previous page
TOC
TV/Streaming
The New Rugrats Are Here! The series’ showrunners tell us about the joys and trials of revisiting Chuckie, Tommy, Susie, Angelica and the rest of the gang in CG.
T
hat sound you’ve been hearing is the collective cheers of the children of the 1990s who are celebrating the return of Tommy, Chuckie, Susie, Angelica and the rest of the Rugrats clan to the small screen. The folks at Nickelodeon and Paramount+ unleashed the reboot of the hugely popular Rugrats series in late May in hopes of introducing the franchise to a new generation of fans. The show, which originally debuted in the summer of 1991, was created by Arlene Klasky and Gábor Csupó (of the famous Klasky Csupo studio) and Paul Germain (Recess, Lloyd in Space). Thirty years later, the iconic babies and their families’ adventures are CG-animated and they have to deal with social media and all the trappings of life in the 2020s! The 2021 show voice cast includes E.G. Daily (Tommy), Nancy Cartwright (Chuckie), Kath Soucie (Phil and Lil DeVille), Cheryl Chase (Angelica), Cree Summer (Susie), Tommy Dewey (Stu), Ashley Rae Spillers (Didi), Anna Chlumsky (Charlotte), Timothy Simons (Drew), Natalie Morales (Betty), Tony Hale (Chas), Michael McKean (Lou), Nicole Byer (Lucy) and Omar Benson Miller (Randy). For Rugrats exec producers Eryk Casemiro and Kate Boutilier, who also worked on the original version three decades ago, the series has been a sweet homecoming. “Writing dialogue for characters that we wrote for some 25 odd years ago felt
like getting a hug from an old friend,” says Casemiro, who is also Nickelodeon’s senior VP of preschool programming. “To have the original voices who played the babies come back to play them again was incredibly heartwarming for us.” “It was truly goose-bump inducing to see and hear Tommy Pickles again,” adds Boutilier, whose many credits also include The Wild Thornberrys, As Told by Ginger, The Mr. Men Show, Olivia and Poppy Cat. “We know the fan base is
super strong, and like them, we all have indelible memories of the show and these characters. We hope they like the new series, too.”
Just Like Old Times Casemiro and Boutilier began working on the reboot in early 2019. “We actually met on the show back in the day and we’ve had a long career together,” reminisces Casemiro (Duckman, Rocket Power, As Told by Ginger, Rugrats: All Grown Up!, The
‘The translation to CG was quite tricky because one move to the left, and the show would be too cute.’ — Exec producer Eryk Casemiro
www.animationmagazine.net 38 june|julyy 21
TOC
previous page
