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'Rugrats' 30th Anniversary: Why The Classic Cartoon Still Holds Up Today

The series has stood the test of time.

By Kristy AndersonPublished 3 years ago 5 min read
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Credit: Nickelodeon.

August 11, 2021 marks the 3oth anniversary of the premiere of Rugrats, one of the most beloved of Nickelodeon's specially branded cartoons, dubbed 'Nicktoons'. Clocking in at nine seasons with 172 episodes, an impressive feat for an animated series, Rugrats is currently the second longest running Nicktoon, coming in second only to Spongebob Squarepants.

The series also spawned three theatrical films, two spin-offs, and recently, a CGI animated reboot series. While the reboot is suitable for introducing the Rugrats to a new generation, the original series was quite ahead of its time, and well worth revisiting.

Here's why Rugrats still holds up today.

Diverse Holiday Specials

Overthe course of its thirteen year, nine season run, Rugrats produced five holiday specials. However, quite unusually, only two of these specials were Christmas specials. Tommy Pickles was revealed to be half Jewish on his Mother, Didi's side. For many non-Jewish children, the Rugrats 'Passover' and 'Hannukah' specials were their first introduction to the existence of these holidays.

The specials were highly praised for their fun portrayal of the stories behind each holiday, and also earned high ratings. The success of the specials contributed to the decision to end an extended hiatus on new Rugrats episodes, eventually leading to the production of the first Rugrats movie.

Much to the delight of Jewish families, Tommy's Jewishness was never forgotten or phased out. In the spin-off series All Grown Up!, Tommy attends Hebrew School.

In it's seventh season, 'A Rugrats Kwanzaa' was aired, introducing children to another underrepresented Holiday through a special focusing on Susie Carmichael and her family celebrating Kwanzaa with a visiting relative. Cree Summer earned an NAACP Image Award for her work as Susie in the special.

Today, all three specials are still held up as a fun way to introduce the traditions of other cultures to young children.

The Series tackled the subject of death in a sensitive, age-appropriate way.

For the first few seasons of Rugrats, the absence of Chuckie Finster's Mother was never spoken of. She was mentioned a few times in passing, but never seen. While the series writers toyed with the idea of Chuckie's Father being divorced, they eventually came to the conclusion that Chuckie's Mother had died. However, it was not until the series fourth season that Nickelodeon allowed the writers to deal with the topic in an episode.

The resulting special, 'Mother's Day', leads up to a discussion between Chas and Chuckie about Chuckie's Mother. The subject is handled sensitively, and while the word 'death' is never used, it is made clear what has happened in a way that Chuckie, aged two, at least mostly understands. The special was also praised for normalising breastfeeding, in a flashback seen portraying Betty Deville breastfeeding Phil and Lil. 'Mother's Day' continues to be praised in retrospective reviews, and still brings a tear to the eye on rewatches.

The death of Melinda Finster had a lasting effect on the show, later opening the door for a 'blended family' storyline with the introduction of Chuckie's Stepmother, Kira, and her daughter Kimi. This was relatively rare for cartoons at the time.

Rugrats said 'No' to stereotypes

Ever since her first appearance in season two of Rugrats, Susie Carmichael was held up as a positive role-model for African-American children. Where Angelica was a bully to the babies, Susie, in contrast, acts as a mentor, helping and guiding her young friends when she can, most notably in the episode 'The Slide', where she helps Chuckie get over his fears.. While Angelica lies to the babies without a second thought, Susie will always tell them the truth, at least as muchas she knows.

Susie's family have also been praised for going against stereotype. Her parents are both sucessful and present in their children's lives, and one of her brothers, Edwin, appears to be a child prodigy. Susie Carmichael continues to be praised today as a black icon.

More recently, Rugrats has been praised for how it pushed back against gender stereotypes of the time. Both Tommy's Mother, Didi, and Angelica's Mother, Charlotte, are implied to be the main breadwinners of their households. Angelica's Father, Drew, mostly works from home, and is clearly Angelica's main caretaker.

This reflects the way the world was changing at the time, and remains relevant Today.

The series is worth revisiting as an adult.

Rugrats is worth revisiting as an adult for a number of reasons. There are, of course, a few naughty jokes (We’re looking at you, ‘Lonely Space Vixens’), but it goes far beyond that.

The series includes a number of parodies classic Sci-fi films that likely would have gone right over the heads of the young audience when it first aired. Reptar is an obvious take on Godzilla, but as children, the hilariously accurate parody of Japanese Godzilla films in the two-part episode ‘Runaway Reptar’ went largely unnoticed.

While ‘The Inside Story’, in which the babies undertake a journey to Chuckie’s stomach to retrieve a swallowed watermelon seed, is a popular episode, few children would have realised it was actually a parody of the classic sci-fi film Fantastic Voyage.

Aside from the parodies, there are many plot details in Rugrats, particularly the early seasons, that children would not have noticed. For example, in the episode 'Chuckie Loses His Glasses', Chuckie sees nearly everything around him as monsters when he is left without his glasses.

This suggests that Chuckie's poor eyesight may have contributed to his scaredy-cat personality. Before he got his glasses, the world truly appeared to be a scary place to him.

Tommy Pickles has always been brave, with his bravery being the core aspect of his personality. However, rewatching the series as an adult we are more likely to understand the explanation given for Tommy's bravery. The 'Mother's Day' special includes a flashback in which Didi visits the newborn Tommy in an incubator, implying that Tommy may have been born premature. Tommy Pickles is brave because he was born fighting.

These small but well thought out moments lend a subtle brilliance to the series when rewatching as an adult. Rugrats was made as a series that adults and children could enjoy together, and that remains true today, three decades after the first episode aired.

Happy 30th Anniversary, you Dumb Babies!

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About the Creator

Kristy Anderson

Passionate About all things Entertainment!

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