Cartoon Network's 'PowerPuff Girls' has primetime punch The three super-powered kindergartners --bubble-headed Bubbles, brawny Buttercup and brainy Blossom. By Scott Moore / Washington Post Call it sophomoric. (OK, it was created by a second-year film student.) Call it stoopid (It's that too, in a way.) But, Cartoon Network's Powerpuff Girls just might be primetime role models for a post-modern feminist world. Or, at least a fun way to pass a half-hour at 8 on Wednesday nights. You go, girls. Cartoon queen Betty Cohen sees greater significance in the show. "It stands out from most other cartoons on television because it appeals to both boys and girls," says the network esident. "Make no mistake, though, these girls are tough, and they battle dangerous, outrageous villains. And their relationship with each other alternates between partnership and rivalry, to which most kids with siblings can fully relate." To repeat: You go, girls! Cohen green-lighted the animated series' November 1998 launch because of the popularity of a seven-minute short in the "World Premiere Toons" initiative (which also has spawned Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken and Ed, Edd n Eddy). Since then, nearly 1 million households tune in each Wednesday for the three super-powered kindergartners -- brainy Blossom, brawny Buttercup and bubble-headed Bubbles. The Powerpuff Girls was Cartoon Network's highest-rated series for 1998, and created buzz for the Scottish pop band Bis with its closing theme song. What's not to like about pint-sized sisters who are able to fly and battle the dangerous villains of Townsville? (At least until bedtime.) The cute crime fighters were created by benevolent Professor Utonium, who added Chemical X to the long-standing little-girls recipe of sugar, spice and everything nice. No matter that they don't have fingers -- not even the four digits favored by cartoon characters. They have fistlike hands, the better to sock it to villains Mojo Jojo, Fuzzy Lumpkins and the Amoeba Boys. Television hasn't had a trio of female do-gooders like this since Charlie's Angels in the late '70s, though Lucy Lawless' warrior princess Xena still is the most beloved cartoonish character currently on television. Creator Craig McCracken isn't out to make a statement -- just good action cartoons. Actually, his pint-sized superheroes began life as a second-year film-school assignment at California Institute of the Arts. McCracken's animation is derived from spending his formative years watching Underdog and Rocky and Bullwinkle. He said the campy 1960s Batman live-action series influences his action scenes. "But most of my inspiration is not from animation," McCracken says, destroying the easy characterization. "I'm a big fan of Sam Raimi and the Coen brothers," the action-horror director and the Fargo film makers. "I look at these as little 11-minute films." Let's hope the Powerpuffs don't send the bad guys through the wood chipper. McCracken isn't above borrowing trademark techniques from other directors, but he's going to let the hard-core toonies figure out the references for themselves. McCracken and collaborator Genndy Tartakovsky also produced Dexter's Laboratory, so sharp-eyed viewers will spot the little genius in some crowd scenes, or see snippets of the Dexter's show-within-a-show "Puppet Pals" on a TV screen. But otherwise Dexter and the Powerpuffs live in different 'toon universes. In addition, McCracken's device of not showing the face of Miss Sara Bellum, the smart assistant to the idiot Mayor, is not a takeoff on the Cow and Chicken gag of not showing the parents' upper bodies, he says. Neither is it a stereotypical slur. "It's kind of me being stupidly clever," McCracken says. "She's the typical, hot-looking assistant, represented by her body, except that she's the smartest person in town." The brain represented by a body -- an impossibly curvaceous body, with long-flowing red hair descending from an always-unseen head. Hey, what happened to that post-modern feminism thing we had going here? Well, McCracken says, there are several women on the creative staff. And "one of the girls who does our storyboards creates tougher episodes than some of the guys." It might not be post-modern feminism, but it's a place for girls to go. .:home:.