Neighbor Hood

"Neighbor Hood" is the sixth episode of season 5 of The Powerpuff Girls and the 90th episode overall.

Although produced for the fifth season and airing overseas in 2003, it never aired in the United States until March 25, 2005, well after production of the original series had ended.

It made its international premiere in Australia on October 3, 2003.

Plot[]

Bubbles' favorite show loses all of their joy after they convince viewers to send in their money for unknown reasons. It turns out that Whimsical Willy stole all the money from Townsville.

Synopsis[]

All the children of Pokey Oaks Kindergarten, including Bubbles, cannot wait to watch their favorite TV show, The Wondrous World of Whimsical Willy. Mr. Willy shows the children a mask of a happy face and a mask of a sad face. He then wonders where happiness comes from. The flower on his hat, Miss Happy Flower whispers to his ear. Mr. Willy is delighted by the idea. He then goes to the magical world of Daydream Lane by using his magic satchel. The characters who live there are Maid Mary, Kitty the Elephant, Duke Monday, Dynamite Dog and Crazy Horse. Maid Mary asks of Mr. Willy to Kitty the Elephant. Kitty says he doesn't know where Mr. Willy is and starts to look for him. Unknown to him, Mr. Willy has arrived and greets Maid Mary with a very sweet hello. Mr. Willy asks what she is making. She says that they are making a Happy Stew. Duke Monday is helping her find the ingredients. Maid Mary then asks Mr. Willy of what makes him happy. Before Mr. Willy could answer, Dynamite Dog runs to them bringing terrible news. He informs that a Dark Cloud of Sadness has covered Daydream Lane and it causes Crazy Horse to lose his happiness. All of them are shocked. Maid Mary says to Mr. Willy that if nothing is done fast, all of them may lose their happiness.

It makes the children shocked as well. Mr. Willy admits that he does not know where to turn to. He then tells the children that there is only one thing that can get rid the Sadness Cloud, and that is Happy Paper. Holding a 100 dollar note, he pleads with the children to send them as much "Happy Paper" as they can, or Daydream Lane will be doomed. The Dark Cloud of Sadness is then shown on Daydream Lane: A monstrous, red cloud with a pair of evil, glowing crimson eyes. Lightning flashed around the Cloud. This terrifies the children and they run away from their TVs, except Bubbles, who is less scared. She, innocently believing that the show is real, upset says that something has to be done. At Mayor's office, it is shown that even he is watching Whimsical Willy as well. Terrified and like Bubbles, he believes the show is real, he then runs to a vault in his office, gets some coins out of his piggy bank and when he enters the vault to put his piggy bank back, he realizes all the money of Townsville are gone, leaving a large hole in the wall. The Mayor yells in fright and horror.

At home, Blossom and Buttercup are looking for Bubbles. They then receive a call from the Mayor that all the money of Townsville has been stolen (despite the fact that he himself "donated"). When they wonder where Bubbles is, they unintentionally see on the TV that Bubbles is giving all the money of Townsville that she has stolen to Mr. Willy. Her sisters are shocked and fly away to see Bubbles. Mr. Willy thanks Bubbles for her "wonderful gifts" and then shows her that the Sadness Cloud has gone away and all their friends get their happiness back (the characters are shown to be very happy and the Daydream Lane becomes beautiful once more).

When they happily celebrate, Blossom and Buttercup barge in, angrily. Blossom tells Mr. Willy to drop his act, even it is his real name. Bubbles asks Mr. Willy about what Blossom has said, and Mr. Willy tells her that he doesn't know and his name is indeed Willy. He suddenly becomes frightened and sweaty and smiles anxiously at Bubbles. Blossom and Buttercup are smart enough to not fall for his pathetic attempts at lying and reveal his plan to steal all the money of Townsville. Bubbles demands an explanation from her sisters and tell them that Mr. Willy is just trying to save Daydream Lane and all of his friends from losing their happiness. Blossom tells Bubbles that none of that is real and Buttercup tells her that it is all fake. Pulling a rope, the canvas that serves as Daydream Lane surroundings are raised up, reveals nothing behind but a bare gray wall. The characters are actually real escaped criminals in costumes and Whimsical Willy is a crook and how he tricked Bubbles into stealing all the money! His plans revealed, he then shows his true colors, completely different from his show, insanely and sinister tells them that all the money of Townsville are his! Bubbles is shocked by her favorite TV show icon's madness and how he tricked her into stealing all the money to Townsville. Mr. Willy tells his criminal goons to attack the girls. Blossom and Buttercup start to fight them, but Bubbles stops them and angrily beats all the criminals, for her own happiness, dream and hope are shattered by the truth of the show. Before Mr. Willy could escape on the hot air balloon that he uses in his show, Bubbles throws a happy face mask from his satchel on the floor, dropping him from the balloon. Bubbles, angry at Mr. Willy for tricking her, refuses to catch him and just lets him land, painfully. Mr. Willy is then arrested, and his show is canceled permanently. In the jail, his fellow criminals that act as characters of his show return to their cells (off screen), mean while Mr. Willy gives a frightened grin after being put in with his new cellmates who are angrily glare at him.

The girls return all the money and Bubbles apologizes and regretfully tells Mayor that she should not believe everything she sees on TV. Shocked, Mayor tells Bubbles not to say such a thing. He states to her that television is her friend, then he states to the viewers (and the narrator) that it is never wrong and they should always listen to it and do whatever it says. Shocked back, Bubbles and the other Powerpuffs agree to Mayor in a cult-like trance.

The episode ends with the narrator quoting that now and forevermore, the day is saved, thanks to "the Wonderful, Funderful World of Television".

Characters[]

Major Characters[]

The Powerpuff Girls
Whimsical Willy (Single Appearance)

Minor Characters[]

Trivia[]

This episode aired in some countries before the United States.^[1]
- This episode premiered in Australia on October 3, 2003.
- This episode premiered in the United Kingdom on November 2, 2003.
- This episode premiered in Canada on January 23, 2004.
- This episode premiered in Mexico on June 14, 2004.
The Wondrous World of Whimsical Willy is a parody of, and tribute to, the real-life television show Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Some aspects of the show are a spoof of Mister Rogers, such as Duke Monday and Maid Mary parodies King Friday XIII and Lady Aberlin, Whimsical Willy changes into his "magic trousers" and "bright green shoes" just as Mister Rogers changes into his cardigan and shoes and his magic satchel that travels to Daydream Lane is similar to Mister Rogers' Trolley that travels to Neighborhood of Make-Believe and Daydream Lane parodies Neighborhood of Make-Believe.
- Willy saying hello to Maid Mary, however, may be a reference to the way Pee-Wee Herman (Paul Reubens) frequently commented on how beautiful Miss Yvonne (Lynne Marie Stewart) looked upon greeting her.
This episode also based on real-life events in a 1965 New Year incident where Soupy Sales, miffed at having to work on the holiday, ended his live broadcast by encouraging his young viewers to tiptoe into their still-sleeping parents' bedrooms and remove those "funny green pieces of paper with pictures of U.S. Presidents" from their pants and pocketbooks. "Put them in an envelope and mail them to me," Soupy instructed the children. "And I'll send you a postcard from Puerto Rico!" He was then hit with a pie. He later admitted that he was joking and that the money would be donated to a charity, but Sales was negatively affected by the incident.
Morals The lessons of this episode are:
- Don't believe everything you watch on TV.
- Not all children's shows are what they seem to be.
- If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
This is the second episode to feature confidence trick, a con artist and a scheme to steal the town's money, with the first being "Film Flam", and the antagonist Willy is voiced by Tom Kenny who voiced the other con artist, Bernie Bernstein.
For some reason, everybody counted coins as "happy paper", despite not being made of paper and Whimsical Willy never using the terms money or coins.
The Girls and the Mayor break the fourth wall when they tell the viewers that they should always trust television.
This episode was written in 1999 as a season 2 episode, but it resembled Mister Rogers' Neighborhood so much that the staff feared a lawsuit from PBS. The story was given to DC for the comic, Remote Controlled, before the script was revived and made into a season 5 episode.^[2]
Strangely, although there are actors and puppeteers, there doesn't seem to be any film crew working on the show.

Goofs[]

In the establishing shot of Pokey Oaks kindergarten, the American flag suddenly stops moving.
Near the end of the episode, when Blossom was saying "Bubbles, Mr. Willy is getting away!" Buttercup's mouth was moving.
When Blossom reveals Daydream Lane to be a set, Maid Mary's cauldron is shown to be painted on to the background despite it being a useable object in the show.
Bubbles thought DayDream Lane was an actual, real place, despite breaking into the building where it was being filmed, to give Whimsical Willy “happy paper”, but Blossom and Buttercup did.

Production Notes[]

Although this episode premiered in the United States on March 25, 2005, it was actually produced for the fifth season in 2003.
- This episode was finished in June of 2003.^[3]

References[]

[1] ttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt1485643/releaseinfo

[2] ttps://comments.deviantart.com/4/9417754/4634775367

[3] ttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt1485643/locations

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