I haven't seen Rugrats since I was a kid, though I do remember the very first episodes were weirder and more surreal than the rest of that series.
This unaired pilot directed by Peter Chung is even weirder than these first episodes, having a rather strange, more lively animation style, feeling almost like some sort of fever dream, while at the same time still being recognizable as the usual Rugrats formula of everyday stuff being turned into something bizarre and mysterious from the perspective of the baby main characters.
A shame how the series became more and more sanitized as it progressed, with a more conventional animation style with very little room for experimentation and surrealism, falling also into more childish plots.
From what I heard, the creative restrictions Chung had to face while working on Rugrats eventually led to the creation of Æon Flux, one of the most original and visually daring animations ever made; the kind of show would only have been greenlit during the 90s.
Nowadays there is very little room for experimentation. Everything is complete safe, and sterile. Creativity seems completely absent from the large majority of Hollywood's output from recent years, with everything being a sequel or remake. Rugrats itself got a visually unappealing remake, completely devoid of everything what made the original interesting.
I honestly miss a lot the cool weirdness the 90s had.
This unaired pilot directed by Peter Chung is even weirder than these first episodes, having a rather strange, more lively animation style, feeling almost like some sort of fever dream, while at the same time still being recognizable as the usual Rugrats formula of everyday stuff being turned into something bizarre and mysterious from the perspective of the baby main characters.
A shame how the series became more and more sanitized as it progressed, with a more conventional animation style with very little room for experimentation and surrealism, falling also into more childish plots.
From what I heard, the creative restrictions Chung had to face while working on Rugrats eventually led to the creation of Æon Flux, one of the most original and visually daring animations ever made; the kind of show would only have been greenlit during the 90s.
Nowadays there is very little room for experimentation. Everything is complete safe, and sterile. Creativity seems completely absent from the large majority of Hollywood's output from recent years, with everything being a sequel or remake. Rugrats itself got a visually unappealing remake, completely devoid of everything what made the original interesting.
I honestly miss a lot the cool weirdness the 90s had.