Trivia / Rugrats Go Wild!

• Accidentally-Correct Writing: The Giant Squid is portrayed as a Gentle Giant observing Nigel and the kids in their submarine. When people finally encountered the giant squid alive, the cephalopod behaved the same way as in the film.
• Celebrity Voice Actor:
  • Bruce Willis was hyped up as the voice of Spike.
  • In Brazil, he was voiced by comedian Cláudio Manoel.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer:
  • A few stations and newspapers mistakenly reported the film as being "The Rugrats Meet The Wild Thornberrys", whereas that was the movie's Tag Line instead. Not entirely a mistake, however, as this was the movie's working title.
  • On top of that, the title was changed to its final iteration at pretty much the last minute- Previews of tie-in merchandise and even the teaser trailer announced the film as "The Rugrats Meet The Wild Thornberrys". No wonder people were confused!
• Creator Killer: The film's failure, and the skyrocketing popularity of SpongeBob SquarePants (which would later account for at least 60% of the station's revenue), stopped Klasky-Csupo's 10+ year partnership with Nickelodeon dead in its tracks and led to them going dormant for several years.
• Deleted Role: LL Cool J recorded some dialogue as the voice of a Piki doll, but got cut from the film.
• Deleted Scenes: A few Cut Songs and a short scene showing Betty fishing with a spear and Didi being horrified by her "inhumane" methods.
• Franchise Killer: The low box office numbers of this film signaled the end of Rugrats as a dominant Cash-Cow Franchise for Nickelodeon, a status that SpongeBob SquarePants would claim from the series. Nickelodeon would not renew Rugrats for a 10th season, having largely been replaced on the network by its sequel series All Grown Up! (though one more unaired Season 9 episode would release a year after the film) which itself would be Screwed by the Network and cancelled in 2008, and an attempt of a Direct-to-DVD spinoff series Tales From the Crib in 2005-2006 fell flat on its face. After All Grown Up!'s cancellation, the franchise would lay dormant until the 2021 Paramount+ reboot.
• Kids' Meal Toy: Burger King released a set of eight different toys in their kids' meals, as well as scratch-and-sniff cards that could be used during theatrical screenings of the film when particular numbers flashed onscreen.
• Science Marches On: Nigel observes a giant squid has never been seen alive before. This was certainly true at the time the movie was released, but in later years, the giant squid was indeed seen alive.
• Trend Killer: The film's underperformance ended the trend of theatrically released, animated adaptations of American cartoons. This coincided with the decline of traditionally animated films in Hollywood, which is notable as most American cartoons were traditionally animated. It wouldn't be until the second SpongeBob movie, Sponge Out of Water, that it was seen as viable again. Attempts at continuing this trend have been mixed — My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) and Teen Titans Go! To the Movies were Presumed Flops, while PAW Patrol: The Movie was a legitimate hit (earning over $100m worldwide).
• What Could Have Been: It was originally made as an hour-long TV special, but test audience reactions were so positive it was rewritten and reanimated for theatrical release.
• Working Title: Early DVD copies of the first trailer used the title "The Rugrats Meet the Wild Thornberries."