Ghost-Spirited Puffs

Ghost-Spirited Puffs is an episode of The Powerpuff Girls from the original series' third season. The episode was written and storyboarded by Craig McCracken, and directed by Randy Myers and Craig McCracken.

Summary
The Mayor has sent the Girls on a Friday night to eliminate spirits from an haunted house so it could be turned into his vacation home by Saturday morning at 9:00am, but a ghost tries to scare them during their stay at the house.

Plot
TBA.

Main voices

 * Catherine Cavadini as Blossom
 * Tara Strong as Bubbles
 * Elizabeth Daily as Buttercup
 * Tom Kenny as the Narrator, the Mayor of Townsville
 * Jennifer Martin as Ms. Sara Bellum
 * Roger L. Jackson as Mojo Jojo

Guest starring

 * Trey Parker as the Ghost
 * June Foray as the Witch (the Bloody Head Fairy)

Transcript
To see a transcript of this episode, click here.

Trivia

 * Inspired by the Ren and Stimpy segment, Haunted House, and the rejected Tiny Toon Adventures segment, Hi, Spirits.
 * One of the scenes from the scrapped Tiny Toon Adventures version was added into the episode, which is the scene where the Girls thought he was a big kitty cat after they entered the haunted house. The Ghost's line at the end of the scene was changed to, "It's a good thing I'm already dead".
 * Prior to All Chalked Up, this is the first 22-minute episode to use digital ink and paint.
 * The Ghost was originally intended to be a villain in the beginning, but later reformed in the end after the Girls convinced him to scare Mojo.
 * Some cartoon shows such as The Smurfs, Pound Puppies, Freakazoid, Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs appear on a TV screen in the haunted house only from stock footage, with permission from Cartoon Network Studios' sister companies Hanna-Barbera Productions, Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation.
 * This was the only episode in season three to use digital coloring, which was used as of season four.
 * The Ghost was originally intended to be a one-off character, but due to the success of the episode, he was given another appearance: The Society of Ghosts (one of the few planned Season 4 episodes to have McCracken's input) in Season 5 of the original series. He was later reused in the episode, A Spirited Revisit for the 2016 PPG reboot.
 * Originally, the Psycho shower scene was intended to appear in the final episode, but McCracken, who was unsure about this, had the scene cut before it went past the storyboard stage and replacing it with the Ghost scaring Mojo Jojo with many of his tortures, causing him to run away. It was later changed to the girls watching Footloose in the haunted house's state-of-the-art basement planetarium (a reference to the South Park episode, Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Foods), which made it into the final episode.
 * Trey Parker guest starred in this episode, making it the first family-friendly related project he ever worked on prior to Despicable Me 3 in 2017.
 * For the role of the Ghost, Parker used his natural speaking voice for the character.
 * The Ghost was designed different from all of the other characters, probably because he is drawn in a 1940s Disney/Paramount cartoony art style.
 * Eric Goldberg was guest character designer on this episode.
 * Craig McCracken and Cartoon Network executives had a little conversation about whether they should reuse the Bloody Head Fairy scene in the episode or not. It was up to John Kricfalusi's Spümco to decide.
 * At one point, Pat Ventura's Sledgehammer 'O Possum (from the What-A-Cartoon shorts of the same name) was originally planned to be the Bloody Head Fairy, but he was then replaced with a witch for the role of the Bloody Head Fairy.
 * The scene was shown uncut when it first aired. All subsequent airings had this scene cut due to it being too adult-oriented for a kid-friendly series. It can still be seen in Canadian airings on YTV.
 * Mojo Jojo is mentioned once and he is later seen being scared away by the Ghost.
 * The scene is a bit similar to the final scene from the SpongeBob SquarePants segment around 5 years later, Ghost Host where Squidward is scared away by the Flying Dutchman.

Production notes

 * Although this episode aired in 2001, it was made in 2000.

Reception
This episode received generally positive reviews from critics and fans alike. It is considered one of the funniest episodes of the series. Fans had mixed reactions to the Ghost's 40s-esque cartoony character design, mainly due to being different from The Powerpuff Girls ' usual art style.

Quotes

 * "(spots the Powerpuff Girls, then turns to the audience) Oh, boy. Three new victims. I can hardly wait to scare the colors out of them. Watch me put on my most hideous grimace (puts on a face, walks to the front door and prepares to scare the girls)" - Ghost.


 * "Now for a brutal display of pointless, gut-wrenching terror. (laughs evilly, then slaps his own mouth to keep quiet) You doubt? A demonstration!" - Ghost.


 * "I'm bushed, girls" - Blossom.
 * "Me too" - Buttercup.
 * "Me three" - Bubbles.
 * "Let's go to bed. We'll look for more clues in the morning, 3 hours before 9:00am" - Blossom.
 * "Sure... I wonder where it is" - Buttercup.
 * "Maybe up those strange-looking stairs (The girls float up slowly to the stairs)" - Blossom.
 * "Now's my chance" - Ghost.


 * "(spots bloody head on Buttercup, who's sleeping) Ah! A bloody head! (turns to audience) And it's a jim dandy! (laughs)" - Witch (Bloody Head Fairy).


 * "Happy halloween! (gives the ghost candy)" - Powerpuff Girls.
 * "(angrily; screams) THAT'S IT! I QUIT!! (takes off mask, calm and annoyed) Look, I'm a ghost! I've been trying to scare you girls all through this cartoon! But, I'm a failure (throws mask off screen and angrily, yet depressed, walks away)" - Ghost.
 * "(talks to himself, while sitting at the bottom of the stairs) I'm a failure. I couldn't even scare a paranoid schizophrenic" - Ghost.
 * "Oh, come on, try again" - Blossom.
 * "We'll do better" - Buttercup.
 * "We promise" - Bubbles.
 * "Don't patronize me! (sniffs) It's no use!" - Ghost.


 * "Wait! (smacks hammer and nail away from the Ghost) We know somebody you can scare" - Blossom.
 * "Oh, come on. Who would be foolish enough to be scared of me and my ghostly tricks? (Blossom whispers at him) Seriously? (rubs his hands together slowly) Sounds like a plan" - Ghost.


 * "Thanks to you, Girls. The house is ghost-free and now I'll be able to turn this into a vacation home, so that I could spend the night here for a whole weekend" - Mayor.


 * "So once again, the day is saved... thanks to the Powerpuff Girls!" - Narrator.