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 Movie
is, as the title would infer, the full-length version of the popular children's
cartoon. As is the way with some popular cartoons, even the voices of male
children - well I'm thinking of Bart Simpson here - are voiced by a woman
and that occurs here with the children Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, his sisters
Lil and Betty and new arrival Dil.
Yes, "new arrival". It's the new baby in the household that causes dissent
amongst the kids, because Tommy thinks that he'll be forgotten about - especially
after he learns that the dog used to be his elder brother Paul until he was
left outside for a while when Tommy came along (well, it seemed to make sense
when I watched it!). Hence, he does what he thinks is right and they set off
to 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, taking
in spoofs of films such as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Speed and
Tommy Lee Jones' "go get him" speed in The Fugitive - all of
which will have been put in more to keep the adults amused rather than
their offspring; some dodgy language - eg. "Thank Bob" (God) and
"Everything will be back to Norman" (normal); not to mention the long list
of cameo voices. Tim Curry plays Rex Pester, Busta Rhymes provides
the voice for the kids' toy vehicle Reptar and for the new-born babies in the
hospicle'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 artifacts
and 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-rate
picture quality. The average bitrate is a very high 8.58Mb/s, often going
above 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 occasional
aural treat such as the opener when the mono sound of the TV show erupts to
fill the speakers.
Extras :
Chapters/Trailer :
19 chapters over 77 minutes, which is very welcome and the theatrical trailer
is also included.
Languages/Subtitles :
Dolby Digital 5.1 in English, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Danish and
subtitles for basic English and English for the hearing impaired (ie. for
the 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 to
fit in with the Rugrats theme.
Overall, this is a film that will obviously appeal to kids much more than
adults, but it certainly has enough knowing references to keep adults amused
during the brief running time. The superb picture and sound quality make the
cartoon stand out on a 32" widescreen TV and as one of the first Paramount
titles released I hope they continue to look and sound this good.
Forthcoming titles from Paramount include Drop Zone, Star Trek: Insurrection
and The Truman Show, but I hope some of these contain more extras.
Later this year, look out for Rugrats in Paris: The Movie coming to
a cinema screen near you.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
