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Dom Robinson reviews
Paramount
- Cert:
- Cat.no: PHE 8002
- Running time: 77 minutes
- Year: 1998
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 19 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: 5 languages
- Subtitles: English (and hearing impaired)
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras : Scene index, Theatrical Trailer, “Catdog” Bonus cartoon
Director:
- Norton Virgien and Igor Kovalyov
(The Rugrats Movie)
Producers:
- Arlene Klasky and Gabor Csupo
Screenplay:
- David N. Weiss and David Stem
Music:
- Mark Mothersbaugh
The Rugrats Movieis, as the title would infer, the full-length version of the popular children’scartoon. As is the way with some popular cartoons, even the voices of malechildren – well I’m thinking of Bart Simpson here – are voiced by a womanand that occurs here with the children Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, his sistersLil and Betty and new arrival Dil.
Yes, “new arrival”. It’s the new baby in the household that causes dissentamongst the kids, because Tommy thinks that he’ll be forgotten about – especiallyafter he learns that the dog used to be his elder brother Paul until he wasleft outside for a while when Tommy came along (well, it seemed to make sensewhen I watched it!). Hence, he does what he thinks is right and they set offto return baby Dil to the “hospicle”.
What follows is a riotous action-adventure (well, more so for kids),with a few songs along the way, takingin spoofs of films such as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Speed andTommy Lee Jones’ “go get him” speed in The Fugitive – all ofwhich will have been put in more to keep the adults amused rather thantheir offspring; some dodgy language – eg. “Thank Bob” (God) and”Everything will be back to Norman” (normal); not to mention the long listof cameo voices. Tim Curry plays Rex Pester, Busta Rhymes providesthe voice for the kids’ toy vehicle Reptar and for the new-born babies in thehospicle’s maternity ward: Laurie Anderson, Beck, Iggy Pop, Lenny Kravitz,Lisa Loeb, Lou Rawls, Patti Smith and the B-52’s.
The picture is presented in an anamorphic 1.85:1 ratio with no artifactsand the animation gets the perfect encoding it deserves. Fast, bright, colourful- and a snatch of CGI effects as Dil is born – all serve to provide a first-ratepicture quality. The average bitrate is a very high 8.58Mb/s, often goingabove 9Mb/s.
The sound is good too and presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 for several languages,but is mostly used for dialogue and the musical numbers, plus the occasionalaural treat such as the opener when the mono sound of the TV show erupts tofill the speakers.
Extras : Chapters/Trailer :19 chapters over 77 minutes, which is very welcome and the theatrical traileris also included. Languages/Subtitles :Dolby Digital 5.1 in English, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Danish andsubtitles for basic English and English for the hearing impaired (ie. forthe sound effects too). And there’s more… :A 3-minute Paramount Catdog cartoon serves as a bonus extra. Menu :A static and silent menu system with the usual options and dolled up tofit in with the Rugrats theme.
Overall, this is a film that will obviously appeal to kids much more thanadults, but it certainly has enough knowing references to keep adults amusedduring the brief running time. The superb picture and sound quality make thecartoon stand out on a 32″ widescreen TV and as one of the first Paramounttitles released I hope they continue to look and sound this good.
Forthcoming titles from Paramount include Drop Zone, Star Trek: Insurrectionand The Truman Show, but I hope some of these contain more extras.
Later this year, look out for Rugrats in Paris: The Movie coming toa cinema screen near you.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.