Rugrats Go Wild

Rugrats Go Wild is a 2003 American animated comedy musical crossover film based on the Nickelodeon animated television series Rugrats and The Wild Thornberrys. It is the third and final installment of the Rugrats film trilogy, and the second and final installment of The Wild Thornberrys film series.

The film was produced by Nickelodeon Movies and Klasky Csupo and released in theaters on June 13, 2003, by Paramount Pictures. With a worldwide gross of $55.4 million, it is the lowest grossing of the Rugrats film series.

Plot
Tommy, Chuckie, Angelica, Kimi, Dil, Phil, Lil and Susie find themselves stranded with their parents on a remote island. By coincidence, the adventurous Thornberrys are also exploring the island. With his talking dog, Spike, in tow, Tommy takes the babies and Susie on a walkabout to find Nigel Thornberry and his family. They'll gave to be careful, though, as the exotic leopard Siri is hungry and not afraid to make her presence known.

Less Wild Qualities

 * 1) A concept of a crossover between two Klasky Csupo cartoons/Nicktoons sounds good on paper, but the concept feels like it belongs to a TV-special rather than a theatrical film.
 * 2) The premise is predictable; the Rugrats get stranded on an island and they need to find a way to be rescued, with help from the Wild Thornberrys.
 * 3) During its theatrical release the film was presented with "Odorama"; to summarize, "scratch-and-sniff" cards were given to movie-goers, and whenever an icon pops up on the screen with an item inside of it (i.e. a smelly shoe) the aforementioned movie-goers were instructed to sniff a scratch-and-sniff card with the corresponding image. At first this sounds interesting on paper, but it is not only pointless, but also disgusting.
 * 4) Overuse of immature comedy, especially in scenes which contain toilet humor, specifically Angelica being revealed to have pooped herself, Dil licks Phil's smelly feet (which is.....with out a dought, one of the single worst moments in the whole film) and blows snot bubbles.
 * 5) Several scenes are very inappropriate for a PG-rated film, such as:
 * 6) *Charlotte Pickles ripping off her dress only to reveal she is wearing shorts and a saxophone theme playing after that during the sinking scene.
 * 7) *Angelica getting her face covered in bird poop.
 * 8) *Four of the babies removing their diapers in the boat and exposing their butts.
 * 9) While the animation is good, some of the CGI effects aren't all that great, especially the giant wave effect (although they are an improvement over the CGI vehicles in Hey Arnold: The Movie).
 * 10) Lots of moments seem to break reality.
 * 11) *Debbie Thornberry uses gum to fix the Commvee, despite the fact that in reality, gum cannot stay that sticky (a fact even Stu admitted to Debbie in the scene referenced), especially in underwater.
 * 12) *Nigel is still alive after falling off a cliff.
 * 13) Even though the voice acting is great, Bruce Willis' performance as Spike is kinda annoying at times.
 * 14) The scene with the giant wall of water is a blatant rip-off of the wave scene from The Perfect Storm.
 * 15) Too many pop-culture references that feel pointless and dull:
 * 16) *Stu building a coconut radio similar to Gilligan's Island.
 * 17) *Chaz's line "We're going to need a bigger boat", referencing Jaws.
 * 18) *Cynthia posing as the Liberty statue in sand from Planet of the Apes.
 * 19) Angelica has an extremely cringe-worthy singing voice and annoying song, which are both really annoying to sit through. She even butchers "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" by The Clash by singing over it in the Commvee with Debbie.
 * 20) *Adding further insult is that lead vocalist and guitar player Joe Strummer died in 2002, a year before the movie's release.
 * 21) Most of the songs, while are decent (except for "Island Princess"), don't fit in with the plot and mostly come out of nowhere just to add filler and increase the running time.
 * 22) A lot of mean spirited moments, such as the grown ups treating Stu like a punching bag.
 * 23) All the adults (Even Didi) blame Stu for getting them stuck on the deserted island. Yes, Stu did scam everyone into thinking they were going on the Lipschitz Cruise, and does deserve to be punished for that. However, he had no control over the storm, yet they blame him for that storm.
 * 24) Some of the Rugrats characters are unlikable:
 * 25) * The adults (except for Stu and Lou) are at their absolute worst since they blame Stu for everything that goes wrong (when the only bad thing he did was scam everyone into thinking they were going on the Lipschitz Cruise), treat him like a punching bag, and their incompetence on watching their kids have been cranked up to 11 when they put all responsibly on Stu.
 * 26) * Angelica, while still tolerable for the most part, is no better, since she’s her normal bratty self with a cringy singing voice, agreeing with the adults for blaming her Uncle Stu, bullying the babies during most of the film, letting Spike find the babies instead of looking for them herself or with some help, and even abandoning Debbie when hearing the leopard were after the babies by taking the submarine and was the reason the comvee sank.
 * 27) Christine Cavanaugh, Chuckie's original voice actress, retired in 2001 before the movie was made. Her replacement, Nancy Cartwright, was not that good.
 * 28) Nigel only suffers from amnesia instead of dying when he falls off a cliff, which is nonsensical.
 * 29) The main villain Siri the Clouded Leopard, while decent, doesn't receive much screen time in the movie.
 * 30) This film lacked the emotional depth the previous films had:
 * 31) *The first Rugrats film had the babies lost in the woods while trying to accept a new member of the group.
 * 32) *The second Rugrats film, Rugrats in Paris, had Chuckie yearning for a new mom after losing his.
 * 33) *The Wild Thornberry's Movie had Eliza going through dangers to save her animal friends, and family.
 * 34) *THIS MOVIE on the other hand was treated more like a mere cash grab with more emphasis on comedy.

Wild Qualities

 * 1) The idea of putting two Klasky Csupo shows together in one theatrical film is a pretty novel concept for its time, especially since shared universe films weren't jump-started until 2008's mh:greatestmovies:Iron Man and more particularly 2012's mh:greatestmovies:The Avengers.
 * 2) Pretty good animation, which is a nice step-up for the Rugrats franchise, despite the CGI effects not being that great and not aging well.
 * 3) Spike, an obviously mute character, gets a chance to speak (his voice is provided by Bruce Willis, who, prior to Rugrats Go Wild, was famous for his role as John McClane from the mh:greatestmovies:Die Hard franchise) and there's a good reason for it. Since this is a crossover with The Wild Thornberrys, a show known for having animals talk through magic.
 * 4) Good voice acting for the most part, having the entire cast from the movie's respective shows returning. Bruce Willis was a decent choice to voice Spike.
 * 5) Some great songs like "Lizard Love", performed by Aerosmith, or "The Big Bad Cat".
 * 6) * In fact, with the exception of "Island Princess", all of the other songs are pretty decent.
 * 7) The Wild Thornberrys characters are still pretty likeable, including Siri the Leopard (despite having less screen time). Most of the Rugrats characters are still likable too, such as Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, Susie, Spike (who has a decent speaking voice), Fluffy, Lou & Stu (the only likable Rugrats adults), Kimi and Dil (the latter two, who are surprisingly not flanderized like they usually are). Angelica is still tolerable in this film. She actually helped save the Rugrats and Nigel Thornberry from the cave near the end of the film.
 * 8) Susie Carmichael has a bigger role in this movie than she did in the previous 2 films who only appeared in small roles as this time she tags along with the babies and Angelica on the adventure.
 * 9) The ending is good as the Pickles family and the Thornberrys have fun at the Lipschitz Cruise together.

Reception
On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 39% based on 89 reviews, with an average rating of 5.02/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "The Rugrats franchise has gone from fresh to formulaic." Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 38 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.

Videos
S4Toc1kzRII PhantomStrider's "Top 10 Worst Animated Sequels", in which Rugrats Go Wild ranked at #4