There were plenty of cartoons kids would wake up and binge watch on the weekend, a bowl of cereal placed lopsidedly on their laps. If you were a smart kid one of those shows was RUGRATS on Nickelodeon. The show about several adventurous babies was a massive hit in the 90s – and like everything that was big in the 90s – the show is being revived for a whole new slate of episodes and one live-action feature film.
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The news is (via Deadline) that Nickelodeon will be bringing back the beloved cartoon for a 26-episode run on the network, with the movie coming via Paramount Players. Both the show and movie will see the return of all your favorite characters, like Tommy Pickles, Chuckie Finster, Angelica Pickles, Phil and Lil DeVille, and more with a “whole new world” being introduced. The original show debuted in August 1991 and ran for nine seasons, 13 years and 172 episodes, ending August 2004.
The movie will be written by David A. Goodman (FAMILY GUY, several Star Trek TV series) and is being slated for November 13, 2020. The movie will be live-action and feature CGI characters, making it the the fourth movie to come out of the series. The first film came out in 1998 and made $100 million domestically, with two sequels following in 2000 and 2003.
“Rugrats is hands-down one of the most celebrated cartoons in TV history, and we are thrilled for a whole new audience to meet these iconic characters in brand-new adventures,” said Sarah Levy, COO, Viacom Media Networks and Interim President of Nickelodeon. “What was true in 1991 when the original show premiered is still true today: kids are fascinated with the world of babies. We can’t wait for today’s kids to meet Tommy, Chuckie and pals.”
Rugrats is just one show Nickelodeon is relaunching, with the network planning the revivals of ROCKO’S MODERN LIFE, BLUE’S CLUES and INVADER ZIM, all for the sake of getting more people in their 30s to buy sugar cereal. Another network owned by Viacom, MTV, is also reaching into the well of nostalgia by reviving several of their old shows, including DARIA.
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So what do you all think? Some of you may be a little too old to have ever enjoyed the show, but I was right at that age to enjoy it a few years after it started. I also remember seeing the first two movies in theaters when they came out, so I can say the show had a big place in my early years. As a grown “man” I can’t say I’ll watch a new run of shows with the same enthusiasm, but I may pop in and check it out nonetheless. That movie though, combining what I assume will be CGI infants against a live-action background, sounds…haunting.