It's amazing really how long it took me to get round to seeing this all the way through. I was the generation that grew up with Rugrats, it was iconic. It often annoyed me but I kept watching nonetheless. My brother put in a good word for it as one of the less excruciating kids shows of its era since it is about infants, making all the grossness and stupidness contextually appropriate.
It was never a stupid show though and this is far from a stupid movie. It can be very lavatorial and it does irk me how the infant characters malapropize: (the "hopsicle", the "responsitivie" etc.). But this is just part of the deal and it is admittedly quite justified.
The most obvious aspect of the movie is its fascinating visualization of a world viewed from people one foot high and no frame of reference for anything. Imagery, always compelling.
Storywise it's actually got a a lot of conflict. At first it's the classic Freudian case of a child perceiving the loss of his parents to the younger sibling which then develops into a narrative of the same character trying to meet the duty that is expected of him by his family at the expense of doing right by his pre-established friends.
On a material level it's a formidable tale as well. The show frequently had the kids exploiting the unbelievable negligence of every adult they were entrusted with and wandering off alone. But here they are in the freaking forest. It's high stakes by any standard and the rugrats themselves are well aware of their own mortality. The possibility of just leaving the newborn alone to die is on the table, this picture neither lays it on too thick nor does it sugar coat the hard reality.
Angelica (you know, the evil one) has a good presence in it but thankfully does not dominate it. The adult characters are also very fleshed out with the one brother who dedicated his life to making money and the other who pursued a fulfilling career at the expense of stability. Though it is not a main focus, this and the other foolishness of the grown up pepper this talking infant movie very funnily.
I was glad they included songs but I felt cheated by they being only one original one (that didn't have parody lyrics) as good as it is (Beck is in it).
My main issue with the story is that they are stuck in the forest for most the runtime and they don't make much effort to mix up the imagery: it's just wood wood wood wood wood wood etc.
We do get some rather terrifying encounters with some wild animals (there's monkeys too just you know which are both funny and terrifying) so it's not all bad.
I'm not saying that it isn't rather excruciating and I wouldn't suggest watching it with people but you can tell that the people who made this took it really seriously and genuinely loved the characters they were working with.
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