I've been a fan of "Rugrats," the hit Nickelodeon cartoon series, for a long time. Tommy (voiced by E.G. Daily) is the plucky leader of the precocious toddlers, accompanied by his best friend, the timid, but loyal, Chuckie (Christine Cavanaugh). Earthy twins Phil and Lil (Kath Soucie) complete the fab four, with Angela (Cheryl Chase), Tommy's slightly older, very bratty cousin, always ready to cause trouble for the babies. The charm of the show comes from the kids' innocent outlook on the world, as well as their refreshingly matter-of-fact approach to dirt, bugs and body functions. Adding to the fun is the show's gently satiric portrayals of the infants' colorful parents and grandparents.
"The Rugrats Movie" marks the first big-screen foray for the kids and any movie featuring a nursery full of singing newborns who create a fountain of water by peeing into the air is all right in my book. That said, "The Rugrats Movie" disappointments in a number of ways. While the film features nice music and boasts a number of ingenious moments, it overdoes the bombast, making the babies play second fiddle to a series of raucous action scenes and parodies of other movies.
Following a take-off of "Raiders of the Lost Ark," the main storyline kicks in. Tommy Pickles' life is disrupted by the arrival of baby brother Dil (Tara Charendoff), whose nonstop howling drives the child to distraction. When Tommy and company decide to return Dil to the "baby store," they hop in the Reptar Wagon, a super-powered Big Wheel created by Tommy's inventor father, Stu (Jack Riley, Mr. Carlin from "The Bob Newhart Show") and promptly get lost in the forest, leading to a series of misadventures with escaped circus monkeys, a wolf and various other scary things. Meanwhile, the families, aided by two forest rangers (Whoopi Goldberg and David Spade), desperately search for the kids, while the press (led by Tim Curry) bombard them with idiotic questions.
Judging from the laughter and applause, the kids at the screening I attended loved every second of the movie, especially the numerous body function jokes. My reaction was less enthusiastic. After a strong beginning, the film turns into a overly busy action movie, and that's not what I came to see. I love the "Rugrats" series not because of the action, but rather the characters' conversations and responses during the action. In the series, we get to hear the babies talk to each other, and the glimpses into their personalities provide the charm and fun of the show.
There's some of that in the movie, but not nearly enough. Too much of the film consists of everyone racing frantically about, avoiding one brush with disaster after another. I can get that with any movie. From the "Rugrats," I look for personality, and the film comes up short in that department.
Because of the clever moments, the nifty soundtrack and my affection for the characters, I'm giving "The Rugrats Movie" a marginal recommendation. The film's target audience of little kids should make the production a hit. But if the filmmakers want to satisfy the grown-ups (and make no mistake, the TV show has a huge adult following), they'll tone down the frenzied action and turn up the personality and quiet moments for the next "Rugrats" movie.
By : Ed Johnson-Ott
Source: rec.art.movies.reviews newsgroup
Rating: 0
It's every parent's nightmare. Your child kidnaps your newborn and disappears into the woods on a stormy night with his friends. Then the media descends on your home, anxious for all the details. That situation is played for laughs in "The Rugrats Movie," and while it might also be a nightmare of many parents to have to pay to see Tommy, Chuckie and Angelica on the big screen, "Rugrats" has more than enough hijinks and gross-out humor to keep the under-10 crowd in hysterics for 90 minutes. Older viewers might catch themselves chuckling as well, especially when Tommy's pregnant mom insists on checking into the Lipschitz Maternity Arts Center -- which promises it's "state-of-the-art in primitive birth alternatives" -- or when an obnoxious tabloid reporter grills grieving parents with questions like "Is it true a dingo ate your baby?". Certainly the kids won't pick up on how alternative-rock pioneers like Patti Smith, Laurie Anderson and Beck provide the vocals for a nursery full of complaining babies, or catch the easily recognizable tones of Whoopi Goldberg and David Spade as a pair of forest rangers who assist in rescuing the Rugrats from the wilderness. That's not to say that all of "Rugrats" is sophisticated and in-jokey. Many of the jokes are built around "chocolate pants" (think diapers) and bodily functions, the kind of lightly raunchy material that's, in Rugrat parlance, "more fun than picking noses" to those whose ages are still in the single digits. But, to balance things out slightly, "Rugrats" does offer a gently delivered message about how older siblings need to overcome feelings of jealousy and take part in raising a new baby. In this case, Tommy feels he's lost his place in the Pickles family after the arrival of little brother Dylan, who seems to exist solely to smack Tommy around and weep rivers of tears. The only disappointment the target audience for "Rugrats" is likely to feel comes from the movie's underemployment of bratty cousin Angelica, who is kept out of the action for most of the movie. The feature is preceded by a raucous "Catdog" short, in which the half-feline/half-canine manages to cause citywide destruction and an airplane crash while trying to win a call-in radio contest. Its relentless comic violence and hyperactivity would have made maverick "Golden Age" animator Tex Avery proud.
