Film Summary CDLXXIII (The Rugrats Movie)


It's time to dive into a movie that's baffled me ever since its conception. The Rugrats Movie.

Now that's not to say that I didn't want the Rugrats movie when I was young. I watch this film more than I've seen just about anything else given that I must have watched it over and over again (I think a lot of that was down to the weird colour of the VHS tape. For some odd reason it was this bright orange colour and that always fascinated me when I was younger. I guess I couldn't comprehend of the idea of black VHS tapes being any other colour but that one.)
But really when you think of franchises that get turned into movies what comes to your mind first. Pokemon, The Simpsons, or even Beavis and Butthead. But Rugrats? An Oddball franchise about strange looking babies, who can talk to each other and go on strange Adventures. It just doesn't seem like it'd be very suitable for a movie. Especially given how mundane there lives where. There babys for gods sake.

But to the movies credit it was surprisingly entertaining. And my memory of said film was more accurate than I was expecting.
Usually with films I haven't seen in 20 years my memory is so disconnected from the actual event that it might as well be an entirely new scenario in my own head.
But every major scene was exactly as I remembered it. From the baby shower at the beginning of the film, to the Russian train being overtaken by a group of circus monkeys. All the way to Tommy's father falling through a small Bridge, encased in this horrible dinosaur glider, stumbling around like an idiot. All while the other babies looked on all at him thinking he was some sort of wizard.

And the art direction was still as interesting as ever. I'd always thought that my head just made up how amusing some of the set locations were. But the people who drew this movie out really gave it their all. There's the weird alternative Hospital where daddy goes to give birth.
And despite the incredible young age that the film is aimed for there's some decent scenes for any older audience member is well. Pacifically all the weird ramblings between the parents of the kids. Talking about Finance problems, family issues, losing the kids, dealing with bad paparazzi and a few innuendo jokes that give you a Light chuckle whenever you hear them.

Overall it's a fairly decent little film. It's pacing is good for the most part, although there's a few moments towards the last 20 minutes that drag on a little much and the music choices are very dated now*. All that late 90s light rap music mixed in with Rugrats paraphernalia is just awful. Like I get what they're going for. And I'm sure it was ''the Jam'' at the time. But now it just seems utterly ridiculous.

Apparently the introduction of Dil kind of ruins the Rugrats show after the movie came out.
I don't know if this is all that true as I didn't watch the show all that regularly back then and I think I've only seen two or three episodes in the last 20 years since.
But I've heard from a few people that Dil was kind of a crappy character and the Rugrats show was starting to suffering quality. A shame if that's the case but what are you going to do.

*To be fair the music is okay. Like I don't care for the song with a newborn baby singing, but it's interesting and it's its own unique thing. The rendition of Angelica singing ''One way or another, I'm going to get you'' is kind of amusing.
To put it in context it's a million times better than Pebbles and Bam Bam with their little child song in The Flintstones flick. I didn't have to skip anything while watching Rugrats.

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