YMMV / The Rugrats Movie

• Accidental Aesop:
  • Lock up any experimental toys, especially when you have toddlers in the house. Kids will get into anything, so you need to be prepared for them to poke fingers where it's dangerous. Even if Grandpa Lou had fallen asleep, Stu could have avoided the whole plot if the Reptar Wagon had a childproof wheel lock on it.
  • Material things aren't worth your life. Tommy and Dil nearly come to a breaking point when Dil deliberately antagonizes Tommy about stealing the things in the diaper bag, while Angelica gets lost in the woods with Spike while looking for her doll. If Angelica had kept a clear head and let the adults search for her cousins, she would have avoided a lot of trouble while getting her doll back in the same amount of time.
• Alternate Aesop Interpretation: One could point to the parents learning An Aesop about not neglecting their children. Stu and Didi were so overwhelmed in taking care of Dil that they ignored and neglected Tommy — who is of course only one and wouldn't realize they simply didn't have as much time as before. This led to him growing resentful of Dil for taking his attention away.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Is Ranger Frank Drinking on Duty? Perhaps that would explain his excessive freak-out at seeing a dragon.
  • Given the events of Rugrats Go Wild! confirming Rugrats is the same universe as The Wild Thornberrys, the animals are therefore confirmed to be sapient. In the matter of Scar Snout the Wolf, his being sapient indicates that a very likely way of interpreting his character is that of a sadistic Serial Killer who knows he's targeting human babies for nothing but his own pleasure. If not that, then as a desperate, hungry animal who just can't help but see the babies as quick, easy prey and just a regular animal hunting normally. The former is more clearly apparent though due to the demeanor Scar Snout displays throughout his scenes mostly being hostile and predatory along with what looks like a gleeful disposition down to him also looking like he's cackling as he is nearly upon them.
  • Did Angelica's shouting really cause Didi to go into labour? Or, seeing as Tommy was also a preemie, is she just more likely to give birth early?
• Awesome Music:
  • "Take Me There" by Blackstreet and Mýa (featuring a rap verse from Mase and Blinky Blink), the first song that plays during the ending credits. It reached #14 on the Billboard Hot 100, and an even higher peak of #10 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts and became a platinum single. And it was written specifically for the film.
  • "I Throw My Toys Around" by No Doubt and Elvis Costello, probably the greatest song written specifically for a Nickelodeon feature ever. It is also big among fans of the two performers.
  • "On Your Marks, Get Set, Ready Go" by Busta Rhymes for its quick-pacing and its perfect use in the scene involving the rampage of the Reptar Wagon.
  • The Monkeys' rendition of "Witch Doctor" that plays when they first meet the babies. Helps that the song is performed by Devo who of course are associated with show composer Mark Mothersbaugh.
  • When the babies are reunited with their parents, an orchestral reprise of the theme song plays. Better yet is that they got Mark Mothersbaugh, composer for the show, to do the film score.
  • "A Baby is a Gift from a Bob". Angelica and Susie's duet at the baby shower - where Angelica contradicts everything nice Susie sings about babies - is wickedly entertaining.
  • "Dil-a-Bye" and "Dull-a-Bye" with one highlighting Stu and Didi's love for Dil as their baby and the other displaying Tommy's love for Dil as his brother.
  • "This World is Something New to Me" is a definite bop given the creative perspectives of the newborns mixed with the adult humor.
  • Angelica's version of "One Way or Another" by Blondie (original also briefly in the movie) is probably how many young kids were first introduced to that song, to begin with.
  • "Take the Train" by Rakim and Danny Saber slaps. HARD. It's one that can definitely "take it to the maximum".
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • "This World is Something New to Me", a musical number in which several babies in the nursery suddenly start to sing about having just been born, and then proceed to pee into the air. It also creates a Plot Hole in how Dil can't talk in full sentences even when all these other newborns could.
  • When Dil is born, we suddenly see a bizarre CG montage of the planets, then the history of the Earth, and then Stonehenge.
  • The Lipshitz musical number that's only in the TV broadcasts could count as well, though it does perfectly illustrate Didi and Stu's stress while raising the newborn Dil.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • Both Scar Snout fell off the bridge after he struggled with Spike and the reveal shortly after that Spike survived.
  • Stu finding the babies via aerial search, just as they break down over seeing Spike plummet into the water. While things may look grim now, at least a beloved grown-up has finally found them.
  • The other adults arriving and being reunited with all their babies is also a very emotional moment.
• Critical Dissonance: The movie received mixed reviews from critics (a just barely "Rotten" 59% on Rotten Tomatoes out of 51 reviews, and a 62/100 “generally favorable” on Metacritic), with most of the negative ones either dismissing the film as being slow-paced and childish or claiming that the film would work better as a Made-for-TV Movie. However, it opened at #1 at the box office, earning $27.3 million that weekend, and became the first non-Disney animated movie to gross over $100 million in the United States, making a total of $140.9 million worldwide, nearly six times its modest $24 million budget, and is fondly remembered by 90's kids to this day. Of course, it also helped that the series was still very popular at that point (However, this was one year before SpongeBob SquarePants came along to slowly but surely steal the show's thunder).
• Crosses the Line Twice: Didi alleges that Grandpa Lou "slept through Pearl Harbor" and only gets "I sounded the alarm as soon as I could" in response. Apparently, the terrorist attack that brought America into World War II could have been avoided if Lou hadn't fallen asleep.
• Do Not Do This Cool Thing: Minka criticizes the hospital for the 'Trainee Aquatic Emergency Room' — where a woman is giving birth underwater, complete with a wet suit and scuba gear. It does look quite cool, although probably not much fun for the woman giving birth.
• Fan Nickname: Fans have taken to calling the wolf Scar Snout.
• Genius Bonus: Boris (Didi's father) giving the babies chocolate coins is part of a Jewish tradition, although this usually occurs on Hanukkah (hence the name "Hanukkah Gelt").
• He Really Can Act
  • Elizabeth Daily as Tommy. When Tommy delivers to Dil a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, it genuinely sounds like Daily is actually angry, and it manages to be highly emotionally grueling, and in more than one way.
  • How good was Tara Strong's performance as Dil? Her impression of a baby crying was so articular that it caused a new mother in the recording studio to start lactating! It earned her the role.
• Hilarious in Hindsight
  • Tim Curry voices the horrible reporter Rex Pester. Curry also voices Nigel Thornberry, and would join the Rugrats in the crossover film Rugrats Go Wild!. What's more is that Rex is indifferent to the children, while Nigel gets left alone with them and cares for them.
  • Chuckie's ending narration says that things didn't go back to the way they were before because "thanks to baby Dil, they was even better!" The following seasons with Dil in the main cast were seen by many to be the start of the show's Seasonal Rot (though the larger consensus is that it didn't completely jump in quality until after the Even Better Sequel.)
  • Angelica is watching a kid's show called 'Shirley Lock Holmes', apparently with a little girl version of Sherlock Holmes. Come The New '10s, a female Sherlock is canon.
  • This wouldn't be the last movie scored by Mark Mothersbaugh to have a climax where one of the main characters fights a wolf on a bridge while protecting some people on the said bridge.
• Informed Wrongness: Chuckie chewing Tommy out for not saving him when he fell out of the Reptar Wagon into the stream. Tommy was making sure Dil, his infant brother, didn't fall in. The water was shallow enough for Chuckie to stand in, Dil would not have fared so well.
• Love to Hate: Rex Pester, the annoying reporter. Tim Curry's performance makes him both annoyingly and memorably obnoxious, and why the audience laughs at his suffering later in the film.
• Never Live It Down: Many people consider Tommy practically psychopathic for nearly pouring banana baby food on Dil and leaving him in the rain to be taken by the monkeys, even though he quickly becomes remorseful and embraces Dil when he starts crying. It doesn't help that some people state Tommy wanted to murder Dil, even though it's never even implied the monkeys would kill him to get the food.
• One-Scene Wonder: Susie only appears in the scene singing at the baby shower, but boy is her back-and-forth with Angelica memorable!
• Squick:
  • The "Pee Fountain" scene in the This World Is Something New To Me number. Ugh.
  • The sound effect when Dil poops his diaper.
• Tear Dryer: When Tommy has had enough of Dil's brattiness, he gives Dil a massive "The Reason You Suck" Speech for all that he's put him through and he very nearly pours mashed bananas on him so that the circus monkeys will take him away. Dil begins to shed Tears of Fear, and after Tommy looks into his reflection in a puddle, he is horrified with himself. He then holds Dil close to himself and apologizes before taking him under the tree away from the rain.
• The Woobie: Tommy, when he thinks that he is being neglected by his parents.

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