Angelica Pickles

Angelica Pickles is a cartoon character who appears in the Nickelodeon shows Rugrats, All Grown Up!, and Rugrats Pre-School Daze, and is among one of the series' original characters. She is a spoiled brat and the cousin of Tommy and Dil Pickles, and serves as the main antagonist of the series, but she's portrayed as an anti-heroine in the films who would side with the babies near the end against the respective main villains.^[1] In 2002, TV Guide ranked Angelica Pickles 7th in their list of "Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time".

In Rugrats

In the Rugrats media, Angelica has blonde hair tied up in pigtails with purple bows. She wore a purple sleeveless dress, an orange and black long-sleeved blouse with flared cuffs, blue and green polka-dotted tights, orange ankle-length socks and purple sneakers. During season one, she wore diapers over her tights. Angelica can best be described as the spoiled, sadistic, vain, sarcastic, selfish and antagonistic cousin of Tommy and Dil Pickles. She is known for her frequently manipulating the babies for her own gain, bullies them, and calls them "dumb babies," even though Dil's the only Rugrat who's technically "just a baby" (the rest are all toddlers like Angelica is). When Susie Carmichael was introduced, she was soon favored among the babies, causing Angelica to become jealous and start a rivalry with her. Susie always tried to convince the babies that almost everything that came out of Angelica's mouth was a lie, and Angelica would in turn strive to convince them otherwise.

Angelica's parents, Drew and Charlotte, are hardly ever around because of their jobs, so her aunt and uncle, Didi and Stu, often babysit her. Her parents rarely punish or discipline her, so it's usually up to her aunt and uncle to do so. One of the few times that Angelica was ever visibly punished/disciplined by her parents is in the episode "Runaway Angelica", father yells at and punished her for disobeying her father's orders of not going into her father's home office. Most other times, her parents just scold her instead of threatening her with punishment for her bad behavior.

Angelica is an only child; as a result, she has become very spoiled, and her parents pander to her every need and tend to give her anything she wants. In the episode "The Baby Vanishes" when her father did a magazine test to see how spoiled she was he scored 49 and a half, with only 10 or less being acceptable. Being spoiled could come from her parents' vast wealth, which is used to buy her toys and very expensive birthday parties. She whines, cries, and throws tantrums to get what she wants, and her parents, particularly her father, often give in.

Until Susie Carmichael came along, Angelica was unique among the regular children in that she could properly talk to grown-ups, and as such, she acted nicely towards the adults, and was notoriously mean to the other babies, especially by lying and distorting their view of the world. When Susie was introduced, Angelica soon became a rival to her and often competed with her. Almost every time Susie was in an episode, Angelica was also in it, as well. Although, despite this, Susie's introduction episode did not feature Angelica. Angelica and Susie are the only characters who didn't appear in the two Rugrats pilot episodes. Angelica dreams of being a singer, but every time she does sing it comes out as horrible. This became of running gag in the series even in All grown up. Despite this no one tell's her singing is horrible which causes her to believe she is talented at singing despite everyone's annoyance although she becomes jealous when everyone prefers to hear Susie sing instead.

Angelica's three years old throughout the series (despite celebrating her birthday in a couple of episodes). Despite acting mean to the babies most of the time, it is revealed in the 1995 season finale "Moving Away" that she was the reason Tommy, Chuckie, Phil and Lil befriended each other and, even more, that Angelica considered the other babies her best friends. Also in "Aunt Miriam" it is shown that Angelica takes a lot after her great aunt Miriam, as she and Lou have the same relationship she has with Tommy. This indicates that it is possible that, like Miriam, Angelica may be jealous of Tommy for being more loved and popular among his friends and family. In addition because her parents spoil her rotten, she is still denied a lot of attention and may be jealous that Tommy's parents give him more attention then her own.

In addition to that, while she also craves her parents' attention its visibly seen that her Aunt Didi, Uncle Stu, and grandfather spend more time with her than her own parents; it is possible that she has a better relationship with them and seems to care deeply for them because they give her more attention. One possible example could be in "The Baby Vanishes", when she believes she's invisible she becomes greatly upset when her Auntie Didi ignores her. Thus believing she's lost her ability to be seen by one of the few people who gives her attention. And in addition in "The Santa Experience", she actually believes her grandfather's story about getting coal and tries her best to undo the damage she's done to the twins, Phil and Lil.

It's should also be noted that Angelica's the one kid that's had the most romantic love interests. In "Angelica's In Love" Angelica develops her first crush on a boy named Dean and tries even being nice to gain his affection. Although she does in the end, their romance is quickly over when Dean's mother comes to take him home. But Angelica finds a new love interest in her new neighbor Jean-Claude, who apparently returns the affections. She also developed a crush on Timmy McNulty, however he's more interested in games than her. Much to her own personal annoyance.

Her first word and favorite food is cookies, and she refuses to eat most healthy foods (especially broccoli). After every spoiled conduction, she gets a sudden consequence. She is unable to blow her nose at age 3, as seen in the episode "All's Well that Pretends Well", and she makes a mess when she eats.

It is possible that Angelica's spoiled behavior may also be reflected from her own parents. Charlotte, in a way, is spoiled as through means of her work, and tries to teach Angelica to be strong, dominating and not take "no" for an answer, in her own words "in a male dominated society." However, because of this, she unintentionally distorts Angelica's ideas on how to be with others. In addition to that, it's hinted that Drew use to bully Stu and would tend to get Stu blamed. In Rugrats, Charlotte was Angelica's role model in some ways. Charlotte's the head of a major corporation throughout the series' run, and in a realistic dream sequence, she said that the only thing she liked better than corporate domination was corporate domination with her daughter

Drew is a little more responsible and reasonable with his daughter. He is often the one who worries about Angelica becoming too spoiled, but when he discusses this with Charlotte, she usually disagrees. Angelica's, as well as her parents', address is 53 Briar Cliff Lane (stated in Rugrats episode "Stu Gets a Job." Stu mentions the address when he is calling to have Drew's car towed).

Angelica has a pet cat named Fluffy, most recently seen in the All Grown Up! episode "Lucky 13" (first aired in the US: August 28, 2004). Also, since the beginning of the series, Angelica was often seen with a doll named Cynthia, which she considered her most prized possession and favourite toy. It is revealed in "The Seven Voyages of Cynthia" that Cynthia was given to her as a birthday gift. Losing Cynthia horrifies her, such as in "The Tricycle Thief" when she fought to keep her innocence to Susie so that she wouldn't let Cynthia go up in Chuckie's balloon, and told Tommy and Chuckie in "The Seven Voyages of Cynthia" that she would harm anyone who took the doll.

When the series started, she, Tommy and Chuckie were their respective parents' only children. However, by the end of the series, Angelica is the only character to remain an only child--by then, Tommy had Dil as his younger brother and Chuckie had gained a stepsister named Kimi through his dad's second marriage to Kira (Kimi's mom and Chuckie's stepmom). Angelica usually expresses her thankfulness on being an only child, but there have been a few episodes where she expresses the desire to have brother or sister (most notably in "The Stork" and "Sister Act").

Angelica came 7th in TV Guide's 50 greatest cartoon characters, above Bart and Lisa Simpson and Mickey Mouse, and she was the only Rugrats character to appear on the list.

In Rugrats in Paris: The Movie, when the babies control the robot Reptar, Angelica has many near-death incidents.

1. When the babies crash into the balcony Angelica is on, she falls onto Reptar's nose, hanging on for dear life.
2. As soon as the babies notice, Tommy presses a button that sends green gas out of the nose Angelica is on. She falls to the ground but the babies catch her in Reptar's hand. She squeals: "This isn't the parade I wanted!".
3. Robo-Snail then squirts purple goo at her.
4. Lil opens a hatch and Kimi climbs up. As Angelica starts to, Robo-Snail grabs Reptar and Angelica falls but manages to grab a tooth. Reptar starts spinning around but poor Angelica manages to stay on.
5. When Reptar boosts up the Eiffel Tower, he stops with a huge jolt at the top, sending a shrieking Angelica flying into the sky. The babies catch her but in Reptar's other hand. Angrily, she shouts: "What's the big idea? Are you potty-heads trying to get rid of me?" With Phil and Lili replaying "That was the big idea"
6. With Angelica in his other hand, Chuckie points at the Church his dad is at. Now he isn't holding onto the Tower, Reptar falls. He throws a screaming Angelica into the air and grabs the rail of the Tower. Angelica falls and lands on the head though.

Development

Arlene Klasky did not like the cruelty in Angelica in the earlier seasons and often had disputes with the writers about it. By the time the new seasons appeared around 1996, Klasky had a more positive reception to the softened Angelica.^[2]

In All Grown Up!

Angelica at age 13 in the Rugrats TV movie All Growed Up (2001)

In All Growed Up!, Angelica is depicted similarly to her original toddler portrayal in Rugrats, but has developed more maturity in her tastes and interests average for a girl her age, and got less sadistic and more sarcastic. Angelica is still spoiled by her parents, but to a lesser degree and in an altered fashion from the previous series, and still habitually dominates her younger cousins and acquaintances and maintains her materialistic personality. Angelica also still behaves selfishly and grouchily, and still envies Susie Carmichael (her best friend/rival) for her amazing singing voice and various other talents, although she is shown to be much nicer than in the original series.

Some episodes have shown that she has incredible talents of her own as well, such as being a champion debater and a well-known advice columnist. In one episode, she even upstaged Susie and her brothers in domestic house chores, which she hated at first, but grew to like and be good at. Angelica's goals and priorities throughout the episodes have also matured to fit her age, and she strives to acquire a position amongst popular cliques at her school (a goal she succeeded at, but which earned her a "frenemy") or impress boys, albeit still aided by the geeky, redheaded Harold (whom she and Susie had met when they were in preschool). She began dating a boy named Jeremy in Season 2, but shortly after she left him for another character named Ty.

References