Review of Rugrats in Paris: The Movie (2000) by Catherine S — 17 Mar 2013

Putting my nostalgia aside for this review, Rugrats in Paris is while a better movie than its predecessor, it's still a weak film with a predictable plot, a villain that's uninteresting and too obvious, and jokes about as flat as a pancake.

Following the same path as the first film in working on character development (the first film focused on Tommy Pickles' getting a new brother), this film focuses on developing the character of Chuckie Finster, Tommy's friend. As noted in the show, Chuckie's mother died when he was very young from some unknown cause and after a "mom-kid" dance at a wedding, he feels very lonely and longs for a mother. Meanwhile in France, Stu Pickles' boss Coco La Bouche, call for Stu, his family, and his friends to come to France to fix the broken Robo-Reptar. After learning of a prospective promotion if she were to be married and have a child, she seeks the love of Chaz Finster, Chuckie's father. All the while, Chuckie is trying to get the (fictional) Japanese princess as his new mother.

The plot only gets more confusing after that, with way too much going on to actually comprehend what's going on. What's worse, some how, it's too predictable. But then again, I'm not the target demographic. How about the character development? I appreciate that the writers decide to tackle the rather difficult concept losing a parent at a young age, and the challenges of the surviving parent remarrying someone possibly the kid doesn't agree with. I like the attempt, but it feels a little odd that Rugrats is trying to tackle this. I know they've taken on other life lessons, but nothing this big. It would've worked if they took it a little more seriously. When a serious scene is denoted by yet another poop or fart joke, the meaning gets muddled and you piss off the audience. The music is uneven, with one song being decent and the others being untolerable. The villain is as one dimensional as a piece of cardboard, which doesn't lend credibility to Chuckie's father, and at times makes him look like a terrible parent by making him so cluelessly in love. I know they're trying to take the idea of balancing a single parent's priorities between a new love and their kid's more digestable for the kiddies, but they really stumbled in that attempt. And again, the jokes are juvenile at best, and the cultural references to the Godzilla films will be lost on its target demographic.

I guess if you have a kid that's under the age of nine and is a huge fan of Rugrats they'll enjoy it, much better than the terrible first film. But if you're above the age of 10 (or you don't find potty humor funny), you'll find little to enjoy in this film. Skip it unless you have really little kids who enjoy this sort of low brow humor. (Real Rating: 41%).