The Rugrats Movie

Buy This Item The Rugrats Movie by Paramount Pictures  Available from Amazon  $9.95  on 11-25-2008     The first theatrical film from the popular Nickelodeon TV series became the surprise hit of the 1998 holiday box-office crunch, trouncing the highly competitive kids market. The key ingredient to the Rugrats' success is the writing. Venturing into their first theatrical movie, the pals--including the intrepid diaper-wearing Tommy Pickles, the nervous Chuckie, the twins Lil and Phil, and the wonderfully prissy Angelica--garble English into funny prose ("I want those fugitives back in custard-y!") and use movie references in their fantasy life. The opening here is a dead-on spoof of <I>Raiders of the Lost Ark</I>. <p> The big news for the movie is that Tommy gets a new baby brother, named Dylan (or Dil for short). The rest of the film has no real plot but is a series of adventures as the clan gets lost in the forest riding an inventive Reptar wagon that is the '90s equivalent of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Parents search for the kids, the kids learn new lessons, everyone goes home happy. <I>The Rugrats Movie</I> is not as wildly appealing as <I>A Bug's Life</I> but is far goofier and wackier with its animation. There's also a tremendous sense of joy that is often missing from cartoons these days, and the songs used in the film--from such diverse musicians as Busta Rhymes, Iggy Pop, Lisa Loeb, Lou Rawls, Beck, and Devo--add to the fun. It's an acquired taste, but the creators' first efforts to take the 10-minute TV sketches into an 80-minute feature pay off. <p> The video contains a short (<I>Winslow Doc</I>) from Nickelodeon's series <I>CatDog</I>. Although the animation is similar, one can only hope the series does not reach the popularity of <I>Rugrats</I>. <I>--Doug Thomas</I> Reader Reviews The artwork is inspiring, especially depictions of forests. There is plenty of action. The storyline appears to be good for kids. But there is a little problem. The authors of the script and storyline are not particularly intelligent. In other words, essentially every minute of the story is contrived and forced. Most of the picture consists of chase scenes, moving from here to there, and repeated boring attempts at cliff-hangers. The movie seems to start off right. We see a parody of an Indiana Jones movie, where the cartoon character children enter an underground temple and attempt to snatch a golden chalice. They are chased off by a huge rolling ball. The ground cracks open, and the children manage to escape. From there, it all goes downhill. The children find themselves in a box, and the box is accidently shipped overland by a truck, and the truck gets in an accident and the children are dumped into a ravine somewhere in the wilderness. There is a dangerous wolf. The children manage to escape in a boat, but the boat approaches a waterfall (ho-hum). Children will not be amused by the repeated jokes about urinating. Everything in this movie is derived or forced. The script writers failed to ask themselves, "Will the viewer care about what happens at this or that point in the storyline?" The script writers failed to ask, "Will the viewer actually notice that mere commotion by the cartoon characters is taking the place of substance?" The movie is worse than the feature length SIMPSONS movie, which itself lacks the cleverness of the SIMPSONS T.V. episodes. The RUGRATS movie is worse than the feature length SPONGE BOB movie, a movie and T.V. show characterized by a unique brand of zaniness. The only good thing I can say about THE RUGRATS is that the artwork is original, and somewhat better than the artwork of the SIMPSONS or SPONGE BOB. TWO STARS. For those with an interest in movies for little kids, I might recommend the LEAVE IT TO BEAVER black and white television series, the splendid ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE color movie (great cameo by Whoopi Goldberg), the Disney movie MERLIN JONES (with America's sweetheart, Annette), and the complete first season of THE FLINTSTONES. I think we might all agree that THE FLINTSTONES T.V. show is not particularly clever or intelligent, but at least there are actual stories, and at least the concepts in the Flintstones (anachronisms) are creative and original. Also, BEAVER, MERLIN JONES, THE FLINTSTONES, and ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE do not contain any toilet humor.

The Rugrats Movie Available from Amazon Price: $9.95 Updated on 11-25-2008.

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