"Cover Up" is the 22nd episode of Season 2 of The Powerpuff Girls, and the 46th episode overall.
It was produced in 1999 but premiered on Cartoon Network in the United States on May 26, 2000.
Synopsis[]
Blossom and Bubbles discover that Buttercup secretly relies on a security blanket to feel she has the strength to fight crime. When Buttercup loses this blanket incidentally, she panics and loses her will to fight just as a monster threatens Townsville. Blossom comes up with a solution to motivate Buttercup to fight the monster.
Plot[]
It is common for the Powerpuff Girls to respond to emergency dispatches. A few such situations are shown, such as one where Buttercup deals swift physical justice to a group of thieves as Blossom and Bubbles watch her. When the Mayor calls the Girls on a second occasion, Blossom and Bubbles look for Buttercup, and are about to open the closet in the Girls' room when Buttercup bursts out, ready to fight the monster attacking Townsville. She singlehandedly defeats it as her sisters let her handle it.
The Mayor reports another monster attack to the Girls, which only Blossom and Bubbles initially show up for. They are unable to stop the monster (Claws Monster) on their own, as it begins chewing the lead car of a train and gets ready to attack the Girls. Buttercup arrives late to the mission at hand, but nonetheless defeats the monster. Blossom and Bubbles express concern over what Buttercup was doing before she appeared.
When the Mayor calls the Girls one other time, Blossom and Bubbles eventually do find Buttercup, as she is cuddling with a green blanket in the closet. She chants "I am a good fighter" as a mantra repeatedly, while stroking the blanket. Once she spots her sisters peeking at her, Buttercup conceals the blanket and comes up with an alibi that she is practicing her spelling. Her sisters are curious about what she is hiding behind her back. They then see the blanket and are hysterical, saying that Buttercup is beyond the need of a security blanket to ensure her skills in combat.
The Girls then show up to fight the monster as they planned, with Buttercup in particular planning to use her strength in the battle to prove her blanket deserves the credit for her skill. In the morning after this battle, Blossom takes yet another urgent call from the Mayor. However, Buttercup discovers her blanket is missing. She trashes the entire house looking for it with no success, driving her to throw a tantrum. Her sisters pull her up and explain that Townsville needs them to save it regardless, but Buttercup carries on and insists she needs her blanket anyway.
The monster attacking Townsville is then shown; while it spits powerful beams, it is only about the Girls' own size. Blossom uses this point to convince Buttercup that she will fight it as well as she always has, but Buttercup still lacks the confidence to confront it. Buttercup is brought to near-defeat by the monster's strength until Blossom shows up with a green blanket. This reawakens Buttercup's will to fight, driving her to dispatch what was otherwise a pushover to her. Still owing her victory to the blanket, Buttercup cuddles with the blanket in front of the public.
Later that evening at home, Buttercup discovers that the blanket Blossom gave her was not the same blanket, but rather another one Blossom found to get her through the fight. At that, Buttercup desperately searches the house for her blanket, but then breaks down once more. The Professor then turns up with the blanket, having apparently just done the laundry. Buttercup hugs it tightly on sight, but when her sisters glare at her, she changes her tune and lets the Professor keep the blanket. Like Buttercup earlier, the Professor repeatedly chants, "I am a good scientist." while rubbing the blanket on his face. Soon, after the Narrator says the usual closing tagline, he repeatedly (like Buttercup and the Professor) chants, "I am a good narrator".
Characters[]
- The Powerpuff Girls (Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup)
- Professor Utonium
- The Mayor (voice over Powerpuff Hotline only)
- Flying Mechanical Monster (debut)
- Little Monster (debut)
Trivia[]
- Moral: Even those who appear tough can have insecurities, and rely on an object they value for motivation.
- This episode premiered in some countries before the United States.[1]
- This episode premiered in Australia on December 10, 1999.
- This episode premiered in Canada on January 1, 2000.
- This episode premiered in the United Kingdom on February 13, 2000.
- A stuffed animal resembling the Pokémon, Pikachu, makes a cameo appearance.
- This was the first episode since "A Very Special Blossom" that they have their old font [2]. Because the directors' credits in the previous episodes only had that font.
- This was Genndy Tartakovsky's last time directing an episode in season 2.[citation needed]
- This was Chris Reccardi's first episode in storyboarding.[citation needed]
- This episode marks the first time in the series where Buttercup cries.
- In this episode, Buttercup is the only Powerpuff Girl who fights any threat to Townsville, as Blossom and Bubbles do not fight. In the earlier fights, it is because Buttercup is singlehandedly defeating the enemy at hand, but in the last one with the Little Monster, it is because Blossom is busy trying to encourage Buttercup to fight without her blanket's help.
- The scene where Blossom and Bubbles find out about Buttercup's blanket is shown in "City of Clipsville".
- This episode is one of a few where Blossom is seen reading Chinese.
- The cover of the book she is reading actually has Japanese kanji on it, which would otherwise be Romanized as nihongo, which is Japanese for its language. Kanji is the type of Japanese syllabary directly loaned from Chinese characters.
- In "The Bare Facts", Blossom says that she was brushing up on her conversational Chinese when the call came through.
- Running gag: Someone saying that they are good in a certain profession over and over again.
- In 2000, Don Shank won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Animation for this episode, along with Twisted Sister.[citation needed]
- There is a rare live-action TV series, also named Cover Up, whose theme song, Holding Out for a Hero, is sung by E.G. Daily, who also voiced Buttercup.[citation needed]
- This episode was later adapted into a book of the same name, released by Scholastic in 2002.
- The washer and dryer set are both in a front-loading and rear-control configuration and both have opaque doors. The only front-load washer in real life that was made with an opaque door instead of a glass one was a Maytag Neptune made from the late 1990s through 2006.
- Buttercup's crying (when she loses her blanket) is similar to that of Tommy Pickles from Rugrats, as both were voiced by E.G. Daily.
Errors[]
- When Buttercup goes missing for the second time, Blossom and Bubbles leave the house without her. However, in the stock footage used to depict them flying out the window, the distinctive color trails of all three girls can be clearly seen, and a quick freeze-frame reveals Buttercup alongside them.
- In the scene where Blossom encourages Buttercup to fight the monster without Blankie, there is a perspective error where Blossom grabs Buttercup's arm. Yet, because of her distance and the fact that her arm did not stretch out, it appears as if she suddenly became tiny compared to Buttercup.
- When Buttercup throws a tantrum inside the open kitchen cupboard over losing her blanket, there are no tears there. In the next shot when her sisters arrive and suggest she stop relying on her blanket, a flood of tears appear inside the cupboard.
Production Notes[]
- Although this episode premiered in the United States on May 26, 2000, it was actually produced in 1999 according to the credits.
- This episode was finished in July of 1999.[3]