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The Rugrats Movie

The Rugrats Movie is a 1998 American animated comedy film[1] based on the Nickelodeon animated television series, Rugrats. It was directed by Igor Kovalyov and Norton Virgien and was written by David N. Weiss & J. David Stem.[3] The film features the voices of E. G. Daily, Tara Charendoff, Christine Cavanaugh, Kath Soucie, Cheryl Chase, Cree Summer, Jack Riley, Melanie Chartoff, Michael Bell and Joe Alaskey, along with guest stars David Spade, Whoopi Goldberg, Margaret Cho, Busta Rhymes, and Tim Curry. The film takes place between the events of the series' fifth and sixth seasons. The Rugrats Movie is the first feature film based on a Nicktoon and the first installment in the Rugrats film series.

This article is about the 1998 film. For the video game, see The Rugrats Movie (video game). For other films, see Rugrats (film series).

The Rugrats Movie

  • Arlene Klasky
  • Gábor Csupó

  • John Bryant
  • Kimberly Rettberg

  • Paramount Pictures

  • November 20, 1998 (1998-11-20) (United States)

80 minutes[2]

United States

English

$24 million

$140.8 million

Plans for a Rugrats film adaptation, along with Ren and Stimpy and Doug, began when Nickelodeon made a contract with 20th Century Fox to produce them.[4] However, the contract ended after Nickelodeon's parent company, Viacom purchased Paramount Pictures' parent company Paramount Communications in 1994.[5] Production then began in 1995 after the television series had restarted after a small hiatus.


The Rugrats Movie was released in the United States on November 20, 1998.[1] The film received generally positive reviews from critics, though some criticized its darker tone compared to the television series. The film was a box office success, opening at #1 and grossing a total of $141 million worldwide. It became the first non-Disney animated film to gross over $100 million in the United States.[6]


The film was followed by two sequels: Rugrats in Paris: The Movie in 2000 and Rugrats Go Wild in 2003, which is a crossover with The Wild Thornberrys.

as Tommy Pickles

E. G. Daily

as Dil Pickles

Tara Charendoff

as Chuckie Finster

Christine Cavanaugh

as Phil, Lil, and Betty DeVille

Kath Soucie

as Angelica Pickles

Cheryl Chase

as Stu Pickles

Jack Riley

as Didi Pickles and Grandma Minka

Melanie Chartoff

as Drew Pickles, Chas Finster and Grandpa Boris

Michael Bell

as Charlotte Pickles

Tress MacNeille

as Howard DeVille, Igor

Philip Proctor

as Grandpa Lou Pickles

Joe Alaskey

Production[edit]

Talks about making Rugrats into a feature film existed since the beginning of the series. The first attempt was in May 1993, when Nickelodeon made a two-year contract deal with 20th Century Fox to produce new material, but an unnamed Nickelodeon executive did not rule out the possibility to make films based on their existing properties, one of those that was proposed was Rugrats, alongside Doug and The Ren & Stimpy Show.[7][8][4][9] However, in July 1994, Nickelodeon's parent company Viacom acquired Paramount Pictures, and Paramount would distribute the films instead. As a result, the contract from Fox expired, with no films produced (although Doug would eventually receive a theatrical film from Walt Disney Pictures in 1999). Production on The Rugrats Movie started a year later in November 1995.[10] The film's voice actors began recording their parts for the movie in late March 1997.[11]


Two months before the release of the movie, an episode prequel titled "The Family Tree" was aired as the final episode of the fifth season. The film's beginning and ending parody Paramount and Lucasfilm's Indiana Jones film series. This later inspired the second segment of the episode "A Tale of Two Puppies / Okey-Dokey Jones and the Ring of the Sunbeams", that aired during the show's eighth season in 2002.


This film was the first Rugrats production to use digital ink and paint, rather than the traditional cel animation used in the show.


Two songs were cut from the film during production. The first revolves around Stu and Didi in a nightmare sequence where Dr. Lipschitz criticizes their parenting through a song. The second depicts the Rugrats pushing the Reptar Wagon through the woods, debating what to do about Dil in an army chant style song. These two scenes were cut from the theatrical, VHS, DVD, Laserdisc, Blu-ray, and Paramount+ releases. However, these scenes are shown on CBS and Nickelodeon television airings of the film.[12] These scenes were also present in the print novelization.


The film was released in theaters with a CatDog short titled "Fetch". This short was later broadcast in CatDog Episode 21. However, the VHS, DVD, Laserdisc, and Blu-ray releases contains a different CatDog short from Episode 28 titled "Winslow's Home Videos".

The Rugrats Movie: Music from the Motion Picture

November 3, 1998

1998

41:51

Media[edit]

Home media[edit]

The Rugrats Movie was released on VHS and DVD on March 30, 1999, by Paramount Home Video. The film was also released on Laserdisc on the same day by Pioneer Entertainment. On March 15, 2011, the film was re-released in a three-disc trilogy DVD set alongside its sequels, in honor of Rugrats' 20th anniversary.[13] In addition, it was re-released in some movie sets by Paramount, in 2016 with all the non-sequel Nickelodeon-animated movies up to Barnyard, as well as a separate 2-disc set with Hey Arnold!: The Movie.[14] The film was released on Blu-ray on March 8, 2022, in a trilogy set alongside its sequels.[15][16]

Reception[edit]

Box office[edit]

The film was released on November 20, 1998, and made $27.3 million in its opening weekend,[35] from 2,782 theaters, averaging about $9,821 per venue and ranking number one that weekend, beating Enemy of the State.[36][37] It would be overtaken by A Bug's Life during its second weekend.[38] In total, The Rugrats Movie made $140.9 million; $100.5 million from the domestic market and $40.4 million from its foreign release.[35]


The film was released in the United Kingdom on March 26, 1999, and topped the country's box office for the next three weekends, before being dethroned by The Faculty.[39][40][41][36]

Critical reception[edit]

On Rotten Tomatoes, The Rugrats Movie holds an approval rating of 59% based on 51 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Charming characters; loads of fun for kids and adults."[42] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[43]


Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four.[44] Ebert wrote that the film's target audience was primarily younger children, and that, while he as an adult disliked it, he "might have" liked it if he were younger and would recommend it for children.[44] The New York Times's Anita Gates reviewed The Rugrats Movie positively, calling it a "delight".[45] Neil Jeffries of Empire gave the film three out of five stars, saying, "Fun for kids, but, despite some adult references, appeal for the over 10s is limited."[46]


Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly graded the film with a B.[47] Schwarzbaum praised the movie for its appeal to both adult and child audiences, "juxtaposing the blithely self-absorbed parallel universes of small, diapered children and their large, Dockered parents".[47] However, other Entertainment Weekly reviewer Ty Burr gave The Rugrats Movie a B−, criticizing that the film's issues sprung from it being "bigger" than the original series, thus it's having more cultural references, out-of-place CGI scenes, and "[going] into scary territory".[48] Burr did praise the "escaped circus monkeys" for being "scary in a good way", as well as a joke that was accessible to younger audiences.[48]


Rugrats co-creator/co-writer Paul Germain (who, along with the other original writers, left the series in 1993) has stated that he felt that the film's writers did not understand what the series was about, and he thought that the scene in which Stu gives a watch to Tommy did not work, as the adults were not supposed to recognize the babies' intelligence. In addition, he felt that by giving Tommy a baby brother, Tommy was no longer the baby, which changed the series from what Germain intended it to be.[49]


Nell Minow of Common Sense Media gave the film three stars out of five, saying that it was "'90s animated tale has some cartoon violence, peril."[50]

Sequels[edit]

The film was followed by the sequels Rugrats in Paris: The Movie in 2000 and Rugrats Go Wild in 2003, the latter of which is a crossover with The Wild Thornberrys.

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