: The Complete Rundown

Spoiler Warning:

If you have not seen the movie yet, and are planning to do so in the future, I advise you not to go any further in this page. Doing so may dampen the experience of watching the movie when the time comes.

But First, Some Pictures:

(The following pictures were used for the now-closed "You Said It!" contest at Nick's Rugrats Movie site. These are the same pictures used in various articles about the film. (c) 1998 Viacom.)

Tommy plays "Okie Dokie Jones" in his "Raiders Of The Lost Ark" fantasy.	That fantasy ends when Didi, with her "big rock" of a belly, enters the kitchen.
Looking for his new sister, Tommy and the other Rugrats rummage through the shower gifts.	Susie & Angelica sing "A Baby Is A Gift From Bob", while Boris plays.
At the baby hospital, the Rugrats enter the newborns' nursery, looking for the new baby.	Didi introduces Dil to Tommy.
Angelica tries top get Cynthia back from Dil, but to no avail.	Angelica and Spike go on their own adventure, looking for Cynthia.

The Rundown:

(If you haven't turned back by now, you have been warned; you're on your own.)

Theatrical Version (11/22/98):

First, as per usual, the film starts with the usual coming attractions. When I first saw the movie, the trailers include Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, The Prince Of Egypt, Babe: Pig In The City, Mighty Joe Young, Patch Adams and the newest Star Trek film (sorry, forgot title). Selection of trailers may vary from theater-to-theater.

Then, after the feature presentation is announced, comes a CatDog short, "Fetch". In this short, Cat- wins a radio contest while -Dog is obsessed with a tennis ball. As for Cat-'s prize: a year's supply of tennis balls.

And then, the actual feature presentation, The Rugrats Movie, begins.

On a small screen, the same, familiar opening used for the TV series is presented. However, that sequence ends with a giant splash (as large as the theater screen) and a surround sound cresendo, revealing the film's logo.

In the first scene, based on Raiders Of The Lost Ark (complete with actual theme music), Okie-Dokie Jones (Tommy) tries to steal the icon in the temple, only to be chased by a giant, round boulder. Then, the whole thing turns into reality, with the icon becoming a banana split, and the boulder actually being Didi's pregnant belly. During this scene, Chuckie (as an offscreen narrator) introduces himself and the other Rugrats.

We then cut to the baby shower, where the husbands place bets on how much Didi weighs. Boris, then, brings in a goat, which is his baby shower gift. Didi then mentions that the baby's going to be a girl, as per Dr. Lipschitz. However, everyone else believes that Didi will give birth to a boy. "All Day" can be heard in the background.

Stu then gets into a heated argument with Drew, as Drew believes that living off inventions won't bring in the same kind of money as a wage-earning job. Stu tries to prove Drew wrong by entering in a Reptar toy contest, where the winner gets $500. His entry: the Reptar Wagon.  Reptar's voice is actually Stu's distorted voice, pre-recorded. However, it almost sets the house on fire, as the toy also serves as a flame thrower.

We then enter Tommy's room, which has since been remodeled for use by both Tommy and the new baby. Then, Angelica enters the scene, mentioning to Tommy that he'll be forgotten and turned into a dog; when Tommy was born, Spike was a baby as well, but turned into a dog after being forgotten, according to Angelica.

Back to the shower, where Susie and Angelica duel with their singing voices and knowlege of babies with "A Baby Is A Gift From Bob". That song, and the shower, was interrupted when Didi goes into labor.

We now go to the Lipschitz Maternity Arts Building (a.k.a The Werner P. Lipschitz Center for Holistic Birthing), where there's a statue of Dr. Lipschitz with several babies in the main lobby, along with a board, displaying the births in a same manner as an airport displays flights. This baby hospital is ultra modern, where a baby can be born in any condition that its mother desires, including underwater (Minka comments that they're having a baby, not a gefilte fish) and in a field (just as Boris remembered back in the old country). Didi, however, opts for the usual environment for childbirth.

The Rugrats then search for the new baby, ending up in the newborns' section. Here, the newborns, complete with adult voices, tell of their plight in "This World Is Something New To Me", ending with a choreographed mass peeing, creating a rainbow. Eventually, Boris and Grandpa finds the Rugrats.

We go back to Didi's room, where she is about to give birth. Then we, more or less, go into Didi's body, where the baby is about to be born. This childbirth is represented by various computer-generated images.

Didi then reveals the baby boy, with Stu naming it Dylan Prescott Pickles, or Dil Pickles for short. Didi then introduces Dil to Tommy; Dil says hello by tweaking Tommy's nose.

Now we advance to 4 weeks later, when Dil is still crying, irritating everyone, especially the Rugrats.

Then, on TV, a commercial for the Banana Bros. Monkey Circus appears on TV. We then cut to the circus train, where Serge and Igor argue over which city has the best coffee, St. Petersburg (Russia, that is) or Kiev. While they bicker, the monkeys take over the train. They get it rolling before it derails on a sharp curve.

Back at home, Didi tells a story about a wizard (or as Tommy puts it, a "lizard"), but the story was interrupted by Dil's contant crying. Then, Stu and Didi try an impromptu lullaby (tried before on Tommy in "Slumber Party"), but Dil still cries. While this is going on, Tommy cries a little bit, wishing for attention. Eventually, Did stops crying, but at Tommy's expense.

The following day, Dil's crying marathon resumes, and becomes more of a problem when he becomes selfish. Stu then reminds Tommy and Dil to share, but didn't work.

Stu then takes Tommy to his workshop, where he gives an old watch to Tommy, as a lesson in responsibility.

Later, the other Rugrats have had it with Dil's constant crying, so they hop into the Reptar Wagon with Dil, so they can take him back to the "hopsickle". Despite this, Tommy disapproves, mentioning that Stu and Didi won't like it. Soon after Angelica walks in, Did steals Cynthia from her. She tries to get it  back, but her efforts included an errant kick, which launched the Reptar Wagon into the city, to the tune of "On Your Marks, Get Set, Ready, Go".

Angelica, using her "Shirley-Lock Holmes" personna, takes Spike to look for Cynthia, only to be dragged around town, as well.

And then, while Grandpa sleeps, the shippers came over to pick up the crate containing the Reptar Wagon, only to contain Boris' goat, instead.

When Stu found out that the babies are on their way to Japan (no thanks to Grandpa's constant sleeping), he calls the shipping company, which informs Stu there's no babies in that crate; just the goat. They also searched the entire plane that had the crate, but found no babies. Stu eventually breaks the news to Didi, who became distraught. While all that happens, the Rugrats continue roaming through town in the wagon, ending up in a "Nighty Night Mattress" truck. Shortly after the truck left the mattress factory, it crashed. Luckily, no one was hurt, but the Rugrats were gone.

Thr Rugrats then find themselves in the woods with Dil, who decided to go "Poopie!". The Rugrats then had to change Dil's diaper, only to have Dil pee all over the place.

Meanwhile, Angelica and Spike continue looking for Cynthia, only to end up in the woods themselves.

Back at home, the media and the cops came over to help look for the baby. However, Rex Pester, a member of the media, angers the parents with outlandish questions like, "How do you feel, now that you'll never see your kids again?" and "Did your son have any enemies?" Drew then arrives, only to fight Stu, on account of Stu's negligence. Then, Chazz arrives, with a tip that the Rugrats are in the woods.

Back in the woods, while Dil constantly hits Tommy with his rattle, the Rugrats try to find their way back home, but when they find themselves lost, Chuckie, Phil and Lil became angry with Tommy; Tommy then defends Dil's actions, because he's his brother. While doing so, Dil takes off Tommy's diaper.

Then, in a distance, Tommy finds the "Lizard's" house (which was actually the ranger station). He also discovers a wolf's footprint. Scared, the Rugrats take off again in their wagon. We cut to a "Bambi"-like scene, complete with cute bunnies; this poignant scene was broken up by the Rugrats charging through in the wagon. Failing to stop, the Rugrats end up in the river. Once in the river, the Reptar Wagon becomes a boat, kept afloat with air-filled balloons.

At the ranger station, rookie Margaret thought she saw a "dragon" in the woods. Veteran Frank scoffed her, only to become afraid after seeing the Reptar Wagon floating in the river.

The adults finally arrive to the scene of the mattress truck accident. At the scene, Grandpa finds a "Cynthia Sweets" candy wrapper, along with the wagon's tracks.

We cut back to the river, where the Rugrats pretend they're pirates while singing "Yo Ho Ho And A Bottle Of Yum".Soon, their fun was cut short when the wagon was about to go over the falls; luckily, they were able to turn the wagon around.

Meanwhile, Stu goes back home and decides to use his aborted invention, Dactar, in his search.

The Rugrats got on shore and start to trek back home, only to find themselves going in circles. Then, they found the derailed circus train, complete with monkeys. The Rugrats have fun with the monkeys to the tune of "Witch Doctor". The fun ends when the monkeys steal Dil's creamed bananas; later, they steal Dil as well.

Elsewhere in the woods, Angelica and Spike runs from the wolf.

At home, Stu successfully launches Dactar; it flies, but still had a lot of kinks in it.

Back in the woods, Tommy continues to look for Dil. Instead, in the wagon, he finds a monkey, but he thinks it was Dil, which was changed into a monkey. When Tommy resumes his search, the other Rugrats get very angry, and renounce their friendship with Tommy.

We cut back to Angelica and Spike, who, to the tune of "One Way Or Another" looks for Cynthia. However, when Spike starts to become even more uncooperative, she starts looking by herself.

Then Tommy, all by his lonesome, finds Dil while it rains.

The parents, then, find the ranger station, where they talk to rangers Frank and Margaret about this situation.

We go back to Tommy & Dil. Despite this situation, Dil continues to be selfish, fighting Tommy over the bottle, then the blanket. After that, Tommy realizes that the other Rugrats were right; Dil was no good. In his fit of anger, Tommy threw his watch to the ground. Tommy then abandons Dil with the monkeys. However, brotherhood prevails and Tommy goes back to Dil, continuing to care for him.

Elsewhere, Chuckie and Lil thought that Phil was squashed by a tree, but they found him, alive and well.

Then, Tommy recovers his watch. Knowing his "'sponsibility", Tommy sings an impromptu "Dil-A-Bye". Dil then shares his blanket with Tommy.

The rain stops, and the parents continue searching for the kids, with Stu searching from the air with Dactar.

Back in the other part of the woods, the monkeys gang up on Tommy and Dil, but the other Rugrats come to their rescue, with Phil & Lil chasing the monkeys around, and Chuckie using the bananas to lure them away from Tommy and Dil.

Angelica & Spike arrives on the scene, finding the Rugrats, the monkeys, and Cynthia, while Spike reunites with Tommy.

Chuckie accidentally gets the bananas all over himself, causing the monkeys to lick Chuckie.

Tommy & Chuckie finds the ranger station, and, with the help of Dil, takes off in the Reptar Wagon. Angelica hops on, but ends up danggling over the bridge when the wagon hits a bump on the bridge. Then, the wolf discovers the Rugrats, and goes after them. Spike, then, goes after the wolf, fighting it. They accidentally fall off the bridge. Thinking that Spike was a goner, all the Rugrats cry.

Meanwhile, Stu and his Dactar crashes into a shack, which was at the foot of the bridge. The Rugrats find him, thinking that hhe was the "lizard" (wizard). Soon, Spike comes back, alive and well, along with the Rugrats' parents. Serge and Igor came to the scene as well, finding their monkeys. The media was there too, fighting over each other to cover the story. Rex was there too, though he was injured earlier in the film when Dactar crashed into his news helicopter. To the cheers of the grownups (sick and tired of Rex's reporting), the monkeys gang up on Rex.

Knowing the true meaning of brotherhood, Dil then shares his bottle with Tommy.

We cut back to the icon-grabbing scene of the "Okie-Dokie Jones" sequence, now with Dil grabbing the icon. The reality of it is that Dil, with the help of the Rugrats, grabbed the banana split. At this point, every one lived happily ever after.

The credits start to roll, and some pictures from the film are displayed in the background while the credits are displayed. During this, "Take Me There", "Take The Train" & "I Throw My Toys Around" is played.

After the closing credits, a bonus scene was played. In this scene, Boris' goat returned, eating flowers while Grandpa rests in the Reptar wagon. The goat accidentally pushes the wagon with Grandpa inside, leading to a wild goose chase as the goat tries to rescue Grandpa.

The End

Video Version (US, 3/30/99):

Video starts with a promo for Rugrats videos, including scenes from the upcoming Runaway Reptar video. This is followed by promos for Blue's Clues, Little Bear and Peanuts videos. Then comes a CatDog short, "Winslow's Home Videos", with a brief plug for CatDog videos at the end. Then, about 11 minutes into the video, the movie begins (see above).

For the complete transcript of the movie, click here.