Will Tommy be a hideous abomination in the new movie?
Earlier today, news broke that Paramount is developing Rugrats as a live-action/CG hybrid feature in the vein of Disney’s live-action reimaginings or the 2000s Garfield films. Almost immediately, social media let out a collective grown, as some millennials wondered why their beloved childhood show was going to be ruined while others simply asked the obvious question: who asked for this? While it might not be totally fair to assume any live-action remake is going to automatically “ruin” the source material, both of those questions are understandable knee-jerk responses. One we would add, which kind of covers both, is: Do we really need a live-action version of Rugrats?
For the uninitiated, Rugrats was an animated sitcom that debuted on Nickelodeon in 1991. It centered on a group of babies who lived and played in the same neighborhood, and who communicated with each other via baby talk that was translated to the audience. They got into all kinds of adventures and shenanigans, dealt with issues that young children deal with, and supported each other through tough times. It was almost immediately a hit, and ran for almost 200 episodes, making it Nickelodeon’s longest-running cartoon for years (only surpassed by SpongeBob SquarePants and The Fairly OddParents).
The original series ended in 2004, but it got revived on Paramount+ in 2021. In the intervening years, Nick made two spinoff series — Rugrats: All Grown Up!, which followed the characters ten years later and aired from 2003 until 2008, and Rugrats: Pre-School Daze, which ran briefly in 2008. In addition to the shows, there were video games, comics, TV specials, direct-to-video and theatrical movies. Rugrats was a huge deal, and continues to be beloved.
That is, of course, the real answer to why Nickelodeon/Paramount wants to make a live-action series: they’re hoping to ensnare millennials who are now parents and might try to watch the new series with their own kids. Creators Arlene Klasky and Gábor Csupó, who have served as producers on each iteration, presumably also see the appeal in continuing their most popular existing intellectual property, rather than working to generate a whole new IP and hoping for the best.
The thing about Rugrats is that…well…it’s…kinda ugly, right?
There was a distinctive look to the original Rugrats, and it undoubtedly has charm. Still, it was intentionally stylized and not nearly as prettied-up as most shows that center on babies would be. The central characters have misshapen heads (particularly series star Tommy Pickles, who pulled off the football head look long before Hey Arnold tried it), and often weird features. One look at the computer-animated series that debuted in 2021 and you’ll see that it isn’t easy to make those characters look appealing in 3D.
That means the animators on a live-action/CGI hybrid version of Rugrats might be stuck between a rock and a hard place, with fans upset if you are not true enough to the character designs…and fans upset if you are too true to the character designs and come away with 3D models that are nightmare fuel.
The CG-animated series that launched in 2021 raises even more questions: will they try to incorporate those character designs into the new movie, or will they go even more “realistic” and divorce the movie even more from the original design? Either one would be believable, although if they were going to port the 2021 designs over to the live-action movie, it does feel like the announcement would have called that out.
Even those would have been weird next to a live-action actor, but trying to come up with something that’s true to Tommy, Chucky, and company would really break the reality of the movie.
The eccentricities of the Rugrats characters are both inherent to making them recognizable, and virtually impossible to adapt directly without some serious issues. Of course, what we have seen recently is that not everything needs to be “adapted directly.” Barbie brought the property to life in a fascinating way that made things more interesting than they would have been if someone tried to be slavishly devoted to some kind of traditional canon. The upcoming Minecraft movie looks like it’s taking the same path. Of course, for every one of these, you get a Harold and the Purple Crayon, but the less said about that, the better.
There is a lot stacked up against any live-action adaptation of Rugrats, and — much like The Fairy OddParents — it seems like doing one would have fairly limited upside. Still, it’s hard to totally dismiss the idea in a post-Barbie world. The idea seems doomed to be an ugly, confusing failure…but if it isn’t, and it’s even kind of good, that feels like a huge win for Paramount and Nick.