Moral Decay is the first half of the 13th episode in the third season of The Powerpuff Girls, preceding "Meet the Beat Alls".
Plot[]
After cleaning the house and getting a $1.00 reward, Buttercup discovers a way to get more by knocking out teeth from bad guys and putting them under her pillow.
Synopsis[]
When the girls clean the house for the Professor, he gives them a dollar coin each for their hard work. Buttercup gets excited and accidentally knocks out one of Bubbles' teeth by unintentionally hitting her. She apologizes repeatedly and Bubbles forgives her. The next day when she discovers a dollar from the Tooth Fairy under Bubbles' pillow. Buttercup sees an opportunity to make money by putting teeth under her pillow.
Buttercup becomes so obsessed with money that she tries to knock out Bubbles' teeth again until the Professor prevents her from doing so. After facing disappointment, Buttercup fights a bad guy and some of his teeth fall out. With a greedy grin, Buttercup starts to beat up every bad guy and steals the teeth that fall out for money, including a monster's. Then one day, when no crimes are being committed, Buttercup gets impatient and hunts down the girls' worst enemies (including Mojo Jojo, Fuzzy Lumpkins, HIM, and The Gangreen Gang), breaks into their homes, beats them and takes off with their knocked out teeth.
All the villains go to the dentist's office and they all agree that this isn't supposed to happen and they have to get revenge. After finding out from Mojo what Buttercup has been doing behind their backs, Blossom and Bubbles trick her into being beaten up by the villains that she had harmed for her comeuppance, resulting in most of her teeth being knocked out.
At the dentist's office, all three Girls and the Professor are in the waiting room. Blossom and Bubbles proudly look at the now beaten and toothless Buttercup. The Professor briefly scolds Buttercup for her actions, and hopes this will teach her one thing: the value of a dollar. He then reveals to Buttercup that he recently found her stash, which she intended to use to buy a punching bag, and now he plans to use it to pay for her dental bills. Blossom and Bubbles are happy about Buttercup's punishment.
Bubbles then blows a raspberry at the crestfallen Buttercup, who goes into the operating room to get her teeth drilled. The episode ends with a defeated Buttercup clenching at her mouth, and Blossom giving her one final victorious smirk, and Bubbles blowing another raspberry at her.
Cast[]
- Cathy Cavadini as Blossom
- Tara Strong as Bubbles
- Elizabeth Daily as Buttercup
- Tom Kane as Professor Utonium and HIM
- Roger L. Jackson as Mojo Jojo
- Tom Kenny as The Mayor of Townsville, Snake, Lil' Arturo, Dr. Payne and Narrator
- Jeff Bennett as Ace, Grubber and Big Billy
- Jim Cummings as Fuzzy Lumpkins
Minor roles[]
- Robbers
- Trevor (cameo)
- Criminals
- Fish monster
Transcript[]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The dollar coins in this episode are neither Susan B. Anthony silver dollar coins from "Equal Fights" nor the current Presidential dollar coins. They are the gold Sacagawea dollar coins from 2000-2006. In the early 19th century, Sacagawea played a very helpful part in the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
- It is hinted that this show might be set after 2000, seeing as the dollar coins were labeled with the year 2000.
- Bubbles' voice when her tooth came out sounds like she has a lisp for the rest of the episode.
- This is the second episode in the series to feature corruption among the girls. In this case, Buttercup, who was under the influence of her own greed, immorally attacked many criminals who were not even committing crimes at the moment (much less even provoked her), without even the slightest bit of justification.
- This is one of the few episodes where Buttercup actually feels sorry for Bubbles. However, when playing rough in the house, she actually apologizes insincerely.
- Princess Morbucks, Sedusa, the Amoeba Boys and the Rowdyruff Boys were the only recurring villains who didn't appear in this episode.
- Princess is also the only Beat-All to not appear in this episode.
- The villains shown in the waiting room are Mojo Jojo, Him, Fuzzy Lumpkins, and the Gangreen Gang.
- In this episode two 3D stars were removed from the 3D star explosion, resulting in the introduction of the February 2001 version of the 1998-2001 3D star explosion.
- Blossom is the only Powerpuff Girl that did not sustain any damage to her teeth in this episode, although Buttercup did briefly plot to knock her teeth out before the Professor forbade her to knock out either Bubbles' or Blossom's teeth.
- This is the only episode that features Buttercup having a criminal role, the same way a negative ending happened to Blossom in "A Very Special Blossom".
- There are two Morals in this episode:
- Greed can lead to your downfall
- Even if somebody is evil, causing them unnecessary harm can be a crime itself.
- Bubbles said that Buttercup has been kicking it into high gear for a few days, but if you count the number of days she's been knocking teeth out from criminals (not counting Mojo, HIM, the Gangreen Gang, and Fuzzy Lumpkins), she's been doing it for a rough twelve days.
- This episode (along with "Meet the Beat Alls") was the first broadcast on Cartoon Network after their rebrand to the "City" era on June 14, 2004.
Production Notes[]
- Although this episode premiered in 2001, it was produced in 2000 according to the credits.
External links[]
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