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If you were a square eyed 90s kid raised on Cartoon Network, you might be interested in Soho’s latest pop-up: the ‘Powerpuff Girls Emporium’, a store dedicated to the 90s all-girl superhero show ‘The Powerpuff Girls’. The cartoon was relaunched with flashier animation in 2016, and the emporium is promoting the UK airing with a three-day ‘experience’ that involves a nail bar (with its own punching bag, no less), an area for ‘snake and rabbit’ petting and a power science café.
For those nearing 30, ‘The Powerpuff Girls’ are probably associated with a fear that someone might catch you watching it (it launched in 1998, so most of us were already a bit too old…). But Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup were the only escape from male-centric shows such as ‘Dexter’s Laboratory’ and ‘Johnny Bravo’ (we still have no idea how most of those episodes made it past Ofcom).
‘The Powerpuff Girls’ kicked the bejesus out of bad guys; they got black eyes; Buttercup had lines like ‘I need to punch!’. It’s remembered as an early feminist cartoon, though sometimes raised more questions than answers: where are the characters’ fingers? Why are they drawn as though they’re on their tip-toes? Why does Blossom have permanent pinkeye? Was Bubbles based on Baby Spice? Maybe we’ll find the answers in Soho this June. Or maybe you’ll just leave with this on a loop in your skull for days: Fighting crime, trying to save the world, here they come just in time… THE POWERPUFF GIRLS.
The Powerpuff Emporium is open to the public from Thu Jun 1 until Sat Jun 3 at 15 Bateman Street, Soho, W1D 3AQ. Open daily from 11am-5pm.
Not a Powerpuff enthusiast? Here are some other weird things to do in London.