Rugrats Go Wild! (2003)

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General		Extras
Category	Family	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Deleted Scenes-3 Alternate Ending Outtakes Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Song - Big Bad Cat
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	77:30
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (38:24)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	John Eng Norton Virgien
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	Elizabeth Daily Nancy Cartwright Lacey Chabert Tim Curry Flea Danielle Harris Bruce Willis Cheryl Chase Kath Soucie Tom Kane Jodi Carlisle Cree Summer Dionne Quan
Case	?
RPI	$24.95	Music	Elizabeth Daily Greg De Belles Mick Jones

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Catalan Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Portuguese Hebrew Spanish Catalan	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Whilst this is still an enjoyable kids film with some clever references to other films, I think that the Rugrats may be running out of new ideas. I was a little worried in the last film when they introduced a new character, Tommy's new little brother, as this can be a sign that new ideas are starting to dry up. To come up with the storyline for this film, they have fallen back on two old principles, neither of which really work all that well. The first is to repeat a previously successful idea with the serial numbers filed off and the second is to bring together two shows for a combined effort. Whilst some of the circumstances are different from the last Rugrats film, we still have them lost in a jungle all on their own, and one of the mothers even makes a reference to 'doing this all again'. On the second point, they have combined two of their weekly series, the Rugrats and the Wild Thornberrys.

    The Wild Thornberrys is not a bad Saturday morning cartoon. They are an interesting family with the parents being wildlife documentary makers. They have two daughters and one son. The eldest daughter is not impressed with all this running around in the jungle in a very unusual mobile home and is very bossy. The second daughter has the ability to speak with the animals and has a monkey as her best friend. The little boy is basically a jungle boy that runs around in a loin cloth doing jungle boy type stuff.

    To combine the two shows we have the Rugrats clan being castaways, and of course they just happen to end up on the island where the Thornberrys are trying to make a wildlife documentary. The babies end up in the jungle having an adventure while the adults desperately search for them. They have added one twist in that the family dog can now talk in the presence of the girl that speaks to the animals. He actually gets some of the best lines.

    All-in-all, a bit of a disappointment, although my son still enjoyed the film. One thing that I found particularly annoying was the number of musical numbers that they tried to fit in, though again the kids do seem to enjoy it when the characters break into song.

Video

    This would be a near reference quality transfer if it were not for the constant aliasing.

    The transfer is presented at 2.40:1 which is close to its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. It is 16x9 enhanced.

    The image is sharp and the shadow detail is as drawn. There is no low level noise.

    There is a wide range of bright colours. A computer has obviously been used in the production of this cartoon as there are colour gradients present that would be near impossible to paint by hand.

    There are no MPEG artefacts but there is constant aliasing. This is particularly annoying on vertical pans such as at 45:50 when the palm trees strobe quite badly. There is the very occasional black spot that appears such as at 20:45 on Chucky's face.

    The subtitles miss a word or two out of nearly every sentence and occasionally change the meaning slightly but they are easy to read.

    This is an RSDL disc with the layer change at 38:24. There is a quiet break in the soundtrack at this point so the pause is not too noticeable.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are four Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks on this disc; English, Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese. I listened to the English soundtrack.

    There were no problems with the dialogue quality nor with the audio sync.

    The music is a bit of fun with some interesting theme references to other films. The songs range from bop to something resembling an Andrew Lloyd Webber number.

    There is lots of surround activity with the music and the sounds of the jungle, as well as some good spilt rear effects.

    The subwoofer gets a bit of a workout as well, particularly at the start where there is a takeoff of The Perfect Storm.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The 1.85:1, 16x9 enhanced menu is a cute animated jungle scene with an inserted centre section that plays scenes from the film. The audio is Dolby Digital 2.0. The menu times out after one loop and defaults to playing the film.

Deleted Scenes (5:30)

    There are three deleted scenes and what they call an out-take. I have no idea why this last one is in a different category. They are all pencil drawings presented at 2.35:1 letterboxed into a 1.33:1 frame. Some of the characters in the out-take are coloured. The first three are all songs that did not make the final cut and the last is a scene where one of the mums goes native spear fishing. The audio is Dolby Digital 2.0.

Alternate Ending (1:25)

    Again presented at 2.35:1 letterboxed with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack, this alternate ending is a combination of pencil drawings and some finished artwork. I don't see why one ending was chosen over the other.

Behind the Scenes Featurette (1:53)

    Presented at 1.33:1 with inserts from the film at 2.35:1 letterboxed. This very short featurette contains some quick interviews with Bruce Willis (the voice of the family dog) and Chrissie Hynde (the voice of Sari the leopard). The inserted animation from the film suffers terribly from interlacing.

    The comparison to the R1 version is a little strange.

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on:

• various language subtitles
• various language audio tracks

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on:

• A scratch and sniff card and DVD feature
• An interactive game
• English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded soundtrack
• 1.33:1 version of the film

    There is a scratch and sniff card with six different odours included with the Region 1 version of this DVD, and you can turn on a feature where a symbol appears at times during the film telling you to scratch and sniff! This puts R1 in front, but only by a nose (sorry).

    A bit disappointing considering just how good the earlier offerings were, though as usual it is the adults that are along for the ride that miss out - the kiddies still seem to enjoy this film.

    The video is good.

    The audio is very good.

    The extras are a little pointless.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall