Two Nicktoons dominated my childhood, Rugrats and SpongeBob SquarePants. And I was still watching cartoons when my classmates were watching MTV. You would think I would be ecstatic to learn that Nickelodeon is rebooting Rugrats, as reported by Deadline and other sites. But you would be wrong.
Rugrats had its time. It was clear the show jumped the proverbial shark when it hit the big screen and introduced Tommy’s brother Dil. Each subsequent feature film further strayed from the show’s premise. The adventure left the babies’ imaginations and took shape in the real world. The second movie had Chuckie piloting a giant Reptar robot around Paris, and the crossover with the Wild Thornberrys had Bruce Willis voicing Spike.
The show had some good episodes after the first movie, but it was clear its best days were behind it. The last great episode was the “All Growed Up” special, and that would have been a perfect ending. Unfortunately, Nick decided a sequel series was in order, failing to realize it lacked the charm of its predecessor.
Given that this reimagined series will involve the same creators and producers, I doubt the reboot will provide good stories when Rugrats was adapting The Wizard of Oz and Cinderella by its latter days. And of the supposed live-action/CGI movie, I’ll just say that sounds like the worst idea ever. The mix of CGI and live action for a Rugrats movie doesn’t make any sense. You could ditch the CGI, but then we already got the Baby Geniuses movies. (FYI: Baby Geniuses has a 2% on Rotten Tomatoes, and Baby Geniuses 2 has an even more impressive 0%.)
Nickelodeon’s claim is now we can share Rugrats with a new generation. But what was wrong with the old show? Why can’t we share that? Sure, some of the humor for the adults is dated (Grandpa Lou calling Dr. Kevorkian), but it’s still accessible. There’s a reason why Stu making chocolate pudding at the middle of the night is a meme. And more importantly, the main storylines focusing on the babies are timeless. Tommy visiting his Grandpa at a nursing home, Tommy and Chuckie visiting the toy store, you name it.
We shouldn’t enter the mindset that just because something isn’t current, that it’s old and outdated. But that’s how these media companies view their properties. There’s no need to remake Jaws or E.T. because they’re not set in the present day. There’s no need to remake Indiana Jones with Chris Pratt or reimagine M*A*S*H in Afghanistan. They’re classics, and besides, watching old media clues us in to how life was back then. Sure, society has changed over the years and that’s reflected in our media. But we shouldn’t ignore the ugly parts of history.
Late last year I reviewed Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie and liked it. But that was a story actually intended for our generation that never got made, and Nick gave the creator the chance to finally finish it. In that sense, this Rugrats reboot is the same. It’s for us, not our children. But that’s missing the point. It’s their childhood. Nick is remaking Rugrats because it’s the safe thing to do, but look when you don’t play it safe. You get new, imaginative properties like Avatar: The Last Airbender and Adventure Time.
TV revivals aren’t going away anytime soon. Rocko’s Modern Life, Animaniacs, and Daria are coming back too. But companies shouldn’t be afraid to take risks either. That’s how new classics are born. People might say they want more episodes of a series now, but if it never stopped and ran for several more seasons, they would be comparing it to The Simpsons and bemoaning how it should have ended years ago. Nothing lasts forever, nor should it.
