"Get Back Jojo" is the third episode of season four of The Powerpuff Girls, and the 77th episode overall.
The episode was completed on December 20, 2000 [1] but didn't premiere on Cartoon Network in the United States until May 4, 2001 as part of Cartoon Cartoon Fridays.
Plot[]
Mojo Jojo goes back in time to Professor Utonium's childhood, to prevent The Powerpuff Girls from ever existing, and the girls follow him to the past to stop him, where they discover the Professor was a bully as a child and in the process uncover a big secret that made him what he is today.
Synopsis[]
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Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, as they appear in 2001, where this episode takes place in.
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Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, as they appear visiting what Townsville looked like back in 1959 (via a time machine) in this episode.
It's Career Day at Pokey Oaks Kindergarten, when adults in the community and parents alike discuss their careers and occupations. In addition to one of the girls' classmates bringing his father to discuss his occupation in the insurance industry, they have brought the Professor with them to discuss his involvements in the sciences. When it is Professor Utonium's turn to speak, he tells the class that though he was never interested in science, he eventually became a scientist. Professor Utonium then unveils his newest invention--the Time Portal--and demonstrates it by recovering a hat from the mid-16th century. Then he grabs car keys from a much more recent date-the day before.
However, the scheming genius that is Mojo Jojo overhears this through the window on his way from the grocery store and disguises himself as a student to question the Professor about this invention. Mojo Jojo formulates a plan to kidnap the Professor in the past and convince him to reject science. He runs into the portal alone while the girls wait for his invention to be vacant so they can pursue him. While they wait, Professor Utonium explains the concept of different dimensions using a mouse in a maze; he explains that time travel is possible by exploiting movement in the so-called fifth dimension. Once the portal is vacant after Mojo reaches his target in time and space, this confirms the successful transport of living matter, prompting the girls to use it to travel to the past. However, the Professor warns them to be mindful that any significant actions in the past can alter the current reality, including the use of their superpowers.
Meanwhile, having arrived in Townsville in the late 1950s, Mojo scouts a school in search of the Professor as a child. Mojo sees for himself that the Professor was a huge brat who cared no more for science than he did for causing trouble and staging pranks. The class that Utonium is in had been building model volcanoes from milk bottles, modeling clay, and chemical mixtures in connection with watching a film about their dangers. Straying from his teacher's instructions, the young Utonium imagines his volcano as a monster, detonating it and filling the classroom with smoke with his excessive use of chemicals. While everyone is in a panic, Mojo swoops in to seize an opportunity to claim him.
Just as he leaves the school, the girls appear and interview various students to find out what happened to the Professor. Not only are civilians surprised at the girls' appearances, but it is revealed that Mojo has fled with Utonium to the local volcano (which has no observatory on it yet) where he tries to convince him to quit science; he hoped that by doing so, he would avert a life-changing event that otherwise inspired him to become the professor of the future and create the girls themselves. After the young Professor kicks, punches, and directs vituperative and sarcastic remarks towards him, Mojo decides to hit him over the head and throw him into the volcano itself in a new plan to get rid of the problem altogether. However, just as he throws the Professor into the volcano, the girls prevent this by intercepting the falling, unconscious future scientist, saving him, the girls themselves, and (indirectly) Mojo Jojo from being erased from existence. They put him on the ground. Just as he wakes up, he catches a glimpse of the girls as if they were angels reaching to spare his life; "Girls!" he whispers as he faints again. The girls in classic fashion beat up Mojo and reluctantly carry him back to the present with them.
As the girls fly back to the present with Mojo in tow, they crash into the Professor. Subsequently, he goes on to explain that as he mentioned before, he was a brat who valued little of science until the day he was saved by three mysterious little girls. He also goes on to explain that his quest to find out who and what they are had fueled his aspirations to become a scientist and create the perfect little girls -- he reveals the girls that saved him were the Powerpuff Girls himself traveling back in time to save his life. Amidst of all this love, Ms. Keane interrupts the Professor and introduces another presenter, a professional cartoonist. In the end, Mojo gets credit for saving the day, since he helped create the Powerpuff Girls.
Characters[]
Major Roles[]
Minor Roles[]
- Ms. Keane
- Mary
- Hanout Anoush
- Mr. Anoush
- Matthew
- The Mayor of Townsville (Young Version)
- Sara Bellum (Young Version)
- Jimmy (Video)
- Lisa (Video)
- Junior (Video)
- Students of Pokey Oaks Kindergarten
Trivia[]
- When this episode aired as part of Cartoon Cartoon Fridays (hosted by Bubbles), 500 instant pocket cameras with sticky film were given away.
- This is one of the episodes where the girls traveled through time, the other being "Speed Demon".
- It's revealed that Professor Utonium, Ms. Keane, and Ms. Bellum are all around the same age and were in the same class in the 1950s. However, the year or decade the main part of the show takes place in has never been confirmed, so their exact age now is unknown.
- The Mayor is shown to have been the Mayor of Townsville as far back as the 1950s, and still appeared quite old even back then, though he had a full head of white hair at the time.
- George Jetson, from The Jetsons, makes an appearance as one of the parents in Career Day.
- This episode is the last one to use the large-sized girls in their normal poses from the January 1999 version of the 1998-2001 animated episode outro after two years (three years in terms of production) of having used the cel of the large-sized girls in their normal poses since it was inked and painted by hand in 1998, the cel of the girls was getting worn out by that time.
- The animated episode outro in this episode is slightly longer than usual, due to the golden stars falling down for sixteen seconds.
- Although this episode aired after the AOL/Time Warner merger had completed, the Cartoon Network copyright info in the end credits had the AOL Time Warner byline, but the Hanna-Barbera logo still had the Time Warner byline, which means that there's evidence to suggest that this episode was completed before the completion of the merger, as the merger was not finalized and finished yet.
- The narrator never says "The City of Townsville" at the beginning of this episode, but Ms. Keane says these words instead.
- The Time Portal 2000 had 5 units of time levers: Year, Month, Day, Hour, and Minutes.
- Mojo Jojo does not consider the fact that if he did kill Professor Utonium in the past, then his own existence would be negated along with the Powerpuff Girls, since Mojo was responsible for creating the girls and he himself was created in the same lab accident, causing a Grandfather Paradox.
- The Narrator mentions Mojo Jojo helping the Professor in creating the Powerpuff Girls at the end. This is likely a reference to "Mr. Mojo's Rising".
- Some of the music heard in this episode is taken from the episode "The Rowdyruff Boys".
- Julie Nathanson, who voiced Robin Snyder in the episode "Superfriends", voiced the elementary school science teacher and Young Sara Bellum in Professor Utonium's past years.
- The music played when the Professor tells the girls that they were the ones who saved him in the past is the same as "The Rowdyruff Boys" when the girls were kissing the boys to defeat them.
Goofs[]
- While Mojo Jojo is disguised as Mary, Mojo Jojo's forehead turns pink for a few frames, the same color as his dress.
- Mojo is seen walking past the windows holding grocery bags, suggesting he went to the grocery store, yet the school is surrounded by a forest and seems out of the way to get to the grocery store.
Production Notes[]
- This episode was completed on December 20, 2000, [2] but bears a 2001 copyright in the credits to reflect when it premiered on television.
- It was also the last episode completed in 2000.