Rugrats Go Wild (2003)

Being a huge fan of both Nickelodeon animated 1990s television series, Rugrats and the Wild Thornberrys. I was pretty happy to hear that they were getting combine for a feature length 80 minutes crossover movie. Directed by Norton Virgien and John Eng, Rugrats Go Wild didn't disappointed. It's the third movie, in the Rugrats film series after 1998's The Rugrats Movie & 2000's The Rugrats in Paris. It's the second movie, in the Wild Thornberry's film series after 2002's Wild Thornberry movie. The movie is about the Rugrats families going on a cruise, that Tommy's father, Stu (voiced by Jack Riley) has rented. On the way, the boat sank in a storm, forcing everything to board a life raft. They soon found small tropical-island, in which the adults think is uninhabited. The children lead by Tommy (Voiced by Elizabeth Daily) believe otherwise, and go into the jungle searching for life. Both, not knowing that on the other side are the Thornberry family, their only hope back to civilization. What I love about the film is the type of humor, it brings. I love the whole misinterpretation humor of adult themes from the viewpoint of the babies. It always bring me a laugh. The potty humor and crude repartee jokes were pretty good. I didn't mind the pop culture and other movie references and spoofs like 1997's Titanic, 1975's Jaws, 1976's Taxi Driver and others. The movie also do call backs to previous episodes of both TV Series and also reference, the first movie. Most of all, I love Tim Curry as Nigel Thornberry, the quirky, adventurous wildlife documentarian who often rambles in indiscernible English accent. Nigel Thornberry is indeed, smashing. The animation was pretty good and the CGI animation kinda mixed well. I was pretty surprise how good the production, the film had. It was beautiful to watch. I wouldn't say, the movie is the best Nickelodeon cartoon movie out there. It was indeed, the lowest grossing Rugrats film for a reason. Some of the jokes really hit flat. The Mirror Routine is so overused. I have to say, that Bruce Willis as the voice of Spike was really not that funny, and out of place. His scenes really waste any ideas of character development. There seem to lack emotional development. In the first movie, it was about Tommy dealing about having a brother. In the second movie, it's about Chuckie (Voice by Nancy Cartwright) getting a new mother and sister. In this movie, it's really hard to figure out what the movie is really about, due to sheer number of characters and the randomness sub-plot play out. I thought it was about Tommy and his dog, but most of Tommy's quest, is to help his father feel better, and get right with his friends. Honestly, who knows! I really don't like the idea of Lil and Phil (voiced by Kath Soucie) disagreeing with each other over if they should eat bugs or not. Nobody pay to see that. People came to see them, be twins and do gross stuff like every other previous episode and movie. Susie (voiced by Cree Summer) gets to join in on the adventure after being an only minor character in the first two movies. Still, she does nothing or add anything. Honestly, she didn't need to be here. I hate most of the original songs here. I can do without the Angelica (Cheryl Chase) "Island Princess' song. It was awful. Bruce Willis 'The Big Bad Cat' lyrics sounds pretty sexual, but it just forgettable. 'It's a jungle out there' was pretty mediocre. Most of the establish songs were used right, but some are bit out of place for a kid's movie. Aerosmith "Lizard Love' is just bad. Another bad idea was that film used "Aroma-Scope," which allowed people to smell odors and aromas from the film via scratch and sniff cards. Very similar to 1960s Smell-O-Vision. Most of the smells, if I remember, were really bad odors. The Odorama card was somewhat of an homage to John Waters' decidedly adult-oriented film 1981's Polyester. The smell gimmick was just one of the things in the dirty diaper of bad ideas. Another is the crossover idea, the movie is mostly about the Rugrats as the Thornberrys are pretty much, just shunted into second billing. Eliza Thornberry (voice by Lacey Colbert) doesn't do much, but babysit Spike, most of the film. Honestly, the whole Thornberry family really don't play a part in the film, until 15 minutes in. What storyline do they have besides helping the Rugrats families?? Nothing. Overall: From a child point of view, it's not that bad. My young nephew and niece love it and they weren't even born in the 1990s or when this movie came out. There is a few adult humor, that I can get behind, and say, that was pretty funny. Some parents might hate the gross jokes like bird excrement landing on characters' faces and material involving nasal mucus, pooping and urinating. Still, it's pretty harmless. Overall: It was OK. It's a must rent for any parent, but not a must buy. If you have to, watch it on Netflix, like myself.

In Nickelodeon's fifth theatrical movie based on their world famous Nicktoons, the Rugrats and the Wild Thornberrys come together. Rugrats, SpongeBob, Ren and Stimpy and Wild Thornberrys were Nickelodeon's most famous shows, so, that being said, you can see why I think this is a gimmick. The movie starts like the other two: with the babies believing their in a parody; this time it's a very loose reference to The Wild Thornberrys. It reveals that Nigel Thornberry is the babies' hero as everyday they watch his nature show. In a completely unrelated plot, Stu takes all the families on a cruise, but they all end up on an island where the Thornberrys picked for their next expedition. (A bit too coincidental, don't you think?)The adults try to plan ways to get out of their island prison while the babies go off on another weird and somewhat gross adventure, this time they come face-to-face with their amnesiac hero, Angelica is with Debbie and we finally hear what Spike has to say while he talks with Eliza. The writing went a bit too far; they could have gone without a few subplots. Random numbers appear all over the place for a "Scrath and Sniff" contest that nobody remembers. This was my first movie in theaters.My Rating: 5/10 Rated PG for Mild Rude Humor

I am 16, and like the Rugrats very much, but I love the Wild Thornberrys. I bought this two days ago, and watched it with low expectations, and boy was it a huge surprise. This was infinitely better than I expected, if not quite as good as anything to do with the Wild Thornberrys or Rugrats. My favourite characters were Spike, Nigel, Angelica and Debbie.For the first time, we hear Spike talk, and he was brilliantly voiced by Bruce Willis, who put some of his previous films into this, and that was perfectly refreshing. The other voice talents were great, with great voice veterans like Nancy Cartwright, Danielle Harris and Tim Curry.I did notice though that Christine Cavanaugh, I think, was missing. It was a shame though that Curry was reduced to talking childishly for a good bit of the movie, and don't expect too much from the plot.The humour was also not bad. I don't care whether it was the same as in other movies, because they did it in the other Rugrats outings, don't you remember. I loved the ever-imitated mirror sequence in the waterfall, and when Nigel hits his head and turns into a baby. There is a lot of imagination, as Angelica imagines herself as an island princess, and she is the toddler equivalent to Debbie. And the animation is true to the style of both shows, colourful and crisp, plus the time goes by quickly.As for the songs, they were the weakest category of the film, but they had so many funny lyrics. The melodies were a bit uninspired, but the lyrics were a lot funnier than the overall script, which I thought had a lot of heart and humour. Plus, we get to hear Bruce Willis sing, which for me was the biggest surprise of the film, because he can actually sing.In conclusion, a movie that was much better than expected. Kids will love this, and adults MIGHT probably laugh at the funny lyrics of the songs. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Spoilers?This movie contains disgusting humor and terrible songs and acting, but I will not explain that. When the Rugrats crash on the island that the Thornberries are filming on, the adults join together to find a way out. When Angelica watches the babies, she is dumb enough to go play. The Rugrats run off into the woods to do some playing of their own. When Tommy witnesses a Thornberry filming (Curry, one of the few good actors in this film), he is determined to find him. But when their split up they have to fight their way back to camp. Angelica, meanwhile, realizes the babies are gone and goes into the woods to find them for her own benefit. When she runs into Debbie Thornberry, she takes a break at her camper. Alizza is out with her chimp, and she runs into Spike, played by the always good acting Bruce Willis, and for the first time, you hear him talk.A deserved 2/10 (because it had the Thornberries, which are better).