One of Nickelodeon's original Nicktoons is back. Again.
Rugrats, marking 30 years of the original series this year, returns as a CGI series, officially dropping on Thursday on Paramount+.
Most of the original cast, particularly the voices of the children, are back, with Nancy Cartwright (The Simpsons) as Chuckie Finster, succeeding the late Christine Cavanaugh. Cartwright had initially taken over the part after Cavanaugh retired during the original series' run. Kath Soucie, who voices twins Phil & Lil, has given way to Natalie Morales as the twins' mom, Betty.
Other casting changes involve the adults, with Michael McKean (ex-Breaking Bad, Laverne & Shirley, et al) taking over as Lou.
Paramount+ has this sampler, "Tommy's Ball", on YouTube. Seems mean ol' Angelica (Cheryl Chase) doesn't like Tommy's new ball....
Edit, 3/28/24: Paramount+ has pulled Rugrats from YouTube and their own streaming service.
7 comments:
Eh, hard pass for me, I never cared for Rugrats. Based on what I've seen, except for the adult characters being recast and some of them having different occupations than before and this version being animated in CG rather than being hand drawn, this "reboot" is almost identical to the original series. Why make a "new" show that's almost exactly like the previous one? Everything about this reboot screams "We're only doing it for the money!"
Can we stop cynically strip mining the nostalgia of Millenials and instead come up with some original concepts?
The Only Nicktoon that I thought was above average was Rocko's Modern Life, and Joe Murray produced a hour long special/revival for that titled "Static Cling", which was originally supposed to air on Nickelodeon, but ended up airing on Netflix in 2019, so I'm good with old-school Nick.
Nick is doing this for the same reason they keep pumping out all of these SpongeBob Squarepants spinoff shows and movies and why we got Rise of the TMNT so soon although fans were still recovering from their grief over losing the 2012 version: even though the brand is a little shopworn by now, its' their property and cash cow, so they have to keep reviving stuff in order to keep the gravy chain a-chuggin'.
In order to franchises to flourish, they need to stay relevant, i.e., remain in the public eye, and the only way that happens is when there's new material continuing to manifest. There's a reason why decades later people still remember the Looney Tunes, Mickey Mouse and the Gang, Scooby-Doo, The Flintstones and the Ninja Turtles but no one outside of cartoon historians remember The Little King, Alley Oop, Moon Mullins and Smokey Stover. The latter group didn't last because they weren't constantly getting revivals nor did they have big corporations behind them constantly putting out new shows, spinoffs, movies, specials, stage shows, toys, clothing, fruit snacks and flammable children's sleepwear. Kids grow up watching this stuff, then when they become adults, they remember this stuff fondly, so they get jobs in the entertainment industry so can make new adaptations of the stuff the grew up loving, which feeds the cash cow and introduces the thing to a new generation of kids and the cycle begins anew.
Is it cynical? Maybe a little, but that's the nature of the beast. Producers need to create baby geeks otherwise franchises just die off.
Alley Oop disappeared from TV screens after NBC cancelled "Fabulous Funnies", although the strip itself might still be around. Snokey Stover & Moon Mullins have almost certainly bitten the dust. The Little King was last seen in an ABC Saturday Superstar Movie (Popeye Meets The Man Who Hated Laughter), but to your point, yeah, King Features and Tribune didn't exactly get behind these guys.
TMNT, remember, isn't 100% Nick property, just licensed to them. They're still making TMNT comics (presently published by IDW).
I'm surprised that Disney didn't buy Nickelodeon.
Why would they?
Because Doug got bought by Disney?
Separate deal, back in 1996. In truth, Doug's creator, Jim Jinkins, moved his production company, Jumbo Pictures, to Disney, as he developed other series for them besides rebooting Doug.
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