1001 Animations: Gettin' Twiggy With It

Show: The Powerpuff Girls
Episode: S3 E5a
Year: 2000

Writer(s): Don Shank
Director(s): Craig McCracken, John McIntyre

Warning: this review contains very coarse and nasty language. If you have sensitive eyes and ears, turn back now.


I fucking hate animal abuse, I really do. Especially when you attempt to play it for comedy like in SpongeBob’s “A Pal for Gary” or “Pet Sitter Pat”. If I could sum up this episode in one phrase, it would be this: “A Pal for Gary” and by extension “Pet Sitter Pat” done right, also portraying the animal abuse present in “Ren Seeks Help” correctly". Mitchell “Mitch” Mitchelson is an evil little bastard of a bully who takes nothing but a sadistic glee in hurting others. So what happens when this fucker gets a hold of the class hamster Twiggy? Hell, unlike SpongeBob in “A Pal for Gary”, the Girls are totally wise to Mitch's evil intentions. My one gripe is that Ms. Keane should know better than to trust Mitch with anything that has a pulse, but it's a nitpick since the Girls keep an eye on the sociopath. I do mean to call Mitch a sociopath; he's the very definition of one, from his sadistic laugh which sounds like Popeye on cocaine, and the fact that he tortures Twiggy by forcibly feeding her, driving her in a Speed Buggy remote control car at high speed and TRYING TO FUCKING ELECTROCUTE HER! GOD I HATE YOU!


That’s what's important: the abuse is being caused by an actual villain; unlike in “A Pal for Gary” where SpongeBob, who is supposed to be the hero, ends up causing Gary to nearly be murdered thanks to his own stupidity and cruelty, and the same applies to Patrick in “Pet Sitter Pat”. So many cartoons get this one step wrong. The other important thing to do is if you have the villain do something this fucked up is that they MUST, AND I REPEAT MUST, be punished for it and called out on their evil actions! Mitch is, at first, able to seemingly manipulate the Girls through crocodile tears twice, which a lot of real sociopaths and bullies do all the time; fortunately, the Girls only pretend to fall for it, while keeping close x-ray vision and super hearing on the situation. 


Unfortunately, they're too late to stop Mitch from shooting Twiggy from a FUCKING ROCKET and flushing Twiggy alive into the sewer. The Girls rightfully chew his ass out and are about to beat him to death for this when Twiggy emerges as a giant mutant hamster from the depths of hell. And yes, that is one of the scariest monsters this show has ever made visually, but Mitch is the scariest villain they've made, period. He's a realistically sadistic child; there really are kids this fucked up enough to electrocute an animal and manipulate and bully others. Mitch's near the same level as Dick Hardly; fortunately, this is the only episode where he's a major character. The Girls aren't wrong to let Twiggy eat Mitch; however, since they aren't evil, they allow him to live, but not before they taunt and tease him a little so he shits himself. In the end, because Mitch's so worthless and pathetic with his crying, they come up with a solution that's so funny I dare not spoil it.


This is the best example of an animal abuse episode I've ever found, because it isn't treated as comedic at all; it's treated as sick and evil as it should be. This episode is in my top 25 Powerpuff Girls episodes, along with “Him Diddle Riddle”, “Knock It Off” and “Twisted Sister”, all of which I've reviewed. The thing is, though, this episode is legitimately hard to watch if you know any animal friends that have been abused or if you're an animal lover like me. If you know of any people like Mitch, alert the authorities immediately; don't wait around until they kill another animal.


The Powerpuff Girls is owned by Turner Broadcasting and Cartoon Network.

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(edit I meant to mainly compare it to Pet Sitter Pat, it's easy to confuse the two)