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View Full Version : NEW TO ME: Today's PPG: Town and Out/Child Fearing


Brainatra
06-24-2002, 07:07 PM
Amusing pair of episodes today:

"Town and Out": The girls and the Prof. move to the apparently-within-driving-distance "town" of Citiesville, which they proceed to discover is apparently a place that makes Gary, Indiana sound like a hot vacation spot. Needless to say, they're ready to go back home without regret.

Noted that no one in Citiesville seemed excited at all by the prospect of having superheroes in their town---usually in the comics, it's been shown that the local leadership all but fall over themselves whenever a superhero decides to show up or move to their town (with of course some exceptions, like the X-Men)... I recall a storyline in "Flash" from 4-5 years ago where his hometown is annoyed for some reason or other about the damage caused by his fights, and a California town decides to lure him to operate out of there (leading to Flash commuting between the west coast and the midwest on a daily basis). Also recall an old "Superboy" comic where they show Supes moving from Smallville to Metropolis, though he holds off on making his debut in Metropolis for a while (for, among other reasons, nobody getting suspicious about CLark and Superboy moving at the same time). A TV news report shows that (per a statement Superboy made to the press about "moving to a bigger city" before leaving Smallville) the whole country is in a frenzy over which town he's planning to move to (including bets being taken in Vegas over where he'd wind up----IIRC, New York had the leg-up oddswise over Gotham City and Metropolis (which were in a dead heat), with Chicago, Miami, and Boston thrown in as well...).

Gather that "Citiesville" was meant to show a somewhat-more-"realistic" take as well on "what if superheroes were around" (vs. the constant-monster-attack laden Townsville), even though from the looks of things, Townsville (despite the constant attacks) looks like it has much more going for it than Citiesville does (see: the narrator's episode-padding in "Nano of the North" at the start running down the stuff Townsville has ;-)

"Child Fearing": Mojo winds up babysitting for the Girls....leading to another round of the Girls annoying Mojo a la "Just Another Manic Mojo" (and doing their best Warner sibling imitation) ;-) Thought this one was rather funny---especially the part with Mojo playing "Iron Chef" in the kitchen (and telling Bubbles "the dip is for the fish!"), and the Girls' dislike of the Japanese cuisine (comment to Belch re: why the girls didn't like his food: maybe they're too weaned on typical American cuisine to appreciate food that's too exotic? Or by merely being small children, they're naturally picky eaters anyway and won't eat something that's too far off the track in terms of familiarity....). The ending would've fit in perfectly on an A! Warners cartoon (Mojo rather being back in prison than babysitting the threesome..). Too bad he got run over by that car and cracked his brain-covering helmet and cracked up a bit at the end and all.... :-)

As for the PRof putting deoderant on his hair and toothpaste (?) on his armpits, reminds me of a joke in "Bloom County" where Opus (nervous about his wedding day) sprays "Right Guard" in his mouth and dabs Listerine® on his armpits...heh...

-B.
-B.

Sharklady
06-24-2002, 11:37 PM
There's actually a fair amount of depth to 'Town And Out', particularly in the contrast between the 'real world' Cityville and the 'fantasy world' Townsville. If you're so inclined, you can read more commentary about it here:

http://www.rowdyruff.net/authorsguide_starcrossed.shtml

As for 'Child Fearing'; this isn't one of my favorite eps. It presents truly Alternate Versions of the principle antagonists, albeit in a familiar arrangement- very similar to one of those Woody Woodpecker or Bugs Bunny shorts where they spend most of the story tormenting an enemy. And I've never really cared for those.

zimbach
06-25-2002, 12:25 AM
Originally posted by Sharklady
http://www.rowdyruff.net/authorsguide_starcrossed.shtmlYEESH! Rowdyruff.net needs a new web host. Just calling up that page launched 5 pop-up/under ads, and one of them froze my browser for 2 minutes!

Brainatra
06-25-2002, 12:27 AM
Originally posted by Sharklady
There's actually a fair amount of depth to 'Town And Out', particularly in the contrast between the 'real world' Cityville and the 'fantasy world' Townsville. If you're so inclined, you can read more commentary about it here:

http://www.rowdyruff.net/authorsguide_starcrossed.shtml

As for 'Child Fearing'; this isn't one of my favorite eps. It presents truly Alternate Versions of the principle antagonists, albeit in a familiar arrangement- very similar to one of those Woody Woodpecker or Bugs Bunny shorts where they spend most of the story tormenting an enemy. And I've never really cared for those.

RE: "Town and Out": Read that cite's arguments...a better (or more comic-book-ish) comparison might be that Townsville = Metropolis and Citysville = Gotham City-- Townsville is a city on the up-and-up, with an optimistic tone, and where fantastical aspects like monsters, demonic entities with high-pitched voices, criminal simian megalomaniacs, etc. exist, all the perfect place for girls with Superman-style powers; however, Citysville in comparison is a rather dank, depressed, and dreary place, where even the denizens would rather live in the suburbs than in the city itself (similar to other cities where the urban core's been abandoned/neglected) and bank robbers and their ilk (vs. monsters and megalomaniacs) are the criminal rule. Thus, Superman-style powers wouldn't really fit in such a place (as we saw in "Town and Out")---though I could imagine someone with a Batman-style motif/gadgets/abilities (instead of the girls' Superman-style motif/abilities) operating in Citysville (guess there's an idea for a future Powerpuff Girls fanfic story if anybody needs one)...

-B.

DR. BELCH
06-25-2002, 02:02 AM
Sharklady:
As for 'Child Fearing'; this isn't one of my favorite eps. It presents [something] similar to one of those Woody Woodpecker or Bugs Bunny shorts where they spend most of the story tormenting an enemy. And I've never really cared for those.
I rather liked it, but I guess it's sort of "been there" humor. Who has never gone out of their dang mind sitting for a little tantrum monkey for eight hours? Though at least the Girls are out of diapers (well, they never were IN them, I suppose) and don't insist on putting their food in their hair at mealtime.... ;)

Sharklady
06-25-2002, 10:39 AM
'Tantrum monkey'? Interesting way to put it...

In fairness to 'Child Fearing', I should add that it includes a significant revelation about Mojo; his personal hero is Napoleon. And it does make sense, that he'd admire a short megalomaniac who rose from humble beginnings to become a great conquerer- tho, as the Girls pointed out, not as great a conquerer as Mojo related. I suppose Mojo edited Napoleon's biography in his own imagination, because contemplating how his role model ended up could have a discourageing effect.