The Powerpuff Girls: Twas the Fight Before Christmas is an hour-length direct-to-video Christmas special based on the Cartoon Network original series The Powerpuff Girls, produced during the show's fifth season. It was originally released on VHS and DVD on October 7, 2003, before making its broadcast debut on the channel itself on December 12th of the same year. The special was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming One Hour or More); however, it lost to the network's short-form microseries Star Wars: Clone Wars. There's a new Powerpuff Girl in town...or so shewould have you think! Her fiendishly foul plot: to trick Santa into turning her into the fourth Powerpuff Girl! (And, in the process, make him believe the other Powerpuffs have been very, very naughty!) Now, Bubbles, Blossom, and Buttercupmust explode into a Yuletide tornado of bad-girl-thwarting action to put Princess in her place—and keep Christmas from disappearing forever!
Plot[]
Voice Cast[]
- Japanese
- English
Trivia[]
- In this one-hour episode, five episodes were mentioned in this episode by The Powerpuff Girls of the reason why Princess Morbucks is naughty: 1) You bought the city and legalized crime! ("Bought and Scold"), 2) You hired Mojo to try and destroy us! ("Mo Job"), 3) You gave us a bomb for our birthday! ("Birthday Bash"), 4) You teamed up with three villains and went on a crime spree! ("Meet the Beat-Alls") and 5) You tricked our friend Robin into stealing and then you tattled on her ("Superfriends").
- Three names on Santa’s Permanent Naughty Plaque have the last names "McCracken", "Faust" and "Fonti". This is a reference to three of the series' creators, Craig McCracken, Lauren Faust, & Steven Fonti. The third-to-last name of “Adolph Shickelgruber” is what Adolf Hitler’s name would have been if his father had not changed his own several years before the infamous Austrian-German dictator was born. Since none of the other villains' names were on neither the regular or the permanent naughty lists before the regular naughty list was swapped with the nice list by Princess, they seemed to be on the nice list at least this year.
- The name of the episode is a pun on "'Twas the Night Before Christmas", and the narrator's dialogue rhymes likewise.
- There is a reference to A Christmas Story, as Buttercup wishes for an Official Red Raider Carbine Action 200 Shot Range Model Air Rifle, and Princess eventually tells her she'll shoot her eye out.
- There is also a reference to the song and the 1964 special "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" as Santa asks the Powerpuff Girls to deliver the presents that night.
- This special aired during the 2003 holiday season. However, while this was released on home video 2 months before it aired on TV, on December 12, this is the only episode not to be available in any digital store (including iTunes and Google Play). "A Lost Claus", the Christmas special for Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (another show by Craig McCracken), is also not available in any digital store, even though it can be found in the show's MOD Season 3 DVD.
- This episode reveals three names of other students, which are Kristen, Clara, and Billy.
- The SpongeBob SquarePants episode "It's a SpongeBob Christmas!" is noted for having a similar storyline.
- This is the first episode/special to have a different ending theme.
- The full special was included in Cartoon Network’s Happy Holidays from Cartoon Network YouTube live stream in 2022. This was the first episode to be shown in the live stream.
- This is the first time Bubbles and Buttercup are on the wrong side of the bed. The second being Sun Scream and the third being the 2016 reboot's short Run, Blossom, Run!. However, this may be due to the girls being tired, or the girls getting sunburned in Sun Scream.