The Powerpuff Girls: The Complete Series (2024 – 12 Disc Set) [DVD]

Cast: Cathy Cavadini, Elizabeth Daily, Tara Strong (VOICES)

Release Date: May 21, 2024

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Disc Rating: 7.5/10

 

Synopsis:

Sugar, Spice and everything a Powerpuff fan could ever want! These are all the original episodes, chosen to create the perfect PPG DVD Set! Using their ultra superpowers, Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup have dedicated their lives to fighting crime and entertaining you, the fans!

Calling all PPG fans; ‘The Powerpuff Girls’ are here, with all seventy-eight episodes of the original series in one wonderful collection. The fan-favorite series follows the adventures of the heroic Powerpuff Girls; Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup as they dedicate their lives to saving the world and protecting the residents of Townsville against the dangerous and evil forces that repeatedly seem intent on attacking it. With a little help from their father/creator and facing off against numerous baddies including their arch nemesis Mojo Jojo and many others, this animated series is a perfect recipe for nonstop fun and excitement.

‘The Powerpuff Girls’ first debuted as an ongoing series on Cartoon Network in 1998 and quickly skyrocketed in popularity, continuing for a six season run in addition to multiple specials and even a theatrically released animated film, not to mention a couple reboots in the years to follow. While I haven’t really had the chance to give any of the new incarnations a fair chance, this original series remains a clever, exciting and funny ride that manages to repeatedly find smart new ideas to keep things fresh and with double entendres and other surprisingly dark and twisted moments that provide a hilarious treat for older audiences while still keeping things light and tame enough to make it work for the younger viewers at the same time; a balance that’s not always easy to find, let alone to make work as well as this series manages to.

The series still hasn’t lost any of its charm in the decades since it first made its debut and now fans can once again own the entire series on DVD if you missed out on the previous edition or if your copy went bad. You won’t have to worry about missing out on anything either as the release appears to be identical to the previous edition as far as content, merely using 12 single sided DVD’s this time around instead of 6 double sided discs and different internal packaging. Continue reading below for more specifics regarding what’s included within.

Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment brings ‘The Powerpuff Girls: The Complete Series’ back home on DVD, featuring all seventy-eight episodes from the original series in addition to hours of enjoyable extras in a 12-disc DVD collection. While I don’t own or have access to the previous box set, all of the research I’ve done would imply that this release is largely identical to the previous (and now out of print) 6-disc DVD set released years prior; with the one key difference being that instead of the 6 double-sided discs used previously, this release instead includes 12 single sided DVD discs (although all content within seems to be identical, with the disc menus themselves still even stating Side A or B). I’ve also noticed some questioning the production method here and whether the release will be MOD on DVDR discs or pressed and fans should be pleased to know that these are definitely pressed discs with the standard silver bottoms. The quality of the episodes themselves vary season to season, but for anyone that would love to physically own the entire series and doesn’t mind some seasons looking better than others, then this new release should still be worth picking up.

VIDEO:

The DVD release of ‘The Powerpuff Girls: The Complete Series’ features a 4×3 presentation utilizing the show’s original 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio on every episode of the animated series (with the exception of one special). The video presentations are decent for the most part and deliver largely sharp, clean and well detailed presentations on each episode, although there are definitely some quality fluctuations between seasons, such as most of the earlier seasons displaying moving video noise running up and down the edges of the 4×3 picture during the majority of the presentation and a bit more noticeable video noise and imperfections within, while the final two seasons are sharper and more pristine than the others in most ways, although the title cards are strangely blurry at the same time for these episodes. Fortunately, none of these minor imperfections play too much of a negative effect on the episodes themselves, especially if you can disregard the noise on the edges for the earlier seasons. Overall, these are fairly decent video presentations with some episodes and seasons looking better than others, yet all should be decent enough to do the trick for anyone that’s anxiously been hoping to add this set to their collection.

AUDIO:

The DVD release includes a 192 kbps 2.0 channel Dolby Digital stereo soundtrack on every episode of all six seasons. These stereo soundtracks all do their job quite nicely and provide crisp, clean and well balanced soundtracks on all seventy-eight episodes of the original series. They do a very nice job of keeping all of the music, action effects and other elements nicely balanced with the dialogue which all remains perfectly sharp, clean and audible at all times, while never detracting from any other simultaneously occurring elements. Overall, these are fully capable Dolby Digital Stereo soundtracks that probably won’t astound but never disappoint or falter either.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The DVD release of ‘The Powerpuff Girls: The Complete Series’ features a solid collection of extras that fans of the series should enjoy. As with the rest of the release, all of the included content should be identical to the previous release. For the sake of simplicity and easier navigation, I’ve broken down the extras by Season below; please note that the extras can be found on Disc 2 of each season.

Season 1 includes two versions of the original animated short that started the series ‘The Whoop*ss Girls: A Sticky Situation’; both in Pencil and in Color (running approximately 4 minutes in length apiece), along with ‘Whoop*ss Stew Animatics with an Introduction by Craig McCracken’ (running approximately 6 minutes altogether), plus the early PPG ‘What a Cartoon’ shorts ‘Crime 101’ (7 minutes) and ‘Meet Fuzzy Lumpkins’ (7 minutes) and a ‘Powerpuff Patrol’ promo (1 minute). Also featured on the disc are various interviews and other fun videos including a ‘CNN Sports Interview with Craig McCracken’ (3minutes), the ‘Space Ghost Coast to Coast World Premiere Toon In’ (16 minutes) and the ‘Raw Interview with Craig from the World Premiere Toon In’ (5 minutes). A Collection of numerous Promos and Advertisements are also included (approximately 7 minutes combined).

Season 2 includes ‘Mojo Commentary on “Slumbering with the Enemy”’ and ‘Mayor Commentary on “Something’s A Ms.”’, along with various fun videos, promos and ads including ‘Staylongers’ (1 minute), ‘Anger Management’ (1 minute), ‘Mojo Jojo’s Evil Bio’ (4 minutes) and ‘Mayor’s Welcome’ (3 minutes). Also included are 3 ‘Show and Tell’ promos; one each for Blossom, Buttercup and Bubbles’ (approximately 2 minutes each).

Season 3 includes the Groovies animated music videos ‘Shonen Knife – I’m A Super Girl’ (running approximately 2 minutes) and ‘Apples in Stereo – Signal in the Sky (Let’s Go!) (approximately 3 minutes) plus a ‘Reflections’ promo/ad (1 minute).

Season 4 includes the Powerpuff Girls animated special ‘Twas the Fight Before Christmas’ (running approximately 44 minutes) and a couple of ads/promos: ‘Morning in the Life’ (1 minute) and ‘Blooper Mayor’ (1 minute).

Season 5 includes three amusing Mayor Promos: ‘Mayor of Hospitalville’, ‘Mayor of Future Spaceman Town’ and ‘Mayor of Transylvania City’ (approximately 1 minute each), along with a ‘Mitch Rocks #3’ promo (1 minute).

Season 6 includes the 2008 special ‘The Powerpuff Girls Rule!!’ (approximately 24 minutes) and the Documentary ‘The Powerpuff Girls: Who, What, When, Where, Why, How… Who Cares?’ (35 minutes). The disc also includes two additional promos/ads: ‘Good Car Day’ and ‘Laundry Day’ (1 minute apiece).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the DVDs and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this release are the property of their respective owners.

–

Disc Rating: 7.5/10

–

 ‘The Powerpuff Girls: The Complete Series’ is Now Available to Own in a 12-disc DVD set from Warner Bros Discovery Home Entertainment.

–

You can purchase your copy of ‘The Powerpuff Girls: The Complete Series’ on DVD at Amazon HERE!

*Screen-Connections.com is an Amazon Associate that earns from qualifying purchases