AGW Entertainment reporter Lynn B. saw a new animated film...

RUGRATS GO WILD!

Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon

"The Wild Thornberries" and the "Rugrats" together on the same theater screen? Both Nickelodeon series have spawned feature films so it was only a matter of time until the studio and "Nick" put the two wacky families together to sink or survive on a "deserted" island.

The "Rugrats" gang is all here, babies and parents, for a would-be luxury cruise planned by Stu that quickly turns Gilligan-esque (complete with shipwreck theme song). Washed up on a brilliantly colored tropical island, the parents start building shelters arguing and blaming Stu while the Rugrats, led by Tommy, hit the jungle in search of Tommy's fave t.v. wildlife adventurer Nigel Thornberry (whom Tommy calls "Strawberry"). Tommy is sure he's around somewhere. Sir Nigel Thornberry (Tim Curry, using his best upper-crust British accent), is indeed on the island, where he and his wife (Jodi Carlisle) are trying to get footage of the island's elusive leopard (Chrissie Hynde).

Angelica (Cheryl Chase) fancies herself an island princess and goes in search of loyal subjects to wait on her. She ends up in the Thornberry camp with teen Debbie (Danielle Harris) who is as stubborn and self-centered as she is.

Eliza (Lacey Chabert), the Thornberry who can talk to animals, runs into the Rugrat's pooch Spike who finally has a voice (Bruce Willis) and they go looking for the babies together. Chuckie (Nancy Cartwright…the voice of Bart Simpson) gets separated from the babies and has a weird confrontation with wild child Donnie Thornberry (Michael Balzary). Finally, Stu gets to prove himself a hero and the Thornberries realize they need some family together time.

In my screening, young kids really liked the usual physical comedy, diaper jokes and bug eating and older kids and parents could appreciate the many many, funny "tributes" to pop culture films and t.v. shows like "Gilligan's Island", Titanic, Perfect Storm, The Posiedon Adventure, and shipwreck novels like the classic "The Lord of the Flies". A lot of these jokes involve the self-involved Angelica and are hilarious.

For music fans there are some cute upbeat tunes and music by The Clash and Chrissie Hynde of the group The Pretenders who also voices Siri, the leopard. Bruce Willis is pretty funny as the voice of Spike, who also gets to be a hero and there is enough jeopardy and action to keep all family members awake. I was given an "odorama" card sporting pics of feet, peanut butter, flowers, ice cream sodas, etc. and was told to scratch it when certain numbers showed up on the screen. I scratched like crazy but only smelled something sweet when scratching the ice cream soda drawing. The rest were zilch in the smellorama department.

Hey, take your younger bros and sisters and your parents. Everybody in your family should get something out of the meeting of these two popular cartoon families.

Rated: PG (some crude potty humor)

Official website