Superfriends
Original air date: 8/2/2002 (produced in 2001)
Production code: PPG-407
The girls make a new friend named Robin, but their friendship is strained by the girls' constant crimefighting, leaving her to make friends with the wrong kind of kid: Princess.
Superfriends contains examples of:
- Bat Signal: We learn in this episode that the girls have their own version of this as well, as a backup in case the Mayor cannot reach them with the hotline (which he can’t since the girls are outside playing with Robin). Mrs. Bellum has to remind the mayor of it since he forgot all about the signal. This becomes the basis of "Signal in the Sky" being played during a montage.
- Continuity Nod:
- Robin's family moves into the house previously occupied by the Smith family (the villains from the season 2 episodes Supper Villain and Just Desserts). Evidently, their house has been put up for sale ever since they were sent to prison.
- Bubbles mentions that they had a cat once, but he turned out to be evil.
- Creator Cameo: The Apples in Stereo, who wrote and performed "Signal In The Sky (Let's Go)" for the show's tie-in album Heroes and Villains, briefly appear on TV during the montage set to the song. As an added Mythology Gag, their designs are based on the cartoon version of the band that Craig McCracken drew for the cover of their EP, Let's Go, which featured the song.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: When the girls tell Robin that Professor Utonium created them by accident, Robin gleefully responses that she was an "accident", too. The look on Utonium's face is quite telling...
- Engineered Heroics: Princess' plan is to convince Robin to engage in shoplifting so she can capture her and make her look good enough to join the Powerpuff Girls.
- False Friend: Princess strikes up a friendship with Robin when the Powerpuff Girls constantly have to interrupt playing with her for their superhero duties. However, this is all part of a plot to make Robin a pawn in her plan.
- Foil: There's a contrast between how the Powerpuff girls hang out with Robin and how Princess hangs out with her. Both do... virtually the same activities with her (sleep under stars, cloud watch, race cars). But whilst the Powerpuff girls take the time to have an actual conversation with Robin, Princess hogs the conversation and has a one-sided conversation. Also, in comparison to the PPG's simple activities, Princess does parallel versions of those activities that are more extravagant.
- The Ghost: Robin's parents are never seen at all in this episode.
- Manipulative Bitch: Whether or not she intended this from the start, when Princess suspects Robin resents the Powerpuff Girls for constantly ditching her for their superhero obligations, it's the former who suggests the latter try shoplifting just to get back at them. And when Robin expresses reluctance at pulling it off, Princess pulls the "I thought we were friends" card to coerce her to go through with it. As it turns out, this was a ploy by Princess to catch Robin in the act and "capture" her to look like a suitable Powerpuff Girl initiate. In the least, she would've gotten away with causing a slight rift between Robin and the Girls, if it weren't for accusing Robin of stealing the candy, prompting Robin to argue it was Princess's idea in the first place.
- The Matchmaker: The girls all imagine their new neighbor to be a single woman who will hook up with the professor. The disappointment in their voices when they find out the new neighbors are a married couple is priceless.
- Motor Mouth: Bubbles when she first meets Robin.
- New Neighbors As The Plot Demands: Downplayed; the Utoniums get new neighbors in this episode, but the episode actually shows them moving into the house next door rather than have them suddenly show up and pretend they were always there.
- Overworked Sleep: The professor is shown asleep in his lab, with his head on some papers, at the start of the episode.
- Pie in the Face: The Mayor, though not because someone threw it in his face, but rather since he has been burying his face in pies while eating them.
- Shout-Out: Robin's name is a pun on the actor Rob Schneider.
- So Much for Stealth: The girls try to secretly observe the movers from behind the hedge, but their loud talking quickly alerts the movers to their presence.
- Skewed Priorities: The Mayor is informed by Mrs. Bellum that a monster just flattened his house, but he’s far more concerned about the monster destroying his priced rose bushes than the fact that his wife made it out alive.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The heroic "Signal in the Sky" is played during a montage of poor Robin having to see her best friends head off to save the day, as though deconstructing how being superheroes has Robin feeling left out.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Princess tricks Robin into shoplifting just so she can "arrest" her as a half-baked attempt to convince the Powerpuff Girls to let her into their team.
- Unwitting Pawn: Princess tricks Robin into stealing candy from a store, then calls the Mayor and apprehends her just before the Powerpuff Girls arrive, just so she can look like a hero to them and let her join their team.
