It's hard to state to someone how big "Rugrats" was as series unless you were around that time. The 10th anniversary of the series on Nickelodeon was big, they went out doing multiple marathons and events and programming.
They really ramped up the events in summer of 2001, and they started promoting one big event special. The plot of the special is what if the Rugrats characters you know and love were 10 years older? (like Chuckie would be 12) Like what if the characters aged up like if the show went real time? This is something that some fans probably wondered themselves and did their own takes but the show doing it is kind of fun.
Rugrats in history for Nickelodeon was its most popular animated and possibly over all series, though by 2001, SpongeBob was coming in to its own. Rugrats originally ran for 3 seasons between 1991-1994, but had gained love and attention , and viewers to enough to gain two specials then come back for a new season in 1997. They gave it a movie in 1998, where they introduced a new character named Dil. Dil was added to series in the next season. Then it gets a 2nd theatrical movie in 2000, and they give Chuckie a step mom and sister.
The series had gone a long way in 10-years and this is when animated series didn't last 10 years, it wasn't a thing. Shows did 65 to 100 episodes were happy to do that, since that was the way television for kids was, and it makes sense since you do enough episodes where the audience ages out and you have room and budget for new series , and the reruns feel new to the new audience. Rugrats reaching 10 years is big.
Coming from me, I'm a big Rugrats fan, it has managed to stay on top as my favorite Nicktoon series and this special was exciting. Fun fact "All Growed Up" is still Nickelodeon's most watched broadcast. (source)
So let's take a look at this special.
This special was heavily marketed and the main idea was that we get to see Rugrats being 10 years older, walking and talking... uh.... I mean walking and talking as older kids. It starts with a plot device movie the Rugrats are watching, about some guy making a time machine to go to the future. This movie is interesting, they should have made this. Tommy is interested in the movie's plot and wonders what it would be like to go the future. Chuckie (my favorite Rugrat) once again says something that always hits right, this time what if the future is scarier than now? He knows all.
Angelica shows up and wants to torture us , and I mean us with her bad singing. She has the other plot device, her a karaoke machine. (I curse the day Drew and Charlotte got together, curse it) She doesn't want the others to play with it because Angelica. She uses the fact that apparently everyone forgets that she's evil to make it where the other's get blamed for her mess. (I curse the day Drew and Charlotte got together, curse it!)
Having Angelica sing should be considered torture/ Copyright Paramount
Tommy decides to play with Angelica's machine because he's tired of Angelica. He refuses to give it back to her in a power move. This causes our plot to get into action, where the others use a 'time machine' to go to the future. (Good thing Tommy didn't watch a different movie, that'd cause different results)
Now it gets to what the audience came to see, older Rugrats. They did give Tommy hair, the same color as his father's, I wonder what color that is considered in their world? (Tommy didn't have a shaved head, that could have worked too) It shows our favorite characters exiting the same closet they ran into from Angelica to meet older Angelica. They also have Dil having the same hair color as Didi which is also a nice touch.
Me when Angelica says she's going to sing/ Copyright Paramount
The designs of our older Rugrats are fun, Angelica has the same colors she wore as a 3-year-old , Tommy still has his blue in a baseball tee, Chuckie hasn't changed much, his shirt still has Saturn on it, it's just been switched to a button up shirt, he has green pants, and his shoes are still red, there's a nice egg of showing one shoe is untied. Phil has the duck shirt, so does Lil, she also has a bow. Kimi has her same hair style, same colors. Dil had has the same colors as his onesie. This is nice little touch to show that, and yeah it might be how realistically they would dress up in the future, though I think they still would be friends.
They live in the same neighborhood, close in age, it's economics/Copyright Paramount
So there is a plot here, the kids are getting ready to see a Emica concert with the goal of being called on stage to sing with her. There's also Stu who is dressed like disco man, which is kind of fun call back of that one episode where the Rugrats sold all of Stu and Didi's stuff; and that includes a disco suit. (Disco Stu, one could say) He's wearing a lucky zodiac necklace to a disco dance. This will be important too.
I think he's drunk/ Copyright Paramount Plus
Stu wants to win the disco dance contest because there's contest for disco dancing. There's weirdness of seeing the Rugrats characters being older and going to school and stuff. By this time in the series, there kind of was less weirdness and focus on doing odd adventures and more focus on the toddlers misunderstanding of the world in a different way. Some of the plots in the most recent season also had a focus on Chuckie as he was getting used to his new family arrangement, much like the season before that where Tommy and the others were getting used to Dil. There's plots like they think Dil is inside the computer and it's an episode of them messing up a computer. Chuckie loses a library card.. etc.. it's not like like peak early Rugrats.
The main idea of "Rugrats" was that you are seeing these babies/toddlers and how they see the world with their misunderstandings and confusion and fears. The idea of them being older can show that but it's going to be different. Chuckie has a crush on a girl, which is funny enough not the first time they've done a Chuckie as a crush on a girl plot.
Chuckie has a crush on a girl named Samantha Shane who exists for this special. She is also Angelica's friend. The two of them are talking about wearing something retro for the concert (ironic) and Angelia mentions that she's going to wear the same necklace that Emica is wearing, which happens to be the same one Stu is wearing. (You see what's happening)
Chuckie likes the girl on the left, you Angelica-Chuckie shippers are going to have to wait/ Copyright Paramount
Angelica wants Tommy to sneak the necklace for her because of her dumb lie. It is both funny and sad that Angelica has the same personality traits she had as a 3-year-old, BUT (big but) her parents probably haven't changed so.... it factors. They do that with the others like Chuckie's fear of everything has mostly gone into him being fearful of talking to a girl... and still thinking the worst thing will happen in general, which alright. Phil and Lil still have their twin bond, Tommy still seems level headed and leader-ish and still sometimes able to be convinced to do things by Angelica.
Tommy will do anything for this boy. even kill/ Copyright Paramount
Tommy is still Chuckie's best friend and this plays into the plot because Angelica figures out that Chuckie likes Samantha Shane, she uses this information to her advantage to convince Tommy to get the necklace for her. It plays into Tommy's character that he's not doing it for himself but for his friend and Angelica playing into that. Now Tommy does first do the idea of asking his father and well hold on.
We see some of the parents older, funny enough Kira and Howard aren't around and doing it where you Chaz and Betty together, which is something the series did alot later, even Betty convincing Chaz to get into the dating market. Stu talks about his lucky necklace and Tommy knows he can't ask him. Now he's making a dog treat in a fake necklace. Tommy is going to give the real one his Angelica and the fake one with his Dad.
Thanks to Tommy using a dog treat, guess what happens next? (Santa !) The dog also grabs the real one too, because this plan went bad. Tommy gets in trouble but doesn't tell his parents the reason why he wanted the necklace , because he'll take a bullet for Angelica but she wouldn't for him. (That's right we said it) Why is Tommy being grounded being pretended like over the top drama? I'm scared. (Also curse Drew and Charlotte and the day they met)
Because of this Tommy, we are going to have to send you to military school/ Copyright Paramount
We get funny moment of Suzie coming in to babysit Tommy for the grounding. Spike didn't eat the necklace, he buried in the sandbox. The parents have driven away. (rude) The screwdriver scene is kind of nice too. Let's get the neckless to the parents. Samantha figures out Angelica is big liar. (Yes) Tommy forces Angelica to tell the truth, because thankyou. Samantha notices Chuckie and Angelia does something nice and helps Chuckie with her friend. It's sweet.
Angelica and Tommy go to the disco dance to give Stu his necklace. Which gives him the power of disco. Stu and Didi win the contest. Angelica has given her ticket to Suzie and Tommy attempts to give her his ticket but we get another nice moment. Grandpa Lou comes with the clutch and gives Angelica his spare ticket. They get called to the stage too. The song part still makes me tear up a little. Especially because it does a best of the past of the Rugrats and it gets to me.
oooh / Copyright Paramount
It ends with Tommy and Angelica fighting over a microphone and ending up going back to how it started and the babies again. Now I'm confused on what was going on there though.
This special isn't fully great, the gimmick is seeing the Rugrats older, but that doesn't mean it's not good. I think this would have been a great series finale for the show, if not the Rugrats movie or the second one. This was a good send up to the series reaching a milestone many non adult (even then not many at the time) had reached. There is fun in the gimmick if not odd seeing the Rugrats doing a basic preteen plot story about concerts, lying, etc. I do like they kept the spirit of the characters, though you could fight it and say that they way they act when they were babies probably wouldn't be the same as when they would be older.
It does feel like a love letter to the series, and I love that they did that and really shown the world of them with a weird spice to it. It's fun for that and it feels made for Rugrats fans. I haven't watched this special in a while until making this post, and I still have spot for liking it and still gives me to that feeling near the end.
It did so well that Nickelodeon liked the concept and wanted more and thus a spinoff was made, called "All Grown Up" and like I said it still stands as the most watched Nick broadcast.
That's it for now, tune in next time when the Rugrats skip ahead 10 years again to their 20's !
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