The Rugrats Movie
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| The Rugrats Movie | |
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 The 'Danish' poster for The Rugrats Movie. Note the word "diapers" being replaced with the Danish alternative "niassers". |
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| Directed by | Igor Kovalyov Norton Virgien |
| Produced by | Gabor Csupo Arlene Klasky (Klasky Csupo) Nickelodeon Movies |
| Written by | David N. Weiss J. David Stem |
| Starring | Elizabeth Daily (voice) Christine Cavanaugh (voice) Kath Soucie (voice) Cheryl Chase (voice) Cree Summer (voice) Tara Strong (voice) |
| Music by | Elvis Costello Nigel Harrison Mark Mothersbaugh Jamshied Sharifi |
| Editing by | John Bryant Kimberly Rettberg |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | November 20 1998 |
| Running time | 81 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $28,000,000 (estimated) |
| Followed by | Rugrats in Paris: The Movie |
| IMDb profile | |
The Rugrats Movie is a 1998 animated film, produced by Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies. Based on the animated long running Nickeloden series, Rugrats, this film introduced Tommy's baby brother Dil Pickles, who was named after Didi Pickles's cousin, and appeared on the Rugrats TV series the next year.
This is considered the darkest of the Rugrats trilogy of films, due to its tone and aspects of the storyline (babies lost in dangerous woods, interior conflicts between the group over being lost and Dil himself, and so forth) being radical departures from the series' usual light-hearted appeal. There are some mixed opinions on The Rugrats Movie as a result. This is also the only tremendous box-office success film of the Rugrats.
Tagline:An adventure for anyone that ever wore diapers.
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[edit] Plot
The Rugrats are expecting the arrival of Tommy Pickles' new sibling, whom everyone believes will be a girl. However, a singing competition between Angelica Pickles and Susie Carmichael causes Didi to go into labor. She is rushed to a high-tech birthing center ("The Werner P. Lipschitz Center for Hollistic Birthing"), where she gives birth to Tommy's brother, Dil Pickles. However, the brothers do not get along, with Dil crying endlessly, and for seemingly no reason at all. Stu gives Tommy a pocketwatch holding a photo of the two brothers, and tells him he now has responsibility ("Sponsitivity" as Tommy puts it) to look after Dil. Meanwhile, a TV Show called the Banana Brothers' cast(two unnamed men and several monkeys) board on a train. The men of Banana Brothers argue who watches after the monkeys and who gets the coffee. The two men go to the donut shop to have a breakfast, but then, the monkeys drive the men alone in the donut shop as they drive off with the train and then crash into the forest. Chuckie Finster and Phil and Lil DeVille believe Tommy is not happy with Dil, and so decide to take him back to the "popsicle" (hospital) using Stu's invention, "Reptar Wagon". Angelica Pickles then kicks the Wagon, and the Rugrats are on a crazy ride strolling around the city and destroying several cars. Then, they crash into a mattress store delivery truck that goes onto the freeway. Then, the delivery truck crashes into the wilderness next to the freeway(which they drop off a binky), and then the Rugrats find themselves lost in the woods.
After Dill poops in his diaper, the Rugrats are forced to change it, which goes horribly after Dill pees everywhere in the process. Angelica soon discovers her beloved doll, Cynthia, has gone missing, and realizing the babies must have it, ventures out with Spike to find them. Stu and Grandpa Lou discover the disappearance of the babies and Angelica, and briefly believe they may have been taken during the delivery/removal of the "Reptar Wagon", which was taken by the babies. The rest of the adults discover the disappearance of their children, Drew Pickles nearly murdering his brother in the process. Didi, Betty, Chas, Howard, Charlotte, and others head out into the forest to find the babies, while Stu, Drew, and Grandpa try to figure out another way of searching. They are hampered by a nosy news-reporter named Rex Pester (Tim Curry). Back at the forest, Phil and Lil blame Dil for all their troubles they are having. Tommy quickly attempts to defend his brother, but Dil grabs one of his diaper straps and rips it off, making his brother's diaper fall down entirly, humiliating Tommy in front of his friends. After Tommy picks up his diaper, Chuckie notices a house in the distance, and Tommy declares the would go to "find the Wizard". But while running, he falls into a hole, made by a wolf, which they hear howl. They dash into the Reptar Wagon and speed down a hill. Then, they splash into the river because of Dil's absent-minded hands, and then Chuckie nearly drowns into the fish river. While this happens, the park rangers think that the Reptar Wagon is a (dragon), and they become very worried about the dragon in the park. Then, after the Reptar Wagon reaches land, pulled by the babies, and they soon become hungry as well. Then, Tommy, Phil, and Lil blame themselves of how they got lost, until Chuckie finds a giant clown picture on the Banana Brothers Train.
The babies have now discovered the monkey train, and have a number of problems, including being pursued by a horde of circus monkeys and a hungry wolf (nicknamed Scar Snout by fans). Chuckie is wounded multiple times, but Tommy is too pre-occupied by Dil to notice. Dil is kidnapped by the monkeys, and after being insulted by his friends, Tommy goes off to find his brother. Tommy finds Dil, but his brother refuses to behave, prompting Tommy to lose his temper, and shout at Dil. A storm frightens Dil, and Tommy protects him with a hug and a song. The next day, Chuckie; Phil; and Lil come looking for the brothers, and save them from the monkeys. They also run into Angelica and Spike, but the group gets trapped on a rope bridge, and are attacked by the wolf. Spike defends the babies, and "sacrifices his life" by pushing himself and the wolf into the river below.
Stu flies in using "Dactar", a pteradactyl shaped mechanical glider, but crashes into Rex Pester's helicopter, and crash-lands in front of the babies. They mistake Stu for the "Lizard" (which they mean to say as "Wizard", from a story Didi read to Tommy in an earlier scene), and after discussing whether or not they should wish to go home, they decide they want Spike back. Stu collapses, and Spike appears unharmed. The parents, accompanied by forest rangers, arrive, and are re-united with their children. Rex Pester is attacked by the monkeys, who are also re-united with their circus owners. Tommy and the rest of the Rugrats welcome Dil into their group with open arms, and together they triumphantly steal the "Minnesota Cuke" video at the end of the film
[edit] Reaction
It was released on November 20, 1998, and reached #1 at the box office with a gross of $27,321,470 in 2,782 theaters averaging to about $9,821 per theater, ahead of Enemy of the State, and became the first non-Disney animated movie to gross $100 million in the United States and Canada, and the only such movie not made by DreamWorks until 20th Century Fox's Ice Age achieved the feat. The film was followed by 2000's Rugrats in Paris: The Movie and 2003's Rugrats Go Wild.
[edit] Box Office Performance and Critical Reception
It grossed in worldwide results, $140,894,675, making it a very large box office success, considering its modest $28 million budget. Despite the commercial success, the film wasn't well-received by critics, earning mixed reviews. It has a "rotten" rating of 41% on Rotten Tomatoes.com. But it's sequel, Rugrats In Paris surprisingly was very more positively-well received, with Rotten Tomatoes.com giving the film a "Certified Fresh" rating of 73% and Metacritic.com awarded the film with a rating of 62 out of 100, which indicates "generally favorable reviews."
[edit] Guest stars
- David Spade as Ranger Frank
- Whoopi Goldberg as Ranger Margaret
- Tim Curry as Rex Pester
- Busta Rhymes as Reptar Wagon
- Roger Clinton as Air Crewman
- Margaret Cho as Lt. Klavin
- Edie McClurg as Nurse
[edit] Newborn babies
[edit] Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- The film was released in theatres with a CatDog short titled "Fetch"(although that episode premiered in 1999), in which Cat wins a radio contest and attempts to answer the phone as Dog chases down his tennis ball. (This short was later broadcast during a CatDog marathon and was also occasionally shown between programs on Nicktoons TV in the 2002-03 season.) However, the video release contained a different CatDog short, "Winslow's Home Videos".
- Slap T. Pooch from Nickelodeon's animation showcase Oh Yeah! Cartoons appeared in the Nickelodeon Movies logo sequence to this film.
- In the beginning and the end of the movie, the Rugrats attempts to steal a banana split is a reference to Raiders of the Lost Ark from the Indiana Jones films.
- The setting of the film is somewhere in the Altoona, Pennsylvania area. This can be proved by Charles Finster's remarks about a neighbour seeing the kids tear through his back yard and "headed north on I-99", and again with the babies rolling through a construction zone (part of I-99 was under construction at the time).
- While the monkeys sing, the song Witch Doctor is very heavily parodied, and the lyrics are very different. The new reconstructed song that parodies Witch Doctor doesn't have the phrase: "I told the Witch Doctor."
- Banana Brothers is a parody of Super Mario Bros., a popular videogame.
[edit] Goofs
- The Rugrats in the Reptar Wagon go right and get lost in the highway forest, but Angelica and Spike, and their parents go left, and they still find the highway wilderness. They took the wrong direction of where the Rugrats went.
- When the Rugrats sing in the river, Lil is in Reptar's mouth. In the next shot, Lil is next to Dil on Reptar's left side.
- The Rugrats didn't take anything with them while they accidentally get lost by Angelica, but they have a diaper bag
- In the beginning, the Rugrats don't understand that the chocolate coins are only chocolate. However, when the Rugrats are lost, Tommy thinks it's a chocolate.
[edit] Production Cuts
- Two songs were cut from the film during production. The first sequence revolved around Stu and Didi in a nightmare sequence where Dr. Lipschitz berates their parenting through song. The other sequence occurs as the Rugrats are pushing the Reptar Wagon through the woods, debating what to do about Dil in army chant style. These Two Scenes were cut from the Theaterical Version and the Video and DVD versions of the film. However, they were already animated at the time, and the scenes are shown on CBS and Nickelodeon TV airings of the film.
[edit] Soundtrack
- Take Me There - BLACKstreet/Mýa
- I Throw My Toys Around - No Doubt
- This World Is Something New To Me - Dawn Robinson/Lisa Loeb/B Real/Patti Smith/Lou Rawls/Laurie Anderson
- All Day - Lisa Loeb
- Dil-A-Bye - E.G. Daily
- A Baby Is A Gift from a Bob - Cheryl Chase/Cree Summer
- One Way or Another - Cheryl Chase
- Wild Ride - Kevi
- On Your Marks, Get Set, Ready, Go! - Busta Rhymes
- Witch Doctor - Devo
- Take The Train - Rakim/Danny Saber
- Yo Ho Ho And A Bottle Of Yum! - E.G. Daily/Christine Cavanaugh/Kath Soucie
[edit] External links
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