Trivia / The Rugrats Movie

• Breakthrough Hit: The film launched Charlie Adler's voice directing career.
• Celebrity Voice Actor:
  • The park rangers are voiced by David Spade and Whoopi Goldberg.
  • The singing babies are voiced by multiple famous singers, some of them including Iggy Pop, Ice-T, Lenny Kravitz, Lisa Loeb and Gordon Gano.
  • Busta Rhymes provides the voice of the Reptar Wagon.
• Creator Backlash: Co-creator Paul Germain, who had already moved on from Nickelodeon to do Recess for Disney but returned to serve as a consultant, ultimately approved of the film but didn't like how it broke a lot of the show's internal rules. He objected to the scene of Stu giving Tommy the pocket watch, as the babies and adults were never supposed to interact, and didn't like that Tommy was no longer the youngest (he had originally suggested the Tommy getting a little brother could only work as a Grand Finale).
• Credits Pushback: When Nickelodeon first ran the movie in 2004, they did this. Instead of using the movie's credits, they copied it straight from IMDB - complete with some credits having "[Uncredited]" next to them! They also treated it like a regular episode of the show, which has the TV version of Splaat and "Rugrats" being in the copyright byline, instead of using the film's production logos.
• Cut Song: David Bowie recorded a song titled "(Safe in This) Sky Life" for the film's soundtrack, but it was ultimately cut, due to the scene it was written for being axed from the film. The song would eventually be re-recorded as the B-side to Bowie's 2002 single "Everyone Says 'Hi'", under the shortened title of "Safe". The re-recording was also included on the SACD and Japanese deluxe edition releases of Heathen. Also the song "When The Baby Cries" (and its lead up scene) were cut from the Theatrical Release and only aired on television airings as the surreal visuals didn't test well.
• Deleted Scene:
  • The CBS broadcast included two scenes that were cut from the theatrical and video releases - the first one is about Stu and Didi having a nightmare about Dr. Lipschitz, and the second had the Rugrats dragging the Reptar Wagon up a hill while singing to an army chant (the latter scene was included in the print novelization). Unfortunately, very few people watched the CBS broadcast and these scenes weren't included on the home video release. They were retained in Nickelodeon's broadcasts of the film until November 2018, when NickRewind aired a newer HD master of the film lacking the scenes. Strangely, the post credits scene is also omitted in the newer print, despite playing after the final scene in TV airings.
  • Another unspecified deleted scene is notable for featuring "(Safe in This) Sky Life", a song written for the film by David Bowie of all people; the scene's axing meant that the song had to be left off the film's soundtrack album, and the song was later re-recorded under the shortened title of "Safe" as a B-side to a single off of Bowie's 2002 album Heathen. The 1998 version notably marked the first project between Bowie and longtime collaborator Tony Visconti in 18 years; the two fell out just before production on Bowie's Let's Dance began, leading them to part ways for most of the 80's and 90's. Bowie and Visconti's partnership for "(Safe in This) Sky Life" was a one-off at the time, but they'd meet up again and establish a more permanent working relationship from Heathen onward, with Visconti producing all of Bowie's following material until the latter's death in 2016.
• Directed by Cast Member: Besides being the film's voice director, Charlie Adler has a minor role as a United Express driver.
• Fake American: Tim Curry puts on an American accent as the obnoxious reporter Rex Pester.
• Follow the Leader: The film's overwhelming success inspired several other theatrical spin-offs of popular animated shows, including several more from Nickelodeon. It helped that most of these were inexpensive to produce and, for the most part, already had a build-in audience. The unfortunate side effect of this was that it coincided with the rising popularity of CGI and may have even devalued hand-drawn animation as a result.
• Kids' Meal Toy: Burger King released a set of twelve different toys and a set of four different wristwatches.
• Missing Trailer Scene: The theatrical trailer contains a large amount of footage and lines that aren't present in the film (or else have major differences). A rundown of the differences is here.
• So My Kids Can Watch: Busta Rhymes voiced the Reptar Wagon for his then-5 year-old son T'ziah.
• What Could Have Been:
  • In 1993, 20th Century Fox was going to release feature films based on the first three Nicktoons: Doug, Rugrats, and The Ren & Stimpy Show. These plans fell through and only the Rugrats film got made under Nickelodeon's guidance^note though Doug's 1st Movie got made when the rights were sold to Disney, and a Ren & Stimpy TV movie "Life Sucks" was attempted (yet scrapped) during the infamous Spike TV run. What the original plot consisted of is unknown.
  • Rex Pester's original name was Scoop Hunter. The reason for the change is unknown. Dil's full name was also going to be Dilbert, before getting changed to Dylan.
  • Dil was originally going to be voiced by Madonna. However, when Tara Strong recorded her scratch voice for the character, her impression of a baby crying was so accurate that it caused a woman in the room, who had just had a baby, to start lactating!