Rugrats in Paris: The Movie

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Jeff’s take

This is one of those movies that I picked to watch because I thought it would be easy to review. I was 10 years old when this movie first came out in the year 2000 and I loved it. Having said that, this is another movie from my childhood that hits much differently for me than when I was a child. First of all, this movie is a children's movie. Therefore, there should be content geared towards children within it. I was shocked at how inappropriate some of the material in this movie was. There's a whole bunch of nudity and marriage discussions and even some mild sexual dialogue. However, this isn't even the worst part. The movie hits me right where it hurts in terms of Chuckie's situation. At first, I was sympathetic to his situation as it appears he wants a mother. About halfway through the movie, I realized that he is the one without a mother. Therefore, I cannot sympathize with his situation. Also, towards the middle of the movie, it is continuously brought up that he wants to replace his mother that's in heaven. I know this is a cartoon but I simply cannot accept that as I would never want to replace my mother and I also dread the day that her time comes. This movie nearly succeeds in making me become emotional until I realize that it's not happening to me and at certain points, (particularly during most of the musical numbers,) I nearly cried my eyes out as I began to believe that I was living in Chuckie's situation. Having no mother but wishing he could and worst of all, having to listen to his father as his primary caregiver. I mean, I'm not completely heartless. I know that there are some people who don't have as good of a relationship as I have with mom. Also I know that some people have their father as their primary caregiver for one reason or another. However, I cannot stand to see it in movies as I would never in my life think to put my own father who I can't stand over my mother who means the world to me. Also, try as I may, I will never be able to handle it when my mother's time comes. The biggest problem with this movie is that it makes me sad while presenting a situation that I'm afraid of occurring in my life. For a while as I was watching this movie, I felt like I was in it and that Chuckie's situation actually applied to me. I know this sounds ridiculous but its true. It broke me heart to watch this movie. It just hits too close to home for me.

This is also the first movie I've reviewed that includes a significant amount of dialogue in another language. Some of the dialogue is in French, and I found portions harder to follow when the translation or context was not immediately clear to me. This affected my personal viewing experience, although it is not a criticism of the French language itself.

Unfortunately, I could not find enough good points within this movie to save it from a failing score despite my best efforts to do so. The negative emotions I felt as I watched this movie were just too much to ignore. I thought about it as much as I could and I was even going to factor in the old cliche that "it reminds me of when I was that age." By the end of this film though, the grief I felt from watching this movie overshadowed any positive points and I had to regrettably settle on a failing score. I simply cannot get over how sad this movie makes me. It presents a situation that I never want to find myself in. The fact is that I cannot imagine a life without my mother. Well, this movie was basically a bad dream for me that I was awake to experience. Some people may have a different opinion of it which they are entitled to. I've said before that not everybody has to like what I write as my opinion but I have to be honest. I did not like this movie. It was too much for me to handle. All I can say is that I hope my next review is better.