A Fourth Powerpuff Girl Is Giving Us Hope For A More Inclusive Cartoon World
If you're a '90s kid, you'll know that sugar, spice and everything nice aren't the only ingredients that little girls are made of. There's that handy super-spice, a.k.a Chemical X, that basically turns little girls into crime-fighting badasses. Yes, I'm talking about Bubbles, Blossom and Buttercup, the kickass trio, the Powerpuff Girls.
The trio has been saving their city Townsville from evil since 1998, and we sat back and watched them do so on Cartoon Network from the comfort of our living rooms. However, it's been confirmed that this month, the channel will be introducing a fourth Powerpuff girl in TV film special, The Powerpuff Girls: Power of Four. So far, the channel has teased a silhouette, shaded with purple and noticeably larger than the original three, but have refused to announce her identity until the premiere.
Longtime fans hoped that it was a return for Bunny, a fourth Powerpuff sister that was featured in one episode in 2000 after the girls created her for some extra help. However, after her untimely death (by explosion, what else?), there isn't a great likelihood that this is the case.
A stronger and more exciting case, however, is that the fourth Powerpuff Girl will be black. This would not only be brilliant thing for Cartoon Network, but for young black viewers who find themselves massively underrepresented throughout the animation world. Also, the Powerpuff Girls are bad as hell, so why shouldn't there be room for a new addition, even more so a Powerpuff of colour?
Social media has tonnes of buzz circulating after a screen shot of the upcoming movie event featured the original three Powerpuffs, with the inclusion of a fourth, black Powerpuff who does appear to match the silhouette that Cartoon Network have been teasing. In addition to that, South African singer Toya Delazy confirmed that she would be voicing the fourth character, who took to Twitter to thank the network for the opportunity.
If this all turns out to be true and we do meet a new, more diverse Powerpuff Girl to slay the day with Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup, then we're 100% here for it. If that is the case, shout out to Cartoon Network for working to make such an animated classic more inclusive and giving black girls a role model that shows them that they can take on the world. Heaven knows that there aren't anywhere near enough people of colour represented as role models across film, TV and animation, so here's to a great start.
