Featuring the voices of E.G. Daily, Christine Cavanaugh, Kath Soucie, Cheryl Chase
Directors: Igor Kovalyov, Norton Virgien
Producers: Gabor Csupo, Arlene Klasky
Screenplay: David N. Weiss & J. David Stem
Music: Mark Mothersbaugh
U.S. Distributor: Paramount Pictures
I can recognize when a movie has been made for the sole purpose of generating a few cheap bucks, and that's exactly the case with The Rugrats Movie, an embarrassingly juvenile production that would seem more at home in the midst of Saturday morning cartoons than on a big screen. In fact, unless you count the running length (a bloated 80 minutes - more than enough time for this thinly-plotted film to wear out its welcome), there's nothing "big" about The Rugrats Movie. It's a blatant attempt by Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon to cash in on the unwarranted popularity of the "Rugrats" TV show. To be fair, The Rugrats Movie will play well to its target audience - children who aren't much older than the pint-sized protagonists of this crudely-animated feature. The level of appeal will drop off quickly as age of the potential viewer goes up. Parents dragged into the theater by their offspring will find that the experience is tolerable, if only barely. The Rugrats Movie is the kind of motion picture that gives "family entertainment" a bad name.
The film is basically an extended version of an episode of the TV series, with only slightly elevated production values (it looks like a few extra dollars have been spent on computer animation). The four protagonists are all little kids, still in diapers and not yet eloquent enough to have outgrown baby-talk. They are Tommy Pickles (voice of E.G. Daily), his best friend, the redheaded Chuckie Finster (Christine Cavanaugh), and the twins, Phil and Lil DeVille (Kath Soucie). Also along for the ride is Tommy's nasty older cousin, Angelica (Cheryl Chase). The story, such as it is, involves the arrival of a new baby at the Pickles household. The boy, named Dil Pickles (har har), soon finds himself on an adventure with his older brother, Tommy, and the other rugrats. During the course of a 50-minute trek through a forest, they are chased by a wolf, harassed by circus monkeys, and face assorted dangers to their close-knit friendship. If your age is under 10, this is all probably engaging.
The Rugrats Movie attempts to throw a bone or two to older viewers, but they're pretty well gnawed-over. There are a few amusing lines (my favorite: "There's an alarming crowd at my in-laws, indicating either a yard sale or a tragedy), a stale attempt at lampooning the local news media, and a trio of movie satires (Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Fugitive, and 2001). None of this material will keep adults (or older children) involved in the film, but it will likely prevent the onset of sleep.
For a full-blown feature movie, I had expected something a little more polished in the way of animation. Not that the Rugrats have to lose their half-drawn appearance (they look a little like the Peanuts characters), which is part of their questionable appeal, but the picture looks like it was slapped together in a few months (consider how long it takes Disney to piece together an animated feature). Money, not craftsmanship, appears to have been first and foremost on the minds of everyone involved in developing this movie for the screen.
Parents who bring their young offspring to The Rugrats Movie will likely find that the children appreciate what the film has to offer. However, with the high level of quality available in several other current family productions (Antz, The Wizard of Oz, and the soon-to-be-released A Bug's Life), one wonders why someone would choose The Rugrats Movie. The film isn't unwatchable, but these tiny cartoon characters belong where they were born: on a television set, where a discriminating viewer can use the remote control to banish them.
© 1998 James Berardinelli