If you
don't have kids, you've probably never willingly watched an
episode of Rugrats. (Even if you do have kids, it might
still not have been willingly.) But the good folk at Klasky-Csupo
Productions have always made sure that the show has something
to entertain the adults, usually in the form of pop culture
references that there's no way the kids are going to understand.
But here's something the fanboys can understand: the crossover.
Little
Tommy Pickles, the likeliest hero of Rugrats, idolizes
nature show host Nigel Thornberry, himself a secondary character
in the Klasky-Csupo show The Wild Thornberrys.. As
both shows have taken their shots at big screen stardom, it's
only natural for them to meet in Rugrats Go Wild.
So here's
the newsflash: it's not bad.
You might
be suppressing your gag reflex right now, thinking back to
such halcyon movies as The Care Bears Movie or He-Man
and She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword, "films" which were
really just long TV episodes. Klasky-Csupo has more respect
for its audience than that.
They've
consistently used the extra budget to actually make their
animation better. And they also pay a writer to create something
reasonably intelligent and occasionally clever, with references
to The Poseidon Adventure and the good Planet of
the Apes.
Unfortunately,
they didn't splurge on someone to write particularly memorable
songs, though they somehow felt duty-bound to make this a
musical. After Disney's last two non-musical animation disasters,
perhaps Nickelodeon felt a little nervous. At worst, the songs
are a minor distraction. Unless you believe that Bruce Willis,
voicing Spike the Dog, cannot sing, and that Chrissie Hynde
as a leopard must be rather embarrassed to have a duet with
him.
Because
their main audience is still the under 7 set, yes, the movie
tends to be a little heavy on the moral lesson side, and it's
the same lesson The Thornberrys were supposed to have learned
at the end of their solo film.
But Rugrats
Go Wild has two things worth mentioning, and then I'm
going to stop trying to convince you of its merit.
First,
there's that respect for the audience's intelligence. Late
in the film, there's a scene where Nigel Thornberry really,
truly believes that he's going to die, and it's beautifully
underplayed. Hence, it's an incredibly believable and moving
moment as he shows courage, unwilling to panic the babies
he has found himself stuck with. In fact, it's one of the
most affecting moments in a film I've seen all year.
Second,
Rugrats Go Wild is filmed in Odorama. At various times
throughout the film, the audience gets a cue to scratch and
sniff a card, that they might smell what the movie characters
smell. At first, the strawberry cupcake seems refreshing and
pleasant, if faint in real bouquet. However, the stinky feet
scent is a triumph of olfactory engineering.
I was
more grateful that on my card, at least, the fish smelled
like thin cardboard.
Kids
might drag you to this movie. Don't worry; you might actually
have a good time. For the love of heaven, though, don't smell
the feet.
