The 90’s were a fun age of experimentation in the world of animation. Nickelodeon was a go-to
channel for many kids since it was the home of fun characters such as our favorite group of
adventurous and curious babies. But in a world that seems larger than life and being faced with
the challenges of growing up, who comes out as the most good and who is the most evil?
I’m Brad with WickedBinge and this is Rugrats: Good to Evil.
As usual, we'll be starting with the most pure and noble character
and working our way down. These characters are The Good.
Tommy takes the Gold Medal of Good. He was known as the bravest of his group of
friends and encouraged them all to take on new challenges and stay optimistic.
He’s the one to stand up to Angelica before Susie was there to help them,
since the adults are unable to really understand them. He was the only one to refuse to return Dil,
even when he admitted that Dil was a handful. He strived to be a responsible older brother,
even if he didn’t fully understand what that meant.
Kira was introduced as Coco’s assistant in the Paris film, and she stuck around since
then after marrying Chas. She gains a lot of hero points for her actions in the movie,
standing up to the woman that bullied her to help Chas and Chuckie.
She accuses Coco of not even knowing their names, and when she’s thrown from the car,
she holds Chucky’s bear and treats it with a level of affection that tugs at the heartstrings.
She still makes it to the wedding, returning the teddy to Chucky and revealing that she was the
one to really have chemistry with Chas, Coco using all of Kira’s honest responses for her own gain.
She goes on to be a loving mother to both Chucky and Kimi, even seen scooping them up into her
arms as the boat filled with water in Rugrats Go Wild while Chas is seen panicking at the chaos.
Didi is a loving mother, devoted wife and she gets the Bronze Medal of Good. She is usually heard
quoting Lipshitz, the renowned child psychologist, and using his teachings to raise her children
and interact with her students. She supports her husband's sometimes reckless creations and always
approaches everything with optimism. When told to seek out her inner goddess with her friends,
she found it in an unexpected way, calling out the fair’s mistreatment of her. She stood her ground,
claiming she refused to give up identifying as a wife and mother because she loved that part
of her life and proudly declared herself as “not a goddess, a woman.” She was the only one to defend
Stu when he got them stranded after the boat sank and she defended her friendship with Betty
when a so-called “expert” ridiculed them both on the radio. It’s not often she loses her cool
but it says a lot that she knows when to stand up for herself and her loved ones.
Lulu met Lou while working in a hospital. She’s made a living
dedicating her life to help others and is always portrayed as sweet and approachable.
She’s level-headed and inviting, and almost always has a smile on her face.
She blended with the Pickles family with little effort, always rolling with the punches.
Chas was a nervous bureaucrat and caring single father. He’s always open to seeking advice from
his friends about anything from childcare to dating. He hid the truth about his wife
passing from his son, not sure if his son could handle it. When he did open up, it was in a very
heartwarming and sensitive way that made it a little easier for his son to understand.
He was quick to fall for Coco, believing all of her reactions were genuine and seeing her as a
soulmate. Once Chucky burst into the church, crying out for his father and rejecting Coco,
he held his child and called the wedding off, seeing the woman’s true colours.
He fell for Kira afterward, realizing that she was the one that had been telling Coco how to react.
He had no issue accepting Kimi and made an effort to try and learn some of their culture.
Chucky is seen as the most nervous member of his friend group despite being one of the older kids.
He’s frightened of nearly everything, having to typically be convinced of Tommy to follow through
on anything. He’s easily tricked by Angelica and his biggest ambition is to be as brave as
his friend. His screams of fright are well known among viewers. His bolting in yelling “no” at his
father marrying Coco was an emotional scene, since it was the aftermath of him realizing he was once
again tricked by Angelica, fighting with Robosnail Jean-Claude, and having to face Coco once again.
He only wanted a mother who would love him and his father and was brought to tears in confusion
wondering why she hated them so much. He grew to adore Kira and Kimi and in later episodes
came to be more bold and realize his worth.
Susie was not an ally of the babies the whole time, but she was quick to warm
up to them and protect them from Angelica. She’s smart as a whip,
sweet as sugar and was a favourite almost right away. She’s always trusting of the adults,
seeking out the best of each person she met. Even when she was annoyed by Angelica,
she still played games with the young girl and tried hard to be her friend. Like any kid,
she mimicked the people around her, which meant she followed her parents and sibling’s examples.
Many of her games involved recreating what she thought a prom was or voting for a leader.
Spike is a good boy that we couldn’t leave off the list. Being an animal,
he’s led by need and survival. He’s protective of the babies, seeing them almost as his own.
There’s one episode in particular where Tommy is nearly attacked by a neighbor dog when wandering
in another yard and Spike immediately bolts onto the scene to protect the baby.
He can be lazy and gluttonous at times, but always comes through when it matters.
Betty was a known feminist and pillar of their friend group. Always open about her thoughts
and supportive of her loved ones, she was the one elected leader after they were stranded.
She has nothing but love for her husband and children and encouraged Chas to start dating
again and exchanged parenting tips with Didi. She was the one to keep Charlotte
from plummeting overboard to save a cellphone and was the one to not only grab the lifeboat,
but Dil’s binkie. She’s a caregiver and protector to her very core, always making sure
her twins got everything equally and she never showed either to be favoured over the other.
Lou is the fun grandparent to Tommy, Dil and Angelica. He offers his own advice when Didi
and Stu become overly paranoid, insisting they don’t need to rely on a book for every little
concern. He adores his grandchildren and, while he can be stubborn and vocal about his disputes,
tries to instill things such as gratitude and honesty into his grandchildren.
He fell for Lulu because of how she also valued family, telling his son’s no one
would take the place of his first wife but he did adore the woman he married.
Lillian and Phillip were known bug-eaters and mischief causers. They tend to dive into
everything head first. They aren’t quite as brave as Tommy, usually being intimidated by
Angelica easier than him. They’re recklessness led to them being nagged by Chucky to the point
where when Chucky debated if everyone would be better off without him, he thought of Lil and Phil
being absolute terrors and destroying their home. Still, they are sweet and accepting of others,
warming up to Kimi quickly. They call things as they see them and were the ones to try and return
Dil in exchange for another baby to try and cheer Tommy and his family up.
Kimi is Kira’s daughter and upon being introduced is established as being as adventurous as Tommy.
In fact, Chucky initially says “oh great, another Tommy” when she convinces them to leave the ride.
When she and Chucky become family after the whirlwind of an almost wedding,
she’s immediately protective of him. She was even his right hand
when they went back to re-enacting The Godfather, demanding Angelica show the redhead respect.
Howard is Betty’s stay-at-home-husband who struggles to be seen as more masculine. He
loves his children and respects his wife, always seeking out a way to better himself to be a
good example and a strong partner for Betty. He’s never upset at his wife’s bold nature,
instead praising her for it. And for that, we love him.
Randy and Lucy we’ll mention next, with a brief nod to their other children.
Lucy is a successful doctor and Randy is a passionate television writer. They
instilled a lot of character in their children, encouraging them to pursue interests in law,
space and culture. They’re caring and driven people, always looking to give their children
every experience they can. They even allowed Susie to go on the cruise with their friends
just so she could have the chance to travel, even if the rest of the family couldn’t be there.
Melinda was the name given to Chucky’s mom. We don’t know much about her
other than she was a loving woman during her life. She adored her family
and always was presented as sweet and caring. Chucky brings her up after learning about her,
saying that his dad said she was an angel watching over them.
A wonderful thought to have and we’re sorry we didn’t get to learn more about her. The
most we know is that she and Chas met as a swap meet and she passed when Chucky was very young.
Dil we have to rank a little lower because while he is a baby and driven by immediate need,
we see his personality more from the perspective of Tommy and the other babies.
Dil was a main focus in one of the films with him first being born and becoming part of the family.
From the view of an adult, he only wants to eat and sleep which is normal for an infant.
To the other babies, Dil is selfish and hard to get along with, to the point that the others
actually try to return him and exchange him for another baby. He throws major fits,
wastes things, and knows how to get his way. And boy does he take full advantage.
Boris and Minka are a loving elderly couple, always sure to share their wisdom and experience
with their daughter and her friends. They treat everyone they come into contact with as family
even if they are just neighbors and always take the time to teach the children about
things such as Passover. They were present when Dil was being born, making sure Didi didn’t get
sidetracked picking some odd setup to give birth in and merely focused on having the baby safely.
Stu is a caring husband and father, but tends to be incredibly stubborn. He’s passionate about his
work but makes a lot of mistakes that can cause issues. The whole reason they were called to Paris
was because the Reptar he designed wound up losing its head and destroying the set. His inability to
focus on anything other than his work leads to the babies being unattended and so able to be in
dangerous situations or able to be bullied by Angelica. He argues with his brother and father
more often than not and always acts exhausted. We don’t think that makes him a bad guy,
but he is a man with his priorities a little skewed. Still, he does love his family and
took the time to tell Tommy how important it was to be a good older brother to Dil.
His actions led to them being on an unsafe boat and being stranded on an island, but he did it
out of being able to be with his loved ones over a bunch of strangers. Though he does act tired
of them a lot during the show, he does appreciate them and sees them as a valuable support system.
With that said, we've arrived at the neutral territory. These characters fall in The Grey Area.
Angelica is the worst of the kids for sure, but we hesitate to label her as evil.
She’s underhanded, manipulative, and greedy. She’s known for terrorizing the babies and
making them do things for her out of fear or not understanding that she was using them.
She is shown to be jealous of Susie’s intellect and ability to be genuinely sweet,
and she competes against the other girl whenever she can.
One of her greatest fears was being replaced as the cutest kid
and being deprived of attention. We won’t go into the dark theories surrounding Angelica or the show
and that isn’t the reason she’s put in the grey area. We’re giving her the tiniest bit of slack
because we know the sort of household she lives in. She’s seen repeating things her
parent’s say about her uncle Stu being a failure of an inventor and bossing others around as her
mother does. Her parents see her and learning to be independent and being creative, so Angelica
mimics the behaviour that she thinks will lead to her being praised. She acts mean and goes to
being sweet because she sees Drew and Charlotte act that same way around family and coworkers.
There was even a moment where she was praised for making a mess with paint, her mother calling it
bold artwork and being disappointed when Angelica actually painted responsibly. She does have
moments where she regrets her choices, such as when she came clean about helping to set up Coco
and Chas. So since she’s a kid still learning acceptable behavior, we place her in the grey.
Charlotte is far more ruthless than her husband, and not just as far as business goes. Almost
always seen with a phone in her hand, she thrives on being the best and that tends to get in the way
of her being a mother or an aunt. Now some of what she says is valid. She makes a statement about
Angelica having to radiate self-esteem in order to not be eaten alive in a world where men were more
successful than women. She wanted Angelica to be able to thrive as a young woman and as an adult,
but Charlotte was often blind to how her own drive interfered with her parenting. There’s been times
she and Drew were horrible about communicating plans and almost didn’t have a babysitter for
Angelica and even let Angelica watch part of The Godfather so she could close a deal without being
pestered. But we give her major hero points for her actions in the Rugrats Gone Wild movie. It was
her that broke open the bottom of the boat so they could escape onto the life raft Betty retrieved,
pulling an impressive move on the audience. But we also dock her points because this was after
she tried to get her assistant to divert a storm and nearly leapt overboard to save her phone.
Drew was one of the main influences in Angelica’s life and has a very conflicting
relationship with his brother. Whenever he talks about Stu succeeding in anything,
it involves either selling out his toys or abandoning them completely.
He is supportive of his wife, but also allows her to teach Angelica how to boss others around.
He’s guilty of bad mouthing his brother in front of his daughter which leads to Angelica
not respecting Stu as much of an authority figure. He didn’t even notice his daughter “running away”
and stated when she came through the door crying that he didn’t even know she was out of her room,
showing he’s quick to write her off and not take notice of her activities.
Finally, we've reached the dark side. These characters are The Bad and The Evil.
Fluffy was Angelica’s cat in the later seasons and while not a powerful character,
she was essentially known as the cat version of Angelica. We rank her lower than the young
girl because unlike Angelica she had no moments of displayed regret or realization.
She doesn’t see anything she does as wrong. It’s said that pets take after their owners and this is
the best example we can think of when a pet takes after all the bad parts of a person’s personality.
The ever famous Johnathan is mostly known by name, being scolded by Charlotte pretty
frequently. He’s an underappreciated assistant that gets demoted to babysitter on a whim.
While it’s easy to feel bad for him being ordered around, he
also is quick to try and find something to use as blackmail against his boss.
Jean-Claude was present during the Paris movie and shared his boss’s dislike for children
and people in general. He delighted in being able to use Robo-snail to take the kids in the
Reptar suit out, showing not only complete disregard for their safety but all of the
residents of Paris. The guy causes a lot of damage. Sure, so do the babies, but
since he’s an adult we have to hold him pretty high up there.
It should be no surprise who takes the gold medal of villainy. Coco was a hateful
woman who would gladly rip open a child’s stomach to get her fancy chocolates back.
She tried to trick Chas into marrying her just so she could be promoted, terrorizing
Chucky in the meantime. She was negligent and showed no mercy to anyone who worked for her,
only showing some kindness to Jean-Claude because of their inside jokes about shared misery.
But what do you think? Who are the most good and evil characters in Rugrats? Let us know in
the comment section. Don't forget to hit that notification bell and binge our Good-to-Evil
playlist. Where we break down the morality of the characters in your favorite cartoons,
shows and movies. But most importantly, stay wicked!