"Jewel of the Aisle" is the twelfth episode of Season 3 (and the 62nd episode overall). It first aired on Cartoon Network in the United States on October 20, 2000.
Plot[]
A bumbling crook goes in pursuit of a jewel, only to lose it in a cereal box bought by the girls. While the crook resorts to some disguises, one little breakfast becomes a treasure hunt.
Synopsis[]
A nameless crook robs a jewelry store one night in Townsville, only to be found and pursued by the girls.
His luck in outrunning the girls seems to be great as he manages to go seamlessly from one escape route to the next. Soon, he finds solace atop the roof of a factory belonging to the Generally Food Cereal Company, the makers of a cereal called Lucky Captain Rabbit King Nuggets. He falls through a skylight, and the girls lose sight of him right as they managed to find him as he impersonates as one of the factory's workers. Just when the thief thinks he's in the clear, the jewel he stole falls into a hopper that dispenses cereal into boxes. After losing it in the factory, he follows the delivery truck to a local Malph's. He goes through every box in the store except one, which he concludes must contain the jewel. Before he can grab it, however, Professor Utonium grabs it and leaves the store.
Not knowing the Professor or his relationship to the girls, he follows him to their house by hitching onto his car. Later, upon realizing who lives there, he tries to come up with a plan to get the jewel without being recognized. After seeing the sisters watching a Lucky Captain Rabbit King Nuggets advertisement, he decides to dress as the cereal's mascot and grab the box. Typical of the commercials, however, the girls play along with his disguise and insist that he is attempting to trick them out of their cereal as he approaches them. He tries many disguises: Lucky Captain Rabbit King's "twin brother" (to which Buttercup denounces as "weak"), a "grandma baby-sitter" Mr. Phan, their gardener, a monster attacking Townsville, and eventually Santa Claus.
While all of these plans fail, the last one proves to be the worst as the crook tries to climb a lot of trash cans in order to go down the chimney. A vicious squirrel attacks him after he gets one off of a helicopter. Afterwards, the crook uses another helicopter and dives into the chimney, only to get stuck. After emergency workers get him out hours later, he reveals himself as the "Lucky Captain Rabbit King" to the sisters and cries that all he wanted was the cereal. Bubbles sympathetically gives it to him and he completely blows his cover when he removes the Lucky Captain Rabbit King mask and starts eating the cereal until he gets to the jewel. The girls beat him up and recover the jewel, and the police take him to jail.
So once again, the day is saved, thanks to green Buttercups, blue Bubbles and pink Blossoms - the Powerpuff Girls. (Part of this delicious, nutritious breakfast).
Characters[]
Major Roles[]
- The Powerpuff Girls
- Unlucky Captured Robber Dude (debut)
- Lucky Captain Rabbit King (debut)
Minor Roles[]
- Professor Utonium
- Mr. Phan
Quotes[]
- The Crook: Now ahem, listen up. The Captain and Tennille has a headache. I'm just here for some cereal and I'll be on my way.
- Blossom: (repeatedly) Ridiculous, Lucky Captain Rabbit King! Lucky Captain Rabbit King Nuggets are for the youth!
- [the girls have beaten up the crook, recovered the jewel and sent the crook into a police car driving him to prison]
- Blossom: Stupid, unlucky captured robber dude. Jail is for you.
Trivia[]
- The title references the 1985 film, The Jewel of the Nile.
- This episode premiered in some countries before the United States.[1]
- This episode premiered in Australia on April 7, 2000.
- This episode premiered in Canada on June 17, 2000.
- This episode premiered in the United Kingdom on July 9, 2000.
- The Generally Food Cereal Company is a reference to General Mills. The name, however, refers more to the General Foods Corporation, which was originally known as the Postum Cereal Company; the latter company's legacy remained mostly preserved in Kraft Foods as of 1990.
- The workers in the Generally Food Cereal Company are wearing white lab coats and black pants like Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory.
- Mech-Animals, the CG cartoon the girls are watching is a reference to Beast Wars and Beast Machines, a part of the Transformers franchise.
- The character Ostrichman Prime is based on Optimus Prime.
- The crook misidentifies the character he's pretending to be as "The Captain and Tennille" a reference to the husband and wife pop duo.
- The name and design of Lucky Captain Rabbit King is a composite of Lucky the Leprechaun (Lucky Charms), Cap'n Crunch, the Trix rabbit, and King Vitaman (emulating two General Mills mascots and two Quaker mascots).
- The Lucky Captain Rabbit King commercials, however, only emulated the format of the Trix commercials.
- Like the Trix Rabbit, Lucky Captain Rabbit King disguises himself to attempt to get the cereal but is discovered and (usually, but not always) denied the cereal [the Trix Rabbit was allowed to have Trix once].
- This episode aired right as Kellogg's (another breakfast cereal company) released a limited-edition cereal based on the series.
- In the animated episode outro when the Girls appear, they appear one-by-one in a sequential order (the first one to appear is Buttercup, the second to appear is Bubbles, and the third one to appear is Blossom). Also, they are zoomed out further than usual.
- The line "Ridiculous Lucky Captain Rabbit King, Lucky Captain Rabbit King Nuggets are for the youth!" is a parody of the Trix slogan, "Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids!”
- The girls never seem to notice the diamond in their cereal box, despite the amount of cereal they have eaten.
- The singers singing the cereal jingle in the commercial are voiced by the girls' actresses.
- This is a rare usage of different animation designs. The Mech-Animals sequence is made of computer animation, and the commercial sequence is designed and animated in the same fluid cartoony fashion as actual cereal commercials of the time (reminiscent of golden-age theatrical animation).
- The scene where the Girls start to see through the "Grandma babysitter" disguise is a reference to Little Red Riding Hood, where the titular character starts to realize that "her grandmother" is actually the wolf in disguise.
- The scene where the thief (disguised as Lucky Captain Rabbit King, further disguised as Santa) is attacked by a Vicious Squirrel on the roof is a reference to a scene from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.