All Grown Up! is a Nickelodeon animated series, spun off from the popular series Rugrats and produced by Klasky Csupo Inc.
The series revolves around the lives of the familiar characters, now nine years older. It premiered in April 2003 as a preview before starting its regular run in late November (although in October, it began its regular run in the UK, on ITV1, and in Canada on YTV). The show is based on the Rugrats' 10th anniversary episode, "All Growed Up" (aired in 2001), which proved so popular that Nickelodeon decided to commission a whole series. Production began in September 2002. The principal characters and their traits (as well as their voice performers) have been carried over from the original Rugrats series, with a handful of changes and additions, for example:
- Phil (Kath Soucie) still revels in mess, but his sister Lil (also Kath Soucie) focuses on finding her place in the school social scene,
- Dil (Tara Strong), younger brother of would-be filmmaker Tommy (E.G. Daily), behaves weirdly at school, and
- Angelica (Cheryl Chase) thinks she is so popular, however, Susie (Cree Summer, who also sings the series' theme song) is upstaging her as a singer with real talent. Besides being a talented singer, Susie is also a great student.
- Kimi Finster (Dionne Quan) has developed a close-knit friendship with Susie. (Cases in point: "Runaround Susie" and "Susie Sings The Blues".)
Also, a handful of new characters have been added, for example:
- Harold Rumkin (Pat Musick), Angelica's flunky who knew her and Susie since pre-school
- Savannah (Shayna Fox, also the voice of Reggie Rocket on Rocket Power), the leader of the popular crowd at the Rugrats' school, who also looks down on Angelica, as she has been a popular teen for much longer than Angelica. Klasky Csupo claims that she was first introduced in the "All Growed Up" pilot as Angelica's best friend Samantha Shane (at the time, she was voiced by Laraine Newman)
- Nicole Boscarelli (Lizzie Murray), whom Chuckie (Nancy Cartwright) has a crush on
- Slambang Pangborn (Clancy Brown), former wrestler and current school vice-principal
When the series premiered its regular run, more than 3.2 million viewers, and over a third of all kids watching cable in the United States, tuned in, enough to put it into the 2nd place slot for the week, behind an NFL game on ESPN, and making it the highest-rated premiere in Nick's history (when the sneak peek ep aired in April, it didn't make the top 15 cable programs for that week, due to the ongoing war in Iraq).
During summer 2003, teasers for the show aired. However, the scenes shown were not from actual episodes of the show. The teasers showed:
- Tommy filming Chuckie for a video he's making
- Lil telling Phil in the cafeteria that he's immature
- Angelica and Susie running for class president
- Kimi chatting with Chuckie at the Java Lava
- Tommy and Dil having a fight
- Dil hugging Angelica in front of everyone
More details here: [1]
Episode Guide
Season One
- 1. Susie Sings The Blues (released on DVD 8/26/03, first televised 11/29/03) - A talent scout spots Susie's singing talent, or so it would seem; Chuckie would rather live life "on the edge"
- 2. Coup DeVille (4/12/03, after the Kids' Choice Awards) - Lil has problems with Phil being "socially inept"; Chuckie has problems with an upcoming PE test. First episode shown in the US, but counted as a full-length sneak peek episode to US
- 3. Chuckie's In Love (12/6/03, later in 2004 released on the Game Boy Advance Video pak, Nicktoons Collection Volume 1) - Chuckie's way of impressing a girl (the aforementioned Nicole) involves creating an alter ego and dressing up as a [Latvian]; Angelica, the new school newspaper editor, writes a story on bad cafeteria food
- 4. Bad Kimi (11/29/03) - Kimi hangs out with the school "bad boy", and Chuckie has his suspicions about him; Angelica has a classmate, Harold (another one of Angelica's sidekicks, and a character from the "Pre-School Daze", "Angelica's Assistant", and "Hello Dilly" eps of Rugrats, voice of Pat Musick), run her advice website, and ends up getting some "friendly competition"
- 5. Truth Of Consequences (11/29/03) - Tommy attempts to make a film for a film-making contest; the vice principal has called Dil in to explain his weird behavior
- 6. Thief Encounter (12/6/03) - There's been a series of weird night-time thieving, with an unlikely culprit; Angelica plays mentor to a bratty young girl
- 7. River Rats (alternatively, Riding The Waves) (12/13/03) - Tommy, Chuckie and Phil go on a rafting trip
- 8. It's Cupid, Stupid (2/14/04) - The Rugrats are mustering up courage to ask their crushes to go to the Valentine's Day dance... due to guest star Lil Romeo's antics however (something to do with him practicing throwing hackeysacks with Dil), they're not so sure who's really in love with whom.
- 9. The Old And The Restless (alternatively, The Ileum and the Odyssey) (1/24/04) - Tommy's parents are taking Dil to the doctor because of burping problems, so Grandpa Lou is filling in as chaperone (instead of Stu) on the field trip to the Human Body Museum.
- 10. Tweenage Tycoons (11/29/03) - The gang try to raise money for tickets to see their favourite boy band by selling Dil's inventions, for example, his so-called "belt-quarium".
- 11. Tommy Foolery (3/27/04) - Everyone tries to come up with the greatest prank on April Fool's Day, in particular, one that plays on lasertag-playing Dil's obsession with aliens (he's that weird); Angelica wants to work with popular kid Sean on the upcoming Spring Fling's clean-up committee, and decides to strike a bargain with Susie (who's on the committee): be nice for four days, and they'll switch jobs
- 12. Lucky 13 (8/28/04) - Angelica is turning 13, and decides to throw a big birthday party to celebrate, with no pre-teen Rugrats invited... the fact that Savannah is throwing a party on the same day might be of some trouble, however.
- 13. Brother, Can You Spare The Time? (1/17/04) - When Tommy wins an award for a short film, Dil fears he will be left behind as his brother becomes famous, even as Tommy keeps insisting otherwise; while the others are planning a surprise party for Tommy to celebrate the win, leading Angelica to teach Chuckie how to lie and thus keep the surprise party a surprise
Season Two
- 14. Interview With A Campfire (6/25/04) - The gang goes to a spooky camp (an hour-long special)
- 15. Bad Aptitude (6/4/04) - The gang takes an aptitude test, receiving questionable results (example: Tommy as a businessman)
- 16. Saving Cynthia (10/2/04) - Angelica's mom throws out all her baby toys, including Cynthia, her doll from Rugrats, while she's redesigning her room
- 17. Fools Rush In (6/5/04) - Angelica collects embarrassing photos of Tommy and Francine, an older girl who goes to school with the Rugrats gang, for her website
- 18. Memoirs of a Finster (6/12/04) - A new teacher assigns the class a family tree project, and we get an insight into Kimi's roots; some boy named Trevor is hanging out with Tommy
- 19. Miss Nose It All (6/17/04) - Angelica fakes dementia to hide a broken nose
- 20. Runaround Susie (alternatively, "Susie's Choice") (7/17/04) - Susie has a busy schedule, and eventually a dilemma, involving a lingustics competition and a singing contest; Phil is hanging out with some boy named Jeffrey
- 21. Izzy or Isn't He? (11/27/04) - Chuckie's biggest competition in the election for School Safety Commissioner is Dil's imaginary alien friend Izzy, but Izzy's no pushover
- 22. The Science Pair (11/6/04) - Tommy's asking his dad for some help putting together his project for the school science fair, but is literally getting more than he bargained for; Lil hangs out with some kid named Nicholas
- 23. Project Chuckie (alternatively, "My Fair Chuckie") (11/27/04) - Angelica gets a class assignment to make a positive difference in someone else's life, and decides that no one could use her help more than her old friend Chuckie Finster
- 24. The Finster Who Stole Christmas (12/7/04) - Chuckie has accidentally stolen a Christmas tree he thought was trash
- 25 Fear Of Falling (2/11/05) - The gang goes to a ski lodge, and someone's getting their first kiss
Season Three
- 26. Dude, Where's My Horse? - The gang has been invited to spend a week at a dude ranch (an hour-long special)
- 27. Blindman's Bluff (4/11/05) - Tommy and Dil have to pick up Grandpa Boris (a carry-over from Rugrats) from the eye doctor ... and decide to take him to a waterpark they've been planning on going to all week
- 28. Yu-Gotta-Go (4/12/05) - A new collector card craze hits school, more specifically, Angelica and Chuckie. The episode title is a play on the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game, based on the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime and manga.
- 29. Curse of Reptar (4/13/05) - Tommy and Chuckie throw away Tommy's old Reptar doll, found during construction of a backyard pool
- 30. It's Karma, Dude! (4/14/05) (originally announced as "It's Karma, Man!" [2]) - Angelica unfairly keeps her rival Susie out of a singing audition (three words: broken answering machine), and gets the chance to perform in front of the whole school, while Dil convinces her that her bad attitude will give her bad karma
- 31. The Big Score (4/15/05) - Lil joins her brother on the school soccer team
- 32. Rats Race - Tommy and the gang competes against Angelica in a go-kart race
- 33 Wouldn't It Be Nice? - Angelica and Susie have accidentally been stranded in a big city
- 34. Separate But Equal - It's Phil and Lil's birthday, and they're holding separate parties, since they're more different than ever before
- 35. Ladies' Man - Harold is the most wanted guy in school
- 36. Lost at Sea - Charlotte loses her CEO job; she and Angelica have become stranded on a sailboat
- 37. Rachel Rachel - Tommy meets titular character in Hebrew class, gets extra credit assignment on hosting a shabbat dinner
- 38. Oh Bro, Where Art Thou? - Dil meets a bunch of weird kids at circus summer camp
External links
- Klasky-Csupo's All Grown Up! area on cooltoons.com (Studio site)
- Fanlisting and site devoted to Dil: The Dil-Alliance Headquarters