#also every time I'm reminded of how old The Powerpuff Girls is i get sad because however old it is is also how old i am

[hamsternamedmarinette]

if it helps, tvtropes seems to be on your side w/ this one

I know it's been over 20 years so the writing team and cast has more than likely been made aware of this goof, but who dares me to ask the voice cast about it if I go see them at a con next weekend

[fly-pow-bye]

Powerpuff Girls 2016 - “Midnight at the Mayor’s Mansion”

Written by: Haley Mancini, Jake Goldman

Written & Storyboarded by: John West, Angela Zhang

Directed by: Nick Jennings, Bob Boyle

The second Halloween special!

The episode starts with the Mayor running away from a growling monster, holding a container of pickle chips that will become important later. This immediately flash cuts to Zombie Mimes, a movie that is a part of a movie marathon the Powerpuff Girls are watching. Blossom has to actually talk about why this could be funny: because the mimes can protect themselves with invisible boxes!

As this is Halloween, they're wearing their costumes, because it's Halloween! Of all the holidays they decided to double dip on, it's unsurprising it's Halloween. It's a good way to show their creativity in making costumes that fit their unique personalities. Also, more costumes for the toyline!

Buttercup is Buttercup Van Helsing, which is not even a pun. Bubbles is dressed as the Mayor, leading to jokes about the silly character acting like the other silly character.

And Blossom is Rosie the Riveter, continuing her habit of choosing feminist icons that Buttercup does not recognize. Not that any kids would recognize her either, as they decided not to explain who she is beyond "she's that girl from the posters." I'll give them one thing: at least Blossom isn't dressed like a coder this time. No questions about how they're not giving Bubbles a costume more fitting of her coding personality!

Bubbles, acting like the Mayor, pretends to make a call, which coincidentally aligns with an actual Mayor call. Unlike usual Mayor calls, this is followed by what seems to be the generic TV show phone ringing sound this time. Even previous reboot episodes at least had something that resembled the old hotline. Only hearing The Mayor's screams of agony and a monster growling, they decide to go to City Hall to find out what's going on, and...

...wow, Tom Kenny really wanted out of this show, didn’t he? I wouldn’t blame him; even modern Spongebob is less demeaning. Nah, just kidding, he's just hanging from a coat hanger, as he forgot to take himself off the coat! At least this established that the Mayor isn't too bright, something that used to be seen by his contrast to the apparently "not-fitting-with-the-messages" Miss Bellum. Bubbles suddenly gets afraid of the monster, or "m-m-monster" as Bubbles calls it and the rest of the characters just agree with in a running gag, but Blossom has an idea.

Blossom tells them to split up to find the monster, only for Buttercup to say people splitting up and getting "monster mashed" happens in every horror movie she's seen. Seems to happen even when you're together, so I don't see the big deal. They decide to split themselves up in groups of two. Blossom and Buttercup, and Bubbles and The Mayor.

The main jokes with Buttercup is that, being addicted to that movie marathon, she believes in all of the tropes. She would constantly point out situations that would remind her of the movies she's seen. This is the closest this episode gets to being funny, and is used as a not-horrible explanation to why Buttercup, of all the Puffs, is afraid of being beaten up by the monsters when she's usually the only one that beats them up.

There's a joke about a banjo room, including a banjo that sucks the soul out of people when it is played. I would talk more about it or even give a screenshot if it actually went anywhere. Oh, and the power goes out. Ooh, dark! ...that's about it.

Bubbles ends up teaming up with the Mayor. It wasn't Blossom's intention, it's just that Bubbles got into her role so much, she ended up thinking Blossom was referring to her, too. It's like even Blossom knew that there is rarely anything good that would come out of a comedy routine with two not-so-wise people and nobody else. This episode certainly doesn't disprove what Bubbs and Donny Get The Mail has proven with only two minutes.

Bubbles: Hold on, my Mayor sense is tingling!

The Mayor: I had those too, but a doctor prescribed me a topical cream.

TMI, Mayor, TMI. Actually, there is a sort of point to this scene, as these scenes are the first time we get to see the monster. We even get to see a transformation that they probably should have kept secret!

They have the Mayor eat one of the pickle chips, and he suddenly turns into a giant green monster. This is all seen by the viewer; nothing is really left vague. This episode still treats this like a mystery. I guess there might be a possible intended mystery on how these transformations happen. Maybe there's something more to it?

Bubbles and The Mayor play on an air hockey table, and I realize they only took a minute or two to forget that the power went out. Bubbles finally gets a glimpse of the monster as Blossom tries to get her soul stolen by that banjo, and is interrupted by Bubbles' screams. See, irrelevant! Well, she does accidently break the banjo, freeing a spirit that proves that it does steal souls, but the only thing this leads to is a minor random joke during a future random joke.

Blossom decides to lock herself in the room with Bubbles and Buttercup, and grabs the Mayor, who suddenly de-transformed into his normal form, to protect him from the monster. Buttercup correctly guesses that this was a bad idea. She has yet to even see the monster, but she knows this from her monster movie knowledge. Another running gag. Including...

Buttercup: Or, the infamous (puts on a glove, does finger quotes) "badroom".

Once again, the reboot has to force appendages the Reboot Puffs don't have. Blossom tells her that's there's nothing to worry about, as there's only Blossom, Bubbles, Buttercup, and The Mayor. It would have been a little funnier if it cut to the monster instead of the Mayor, but instead, we get to see the Mayor turn into the monster, while coincidentally eating a pickle chip before his transformation.

This leads to the Scooby Doo door scenes that's been seemingly parodied more times than there are Scooby Doo, Where Are You? episodes. They try a few jokes, like having a basketball team show up only in this scene, having Bubbles go on one of those old bicycles, and just in case you didn't get the reference, the Mayor shows up in a Mystery Machine-like vehicle and have him go "zoinks."

Possibly realizing this is going nowhere fast, Blossom decides to calm down the Mayor the only way the Powerpuff Girls know how...

...by beating him up. Biggest surprise of the episode: they actually succeed for once. No "what have we done" moment, no Monster Punch, Girls Down, just a quick slideshow beatdown. The monster-Mayor then gets tied up with rope.

No really, it's that almighty ordinary rope that was able to tie buildings-full-of-people lifting superheroes up is able to work on giant Hulk-like monsters, too! Continuing from the Scooby-Doo joke, this episode takes a very dark turn!

Bubbles: Now all they have to do is find out who this monster really is! (grabs the Monster Mayor's head)

Blossom & Buttercup: NO, BUBS!

Okay, that's a total lie. With this episode, you have to make your own fun. While Buttercup attempts to leave the scene, Blossom just can't leave the Mayor like this. But first, Bubbles decides to try some of those pickle chips! Buttercup, knowing her tropes, slaps it out of her hands, figuring out that they're not just ordinary pickle chips...

...but Transylvanian pickle chips! Gee, it was the pickles that turned him into a giant monster? To be fair, there is slightly more to it, as they're also expired for 5 years. What's even better is that it's Buttercup that figures this out, not the smart one. There's a good reason for this: she's the one most familiar with the movie tropes, which makes her correctly guess everything in the episode. Is this just admitting this episode was cliched?

But not for long, as Buttercup Van Helsing tries absolutely everything. She sprays juice on the monster Mayor like an exorcist sprays holy water, she reads from a generic monster book, and they even do another fake out scene where it looks like Buttercup is burning him with an iron...when she's really just ironing for no reason! Random!

Out of options, Buttercup decides to use one of her stakes to Blossom and Bubbles' horror. This time, I'm really not making this up. It turns out that's only using her stakes to make a sundial to time how long it takes for the transformation to wear off. At night. Indoors. Even the show itself points out that this is silly. Still, we get Buttercup correctly assuming that the monster transformation wears off without any prior knowledge.

After a few hours, which is far longer than the transformations before for no adequately explained reason, the Mayor wakes up as his usual self. Yelling "banjo" for no reason other than to prove that they still remember that banjo gag, Buttercup eye lasers the rope to free The Mayor, thus proving that they really could use eye lasers to get themselves out of rope! The Mayor promises to get rid of the pickle chips, so it won't fall in the wrong hands! Guess the joke!

The episode ends with Bubbles turning into a monster, Buttercup taking out another stake, and Blossom yelling her name in horror. Should I mention that it was Bubbles that pointed out the chips were 5 years old? Also, I can't help but notice that she sort of resembles Bunny. Insult? You decide.

Does the title fit?

I guess you could call City Hall a mansion if the Mayor lives there, which I think was hinted at.

How does it stack up?

A lot of this episode felt like filler, as if this could have been another short if they cut out all of it. The episode has an identity crisis, not really wanting to be a mystery, but not really wanting to be too much of a comedy either.

This is the least of the Season 2 episodes so far, I just couldn't get into it. Just watch The Squashening. Or, if you want something entertaining, Boogie Frights.

Nobody knows what's in store for the reboot, at least in the US. It could be super lice, it could be Jemmica, or maybe it could be a Holiday special! Looks like Fly is going to take a break from PPG 2016 to catch up on a certain other reboot throughout this week...starting tomorrow.

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