen clears to show the monkeys tumbling every which way, all down for the count. Blossom and Buttercup land in front of the carnage.) Buttercup: None of those stupid monkeys had Professor! (Bubbles lands.) Bubbles: Where could he be? Blossom: Take a good guess! (Long shot of the observatory, the buildings around it in flames, and zoom in quickly on the entrance. Mojo drags the Professor toward the central chamber, and several doors slam shut behind him as he goes. Back to the girls.) Blossom: Come on, girls. We’ve got one last monkey to get off our backs! (They take off.) (The camera shifts to ride along with them as they approach the observatory and smash through every door, then to inside the chamber as they breach the last one.) Girls: Not so fast… (Quick pan to Mojo, who now has the Professor in a choke hold with one arm and the other braced against the side of the man’s head—one good shove could break his neck.) Girls: (from o.c.) …Mojo Jojo! Mojo: (baby talk) Aww, wook at the wittle hewoes here to save their daddy. Professor: (strangled) No, girls! Save yourselves! (The girls charge, one by one.) Bubbles: Sorry, Professor! Buttercup: We can take this chump chimp down easy! Blossom: Nothing he can do can stop us! (Mojo’s only response is to push against the Professor’s head, but this is enough to bring the girls up short; they gasp sharply at what he has almost done. He resumes his normal tone.) Mojo: That’s better. (Extreme close-up of them, very angry; pan across as he continues o.c.) It’s good you little freaks know when you’re beaten. (Pull back, he drags the Professor away.) Now if you’ll excuse me, I, Mojo Jojo, have a town to take over. (reaching controls, working them) I have a world to rule. I have to seize control of an area and force its inhabitants to follow my way of thinking! (The globe assembly spins to life, Mojo presses a button, and Chemical X drains into the apparatus from above as before. More buttons, and the globes are filled. Now he reaches up for another piece of equipment.) Mojo: Even if it means… (What he now has is a large needle, which he smashes through his braincap and stabs into his gray matter.) Mojo: …TAKING EXTREME MEASURES!! (The Professor looks up at him with undiluted fear—“please tell me he’s not about to do what I think he is!”—and the girls gasp, sharing that emotion.) Girls: You wouldn’t! Mojo: I would! (He throws a switch, bringing the rig to life, and the Chemical X in all the globes drains down through the needle in Mojo’s brain as the lights start to flash. His body starts to grow out of all previous simian proportions, his clothes tearing to shreds and the remains of his braincap crumbling away, and he lets loose the same cries and screams that the other monkeys voiced when they went through this process. As the girls, frozen in shock, the mutation continues and he smashes several tanks. His lower teeth have now become long incisors, his squeezed-shut eyes rest in deep sockets, and he continues to grow until his head breaks through the observatory’s dome. The Professor is dropped screaming to the floor.) Bubbles: Professor! (Blossom flies up and catches him with an assist from Bubbles, while Buttercup positions herself between them and a shower of rubble that buries them all. One last bolt clinks down on top of the pile. Cut to outside, with the monstrous Mojo standing up through the hole in the dome and raising his arms in triumph. He is now so large that his entire upper body is visible, and we can now see his open eyes, which have white irises and red pinpoint pupils. His voice is now rather deeper than before and booms out over the city. The sky has darkened into evening.) Mojo: Now I am mo’ Mojo than befo’! (Translation: “Now I am more Mojo than before.” Pull back quickly to show the devastation that surrounds the volcano; he takes a single leap and lands near the camera, then takes another one and lands on a street. He stalks off among the buildings, stomping through the wreckage of the Baboom-Bot, and reaches Townsville Hall. Standing behind it, he addresses the swarms of beaten monkeys.) Mojo: Now, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, I, Mojo Jojo, have succeeded in my first, greatest, and most brilliant plan ever! (On the end of this, he tears the building’s dome loose and sets it on his head for a new braincap.) Mojo: And I, Mojo Jojo, shall be king! (Back to the ruined observatory. There is no sound but the wind whistling through the remains of the dome, but after a moment the pile of rubble on the floor is lifted away. Buttercup has it in hand, revealing a large hole underneath, and throws the mess aside. Blossom and Bubbles bring the Professor up to the surface.) Professor: (gasping, hugging them) Oh, girls, thank goodness you’re okay. (carrying them o.c.) Now let’s get out of this town and find a new safe place to live! (Cut to Buttercup in midair and pan to each in turn; they have pulled away from him.) Buttercup: It’s no use, Professor. Bubbles: We already tried running away. Blossom: We have to fix the problem we helped start. You said to give everyone a little time to understand our specialness. Well, now it’s time for everyone to understand—especially Mojo! (With that, they are off into the night. The Professor looks into the sooty sky after them; cut to a long shot of the observatory, their light trails briefly forming a rainbow that connects it to the rest of the town. After it has faded, back to him. He smiles proudly as a tear comes to his eye.) (The camera roves quickly through the streets—the girls’ perspective—and finally homes in on Mojo, who has uprooted a streetlight and stuck it into a window. He brings it out with several people clinging to it and prepares to bite them off. Before he can do so, the screen fills with the girls’ impact and then clears to show him knocked to the ground and holding a hand to his jaw. He has lost the streetlight.) Blossom: (from o.c., distant) Surrender now and we’ll go easy on you! (He works his jaw back into position and looks about himself, trying to figure out where the girls are. Their location is ground level, on the street right in front of him. Bubbles holds the streetlight as the people gratefully climb off and run away.) Blossom: Down here! (He bends down to them.) Mojo: Oh, my! You’re actually trying to stop me? That’s so cute! Bubbles: Try, nothing! Blossom: We will stop you! Buttercup: Who are you calling cute? (Mojo stands up and laughs.) Mojo: Okay, let’s play! (He aims a punch down at the girls, but they dodge it and light into him: Blossom with an uppercut, Buttercup with a body blow, Bubbles by smashing the streetlight over his nose. He swats at her but gets only a handful of air; the others also dodge his swipes easily. Now all three dart around him like pesky mosquitoes as he tries to knock them down, repeatedly missing them but wrecking a building instead. Blossom and Bubbles each fly into one ear, then deliver a strike inside his head that sets it ringing like a churchbell.) (Buttercup gets around back and socks him in the rump, propelling him off his feet with his hands clapped to the sore spot. She laughs at his cries of pain, but promptly finds herself underneath one of his huge feet. Her sisters fly overhead.) Blossom: Buttercup! (He catches them with a mighty punch that knocks them onto a rooftop—but Buttercup emerges partially from under his foot and does not take this development too kindly. Pulling herself the rest of the way out, she hits three of his toes as hard as she can; he yells out and hops around clutching the foot. Blossom and Buttercup smash out of the building they hit and charge, holding hands and spinning like a propeller. They connect with his gut; now it is his turn to be knocked away. He connects with a tall building, which collapses onto him after a moment to leave only his arms and legs sticking out.) Blossom: Good job, girls! Buttercup: Ha! That “mo’ Mojo” is no mo’! (Cut to the left hand and foot. As the girls’ giggling echoes through the night, the hand turns and plants itself palm down on the pavement—Mojo is down but not out. Now the entire building crumbles away as he gets to his feet and leaps. Blossom and Buttercup are grabbed.) Bubbles: Girls! (He stars to squeeze his two prisoners; they struggle against his grip, but cannot break it. Slow pan from Blossom on one side to Buttercup on the other, his eyes matching the movement. The one free sister moves in with a fusillade of eye-laser fire that stitches Mojo’s chest and causes him to scream and let go of the others. All three open fire and stay out of his reach for a while; finally he roars in frustration and claps his hands together. This creates a huge shock wave, which the girls try to resist to no avail. They are flung away and end up doing flips in order not to land on their heads.) Buttercup: Somebody’s mad. (Mojo jumps in closer and begins to fire a barrage of spikes from his fists.) Blossom: Look out! (They go in three different directions to dodge the spikes. Blossom races down the street as more shots pepper the ground just behind her; she is barely keeping ahead when she sees the Talking Dog in her path. She stops next to him and looks up to find a dense incoming volley, then screams and starts flailing her arms at an insane speed to swat them all away. Bubbles and Buttercup, meanwhile, have taken refuge behind a bus.) Bubbles: Oh, no! Look! (Long shot of Blossom; she continues o.c.) Mojo’s got Blossom pinned down! Buttercup: (from o.c.) I have an idea. Come on! (The lone defender continues to knock down Mojo’s shots, then gets a break in the form of the bus—her sisters have set it down end first in front of her as a shield. It takes a moment before she realizes what they have done. Bubbles is first to reach the ground, but Buttercup has to dodge several spikes whose points pierce all the way through the vehicle in order to get down. Finally the shelling stops and there is silence.) Bubbles: Do you think he’s finished? Mojo: (from o.c.) No… (Tilt up to him.) …but you are! (He blows a burst of fire down at them, causing them to scream in ultimate pain. When he lets up, the supine girls and the smoking remains of the bus are covered with soot. One gargantuan hand slams down on them, fingers outstretched to scoop them up. They are lifted to his face.) Mojo: Fools! You dare to challenge me? (carrying them through the city) Attempt to defeat me? Try to destroy me? (On the end of this, he reaches a skyscraper and starts to climb it.) Mojo: I, who saved you from certain death? After all I’ve done for you, you betray me? (tearing open one floor, holding girls near) And why? For them? (His perspective of the people inside. The camera pans to keep the girls in view as he sweeps them across to see the inhabitants—caricatures of the movie’s principal crew members.) Mojo: The ones who hated you? Have forsaken you? (Back to him; he keeps climbing and reaches the spire at the top. The girls’ eyes are shut tight.) Mojo: Can’t you see? None of them will ever understand you as I can. For we are kindred spirits whose powers spring from the same source. So, girls, do not make me destroy you! (His perspective; he shows them the ruined city.) For we are smarter. We are stronger. (Back to him.) We are invincible. We have the power! (Pull back.) We are superior to them! (Farther back; we see the whole skyline.) AND WE SHALL RULE!! (Extreme close-up of his eyes as he lifts them to that level.) Mojo: All we have to do is work together. Girls… (Close-up of them; he continues o.c.) …join me. (Their eyes finally pop open, as if they are mulling over the proposition. The answer comes in the form of six lowered eyebrows, six eyes with glowing irises, and a low rumbling accompanied by a tremor in Mojo’s fist. Pull back to show that this combination has him quaking in his boots—or it would if he were still wearing them. With a flash of light, the girls finally break free.) Girls: NOOOOOOOO!! (They back up a bit; now their eyes are not glowing.) Blossom: We’d never join you, and it’s because… (They charge. Blossom leads the attack, hitting him in the face and flying o.c. He starts to slip down and has to grab the spire with both hands.) Blossom: (from o.c.) …we are stronger! Bubbles: (moving in with an uppercut) Because we are invincible! Buttercup: Because… (flying intricate patterns, then hitting him) …we have the power! (All three let him have it repeatedly.) Girls: We have to protect them from you! Blossom: It’s you who is to be feared! (A flying roundhouse.) Bubbles: ’Cause you are a monster! (A kick that shatters the new braincap.) Buttercup: You are evil! (A swipe that breaks his teeth; all three back up and charge now.) Girls: And you…are… (He throws up an arm to protect himself, but the girls stop short and hover before his eyes for a long, tense moment. Instead of hitting, they tag him as in the game that tore up the playground and the city and set the whole crazy chain of events in motion. He slides o.c.) Girls: …it! (The tag has pushed him so far off balance that the spire he is holding starts to give under his weight. Finally the whole roof comes loose and he drops like a rock toward the street.) Mojo: (drawn out, echoing) CURSES!! (Street level. The Professor runs into view with a flask marked “Antidote X” in hand. He is positively frantic.) Professor: Girls! Girls, where are you? You were right! We should try and stop Mojo, and I know how! I whipped up an antidote to Chemical X! It’ll do away with his powers! Girls! Girls! Gir— (He looks up on this last and finds that he is about to get a painful demonstration of the law of gravity thanks to one very large monkey.) Girls: Professor! (They flash down and sweep him aside; he is too stunned to move on his own. The flask falls from his hand and breaks on the pavement, and Mojo lands squarely on it. The impact is seen from various angles, culminating in an overhead shot with the Antidote X oozing out from under him. Wisps of smoke curl up from the site, and he shrinks back to normal size and lets out a low, weary groan. The Professor hugs the girls as if he has not seen them for ten years.) Professor: Oh, girls, I’m so sorry for doubting you. You are good. Good, perfect little girls, and I love you! Girls: We love you too. (They pull free.) Blossom: And we’re really sorry. Buttercup: We messed up really bad. (Blossom floats by behind her.) Bubbles: But we’re ready, Professor. (She floats down to join her sisters, who are kneeling next to the pool of Antidote X.) Professor: Ready? Blossom: To take the Antidote X to get rid of our powers. (Close-up of the pool, their reflections visible.) Bubbles: If it wasn’t for them, none of this would have happened. Buttercup: Besides, maybe everyone would like us more if we were just normal little girls. (Pull back quickly to an overhead shot of the pool, the girls, Mojo, the Professor—and, it seems, everyone in Townsville. The population has formed a dense ring around the scene, with its inner perimeter in the shape of a heart.) All of Townsville: NOOOOOOOO!! (Street level.) Girls: Huh? Mayor: Um…well…eh…don’t…do that, ’cause…uh…that was pretty cool wi-with the…eh… Ms. Bellum: Girls, I think what the Mayor is trying to say is: We’re sorry, and…thank you. (Quick pan to each speaker in succession. First up: Ms. Keane.) Ms. Keane: Yes! That was super, just super! (A businessman.) Businessman: Amazing! (The mother in the zoo, with her baby—the same one threatened by the Baboom-Bot earlier.) Mother: Fantastic! (An old man wearing sunglasses.) Old man: Wonderful! (The four IP guests.) Black IP guest: Stupendous! (The stoners.) Stoners: (both flashing bullhorns) You rock!(The Talking Dog.) Talking Dog: Thank you. (The girls look joyfully around the crowd, realizing that they no longer have to worry about being pariahs, and the Mayor jumps toward them. He is on a big-league adrenaline kick.) Mayor: Yeah! Oh, that was awesome! (running around) You were all flying, and running, and then— (He imitates the eye lasers.) Laser eyes! Then— (jumping, throwing himself to ground) ROOAARR, BAM! And then— (Another laser imitation and more running about.) And then— (throwing a jumping hook) BAM! You punched that guy! Remember? (Humoring him, the girls nod; he calms down.) Mayor: Yeah, that was great. You know, this town stinks. (nervously, scuffing toes on ground) And I was wondering if maybe sometime we could, like, call you to save the day or whatever. Girls: (gasping happily) Can we, Professor? (He kneels to them.) Professor: (thoughtfully, but smiling) Well…I don’t know…hmm…okay. But only if it’s before your bedtime. (Overhead view of the crowd; the girls take off and fly around.) Girls: Yaaay! (The crowd cheers.) (Freeze frame and fade to white.)
(Fade in to the sun in a clear blue sky—a day some time after these events—and tilt down to the exterior of Malph’s, which has been fixed up. An old woman pushes a shopping cart across the parking lot, but is stopped by Ace’s hand seizing its front. His four buddies are with him. Cut to the Mayor at his desk, with Ms. Bellum standing nearby; he is signing a document.) Old woman: (from outside, distant) Help! (He looks to his assistant, who points out across the room. Pull back to show, at a distance in that direction, the familiar happy-face hotline on a stand. Cut to the Pokey Oaks Kindergarten classroom, which has been entirely repaired and is once again a happy place for the girls and their classmates. Pan quickly to the front of the room, where an identical phone sits on a stand and starts to buzz. The girls look toward it, ready for action, and everyone falls silent.) (Back to the parking lot of Malph’s. Billy is eating the old woman’s food, Ace and Snake are having a tug-of-war over her purse, and Arturo and Grubber are menacing her. Empty snack and pizza boxes lie near the overturned cart. The sound of something drifting in causes all five hoodlums to look up, scared; cut to their perspective—the girls are on the scene and smiling wickedly down at them. A tense silence ensues and is broken by three quick shots of the Gang getting what they have coming to them. Blossom punches out Ace, Bubbles split-kicks Snake and Grubber, and Buttercup hurls Arturo into Billy, sending both flying. Cut to a jail cell in which the unconscious Gang has been dumped in a heap; they share it with Fuzzy and Mojo, the latter now clad only in a pair of underwear. The door slides shut on the group.) [Note: The old “Kilroy was here” drawing can be seen on the wall next to Mojo.] (Overhead view of the jail, with two cops waving. Tilt up to follow the girls as they fly away, waving back. On the start of the next line, they fly o.c. in the order Bubbles, Buttercup, Blossom.) Narrator: Sugar. Spice. And everything nice. (Cut to them among the clouds.) These were the ingredients chosen to create the perfect little girl. (Overhead view of the landscape, scrolling along.) But Professor Utonium accidentally added an extra ingredient to the concoction…Chemical X. (On this last, they streak into view and over the horizon. From here, cut to the clouds again. As each girl is named, she pulls into view, flying toward the camera wit the sun at her back.) Narrator: Thus Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup were born! (The exterior of Malph’s; they fly over.) Using their ultra-superpowers— (The donut shop; they fly over as cops wave from the parking lot.) —they’ve dedicated their lives to fighting crime— (The bank, now fixed up; they fly over.) —and the forces of… (The skyline, repaired; they fly over, creating a rainbow.) …evil! (The rainbow fades, and the camera cuts to the street on which the girls live, with the skyline in the distance. The Professor waits for them on the front walk, and they plow into him, knocking him to the ground. All four laugh.) (The standard end shot comes up.) Narrator: And so for the very first time, the day is saved, thanks to…the Powerpuff Girls! (to himself) Hey, that’s a good name for them. Powerpuff Girls, yeah. I like that. Wonder if they will; I’ll run it by ’em…Powerpuff Girls! Uh-huh.
Powerpuff Girls End Theme (New Version)—Bis One, two, three, four! Blossom! Commander and the leader Bubbles! She is the joy and the laughter Buttercup! She’s the toughest fighter Powerpuffs save the day CHORUS: Fighting crime, trying to save the world Here they come just in time, the Powerpuff Girls (Repeat) Oh, no! It’s the mad Fuzzy Lumkins Watch out! It’s the repulsive Roach Coach Get him! It’s evil Mojo Jojo Chasing evil out this town REPEAT CHORUS (Instrumental bridge) REPEAT CHORUS TWICE Pray for the Girls—Frank Black Last night I had the strangest dream Saw everybody running in the streets Leapfrogging salmon trying to get upstream The dream was over but I could not sleep I had to put on the lights when she said that Last night I had the strangest dream The sky was dark and I could not see Felt underwater when I tried to scream When I heard the rooster I was finally free I was a little bit frightened when he said that Last night I had the strangest dream Me and the chickens running in the streets What we have here is a prophecy Cross your fingers, people, say a prayer I’m not a religious dog but I say that CHORUS: Better pray for the girls Better pray for the girls Ain’t no other hope in this whole world, no REPEAT CHORUS TWICE In sleep we searched behind the sun A funny place to find someone We did not find them on the moon We dreamed that’s where they disappeared We dreamed perhaps another pearl Or dangling on some other dune But darker dreams we fear Where’d you go this time, girls? REPEAT CHORUS That’s What Girls Do—No Secrets You ask me why I change the color of my hair (yeah) You ask me why I need thirty-two pairs of shoes (to wear) You seem to ask me why I got a lot of things It’s just a chick thing, you oughta let it go And try to understand, but you don’t have a clue CHORUS: That’s what girls do (that’s what girls do) They keep you guessing the whole day through Play your emotions, push all your buttons, it’s true That’s what girls do REPEAT CHORUS TWICE (no background vocals on first repeat) That’s what girls do (that’s what girls do, that’s what girls do) Girls Yeah (Near the end of the credits, this notice appears: “No apes, monkeys, or talking dogs were harmed during the production of this motion picture.”) (After the crawl is complete, the Cartoon Network Studios logo appears: the familiar CN logo with the word “STUDIOS” underneath, attached as a block. The graphic splits at this joint, and the two halves slide apart to reveal Mojo menacing the camera. One by one, the girls fly into view within this small enclosure and sock him a good one apiece, after which the logo closes over the group.) T H E E N D |
