"The Bare Facts" is the 18th episode of The Powerpuff Girls, Season 1.
This episode aired on January 20, 1999, although it was produced in 1998.
Synopsis[]
The Powerpuff Girls each tell a naked Mayor how they rescued him from Mojo Jojo from their own points of view, arguing about the exact details along the way.
Plot[]
This episode begins with the Mayor declaring his love for his position as the Mayor of Townsville (with his first line being the opening line, beginning with "The city of Townsville" instead of the Narrator). Just as he begins to work, Mojo Jojo busts through the office window and takes the Mayor hostage.
The Powerpuff Girls quickly manage to track Mojo down and defeat him. The Mayor asks what happened, since he was blindfolded the whole time, and could only hear them fighting. The Mayor sees the girls laughing and wants to know what is so funny. The girls tell their own stories about what happened.
Bubbles says they were all at school, and that she was drawing a picture of a red daisy. She notes that Blossom called it biogenetically impossible, which led Bubbles to draw it with yellow petals instead. While Bubbles is lamenting about the drawing, Blossom and Buttercup interrupt her, saying the Mayor only needs to know the bare facts.
Blossom then explains her perspective of the story: In the beginning, she was studying conversational Chinese, when the Powerpuff Hotline got a call from Ms. Bellum saying that the Mayor had been kidnapped. Blossom insists that she in particular acted quickly to respond to the call, which leads Buttercup to accuse her of downplaying her sisters' part in the events. Bubbles chimes in, saying her drawing was very important.
Blossom tells the Mayor that he left a note for Ms. Bellum saying that he was writing an election speech. The Mayor starts to agree, but Blossom corrects him that he did not write it, as Ms. Bellum writes all the Mayor's speeches. Bubbles adds that it was Mojo who did all the writing. This makes the Mayor think Mojo wrote the speech, but the frustrated Buttercup shouts it was the note Mojo wrote.
At the end, the Mayor says he just wanted to know why the girls were giggling at him, but the girls take off without giving him an answer. At the end of the episode, the camera pulls away and reveals why: Mojo has definitely "stripped more than his power" as the Mayor has been stripped nude, save for his hat and monocle, still asking the Powerpuff Girls to tell him what was so funny.
Characters[]
Major Characters[]
Minor Characters[]
- Ms. Bellum (voice only)/(flashback footage)
- The Mayor's Wife (pictured)
Trivia[]
- When Mojo Jojo is explaining his evil plan to the Mayor, the sound of his voice pans between the left and right stereo channels, indicating that he's pacing back and forth as he's talking.
- This episode is mostly seen from the Mayor's first-person perspective. When Bubbles is telling the story, everything is rendered in a simple crayon style. Buttercup's storytelling is depicted as a black, shadowy olive-green scene, and Blossom's is in a light red-tinted scene. Both of the latter are otherwise in the show's usual art style.
- The part of the episode where Blossom and Buttercup interrupt Bubbles is one of the few occasions in which the episode's title is mentioned verbatim.
- During the episode's first half counterpart, "Bubblevicious", Ms. Bellum appeared in a non-speaking role. In this episode, only her voice is heard from Mayor's PA speaker, while she also appeared in the flashback footage while Blossom explained to Mayor about her call informing the latter was kidnapped.
- This, along with "The Boys Are Back in Town" are the only two instances where are the episode's title is said in the dialogue.
- The narrator does not speak until the end of the episode.
- This is the first time the Mayor has been naked, or at least been seen wearing nothing but his hat, onscreen. The second is in "Custody Battle".
- In Japanese TV Tokyo and remastered Cartoon Network airings, the scenes where the screen is black have added subtitles for the lines of the characters.
- The one of the Girls Flying scene is parodied on The Amazing World of Gumball smartphone game "Remote Fu".
- Like its predecessor, this episode has blood.
- This episode is similar to the Aaahh!!! Real Monsters episode, Rosh-O-Monster. Both episodes are probably homages to the Akira Kurosawa film Rashomon.
Production Notes[]
- Although this episode premiered in 1999, it was produced in 1998 according to the credits.