"Cat Man Do" is the 19th episode of Season 1 of The Powerpuff Girls.
It was produced in 1998 and aired in the United States on January 27, 1999.
Synopsis[]
During a robbery, the girls rescue a seemingly cute white cat. They have no idea that the cat is anything but harmless and soon it turns the girl's life into a literal cat-astrophy.
Plot[]
After stopping a man in a penthouse from stealing a jewel he intends to use to power a ray (and having him get arrested by the police), the Powerpuff Girls make their escape from the crumbling building. Bubbles takes the man's cat away, ultimately deciding to take it home. She and Blossom like the cat, but Buttercup does not. Yet after the cat takes her yo-yo away and plays with it as if it were a rubber mouse, the girls are all endeared by it.
After Professor Utonium gives his consent for the cat to spend the night with the girls, he goes to his lab and leaves them as they are asleep. However, the cat finds its way into the Professor's lab and playfully swipes at the air. The Professor shouts for the cat to leave the laboratory, but the cat refuses and flips onto its back. The Professor is charmed by the cat as well.
The next morning, the girls make breakfast for the Professor on terms that the bribe will convince him to keep the cat. But to their surprise (and initially anger, unexpecting the answer), they are allowed to keep him - but they are shocked when the Professor does not allow Bubbles to hold the cat and runs into his lab. With him making some kind of invention under the cat's watch, the girls sadly watch as they are kept out of the laboratory.
That night, the Professor and 'White Kitty' steal exactly the same jewel as in the previous charade, called the 'Cat's Eye' jewel. When the Powerpuff Girls get news of this, they are upset. Buttercup mentions that they had already dealt with the man from that incident. Bubbles thinks that the cat hypnotizes people; the man was not the real criminal, but the cat was (which means the cat has hypnotized the Professor). However, Buttercup shoots down the theory. At the exact moment, the evil genius cat reveals his plan: to make the household feline the ruler of all houses in a 15-mile radius. With the beam working perfectly, Townsville cats are soon dining on turkey, sleeping on beds, and allowed to scratch furniture; the beam even causes the Mayor to lick his own cat.
The Powerpuff Girls as they appear in the episode.
The girls find the beam, to Bubbles' delight, as her theory was right and she brags to her shocked sisters on this. With the Professor acting like a very angry cat, the girls evade their father’s attempts to scratch them until they are all roughed up (albeit under hypnosis). The Professor accidentally knocks over his 'master' and jumps off the roof to retrieve it, to the girls' horror. They catch him, and the Professor watches his cat disappear. The girls then try to talk the Professor back to his senses. Blossom punches him, which snaps him out of his trance. He thinks the whole episode was a dream, and the girls take him home, while the cat cries out from a tree he is stuck on.
Characters[]
Major Characters[]
Minor Characters[]
- The Mayor of Townsville
- Cops
- Narrator
- Simmion
- Juju
Trivia[]
- Moral: Just like people may not be as they appear, the same goes for animals that may look cute and cuddly. Everybody has the right to adopt a pet, but without common sense, you could only succeed in inviting disaster into your life.
- The title of this episode is a pun of Kathmandu, which is the capital city of Nepal.
- It is unknown what happened to the man who got arrested at the beginning, but it is quite possible that he got released from jail.
- For most of the episode, the cat's whiskers are not seen. When Bubbles holds him, however, its whiskers turn black. Also, when we zoom in on the cat, his whiskers are black.
- This episode reveals that there is a door to the lab in the kitchen.
- After the events of this episode, the Professor develops a deep dislike for cats. This would be mentioned in "Keen on Keane", where he tells Ms. Keane about having bad experience with one, which he says made him "jump off a building".
- Bubbles mentions the cat to Robin later on in "Superfriends".
- Although this episode was produced during 1998, the 1998-2001 animated episode outro is redrawn in which the pulsating hearts background is recreated and each part of the outro (the streaks, the exploding stars, the girls, the falling stars, and the "THE END" sign) is traced over individual cells, thus introducing the January 1999 variant of the 1998-2001 animated episode outro. This variant remains in subsequent episodes until "Get Back Jojo".
- This episode is also the first one to use both the January 1999 variant of the 1998-2001 3D Star Explosion and the January 1999 variant of the 1998-2001 Golden Star Shower.
- This episode reunites Tara (Charendoff) Strong and Mark Hamill since their work on "Scooby Doo on Zombie Island".
- This is the second episode where Professor Utonium pulled a "Nightmare Face" after Tough Love. However unlike that episode, Professor Utonium didn't sport red irises and gritted teeth, making him more tamer and less terrifying.
Errors[]
- It is unclear how the laser directly hits the heavy lady when she is in a house.
- The Powerpuff Girls bring the Professor to the sidewalk. They are then suddenly in the middle of the road.
- When the Professor builds the laser, in the shadow, the jewel is already present, yet they are not supposed to have stolen it yet.
Production Notes[]
- Although this episode premiered in the United States on January 27, 1999, it was actually produced in 1998 according to the credits.
- This episode was finished in November of 1998.[1]