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| Our New Gang: 'The Rugrats' By Michael O'Sullivan Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, November 20, 1998 |  |
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The gaggle of runny-nosed moppets from Nickelodeon's popular animated TV show are not especially cute with their oversized heads, jug ears, bad hair, incomplete sets of teeth and tiny limbs akimbo but they are frighteningly, and somehow endearingly . . . real.
They fight with one another; they scream, pull hair and throw food; they are obsessed with diapers (and what's inside them); but most importantly, they are the funniest bunch of crumb-snatchers to come down the pike since Buckwheat, Alfalfa and the "Our Gang" gang.
In the feature-length "Rugrats Movie" from series creators Arlene Klasky and Gabor Csupo, little Tommy Pickles (the voice of E.G. Daily) is chagrined to discover one day that his wee world is about to be disrupted by the arrival of a new brother.
When Dil short for Dylan Pickles (Tara Charendoff) is born to Stu and Didi (Jack Riley and Melanie Chartoff), the expected sibling rivalry ensues, except that Tommy and his pals take it one step further than Dr. Spock ever envisioned by deciding to take the kid back to the baby store for a refund.
Along with best friend Chuckie Finster (Christine Cavanaugh) and caustic twins Phil and Lil DeVille (Kath Soucie doing double-duty as the Tweedledum and Tweedledee of toddlerdom), Tommy throws Dil into something called the Reptar Wagon (sort of a four-wheel-drive dinosaur-mobile with room for five, concocted by his toy-inventor dad). Before you can say "poopie-head," the munchkin quintet is lost in the woods, tormented not only by a scary wolf but by a troupe of escaped circus monkeys with a taste for Dil's banana puree baby food.
But do not fear, my little ones, older cousin Angelica Pickles (Cheryl Chase) is in hot and I do mean hot pursuit, angered by the fact that Dil has absconded with her beloved Cynthia doll, a beat up Barbie-creature all but bald from years of wear, except for four remaining clumps of straw-like hair. The assembled mommies and daddies of the neighborhood are not far behind.
Although the momentum of the story flags just a bit near the end, there is enough genuine suspense to keep kids interested without scaring them, and the child's-eye view of the proceedings, where the denizens of the grown-up world loom like the trees of the forest, lends a unique verisimilitude to the perspective.
The real subversive joy of "Rugrats," however, lies in its irreverence, a lot of which is intended as much for adults as for today's hip youngsters. David Spade and Whoopi Goldberg lend their distinctive voices in funny cameos as a pair of forest rangers. Mark Mothersbaugh of the 1980s band Devo composed the lively, angular music. And early in the film, when expectant mom Didi is guessing her baby's gender, a friend slyly observes, "You know what they say: Born under Venus, look for a . . . " before she is abruptly cut off. Dizzy, delightful and just a bit deviant, "The Rugrats Movie" blends all the sarcastic sensibility of "The Simpsons" with the old-fashioned silliness of Soupy Sales.
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