The modern incarnation of Rugrats, which brought the classic cartoon babies back for a new generation of young audiences, has a lot in common with the original series. However, on top of adopting a CGI art style, the show has found other ways to quietly adapt for the times. One of these additions is a new character: Gabi, Phil and Lil's teenage cousin, who comes to the show with a unique point of view.
Ahead of her character's debut, Raini Rodridugez spoke with CBR about growing up with Rugrats and what it means to be a part of the long-running franchise's evolution.
CBR: Rugrats debuted three decades ago, and at this point, it's a favorite for multiple generations of audiences. What was your history with the franchise, and what does it mean to you that you get to be a part of it?
Raini Rodriguez: It's a little childhood dream come true. There's no other way to put it. As a kid, I had my orange Nickelodeon VHS tapes of Runaway Reptar. Every time a movie would come out in theaters, Rugrats in Paris, Rugrats Movie... I remember going to see when they did the crossover with the Wild Thornberrys and they had the scratch and sniff cards that you would follow along in the theater. I am a true Rugrats fan.
So to hear, first of all, that they're doing this new series and it's the original babies involved, a lot of he original voice cast is involved. They're just updating it for modern times, CG animation, millennial parents and introducing new characters. I was like, "Where do I sign up? Yes. Yes to all of this. Yes, yes, yes."
When I got the audition breakdown for Gabi, I was like, "Okay. So this was me when I was 14 years old. Cool. I am the same person." And Gabi is getting to interact with Angelica and Angelica really looks up to her a lot, which is crazy because Angelica was my favorite character growing up... It's a huge dream come true to be in a part like this. It's such a huge thing, and nostalgia is so in.
That's what I love about it: my nieces and nephews get to now watch the show that I fell in love with as a kid, a little bit more updated for modern times, but the true core values are still there with the storylines and the babies and the adventures they get to go on and their imagination and how they see the world, all that is still there.
So much of the original voice cast returned for the series, and then you have you representing this younger perspective and experience within the voice cast. What is it like to get to play with these characters, knowing you were bouncing off the real Angelica?
It's crazy to get them to see them do their thing. They just have these characters down. They know what they're doing. They know that even though it's grownups literally playing children, babies, toddlers, they have these characters down. As an actor, as a voice actor, it's so great to get to watch. It's like a voiceover class in session all the time. To get to watch them just do their thing and improv right on the spot or the noises they make and the reactions they have, it's wild. Because obviously when we record, we don't really have many animations. It's mainly just recording with the sides.
So to watch them get to bring it to life is huge. Then, like I said, Gabi gets to come in and interact and play and have fun. She encourages the babies' imagination, which is great. As a viewer, I feel like Gabi gets to be involved slightly with those imagination journeys that these kids go on. Then, as a character, I feel like Gabi is really sweet and lovable to the kids as like a cool aunt, a cool babysitter. She's like this one big ball of energy with the kids and she enjoys it a lot. So to be in the booth and watch it, it's so fun.
So much of this franchise, both in the original series and in the current incarnation, are very clearly focused on the babies and occasionally the adults. But Gabi gets to bring a unique perspective to it, as she's a teenager in this world. While something like All Grown Up may have explored similar ideas, what was it like to explore this unique corner of the series -- especially in this form, when it's so focused on the perspective of the baby cast?
It's awesome. It has always been adults and kids. What's really great about Gabi is she really does get along with both the adults and the babies. She's in the Reading Rangers program so she gets to interact literally with the babies all afternoon at the park reading stories, playing with them, getting them ice cream, all that kind of fun stuff. Then she also gets to work at Betty's Beans and then she gets to interact with the adults and other teens alike and give her take on what's going on in the world, which is great. She's bilingual, which is awesome too, because it throws in some Latino representation, gets to showcase that.
Comparing the original series with the current version, there's a wealth of growth that it's made with the times. The original series was even fairly progressive in its treatment of Jewish and African-American characters at the time. Now, the series openly has LGBT characters and, as you brought up, you get to bring some Latin representation to the mix. What does that mean to you as a performer to be a part of this show's evolution?
That's the thing. I think that's why fans new and old will like it because it's always interesting, it's always a fine line to tread on when it comes to nostalgia, because I grew up with the original series in the '90s. I have vivid memories of watching the show, certain episodes, and the moments that happened and how they made me feel as a kid, as a literal [child], I remember how I felt watching those. So to have that sort of representation for my nieces and nephews to watch a show that I grew up and loved, which I know is going to have the same awesome storylines, the same values, the same core storylines that are going to attract the older fans... that they just add what the real world looks like.
Everyone's full of different colors and different likes and different backgrounds and different body shapes and different personalities, different ages, different everything. It's so important to showcase that. You take something as classic as Rugrats and you throw a little bit of new, not too much, where you're like, "Whoa, I don't even recognize this," but the theme song is still the same theme song.
It's just those sort of nostalgic moments that you get to watch... look at that extra representation or the extra mile that they went to include this or that, and how nonchalant everything really is because at the end of the day, that's what the real world is. Nobody hangs out within their own little circles. It's such a big wide net of just so many different people. I'm so, so glad that I'm just a part of this. It's a great show. I'm so excited.
Rugrats debuts new episodes on Paramount+ on Oct. 7