On Sept 10th, the Powerpuff Girls movie event "Power of Four" made its debut on Cartoon Network in the US. It was the "anticipated" episode where the fourth Powerpuff Girl is to be revealed. Cartoon Network and other outlets released teasers for the character, which is weird because the character was already revealed months ago via the CN Reel and her name is Bliss.
What's even weirder is that Bliss's voice in the English version varies by country. For North America, Bliss is voiced by South African singer Tony DeLazy. Though others say it's actually Adventure Time's Olivia Olson. However, when the movie came out, some reported that Bliss was voiced by DeLazy, while others by Olson.
In the Australia and New Zealand versions, Bliss is voiced by Youtuber Wengie. And mind you, Bliss is the only character who would have a different voice actor by country, all in English, whereas everyone else remains the same.
I'm told the reason for the voice actor change per country is for promotion and marketing purposes, which still doesn't make sense to me. Imagine if in the next Star Wars film, Luke Skywalker is played by 15 different actors to be aired in each English-speaking country. If Mark Hamill plays Luke in the American version, then the UK version would have Luke be played by what - Mr. Bean? I just don't get how is this going to help Bliss as a character, let alone the show.
Anyhow, I'm digressing here, so let's jump in to the main plot of the Power of Four movie, which I finally got to watch this weekend. But before that, full disclosure, I am reviewing a version of the movie where Bliss is voiced by Olivia Olson.
It begins with Blossom and Buttercup scolding Bubbles for messing things up again, while the latter swears it wasn't her, but Bliss. But because Bliss is nowhere to be seen, Blossom and Buttercup see this as another one of Bubbles's shenanigans of imaginary friends. This is going on for pretty much the first 9 minutes.
While the girls are watching a movie at their local cinema, a villain named Earthplow appears and pins them down. This is where Bliss FINALLY shows up and takes care of business, but was later put into stasis by Prof. Utonium.
According to Utonium, Bliss was the very first Powerpuff Girl he created. A prototype if you will. Apparently the reason Utonium wanted to create Bliss was because of his rivalty with another Professor who created a similar Powerpuff-like character, who happens to be a boy. Bliss is basically Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup all rolled into one. But because her powers are unstable, she blows things up whenever she expresses any kind of emotion.
I gotta stop for a moment because not only is Bliss's origin story a total retcon of the origin of the Powerpuff Girls, but her emotions causing things go kaboom is virtually taken from the anime series Mob Psycho 100. If you've never heard of Mob Psycho 100, it's from the creator on One Punch Man where the protagonist Mob has to keep his emotions in check, as said emotions allows Mob to unleash his psychic powers, which are incredibly powerful and destructive.
And when Utonium mentioned having a rival that created a boy with superpowers, it's another reference to two different anime shows - Astro Boy, and Powerpuff Girls Z, which is the anime version of the franchise. I don't know about you, but it seems Haley Mancini and Jacob Goldman, the writers of this movie, who also did the infamous "Horn, Sweet Horn" episode, seems to be unable to come up with ideas and just borrowed concepts from other shows. Such a practice is quite common, but it's only good if it's well executed. This is anything but!
And when Bliss finally wakes up from her status, her first face-to-face conversation with her younger sisters is one of the cringiest I've ever seen.
So later Bliss continues telling her origin story where Utonium left off. After learning she's a danger to the professor, Bliss goes into exile on a place called Bird Poop Island. I kid you not, that is the name of the island. There, she met a tiny little elephant named "Me". Yes, his name is "Me" as in M-E, "Me". If you happen to be incredibly smart, then you know at this point where the story is going.
After Bliss's origin story ended, Mojo Jojo shows up with Utonium as his hostage. Mojo and Bliss apparently knew each other while Mojo was stilll a regular monkey. Mojo invites Bliss to join him, while the others discourage her. Bliss's confusion of the matter causes her powers to go unstable again, and poofs away. Jojo leaves disappointed while Bliss is apparently with the professor for a chat and decided to stick around.
In Act 3 of this film, (in actually, Power of Four is just four regular episodes compiled into one movie), the girls try to help Bliss fit in as a Powerpuff Girl, with each of the sisters giving their own take on boosting Bliss's confidence. Naturally none of them work out. This is made worse when a random villain named "Gnat" verbally attacks Bliss, which messes her emotions, ergo her powers, with her sisters getting caught in the crossfire.
Confident that he can defeat the Powerpuff Girls for good, Gnat goes on another assault. But this time, Bliss takes full control of her powers and uses it against Ned and beating him. Bliss receives admiration from her sisters, and the people of Townsville for saving the day.
Utonium, however, isn't convinced and forbids Bliss from saving the world until her powers are truly stabilized. Me then starts talking to Bliss telling her that her sisters and Utonium are a bad influence and must be dealt with. When the girls give Bliss another chance of convincing Utonium by taking down another villain, Bliss does so with ease, but goes too far by attempting to kill the villain and forcing the girls to get in the line of fire.
And this is where Me finally starts talking and if you still don't know at this point, Me is in reality Him in disguise. He convinces Bliss to join him against the girls and the two merged. Him wreaks havoc around Townsville and even pulls in Saturn to slice the Earth in half. The girls were powerless against Him, but with Mojo's help, they were able to separate Him and Bliss. However Him still has Bliss's powers and continues his rampage. To stop Him, Bliss and the Powerpuff Girls fused to become one mega giant Powerpuff Girl. Enter a giant monster or kaiju battle and Him was eventually defeated. Bliss leaves Earth as she is off to send Saturn back in its original position to maintain the balance of the Solar System. As Utonium and the girls wave goodbye to Bliss, Mojo Jojo cries in the distance, ending the episode.
I have questions here. If Him was spending 10 years attending to Bliss, how was he able to do so while attacking the Powerpuff Girls? There's no way Him can be in two places at once, and he has spent quite a long amount of time NOT with Bliss. Granted, I never bothered paying attention to the Powerpuff Girls reboot so I may have missed some key lore elements if there are any. But even still, it's hard to imagine why it's only now Him decided to take advantage of Bliss's powers when he probably could've done so many years earlier?
As for Bliss, I find her to be a character with a totally blank slate, and I believe that was intentional. What I mean is that Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup each have unique personalities that made them who they are. Bliss doesn't have anything that makes her stand out. Even Bunny, the other Powerpuff Girl from the original series, had a character that made her stand out and be memorable. Not so much with Bliss. Her blank slate is even worse thanks to her having different voice actors in other places, despite the release of said places also in English. And I believe that was intentional because of whatever crap Cartoon Network came up with behind the scenes.
Bliss is being marketed as the fourth Powerpuff Girl, but at the same time, she is NOT a series regular and is only around for the movie and that's it. If she's ever comes back, then Cartoon Network would have to re-hire all the voice actors to do her lines again, unless they decide to ditch that because it's too costly, and just go with one voice actor - which is what they should've done! It still makes no sense to me why they would do this and just makes Bliss a non-relevant character in the end!
No sense talking about the comedy in The Powerpuff Girls as the comedy was never funny at all. What's with the Japanese rock song in the background and a random person having anime eyes? If it's meant to be funny by parodying anime, it didn't work and I doubt kids get the reference. Even Teen Titans Go, as much as everyone hates it, at least has moments where it was pretty damn funny. But the Powerpuff Girls reboot? And the entire plot is so predictable, you already have a good idea how this would turn out in the end and you'd be absolutely correct.
So what do we get out of all of this? Nothing! Everything goes back to the status quo and by the time The Powerpuff Girls airs new episodes, it'll be as though Bliss never existed at all. And from what I hear, the Power of Four movie didn't do so well, ratings-wise. So it's safe to say, the movie was a waste of time for everyone. On a scale of 1 to 5, I give The Powerpuff Girls movie "Power of Four", a 1 out of 5.
