"See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey" is the 18th episode of the fifth season and the 102nd episode overall.
It first aired in the United Kingdom on October 26, 2003 and in Canada on YTV on March 18, 2004.[1]
The episode was banned in the United States and most other countries due to its subject matter, though it was eventually released in the United States on January 20, 2009 through the "Complete Series" DVD.
Plot[]
The girls are manipulated by a gnome who offers them peace in the city at the cost of their powers, but when they learn about his true nature, they outsmart him in a musical.
Synopsis[]
The Powerpuff Girls are once again fighting the villains of Townsville ("Townsville's Going Down!", "Wanna get some?"). There are way too many villains to fight (Mojo Jojo, Princess Morbucks, Fuzzy Lumpkins, the Gangreen Gang, Sedusa, HIM, and the Amoeba Boys), and the Powerpuff Girls are tired and defeated. They become very miserable with the way things are in the world and wish for a day of peace, love and understanding ("Rain"). Just then, a drop of rain falls into a crack in the ground, and a rose blooms. A gnome emerges from within the rose's petals and tells the girls that he can get rid of all the evils of the world in exchange for their superpowers ("Give Me Your Answer"). At first, Buttercup disapproves the idea, but Bubbles persuades the girls that they can finally become normal ("Normal Little Girls"). The girls agree and the gnome casts a spell that gives him an otherworldly power ("Hear Me Fathers") before unleashing it upon the villains of Townsville, who are all severely electrocuted and defeated, thereby ridding Townsville of all evil.
With Townsville now seemingly a happy and peaceful utopia ("Sunshine Down On Me"), the townspeople worship the gnome and form a cult devoted to him ("Best Day Of My Life"). Meanwhile, the Professor warns the girls that, although the gnome has provided safety, he has robbed the town of its freewill ("Freedom Beef"). Since the gnome has become evil, the deal he made with the girls is broken and the girls regain their powers. The girls travel to the gnome's headquarters atop a giant rose and confront him. They seem to have defeated the Gnome at first, but the Gnome summons all of his powers and casts a spell causing electric laser beams to zap the girls. They soon regain consciousness and proceed to give the Gnome one final beating. The Gnome cannot retaliate as he had used up the last of his powers zapping the girls, and falls from the top of the rose. As he falls into oblivion, he realizes that he ultimately became the evil he sought to destroy and therefore cannot exist in his "utopian mind" ("You Wanna Make Us Feel Real Good"). The world goes back to the way it formerly was. The Townspeople now worship the girls, but they tell the townspeople that evil and good make the world go round, and we must not wish for peace, love and understanding, but instead make it go right ("Why Can't We All Get Along").
Characters[]
- The Powerpuff Girls
- Professor Utonium
- The Mayor of Townsville
- Mojo Jojo
- HIM
- Fuzzy Lumpkins
- The Amoeba Boys
- The Gangreen Gang
- Ace
- Snake (non-speaking)
- Big Billy
- Lil' Arturo (non-speaking)
- Grubber (non-speaking)
- Princess Morbucks
- Sedusa
- Talking Dog
- The Gnome
- Elders
- Narrator
- Townsville citizens
Songs[]
- Townsville's Going Down!
- Wanna Get Some?
- Rain
- Give Me Your Answer
- Normal Little Girls
- Hear Me Fathers
- Sunshine Down On Me
- Best Day Of My Life
- Freedom Beef
- You Wanna Make Us Feel Real Good
- Why Can't We All Get Along
Trivia[]
- Moral: You can't have good without the bad. There is always yin for yang.
- The episode was pulled and banned in the United States from its timeslot on February 27, 2004 because Cartoon Network claimed that the metal beams in the destroyed buildings looked too much like crucifixes and that one of the hippies looked like Jesus Christ; it was also speculated that it was banned due to the stroboscopic effects seen in the "Hear Me Fathers" sequence. As a result, the episode only aired in the UK on October 26, 2003, on YTV in Canada on March 18, 2004, followed by Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia on April 19, 2005, and later in Latin America and Brazil on May 20, 2006. It did not see the light of day in the United States until January 20, 2009, when it was released on the complete series DVD. Since then, it has been made available on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu. Interestingly enough, however, the episode wasn't included when the series was put on HBO Max.
- The narrator never says "The City of Townsville" at the beginning of this episode, but Mojo Jojo sings these words.
- The episode is sung in a rock opera form, similar to Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Hair, Les Misérables, Cats, Dreamgirls, Wicked, Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, Tommy, and The Wall.
- Storyboard artist/writer David Smith wrote the lyrics for all the songs in this episode, and he also composed the music for this episode.
- Snake shows elastic ability similar to the episode Power Lunch.
- Jack Black was approached for the voice role of the Gnome but turned it down, though he did appear in the Clone High episode "Raisin the Stakes", which was also a rock opera.
- The episode's title is a reference to the Who song "See Me, Feel Me", the finale to their 1969 rock opera Tommy.
- The episode does not start with the theme song, but with the title and different music along with it.
- Recycled footage from the episode "Buttercrush" was used in the scene where Ace gets beat up.
- The explosion near the end of the episode is likely a reference to the 1988 anime film Akira.
- This is the third Cartoon Network Opera to been shown. The first was "LABretto" from Dexter's Laboratory, and the second was "The Pie Who Loved Me" from Evil Con Carne. However, this one did not air on linear television in America due to it being controversial.
- There is some disagreement over whether or not Professor's claims are supported by what is shown in the episode, leading to an alternate interpretation in which the girls would actually be the villains of the episode, fighting for the return of evil to the world. But, what the Professor's words really mean is that the gnome did not do his part of the deal he had with the girls, and although he tried to erase evil (which he didn't after all), he himself became evil by robbing the world of its free will, which means he failed in his mission. As a result, the girls now know that life consists of opposites, and that without the bad there is no good and therefore, had to fight to make peace between evil and good.
- This episode has a seizure alert for the red and white blinking lights.
- This is the second episode/special to have a different ending theme.
- This is one of the episodes where the girls lose their powers.
- According to a YouTube contributor and the Cartoon Network Wiki, this was intended to be the series finale. However, a post from Craig McCracken on his official blog states that it wasn't.[2]
- There are some differences between this episode and "LABretto"; in this episode, some parts have songs including "Townville's Going Down," "Freedom Beef," and "This is the Best Day of My Life Today," whereas "LABretto" is completely in opera. Also, this episode has the "The End" sign while LABretto does not.
- When The Powerpuff Girls and the Professor were marching at the end of the song "Freedom Beef", they were walking the same way Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory did in the Dexter's Lab episode "Beard to Be Feared" and on Cartoon Network's former block, Cartoon Cartoon Fridays.
- Blossom has previously made her speech in the episode, Monstra-City.
- Snake, Lil Arturo, Grubber, Sedusa, and Junior are the only villains who don't sing.
- Ms. Bellem and Ms. Keane are the only main characters who don't appear in this episode.
- The woman and the man that was singing "Sunshine Down on Me" could be from the episode "Save Mojo."
- Despite being banned from some countries, the episode aired on the exclusive Latin America channel Tooncast in 2019.
- The following dubs of this episode are currently lost media as of 2024:
- Czech
- Danish
- Dutch
- Finnish
- Greek
- Hebrew
- Italian
- Norwegian
- Portuguese (Portugal)
- Romanian
- Swedish
- Turkish
- On some websites to watch PPG episodes, this episode is included, but it starts straight at the "Sunshine Down On Me" scene.
- In 2017, the Argentinian YouTuber Elvis Del Valle made his second album titled "See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey" to homage the episode. He performes every song of the episode, but he included some new lyrics to "Rain", "Hear Me Fathers", "Sunshine Down On Me" and "Freedom Beef" to extend them and also wrote an overture for the first track. Elvis retitled the song "Rain" for "Rain Of Pain". He made the album using the episode's original audio trying to remove the vocals with Audacity since there was no instrumental version back then for each song. The album has 2 versions, the second one is a theatrical edition which has the songs merged into 4 tracks titled as "Acts". The album was available to download only, but in 2021 it was released to Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music and other digital store. In spite of being one of his very first albums, Elvis consider it the worst one of his entire discography.
Goofs[]
- At the end of the song "Townsville's Going Down", Talking Dog makes a cameo and sings for a few seconds for an unknown reason. Therefore, Snake was absent.
- When the girls sing the lines "Rain, rain, go away", Buttercup and Bubbles continue to sing after their mouths stop moving.
- When Blossom was going to say "You all have equal rights, dear town." Bubbles said that, not Blossom.
- When Bubbles sang "Say hello to your grave," all of the girls' mouths were moving.
- When Buttercup sings "There's no warm without the cold. There's no weak without the bold", both Buttercup's and Bubbles' mouths move.
- When Buttercup beats up Big Billy and Lil' Arturo, Big Billy's hair changes to his old design from other old episodes.
- HIM’s hair was missing when he was going to throw Blossom.
- Bossman and Slim’s hats switch colors.
Production Notes[]
- This episode was finished on October 2, 2003.[3]