if you're familiar with the channel we're no stranger to talking about the rugrats
specifically the various incarnations of the show like all grown up and preschool days and for the
last couple years we've heard about a revival or reboot of the show in a new fashion that would
see the babies as well babies once more this time however we would see them in a whole new dimension
the third dimension that is of course as a nostalgia driven fan of what they grew up with i
have been very hesitant in my excitement for this show to come out but i like going into things like
this open-minded because no matter what we always have the original and if it turns out great then
that just means we have another great iteration of the series to enjoy the original show was hugely
impactful to me while growing up especially with how it introduced things in cartoons not seen
before at the time whether it was showing us other celebrated holidays aside from just christmas
or the way it would teach certain life lessons and morals it allowed that childhood wonderment
of adventure to never fully leave me even when i became an adult so now as an adult
it's time to take a look at the five episodes that paramount plus has released for the 2021
reboot of the rugrats and find out if it can capture those same or even similar feelings
the original show elicits so if you enjoy the video and the fact that i waited up until 2am
when the episodes dropped to watch all of them then drop a like on the video as it truly helps
the video out and i'd very much appreciate it to start off the show is a full-on reboot like
to the point where dill isn't born yet and kimmy isn't chucky's stepsister yet it's the
original cast of babies with susie and angelica all with their original voice actors and aside
from better audio recording equipment for a crisper experience they sound the exact same
which is a huge plus in enjoying seeing these characters again unfortunately the same can't
be said for the parents they all have new voice actors with drastically different sounding voices
which is something that can be looked past if it weren't for the fact that they all sound off
a little too off they all sound a little too over exaggerated playing into their new tropes i do
however like grandpa lou's character as he played more into his hippie-esque nature his character
in general is probably my favorite character in the show as of right now as far as all the
other adults there are some standout distinctly ear displeasing vocal inflections that tend to
get a bit too annoying you know what still when you're right you're right like chucky's dad chaz
and both tommy's parents dede and stew and more so dede than stu oh that is so sweet and this isn't a
rag on the voice actors though of course more so towards the direction they were told to go with
the characters given oh and for some reason phil little's father howard from the original show is
nowhere to be seen but there are some implications as to maybe why and we might find out at a later
time the new intro to the show is nice it pays homage to the original while still having its
own personality which is great to see and of course the title cards haven't lost their charm
it's still always fun to hear this
original sound but at least with the new one they're integrating rugrats sounds that we've
already known and heard before so you still get that instant attachment and smile on your face
when you hear it i also want to right off the bat mention the animation as it'll be obviously the
first thing you notice unlike my thoughts on the less expressiveness and more stiff animation that
camp coral provided us here you can tell a lot of work was done to maintain the look and feel of the
rugrats the characters look great and have plenty of expressive qualities that i wasn't expecting
to be this impressed by from how the characters walk and how much their faces emote when speaking
is truly a testament to the hard work of the animators who deserve all the credit for this but
okay let's get into what the show offers the first episode begins with a fun jurassic park parody and
that's not fair for me because that's my favorite film of all time that's already trying to win me
over this episode re-establishes us into the world of the rugrats showing that it takes place in
modern times from smartphones to gen z references and anything else that you would consider nowadays
modern and some things feel natural like of course seeing the smartphones being used but
some other things like the aforementioned gen z taking photos of themselves getting coffee
to post on social media particularly stick out like a sore thumb so it could be a bit
eye-roll-inducing because of this but so far it hasn't gone too much over the d-pen with it
one thing the original show was known for was the adventures the babies would embark on and there's
actually two types of different adventures that they would go on if you really look into it so
let's start with the non-fantastical completely irresponsible adventures where the babies would
be poorly supervised to the point where they would end up in crazy dangerous situations like sneaking
out of the house exploring the inner workings of a movie theater and i don't know being kidnapped
the show didn't lose that adventurous trait the first episode the babies sneak away from the care
of grandpa lou and drive a powered toy car through the streets alongside actual cars or tommy almost
again getting accidentally kidnapped so it's safe to say that the unsafe aspects of the baby's
adventures are still intact and the parents are still not the best at the whole parenting thing
the other type of adventures would be more along the lines of imaginative journeys like thinking
they're in a western but really they're at a park playground or or that they're in a spaceship and
it's really just a box full of imagination here we see that as well but now to the effect of being
slightly more fleshed out due to the 3d animation space like with the opening jurassic park scene
or them being superheroes like was teased in the trailer to a future episode and i'm sure plenty
more to come within the series with what this technology can do now and like i said earlier the
incredible animators they are able to accomplish a more atmospheric adventure now that doesn't mean
they're better than the original adventures some here are hits and some here are misses as well
it's really down to the storytelling aspect of the adventure being told and how any lessons or
morals are conveyed the original show also had quite the amount of trippy bizarre and downright
terrifying visuals it really was a staple of the rugrats experience and i'm happy to say albeit
not to the same frequency of the original the new rugrats keeps those visual traditions alive
genuine moments of what am i looking at right now and i am glad that this factor played a part here
we also see the classic character growth where in which a character like chucky for this example in
the first episode learns to be brave and even says to tommy what if tomorrow i be the brave
one and you be the not so brave one even phil and lil have their classic fights but come back
together in the end but similar to the original a lot of these lessons don't stick to the next
episode but that's also really not the fault of the new show if it's following the formula given
from the original and also their babies so it really doesn't even matter anyway more traits
here get fleshed out compared to how they were represented or alluded to in the original like
the dichotomy of stu and drew one being the creative fun-loving inventor still living a
very modest lifestyle for what they can afford and the other living in a much larger and fancier home
but with less of the more fun and open life in favor of one more clean cut and stricter
charlotte this time around is more interesting than just the non-attentive business woman she
tries to be more open here with the people in her life and be more willing to be involved in other
situations but of course still has business to attend to and jonathan's back so that's an extra
point right there with dede and stew we still see them both clinging on to their hobbies dede is no
longer just the obsessive mothering type living to the code of a baby guru and now has a whole
craft room converted from a shed in the backyard as well as her own baby blog and while stu is
still a crazy inventor he now has a crazy video game addiction it was an interesting direction to
flesh out the parental characters more as they've always been integral to the show but now it feels
like their stories within the episodes feel more important and don't just revolve around the babies
it's truly strange to see so many new changes that actually work without having to change the rugrats
entirely like with all grown up the stories involving the characters work to a much greater
effect as the babies are now pre-teens and can communicate with the adults where now all their
stories can collide so i found myself here just as invested into what the parents had going on
as i did the babies and their adventures i think the one larger problem with the show in general is
finding a reason why it exists and let me explain what i mean by that while some of the stories and
adventures are unique and new it's still a lot of the old redoing scenarios we've already seen
in the original or at least similar enough where the originality this show can have is lost in the
fact of well i've seen it before it's totally fine to retread old territories for the show since it's
also introducing it to a new generation but it lacks that big oomph of excitement for returning
viewers it just hasn't found its own true voice yet which again is fine but i would love to see
it do so as the show progresses all in all the new 2021 reboot of the rugrats is a better example of
a show coming back that can maintain the essence of the original and keep the important factors
that made it special to begin with it still has its fair share of problems that aren't so
easily overlooked not just for people like me who grew up with the rugrats but for newcomers to the
show as well but the thing that shows the most is that there clearly are people who truly love
the rugrats working on this new version of it from the references and homages to the show's roots the
small details scattered around the backgrounds the effort and attention to detail didn't go unnoticed
and it was truly appreciated and while at the end of the day i will always favor the original
show due to my attachment to it what the new show has offered is surprisingly not too bad it's also
too early to fully make a hard statement condemning this show either to being good or bad
there is still a full season's worth of episodes to eventually be released over the next year and
i look forward to discussing this show further on the channel when more episodes do come out
so if you enjoyed hearing my thoughts on the show so far and want to hear them further when there
is more to talk about make sure to drop a like on the video and subscribe i mean this whole channel
is powered by nostalgia so if you're into all that in general i would love to have you here
thank you so much for watching and let me know down in the comments below are you excited for
this to finally come out are you watching it what do you think about it do you like
it do you not like it let's discuss all of that in the comment section down below
i'll be back with another video here in a couple days so until then later