Criss Cross Crisis is the 29th episode in the third season of The Powerpuff Girls, following "Bubblevision".
Plot[]
One of Professor Utonium's failed experiments causes everyone in the city to swap bodies. The race is on to find a solution whilst the girls fight Mojo Jojo, who exploits the mix-ups throughout town during a crime spree.
Synopsis[]
When one of the Professor's inventions go wrong, it causes everyone to switch bodies. For example, Buttercup switches with the Professor, Blossom switches with Ms. Bellum and Bubbles switches with The Mayor. Buttercup starts to cry at her wrong body and gets pushed by Blossom saying "Keep it down! I'm trying to sleep!"
Later, the Professor explains that he was trying to turn apples into oranges by using an alchemy he devised. Although it worked with the use of theta emissions, the conversion was incomplete; only the interiors have interchanged as the Professor (in Buttercup's body) demonstrates with cross-sections of the two fruits. The Professor then theorized that he could harness theta waves from human REM sleep from every citizen in Townsville to achieve total conversion. Unfortunately, he overloaded the power matrix and caused the entire conversion process to backfire throughout Townsville in such a way where all its citizens swapped bodies with each other, much in the way of the earlier apple and orange.
Then, the Mayor calls and Ms. Bellum explains that all of Townsville exchanged bodies and that someone exploited the confusion to rob the bank; they are in Bubbles and Blossom's bodies respectively. After he calls, the "girls" get dressed in their clothes. Bubbles won't leave because she has a bald spot. Blossom just combs some hair on the bald spot to help her.
Upon arriving at the bank, they gasp at the fact that everyone has switched bodies (a security guard to that of a baby, and a female bank teller to a guard dog). An old woman is there and tells them that it was Fuzzy Lumpkins ("A pink fellow concerned over his property") and they go find him. But when they get to Fuzzy Lumpkins' shack, it is just a British gentleman in Fuzzy Lumpkins' body who was drinking tea. Bubbles gets a call from the Mayor about another robbery. Once again, the girls find the old woman at the crime scene. This time, she said it was the Gangreen Gang ("Seasick-looking young lads"). The girls rush off and burst into the gang's hangout to find that they had switched bodies with teenage girls, and they are seen reading girly magazines and getting pedicures. The girls in Snake's and Grubber's bodies suggest that it was Mojo Jojo ("The monkey you were chasing around. He seems like a pretty bad guy") that's been committing the crimes. The girls burst into Mojo's lair, but it is an old lady inside Mojo's body who offers the girls with milk and cookies but the girls beat up the old lady until realizing their error. However, the girls realized that if she switched bodies with Mojo then he is in hers.
Sometime after realizing what had happened, the girls rush back into town and fight Mojo Jojo, who they come to realize had swapped bodies with the old lady and fed them several red herrings to detract from his robberies. Their battle is naturally complicated by the Professor's attempts to figure out how to restore everyone's proper bodies.
Meanwhile, the Professor, Ms. Bellum, and the Mayor stayed behind to repair the machine and find the proper frequency to restore everyone's proper bodies, and the girls send Mojo Jojo to prison; though everyone is back to normal, as the episode ends Bubbles and the Narrator appear to have switched bodies, which is likely a joke to reference the events of the episode.
Cast[]
- Cathy Cavadini as Blossom
- Tara Strong as Bubbles
- Elizabeth Daily as Buttercup and Old Woman Teller
- Tom Kane as Professor Utonium and English Chap
- Tom Kenny as The Mayor of Townsville, Snake, Lil' Arturo and Narrator
- Jennifer Martin as Sara Bellum
- Roger L. Jackson as Mojo Jojo, Old Beehive Lady Mojo and Baby
- Jeff Bennett as Ace, Grubber and Big Billy
- Jennifer Hale as Guard and Old Lady
- Jim Cummings as Fuzzy Lumpkins
Minor roles[]
- Citizens of Townsville
- Policeman
Transcript[]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- This is Don Shank's last episode in storyboarding, yet he was still the art director until the end of season 4.
- The Powerpuff Girls, The Mayor, Ms. Sara Bellum, Professor Utonium, wake up in the opposite bodies, and the villains all wake up as the opposite people in their bodies.
- Paul Rudish, Craig McCracken and Don Shank make a cameo appearance in the body-switch scene in the laboratory.
- This is the second of the four episodes in season three that Genndy Tartakovsky directed.
- During the bank scene, Totoro makes a cameo.
- When Buttercup (in Professor's body) asks the female teller who robbed the bank, she said "who stole the moneys (sic)?" instead of "money"
- Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory, makes a brief cameo appearance in this episode switching bodies with Ms. Sara Bellum.
- This episode has the following references from the episode, "The Powerpuff Girls' Best Rainy Day Adventure Ever":
- Blossom as Ms. Bellum.
- Bubbles as The Mayor in their pretend game of The Powerpuff Girls.
- The argument over whom would get to be Bubbles eventually followed by the narrator's disappointment when the game was over out of not getting to play Bubbles as he wanted and the voice swap with the narrator and Bubbles towards the end of this episode.
- Behind the scenes this episode was an animation disaster, having to draw all the characters differently than normal.
- The scene of the girls flying to Mojo's Lair was remade during production, proved by a single frame which was accidentally retained on the episode.
- Mojo Jojo's glasses (inside the old woman's body) resembles that from Mandark from Dexter's Laboratory when he got hit by the laser.
- This episode is the first 22-minute full-length one-story episode since "Uh Oh Dynamo".
- When standing on the old lady in Mojo Jojo's body, Ms. Sara Bellum's shoes are red but in the rest of the episode, her shoes are black.
- At the scene when the six are on the couch, Ms. Bellum's neck is longer than usual.
- Popeye and George Liquor make a cameo appearance in this episode.
- Running gag: Mojo Jojo saying that he is the old lady whom he switched bodies with and Professor Utonium trying to rearrange their bodies during the episode.
Errors[]
- When Bubbles/The Mayor is speaking, the Mayor's voice is low quality and Bubbles Lips are out of sync.
Production Notes[]
- This was the first episode produced in 2000 according to the credits.
- This was originally meant to be a season 2 episode, but production was held off until season 3.
External links[]
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