"Sun Scream" is the 17th episode of the sixth season and the 131st episode overall.
It premiered on Cartoon Network in the United States on July 23, 2004.
Plot[]
The girls get the ultimate sunburn and must try to fight crime despite their UV damage.
Synopsis[]
The Powerpuff Girls are at the beach tanning while their adoring fans surround them and ask questions. Professor Utonium feels left out and asks if the fans want to talk to him, but he is ignored. All of a sudden, their fans begin to panic when they see something heading straight for Earth. Blossom uses her supervision and sees a solar flare. The girls prepare to stop it, but Professor Utonium tells them to put on sunscreen first. The girls refuse and complain that sunscreen is for nerds. Professor Utonium puts sunscreen on himself and tries to impress two women, but they laugh at him and call him a nerd. The girls go toward the sun and defeat the flare using their atomic twister to suck it in. The flare is defeated, but the girls are left with a nasty sunburn all over their bodies (except around their eyes since they were wearing sunglasses). They fly back to the beach expecting praise from their fans, but instead, their fans laugh themselves silly at how ridiculous they look sunburned. They fly home humiliated.
The girls go to bed moaning and whimpering; the pain from their sun burns making it hard to even move. Buttercup wishes there had been a way to prevent getting burnt (not realizing they should have put on sunscreen). Blossom reminds them that they need to keep their image up. They worry about being able to fight crime in their condition. Blossom tells them to remain positive and have faith in the citizens. The hotline rings, but none of them want to get up and answer it until Blossom reluctantly agrees to do it. She has a hard time getting off the bed since even the tiniest movement hurts her, and even falls down in the process. Bubbles and Buttercup quickly sit up to see if she's alright, forgetting their sunburns for a minute, and scream in pain. Blossom finally manages to reach the phone and asks Bubbles for help. Bubbles crawls off the bed and experiences the same pain and also falls off. She reaches the phone and turns the receiver toward Blossom's face since she didn't have the strength to do it herself. The Mayor then yells in her ear to come to downtown right away because of trouble. Buttercup complains that she doesn't want to fight in her bathing suit, so the girls decide to put their dresses on. They have a hard time sliding them up and putting their arms through the sleeves. They abandon the dresses since they're restrictive and wear their bathing suits and bedsheets tied around their necks as capes instead.
While our heroes fly to Townsville, the bugs in the sky hurt them (except for Buttercup who was pecked by a bird).
Monty and his assistant were playing a game of cards when the Mayor wanted to play along, but he got swindled. Now they really stole his money. Soon, the Powerpuff Girls arrive at the scene, and took a rough landing. Blossom tells Monty that his swindling days are over. Monty laughs and says, "If it isn't the Wonder Girls! I wonder when they're gonna learn that when you fly too close to the sun..." and then he shoves the box. Both of them said, "You get burned."
When it's some con artists they try to defeat them but the Powerpuffs take so much pain they can't even punch them. The con artists dodge them and just touch them, invoking a lot of pain on each of the girls. Our heroes tried to use the atomic twister again, but because of the pain, they awfully skid on the ground. Professor Utonium comes to the scene and realizes the girls have sunburns. They apologize for not listening to the professor and not putting on sunscreen. He shows them a can of Aloe Vera, where it peels off skin that has been afflicted by the sunburns. Everyone (minus the professor) thinks it's disgusting, but once all the red skin is peeled off, they are able to fight again and they defeat the con artists. They punish them by leaving them on an island with sunscreen. But one of them says it's for nerds.
Characters[]
Major Roles[]
Minor Roles[]
Quotes[]
Bubbles: It hurts so bad!
Blossom: The sunburn or the humiliation?
Bubbles: Both.
(They all moan)
Buttercup: And the worst part is...there was nothing we could have done to prevent it.
Bubbles: Maybe we should get the Professor's h-help.
Buttercup: I don't need nobody's help and I don't need nobody laughing at my sunburn!
Bubbles: Everybody's gonna laugh at us!
Blossom: No, they won't! Lots of superheroes wear capes.
Buttercup: But they don't wear sheets!
Professor: And you thought sunscreen will make you look like dorks! (Laughing at the girls)
Professor: Take this product for instance: Aloe Vera. Vera is, of course, the species, while aloe denotes the genus.
Mayor: Hey! Not bad.
Buttercup: Not bad at all.
Blossom: This stuff really works!
Bubbles: I feel tingly. (their skin starts to crack)
Buttercup: What-what's happening?
Bubbles: We're breaking!
Professor: Oh, you are not. You're peeling.
Mayor: You mean unappealing. That's unappealing.
(Full quotes are in the Transcript)
Trivia[]
- Moral: Sunscreen might be uncomfortable in a number of ways, but the severity of what a sunburn poses makes that uncomfortableness worth it if it means saving yourself from weeks or even months of burning agony.
- What also makes sunscreen absolutely essential is that the absolute worst you get get from overexposure to UV is skin cancer, which can cause death, and unlike a sunburn, it will not go away with aloe vera.
- This episode is deemed controversial by most fans of the show because of certain aspects involving mildly disturbing scenes such as where Blossom's skin convulses as she tries to move across the bed toward the Hotline and the way the message behind the episode to always wear sunscreen is executed. Also, the way that the citizens of Townsville did nothing but laugh at the girls instead of showing any concern for them was also unethical. Finally, sunburns are just an bad idea for an episode, even if it is happening to the bad guys.
- This episode was written by Thurop Van Orman, the creator of The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. An episode of Flapjack titled "Foot Burn" has a similar premise to this episode.
- It's strange that the girls are affected badly from a sunburn when they have been through worse before like being in acid, being in lava, or being hit with lasers.
- This is the third and last time that in the 1998 series the girls wear their swimsuits. In the 2016 reboot, they’d wear different swimsuits.
- The girls wear the same two-piece swimsuits from Uh-Oh, Dynamo and Superfriends.
- This is the second time Bubbles and Buttercup are on the wrong side of the bed. The first being 'Twas the Fight Before Christmas and the third being the 2016 reboot's short Run Blossom, Run!
- Running Gag:
- The girls moaning from sunburn.
- Someone calling the Professor a nerd.
- Monty and his assistant use the old Three Card Monte card game scam. While it appears to be as simple as the old shell game, the dealer uses a sleight-of-hand trick to deceive the mark. Monty's assistant is called the "shill," someone who pretends to be a stranger and wins the game, making it look easy to potential marks.
- The episode uses a plot that is similar to other cartoon episodes, like
- Ed Edd n Eddy: "Hot Buttered Ed"
- Johnny Test: "Sunshine Malibu Johnny"
Errors[]
- Bubbles and Buttercup are on the wrong side of the bed, likely due to their sunburns causing pain.
- After Blossom told Bubbles to help when she fell, Buttercup's voice can be heard.
- When the girls are trying to put on their clothes, Blossom's part of her hair disappears.
- After the Girls land before fighting Monty and his assistant, their capes were flailed around. But in the next shot, they're neat.
- When Blossom watches the sunburn peel off her left arm, her tongue is missing.
- When the girls start to lose their sunburn, they are still wearing their swimsuits, but when the sunburn peels off entirely, the Girls instantly change into their regular clothes.
- Before Monty's assistant had gave Blossom an open palm slapped onto her arm, the bridge of Blossom's sunglasses are missing that had showed up between her eyes.