Whoopass Stew, also known as The Whoopass Girls or The Whoopass Girls in: A Sticky Situation!, is a 3-minute short by Craig McCracken, his thesis film for the California Institute of the Arts class of 1992.
It has a very simple plot: A scientist called Professor Utonium mixes sugar, spice and everything nice together in an experiment to create the perfect little girl. But the professor accidentally adds a fourth ingredient to the concoction. A literal "Can of Whoopass". Thus, the Whoopass Girls, three adorable little super heroes, were born.
Shortly thereafter, a trio of blue creatures in hats called the Amoeba Boys (yes, the Amoeba Boys) are wreaking havoc on the Whoopass Girls' hometown, the City of Townsville. The Whoopass Girls attempt to beat them up, but they get caught in the thieves gelatinous bodies. So, the girls fly out into space, all the way to the Sun, and kill the Amoeba Boys by using the Sun's intense heat to fry them to nothing.
The short would score McCracken a job at Hanna-Barbera with his classmate Genndy Tartakovsky on 2 Stupid Dogs. A few years later, when the studio was creating pilots for a little cable station called Cartoon Network, a pilot featuring the characters (under a bowdlerized name) was created as part of The What A Cartoon! Show.
Thus, The Powerpuff Girls were born.
This cartoon contains examples of:
- Bowdlerise: There was a Powerpuff Girls DVD that featured the short as a bonus feature, but had every utterance of "ass" bleeped out. The version included on the complete series DVD set is completely uncensored.
- Characterization Marches On:
- The girls don't have individual personalities at this point. They're also much more violent than the norm, as they kill the Amoeba Boys.
- In heavy contrast with the final cartoon, the Amoeba Boys are an actual threat. They steal money from a bank and wield guns.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference:
- The girls' designs are slightly taller and their eyelids are blue instead of purple.
- Professor Utonium looks completely different. resembling an older, bald version of Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory, despite the pilot predating that show by 4 years.
- The Gangreen Gang look somewhat older and have slightly different designs.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- The girls are all voiced by Jennifer Friednote . The only superpowers they're shown to display are flight and possibly super-strength. Instead of Chemical X, the Professor accidentally added a "Can of WhoopAss" (which looks like a meat stew) into the vat.
- It's also implied by how the Amoeba Boys are dealt with that the girls outright kill the villains they face. In the show proper, the girls settle for simply beating their villains up and leaving them to be arrested.
- The Amoeba Boys are not the harmless villains they are in the series proper.
- Killed Off for Real: The Whoopass Girls, with the Amoeba Boys stuck on them, fly to the surface of the Sun and use the Sun to fry the thieves to a crisp.
- Subverted Kids' Show: The short is essentially a joke about cute little kids being very violent. The finalized show kept the joke, but toned everything down so it could be considered a kids' cartoon.
- Visual Pun: Prof. Utonium literally adds a can of whoopass to the concoction (accidentally, of course).
