I watched a lot of episodes of Rugrats as a child but not once did I say, “Hey, you know what would make this show better? If it were live-action and the babies were computer-generated!” And maybe that is why I’m not an executive at Nickelodeon.
That’s the approach that Nickelodeon and Paramount are still taking for their upcoming Rugrats film. We’ve known about the movie for awhile but it now has a director (David Bowers of Diary of a Wimpy Kid fame) which means it’s time to once again remind you how fucking traumatic this film could end up being. Buried in the THR piece about Bowers’s hiring is the reminder that Tommy, Chucky and the other babies in the movie will be “CG creations”. So we will presumably have live-action locations and adults and then a bunch of animated babies wandering around. This feels like something that Congress should outlaw.
I’m just very, very confused. Will the babies look like real children (similar to the realistic-looking lions in Disney’s upcoming The Lion King) or will they resemble their 90s animated characters? Imagine a real, flesh-and-blood actor carrying around an animated, monster-headed baby who looks just like Tommy from the cartoon. Those bulbous eyes, those few strands of hair, the size of his freakish head...
I’m sorry, I think I need a shot of something.
It’s fascinating to watch Nickelodeon and Paramount attempt to revive Rugrats so many years after its conclusion. One wonders if the newly announced series and this monstrosity of a movie will be successful. It’ll definitely bring in a few curious Millennials like yours truly but will it appeal to modern day kids and tweens? Do kids these days (ugh, I’m old) even know about Rugrats? Do they remember Angelica and her creepy little doll? Have they even listened to the surprisingly good soundtrack from the first film?
My one hope is that the CG babies of Rugrats will look like Tom Cruise, Jr of On Cinema at the Cinema. If you don’t know what I’m talking about please watch the entire clip below and enjoy.