There are quite a few TV shows that defined my childhood as a 90's kid. There was "Scooby-Doo," "Dexter's Laboratory," "Codename: Kids Next Door," and so many others (including almost all of those pictured above).
I also really loved watching "Powerpuff Girls." I had storybooks, stuffed dolls, and a how-to-draw book that I stuck my nose in for hours on end. If you needed me when I was around the age of 7, I was probably on the living room floor drawing Bubbles with her Octi for the millionth time.
Sometime in 2015, I heard that Cartoon Network was considering a reboot of this show. I dismissed it as a rumor until, on February 11, Cartoon Network's YouTube channel released this:
Powerpuff Girls is getting a reboot! Unfortunately, I don't know how I feel about it.
In the past 10 years, animators have attempted reboots of several classic TV shows including "Looney Tunes" (renamed "The Looney Tunes Show")...
VIA dan-dare.org and looneytunes.wikia.com
...and "Teen Titans" (renamed "Teen Titans Go!").
I was not impressed by either of these new shows. The originals were fantastic creative works that I watched all of the time. I was allowed to stay up late to watch "Looney Tunes" when I was in elementary school and my brothers and I watched "Teen Titans" together while I was in middle school. The new shows are so far from the original story that I quickly became uninterested and stopped watching altogether.
I am afraid that the same could and probably will happen to the new "Powerpuff Girls" show. I imagine the story line will go in the same direction as these and other reboots. Just like with the others, I will spend months complaining about the reboot, saying the story line went down the toilet, and swearing by the original. I'll look up old episodes on the Internet in my own form of retaliation even though no one will know.
Then, I came to an important realization: these shows are no longer for my generation. Let me say it again for the folks in the back:
"These shows are no longer for my generation."
~Jasmine Rustchak, Odyssey at JMU
The original shows were written with us in mind. We were the kids, we were the audience. Now, we are the adults, we are no longer the audience. The humor code has changed. Things that we find funny is not considered funny by kids now and vice versa.
This is not the first time this has happened. Ask your parents about shows they watched when they were growing up vs. shows you watched growing up and they will probably have similar opinions. My mom watched a show called Happy Days, but thinks "Ed, Edd, n Eddy" is garbage. My dad watched "Rin Tin Tin," but thinks Spongebob Squarepants is just complete nonsense.
All that to say, even though these reboots are not for us, the originals will always be ours.
