Headscratchers / The Rugrats Movie

• When Spike first encounters the Wolf when he's with Angelica he's shown to be terrified of him and doesn't even fight him instead just pulls Angelica outta harm's way but near the end when the wolf is about to attack Angelica and the babies Spike suddenly shows no fear and fights him. Why didn't he fight him the first time?
  • Because animals, and people, don't work like that. To a dog like Spike, he knows the Wolf is a threat, and fighting him is a massive risk of death for him, and then what can the babies do? Spike's instincts tell him to run first, and in his case, bring Angelica with him, since that's the smart thing to do in the wild, and they had a better chance to get away. When the Wolf attacks the second time, he's charging right at the babies, which means the only thing Spike can do to protect them is fight, which means even if he's afraid, that's what he'll do. A fight-or-flight response is basically "what is the better option to handle a threat" and Spike took two different routes for each situation.
• This one is pretty subtle and picky, but at the part with Tommy and the babies' encounter with the "Lizard," Angelica joins them in saying "The Lizard!" in unison. However, Angelica wasn't with the babies for the majority of the movie, and never discussed the Lizard with them. She says it and also seems to act as if she had known about it the whole time.
  • Well, it occurs to me — wasn't it ACTUALLY a giant Lizard?
    • Angelica is a mind-reader. She thought Dactar looked like a lizard. The screenwriter forgot. Take your pick.
  • Pterosaurs (like Dactar) aren't lizards. However, in that situation, he probably looked like a wizard, which is what the babies actually meant (crest resembling a pointed hat, wings resembling sleeves on a robe, etc.).
  • Angelica may have meant "wizard" since he looked like a wizard, she just mispronounced it the same way as the babies do.

• That the deleted scenes aren't even on the DVD of the movie, but they're on TV broadcasts.
  • That once confuses me too. Maybe since the Rugrats 20th anniversary is this year, and they were so loved by Nick, maybe they're rereleasing the movie.
    • They did it in a 3-pack with the other movies, but it's still the same DVD as the 1999 release. Because the format was still new at the time, there weren't any incredible features; just the CatDog short included on the tape and the theatrical trailer.

• I know this is a show about talking, walking, genius babies, but how could Dil do the many things he's done? It was only two weeks since they left the hospital (if this troper's memory is accurate) and yet he has gained complete control of his body, such as clapping and taking the blanket from under Tommy's body while rolling to the side.
  • This is actually something pretty common in shows when a baby is born. More often than not, the baby will be fully mobile before he's/she's even a month old.
  • Doesn't answer the question, but it was four weeks. He is at least a month old.
• One thing confused me: When Stu & Grandpa go to the airport control tower and check to see if the kids are on the plane where the crate is, but find out the goat is there instead. This makes no sense. There is no possible way the goat would've made it onto the plane, as x-ray scanners at Airport security would've detected it. How did the goat make it onto the plane? Could someone please answer that?
  • Goats are allowed on planes, at least in the cargo hold.
  • True, but it gets even more compounded by the fact that the goat wasn't even supposed to be there, considering he was shipped by mistake instead of the Reptar Wagon. So how the heck did the goat get past airport security?
• This question could probably apply to the whole series, but...HOW are the babies never taken away by social services?
  • Because then the babies wouldn't be able to wander off on their own adventures.
  • From the adults' perspective, this is the first time this had happened. On the show, nobody ever found out about the babies' adventures.
  • Social services aren't some demonic child-snatching organization. They're there to intervene in situations where children are being mistreated, neglected, or abused. What we have here is a freak accident where the children wandered off when the adults weren't looking - Stu and Lou were still in the house at the time. And when the parents found they were missing, they did the responsible thing and got the police involved - not to mention going out on a search themselves. And in the show, even if the babies occasionally wander off when the adults aren't looking, they're never harmed, they're always well fed and cared for and never abused by the adults.

• Didi is pregnant with Dil (who's a boy), but she and almost everyone else (Charlotte Pickles is the exception) think she's having a girl. What made them determine the sex of Dil like that? Did they get a botched ultrasound? Did they use an "old country" method (look here for some examples)? Or did they determine it based on some Wild Mass Guessing that Lipshitz wrote in one of his books?
  • Probably the ultrasound. It happens more often than you'd think. People in my area all have a 'if-the-doctors-were-wrong' name, which was usually only decided upon after they were born.
  • Didi outright says "Dr. Lipschitz says it's a girl", so yes it was a mistake on the doctor's part.
  • To which Betty responds "That idiot thought Phil and Lil were intestinal gas" - so he's not the brightest doctor.
• Dil can't talk, yet somehow in the movie in which he's born, a whole bunch of other newborn babies at the exact same hospital perform a song and dance number.
  • So maybe babies can only talk to others of their own age?
  • It's for the same reason that the main babies can understand each other, but the adults can't understand them. It's easier for them to communicate with people who are closer to their own age.
  • Actually, Dil can talk, just not much. Remember, in the movie he says "mine" while fighting with Tommy, says "my Tommy" at one point, and then once randomly says "pooping" while, well, you know...
  • In All Grown Up!, Dil is established to be a Cloud Cuckoo Lander, so it could just be that he doesn't have anything comprehensible to say.
  • Maybe the song was all in the newborns' imagination?

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