The Rowdyruff Boys (alternate episode)

''This is an article about the 1998 series episode. If you're looking for the characters of the same name, see The Rowdyruff Boys (characters).''

"The Rowdyruff Boys" is the twelfth episode of Season 1. It first aired on Cartoon Network in the United States on April 7, 1999.

Synopsis
Seeking to defeat the Powerpuff Girls once and for all, Mojo Jojo creates the Rowdyruff Boys – Brick, Boomer and Butch – to fight them. When regular fighting doesn't work against the boys, the girls must use their feminine wiles to seal a victory.

Plot
Mojo Jojo has been causing mischief in Townsville once again. His developments of laser cannons and towering mechanicals help him to terrorize the city until the Powerpuff Girls best him easily. After suffering three high-profile defeats at the hands of the girls, Mojo is at the end of his rope. During his most recent stay in prison, he goes through a mental breakdown and realizes he needs to "fight fire with fire" if he wants to bring the girls down once and for all. Posing as a student at the Townsville Community College, he calls Professor Utonium to ask him what the Powerpuff girls are made of.

Deciding that "sugar, spice, and everything nice" is "too girlish", Mojo decides to make male equivalents of the Powerpuff Girls based on what little boys are made of. Within the prison, he starts by collecting snips, snails, and a puppy dog's tail. For the final ingredient -Chemical X- he uses the contaminated toilet in his cell. One flush of the toilet yields an explosion of toilet water, nearly drowning Mojo in the process. When the water runs off, Mojo discovers that his "seeds of evil" have indeed borne fruit; floating before him are Brick, Boomer, and Butch - the Rowdyruff Boys. At first, Mojo is filled with the joy every new father receives and embraces the boys. Although they immediately threaten to beat Mojo up, the evil simian directs their aggression toward the Powerpuff Girls instead. He offers to lead the Rowdyruff Boys to their foes, and they bust him out of prison.

The next day, the Rowdyruff Boys challenge the Powerpuff Girls to a battle just after the latter bring down a giant octopus monster attacking Townsville. The boys lay out the first strike, but are taken aback at the girls' ability to retaliate; being the Powerpuff Girls, it would take more than a few cheap shots to make them cry. Upon making their identities known to each other, both trios deliver furious strikes and special attacks to their counterparts, but the Rowdyruff Boys gradually gain the upper hand--in no small part due to their disregard for property damage, rules of engagement, and the safety of Townsville's citizens at large; the boys even go so far as to hurl large ships, buses, and sabotaged aircraft to distract the girls from the battle. Realizing their psychopathic ruthlessness and overall disregard for human life, the Powerpuff Girls try to lure the evil counterparts out of Townsville. However, the Rowdyruff Boys "kick in the afterburners", overtaking the girls and knocking them out with toxic fumes. Before the girls can recover, the boys deliver a brutal blow that sends them hurtling into the street below, seemingly defeating them once and for all. A blinding flash confirms their downfall before the people and Mojo Jojo from afar.

With his perennial enemies down and out, Mojo gloats at his fortress while celebrating with his creations, while in the street, the people of Townsville mourns the apparent death of the girls but the tears grief-stricken citizens falling on the them, reviving them as they lay deep in their crater. Ashamed of their defeat and losing all of their self-esteem, the girls prepare to leave Townsville, but Ms. Bellum calls them back, insisting that the citizens love them too much to let them go. The brainy secretary also suggests that their approach to the issue was such from the wrong angle and offers an alternate means of battling the Rowdyruff Boys: instead of violence, "try being nice".

With Ms. Bellum's advice, the girls head to Mojo's lair, drawing out the Rowdyruffs for another round. This time, however, the girls disguise themselves as teenagers, confusing their foes long enough for them to each plant a kiss on their opposite number's cheek. Overcome with disgust and horror, the Rowdyruff Boys explode into their base components, leaving Mojo to be arrested once again. In the wake of their victory, the girls discuss the fun of kissing, although Buttercup strongly disagrees, then the episode ends.

""



Characters

 * The Powerpuff Girls (Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup)
 * The Rowdyruff Boys (Brick, Boomer, and Butch)
 * Mojo Jojo
 * Mayor
 * Ms. Bellum
 * Professor Utonium
 * Talking Dog



Trivia

 * Recurring event: The Narrator saying "The City of Townsville is under attack (by Mojo Jojo)"
 * This is the first 22-minute long episode.
 * Blossom claimed that the Powerpuff Girls "never lose," yet they lost a battle in both this episode and "Mr. Mojo's Rising", which aired months before, so this clearly isn't true.
 * This is one of Craig McCracken's ten favorite episodes.
 * This is the first time the girls seemingly die, then get revived (second time for Blossom, first time was in Abracadaver when she brought herself back to life and unhypnotized). The second was in "Mojo Jonesin'" and the third and final time was in "Knock It Off".
 * This is the first appearance of The Rowdyruff Boys, as well as their only appearance in season 1. They wouldn't appear again (outside of cameos) until 2003's "The Boys Are Back in Town".
 * This is the first episode to have a character die in the show, which is The Rowdyruff Boys, but they were later resurrected by HIM (the second being Bunny, third being the Broccoloids, and Dick Hardly being the last).
 * The 1998-2001 animated episode outro has more color in it.
 * When Bubbles crashes into Mr. Cooper's store and mistakenly apologizes to "Mr. Looper", this is a likely reference to Sesame Street, in which Big Bird frequently mispronounced the name of the owner of the general store, Mr. Hooper, often calling him "Mr. Pooper", "Mr. Looper", or other malapropisms. This gained fame in 1982 when the actor who played Mr. Hooper died, and the writers decided to incorporate that aspect as well by having Big Bird be told Mr. Hooper was dead, causing Big Bird to finally get his name right in memoriam.
 * At around the 9-minute mark, the octopus the girls were fighting is briefly seen lying dead in the background.
 * This episode is the first time we see Mojo Jojo act more like the monkey he is than a criminal mastermind, as his fit of rage upon being arrested multiple times has him screeching like a monkey, slamming his fists on the ground, and climbing on the tire swing and the bars of his cell.
 * This is the only episode that the Rowdyruff Boys’ sneakers have three rectangles, all future episodes have two rectangles.

Goofs

 * During the prison scene when Mojo tells the boys about the girls, Brick is on the right, Butch is in the center, and Boomer is on the left. When the boys say "Yeah!" in response to Mojo's words, Brick and Butch change positions.
 * In the same scene, Butch's mouth doesn't move.
 * When the Rowdyruff Boys throw the vehicles at the Powerpuff Girls, the shadows of the vehicles are shown approaching them in an overhead shot. After the girls take off, however, the shadows have disappeared.
 * In the scene where the boys cover the girls in smoke, Blossom's mouth doesn't move when she coughs.
 * After the boys performed the final blow, as the girls are falling; Blossom falls to the top of the video frame, Buttercup, to the bottom left, and Bubbles to the bottom right, when the boys dive bomb towards the girls, they go in the wrong direction, Brick goes to the bottom of the frame, Butch to the top left, and Boomer to the top right.
 * When Boomer tackles Bubbles, she kicks him into the wall of a yellow building, and Butch is thrown into the same building seconds later.
 * When Brick yells "Ballistic Barrage!", they hop out of the same building Brick crashed into, which was miscolored red.
 * Another goof is that Boomer and Butch were near a window, but when the boys swirl to the ground Boomer is to the left of the window. Additionally, this building had doors when Bubbles kicks Boomer into it.
 * When Brick is about to grab Blossom's hair, her bow disappears.
 * Mojo creates the boys at night so that the moon is in proper alignment, but when the boys bust through the ceiling a minute later, it's daytime.

Production Notes

 * Although this episode premiered in the United States on April 7, 1999, it was actually produced in 1998 according to the credits. It was also the final episode produced in 1998; the next episode, "Uh-Oh, Dynamo", would be the first episode produced in 1999.
 * This episode was finished in December of 1998.