| Boogie Frights | |
| Episode name pun on: Boogie Fights | |
|---|---|
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| Airdate: | December 16, 1998 |
| Credits | |
| Director: | Genndy Tartakovsky Craig McCracken |
| Story: | Michael Ryan Jason Butler Rote |
| See also | |
| episode transcript |
image gallery |
| Episodes | |
| Previous "Fuzzy Logic" |
Next "Abracadaver" |
| Rating | |
"Boogie Frights" is the first half of the fifth episode of Season 1. It first aired on Cartoon Network in the United States on December 16, 1998.
Synopsis
The girls are getting ready for bed, and Blossom reminds them of the benefits of going to bed early. Buttercup (who's in a good mood) says that she can't wait to be old enough to party, but Bubbles is afraid of the dark, and Buttercup torments her sisters with the story of the Boogie Man (a play on "bogeyman") and says that he only comes out after dark and everybody cowers. Professor Utonium breaks up the horror, and assures them that Buttercup's being an instigator. Bubbles wishes she were brave, and the Professor explains that in order to master your fears, you must face them. The girls finally fall asleep.
Boogie Man requesting Jerome to call Scissors so they can "proceed with step two."
However, in the dark world underneath their bed, the Boogie Man is working on some sort of ball-shaped machine, and he tells his right-hand man, Jerome, to inform the other monsters and frackles that are partying out in the Boogie Man's nightclub. The Boogie Man is apparently the leader of the monsters, with a penchant for 70's fashion, and a Barry White-ish song in his voice. When he shows up, The Boogie Man says that it has been too long that they have been vulnerable to the night lights, street lights, hall lights with the door cracked, and deeper still the sun. He makes a promise to his fun-loving minions to destroy the sun, so they can party on the surface forever. He asks Jerome to make a call Scissors, a monster at the city's power plant, who severs the main power line, leaving the city in darkness.
The Boogie Man appearing fashionably late.
Monsters and frackles from under beds everywhere in Townsville emerge to join the Boogie Man's midnight bash, and the host himself shows up in his white stretch, dressed to kill, just before sunrise. He reminds them of his plan, and launches a giant disco ball that ascends to the atmosphere and blocks out the sun.
Buttercup and Bubbles crashing Boogie's party and they dance to the beat
The girls have been awakened by the loud disco-music and fly into town, where Buttercup and Bubbles are immediately swept off their feet by the music just like Buttercup imagined. However, the frackles and monsters do not approve of there gatecrashers and fight them. Just as the girls realize there are too many of them, The Boogie Man appears and explains his masterpiece to them, gloating that the frackles and monsters are "Gonna make this night last forever.".
The girls immediately set course for the disco ball with the Boogie Man in pursuit. He shoots laser beams at them from his limo spacecraft. Blossom and Buttercup retreat, and the Boogie Man closes in on Bubbles, who cowers and cries at first, but then remembers the Professor's words, that she must face her fears in order to triumph over them, and continues straight to the disco ball's core. The Boogie Man prepares to destroy Bubbles, but Blossom and Buttercup come back at the last moment, firing lasers that damage the Boogie Man's spacecraft and send him flinging into space. Bubbles successfully shoots eye beams into the core of the disco ball, destroying it, and the sun again rises. The Powerpuff Girls head home to sleep as the nightmarish clubbers disintegrate in the sunlight.
The closing title card commences, and the girls appear in bed in front of the pulsating hearts. The narrator starts the outro, but drifts off joking about the daylight. He laughs, but Blossom shushes him, Buttercup glares at him with one eye, he apologizes, and they go back to sleep (But Bubbles, for some reason, is not disturbed one bit). He whispers the rest of the outro, and then tells the viewers goodnight.
Quotes
- [Bubbles is left alone to destroy the disco ball]
- Professor: (memory) Bubbles, if you can just face your fears, then I know you can find the courage to beat 'em.
- [saving their sister from the Boogie Man]
- Buttercup: You're good to go, kid!
- Blossom: Now blow up that disco ball so we can go back to bed!
- Blossom: Now, girls, you know we need to get plenty of sleep. It’s our responsibility as super-heroines to be well-rested, so that we’ll be at peak crime-fighting performance whenever evil rears its ugly head and, like Ben Franklin always said "Early to bed, early to wake, makes a lady smart, pretty, and great."
Home Videos Released
- Boogie Frights (VHS)
- Scooby-Doo! Greatest Mysteries (VHS only)
Trivia
- The Boogie Man and Jerome are both voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson.
- The episode's title is a reference to the 1997 film Boogie Nights and the 1977 song of the same name by the disco group, Heatwave. Coincidentally, Ernie Anderson, father of Boogie Nights director Paul Thomas Anderson, was the narrator of the Meat Fuzzy Lumpkins and Crime 101 shorts.
- In this episode, Bubbles's and Blossom's blankets exchange places, and the 1st time Blossom's blanket is on the side.
- The climax where the Powerpuff Girls destroy the Disco Ball is a parody of and a homage to the ending of Star Wars IV: A New Hope (''special edition'') and the destruction of the Death Star. In fact, that movie's star, Mark Hamill co-starred with Tara Strong in The New Batman Adventures, and Hamill would voice the White Kitty in Cat Man Do.
- When the Girls take off for Townsville, they're in their nighties, but when they arrive, they have their clothes on.
- This is one of Craig McCracken's ten favorite episodes.
- This is Bubbles' most heroic role, due to the Professor's words of wisdom that allow her to destroy the disco ball which is reference to when Obi-Wan Kenobi tells Luke Skywalker to use the force in order to destroy the Death Star.
- Bubbles sleeps in the middle of the bed in this episode. In all the other episodes, Bubbles sleeps on the right while Blossom sleeps in the middle.
- This is the first time that the girls fight a villain at night, preceding Abracadaver, Burglar Alarmed, and Aspirations.
- One of the monsters that appears out of a kids bed bears a resemblance to HIM.
- Moral: Face your fears.
- Reference: You're Good to Go Kid, Now Blow Up that Disco Ball so We Can go Back to bed!
- Jerome tells the monsters to "chill the frag out". 2 years later, Kevin Michael Richardson would voice Lobo who would say "frag" as a catchphrase.
Availability
This episode was released on a VHS of the same name. It was also released on the Scooby-Doo's Greatest Mysteries VHS. A DVD named "The Mane Event" has this episode.