The Powerpuff Girls Movie is a 2002 American animated superhero film based on the Cartoon Network animated television series The Powerpuff Girls. It was co-written and directed by series' creator Craig McCracken (in his directorial debut), co-written by Charlie Bean, Lauren Faust, Paul Rudish, and Don Shank, and stars the regular television cast of Cathy Cavadini, Tara Strong, E. G. Daily, Roger L. Jackson, Tom Kane, Tom Kenny, and Jennifer Hale. The film serves as a prequel to the series, and tells the origin story of how the Powerpuff Girls were created and came to be the defenders of Townsville and how Mojo Jojo became a supervillain. Produced by Cartoon Network Studios as its first and only theatrical film, The Powerpuff Girls Movie premiered in Century City on June 22, 2002, and was released in theaters on July 3, 2002, by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film received positive reviews from critics but was a commercial failure, earning $16 million worldwide against its $11 million budget. Plot In the crime and injustice-riddled city of Townsville, Professor Utonium mixes sugar, spice and everything nice, hoping to produce the "perfect little girls" to improve Townsville. However, his laboratory assistant, the destructive chimpanzee Jojo, shoves him, causing him to accidentally break and spill a flask of Chemical X onto the concoction. The experiment succeeds, producing three little girls whom the Professor names Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup. He also discovers that the girls have gained superpowers from the added Chemical X. Despite the girls' recklessness with their powers, they all immediately grow to love each other as a family. On their first day of school, the girls learn about the game of tag and begin to play it among themselves, which quickly grows destructive once they use their powers. The girls take their game downtown, where they accidentally cause damage to the city until the Professor calms them down. The next day, the citizens of Townsville treat the girls as outcasts due to their destructive behavior, and the Professor is arrested for creating the girls. Believing that using their powers again will only anger the townspeople more, the girls try to make their way home from school on foot, but they become lost in an alleyway, where the Gangreen Gang attacks them. Jojo, who has become superintelligent due to the Chemical X explosion mutating his brain, rescues the trio. Planning control of the city and