Story of movie The Rugrats Movie :
The Rugrats Movie is a 1998 American animated comedy film based on the Nickelodeon animated television series Rugrats. It was directed by Igor Kovalyov and Norton Virgien and written by David N. Weiss & J. David Stem. The film introduced Tommy Pickles' baby brother Dil Pickles, who appeared on the original series the next year. The film features the voices of E.G. Daily, Tara Strong, Christine Cavanaugh, Kath Soucie, Cheryl Chase, Cree Summer, and Charlie Adler, along with guest stars David Spade, Whoopi Goldberg, Margaret Cho, Busta Rhymes, and Tim Curry. The events of the film take place before the sixth season of Rugrats.
| The Rugrats Movie | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by |
|
| Produced by |
|
| Screenplay by |
|
| Based on | Rugrats by Arlene Klasky Gabor Csupo Paul Germain |
| Starring |
|
| Music by | Mark Mothersbaugh |
| Edited by |
|
Production companies | Klasky Csupo |
| Distributed by |
|
Release date |
|
Running time | 80 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $24 million |
| Box office | $140.9 million |
The film was the first animated film from Nickelodeon Movies, as well as the first to be based on a Nicktoon. It was originally released in the United States on November 20, 1998. The film grossed $141 million worldwide, making it the first non-Disney animated film to gross over $100 million in the United States, and also making it the highest-grossing animated film based on a television program until the premiere of The Simpsons Movie in 2007.
Screenplay
Didi Pickles is pregnant with a second baby, which everyone believes will be a girl. Didi goes into labor during the baby shower and her friends rush her to the hospital. While this is happening, the kids crawl off and explore a nursery area before being found by the other parents. When the baby is finally born after a montage of past lives, it is actually a boy and they name him Dil.
Dil quickly becomes a very spoiled and mean baby, crying non-stop for attention, keeping all of the toys for himself, and refusing to share with Tommy. After a nasty fight between Tommy and Dil over Tommy's teddy bear, Tommy's father, Stu has a conversation with him about being a big brother and the responsibility he now has, assuring him that one day he will be happy to have Dil as his little brother. He also gives Tommy a locket with a picture of Tommy and Dil taped together and a watch inside, which he calls his "sponsitility" (his term for responsibility).
When Dil pushes the other babies too far, they decide to take him back to the hospital despite Tommy's disapproval, and end up driving recklessly through the streets in a Reptar Wagon which Stu had built for a contest. Along the way, Dil secretly steals Angelica's Cynthia doll, which prompts her to take the family dog, Spike and they embark on a quest to find the babies.
The babies eventually crash in the woods, where they realize that they are lost. They spot a ranger's cabin where they believe a "lizard" (a mispronunciation of wizard) lives, and decide to go there, believing that it can take them home. After an encounter with a gang of runaway circus monkeys, Dil is taken away by them. Tommy vows to find Dil by himself, after Chuckie, Phil and Lil agree they are better off without him.
Meanwhile, the parents find out that the babies are missing and try to find them. However, it becomes a media sensation with numerous news reporters constantly asking the adults questions and intentionally enrages Stu's brother Drew into attacking Stu by telling him he lost Angelica.
Tommy eventually finds Dil during a storm, and are forced to take shelter under a tree. But as Tommy tries to take care of him, Dil selfishly drinks all of the milk and keeps the large blanket for himself, which leads to the blanket tearing in half and Tommy falling into a puddle of mud. Tommy finally snaps and nearly pours banana baby food on Dil for the monkeys to take him away, but Tommy's rage and the storm's lightning and thunder scare Dil so much that he sees the error of his ways. They reconcile and sleep peacefully.
After the storm, the other babies find Tommy and Dil, and after running into Angelica and Spike they make their way to the "lizard". While on a bridge, they are confronted by the monkeys, but are then scared off by a wolf who's been hunting down the babies since they arrived in the woods. Spike intervenes and fights the wolf until they both fall from the bridge. Meanwhile, Stu, who has been looking for the babies via a pterodactyl-like aircraft he made, finally finds them, but crash lands into the ranger's cabin. Believing he is the "lizard," the babies wish for Spike back instead of going home. Stu falls through the bridge and finds Spike, who actually survived the fall. The babies are then reunited with their families, and the monkeys with their circus owners. The monkeys attack Rex Pester, one of the more obnoxious news reporters, much to Betty's amusement. The families return home and the babies accept Dil as one of the group.
In a post-credits scene, Grandpa Pickles is sleeping in the Reptar Wagon when Grandpa Boris' goat kicks it, sending both the wagon and Grandpa down the street, presumably starting another adventure all over again.
- E. G. Daily as Tommy Pickles
- Tara Strong as Dil Pickles
- Christine Cavanaugh as Chuckie Finster
- Kath Soucie as Phil, Lil, and Betty DeVille
- Cheryl Chase as Angelica Pickles
- Joe Alaskey as Grandpa Lou
- Michael Bell as Drew Pickles, Chas Finster and Grandpa Boris
- Melanie Chartoff as Didi Pickles and Grandma Minka
- Tress MacNeille as Charlotte Pickles
- Phil Proctor as Howard DeVille
- Jack Riley as Stu Pickles
- Cree Summer as Susie Carmichael
Guest stars
- Andrea Martin as Aunt Miriam
- Busta Rhymes as Reptar Wagon
- David Spade as Ranger Frank
- Whoopi Goldberg as Ranger Margaret
- Tim Curry as Rex Pester
- Roger Clinton, Jr. as Air Crewman
- Margaret Cho as Lt. Klavin
- Edie McClurg as Nurse
- Charlie Adler as United Express Driver
- Gregg Berger as Circus Television Announcer
- Tony Jay as Dr. Lipschitz
Baby singers
- Lenny Kravitz
- Iggy Pop
- Lisa Loeb
- Gordon Gano
- B-Real
- Fred Schneider
- Patti Smith
- Kate Pierson
- Jakob Dylan
- Phife Dawg
- Beck
- Lou Rawls
- Dawn Robinson
- Laurie Anderson
- Cindy Wilson
The talks about having Rugrats making it onto the big screen existed since the beginning of the series. The first attempt was in 1993, when Nickelodeon made a two-year contract deal with 20th Century Fox to make films based on their properties, one of those films that mentioned was Rugrats, alongside that the others were Doug and The Ren & Stimpy Show, but the contract expired in 1995, with no movies produced (although Doug eventually got a theatrical film from Disney in March 1999). However, after Viacom acquired Paramount Pictures in 1994, the movie was once again under development a year later.
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. Both 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 on June 1, 2002.
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. These two scenes were cut from the theatrical, VHS, DVD, and Laserdisc releases. However, these scenes are shown on CBS and Nickelodeon television airings of the film. These scenes were also present in the print novelization.
The film was released in theaters with a CatDog short titled "Fetch", 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 in CatDog Episode 21. However, the VHS, DVD and Laserdisc release contains a different CatDog short titled "Winslow's Home Videos", in which Winslow shows moments of CatDog's daily lives.
Home video
The Rugrats Movie was released on VHS and DVD on March 30, 1999 by Paramount Pictures, which was reprinted many times. Paramount also released the film on Laserdisc. In 2011, the film was re-released in a three-disc trilogy set alongside its sequels, in honor of Rugrats' twentieth anniversary. The movie has yet to be released on Blu-ray.
Soundtrack
| The Rugrats Movie: Music From the Motion Picture | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by Various Artists | ||||
| Released | November 3, 1998 | |||
| Recorded | 1998 | |||
| Genre | R&B, hip hop, pop | |||
| Length | 41:51 | |||
| Label | Interscope, Nickelodeon | |||
| Rugrats soundtrack chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from The Rugrats Movie: Music From the Motion Picture | ||||
.jpg)
.jpg)
