The 11th episode featured the 2 stories: "Touchdown Tommy" and "The Trial". Later years of Rugrats we go to see the stretch of each of the characters, and both these episodes give us the glimpses of that full effect.
'Touchdown Tommy' has the babies in helmets as means to protect themselves so that their fathers can watch football. Tommy, being reasonably the favorite baby, is given chocolate milk, and while the babies are left alone- an ensuing brawl for that chocolate milk ensues. The brawl is instigated by, as all great Rugrats episodes are instigated by, Angelica. Angelica starts off badmouthing her current situation of wearing a "stupid baby helmet", then as Phil and Lil discover the benefits of headstanding in the helmets- Angelica shows off her 2 plus years experience in headstanding, and when the chocolate milk finally shows up- Angelica goes in pure selfish mode, storming Tommy for the bottle. The babies shenanigans are wonderfully play-by-played by the football announcers commenting on the 'Ultra Bowl' the fathers are watching (one of the announcers played by pre-fame Jeremy Piven). Wonderful specifics of each players names, Tommy being a ring-leader, Phil and Lil being little rough housers, and Angelica exerting her force over the much smaller babies- all are shown here.
Then comes 'The Trial'. A crowning moment in Rugrats lore. All the character traits are exhibited here. Tommy's Clown Lamp is broken, therefore we see him cry, and now we relate and feel sorry for him. Who broke the lamp? Phil and Lil act as the usual suspects- being the ones to always play to fast and too eager. But they wouldn't break Tommy's lamp. Chuckie admits to wanting to break Tommy's lamp because it is scary, and Chuckie, as we finally see, is afraid. The Rugrats didn't use Chuckie's fears too much coming into this episode. Chuckie was just the reluctant one to go along with Tommy. Now we see, and are set up for, a motherless child- already with an eye problem- afraid of the world around him. And who can blame him? He was attacked by a monster in this episode, and then badgered into admitting he wanted to break the lamp. But he didn't. He's Tommy's best friend. So of course we know who broke the lamp. The Great Instigator- Angelica. First off, lets note, it is a superb bit of story that Angelica is Tommy's cousin. We get to see her all the time, and we see that she does not care about these babies at all. She is just a selfish terrible toddler, picking on weak underlings. "The Trial" is Angelica at her instigatoriest. She sets up the trial, using her know how and wit, to paint a picture of her innocence. The babies know nothing, and Angelica knows more than nothing, and she adeptly pulls the blankets over their eyes. Until, Tommy uses reason. When Angelica is accused- does she back down? No- she admits to it, because they are babies. Her gloating is her downfall, because the adults eventual hear her, but Angelica gives us a small look into her mind during her confession. She was annoyed Phil and Lil didn't ask her to play their stupid baby game, she knew how easy it is to scare Chuckie, and when she saw the lamp- she had the urge to smash it. What a dark child. 'The Trial" had some great baby gags in mispronouncing words. Poop-etrator, The Jerky (The jury? NO- The Jerky!), and "you promise to tell the ruth, the whole ruth, and nothing but the ruth so help your Bob?"
The Rugrats is a special show in that it took (really now) a stupid idea and made it work. The animation in the first season was a little rough and sometimes inconsistent, but the 2nd season- bolder outlines and softer colors were established. The music is top notch, and sometimes outshines the entire show. The voice-over acting is deftly underrated as well. But starting with this 11th (out of 13) episode of the 1st season, the characters take center stage allowing the gags and story to proceed naturally. The end results were a well-rounded kids show with enough poignancy for adults. Sure the welcome was eventual out-stayed after season 4, and then the legacy tarnished by a movie where they go to Paris ad a movie where they meet another cartoon, but they had to build up to the point in order to jump that shark. So don't forget about Rugrats, before the other baby was born, and the animation changed to make Tommy's eyes too big.
1 comment:
i guess i should watch it more
Post a Comment