This is not a review overall of the series, but as a reboot of the original. Having grown up watching almost all of Rugrats original, there's a bit of a disturbance here, knowing that the "original" Rugrats not only went through all their adventures but actually grew up and had adventures in middle school in "All Grown Up", only for them to apparently be wiped out by a Matrix-like reset of the cycle, thus having their entire lives ended and started over.
Much like with each new cycle Battlestar Galactica, the actors change, but the roles stay the same. Some of the characters have changed; Jack Riley died in 2016 so they need a new voice for Stu Pickles. Other adult voices were replaced with entirely new actors. Betty has a new voice actor despite the original Kath Soucie still voicing Phil and Lil. Nancy Cartwright had replaced Christine Cavanaugh as Chuckie going all the way back to the last few seasons of the original show, and she does a phenomenal job of sounding almost exactly like her that it's genuinely difficult at times to tell the difference right away.
Basically, all the babies voices are the same, while all the adults' voices are new. Betty and Grandpa Lou probably are the most changed, with her now a single mother and Grandpa now too young to have been a World War 2 veteran, but old enough to be an elderly hippie boomer.
All of this is fine. None of it bothers me and none of it is detrimental to the show at all. The disparity in voices for an extreme long-time viewer is very disconcerting at times, especially with Michael McKean as Grandpa using his normal speaking voice rather than an amped up "old man yelling" type voice. It doesn't seem to fit, but not because it doesn't fit, but because the original engrained in our minds makes it seem not to fit.
The only major complaint I would have in this regard of the voices is the voice actor for Charles Finster doesn't seem to be doing anything with his character. Some of the other voice actors try to adapt the previous voices to try to sound similar to them, while making them their own. Others make them their own. The actor for Chas seems to be doing a half-hearted parody imitation of someone else, with a wildly goofy sound that feels like it belongs in a stale and unfunny SNL sketch parodying voice acting rather than being actual voice acting.
Beyond all those roughly superficial changes, it's basically the same type of Rugrats as the later seasons. Not as good as the first 2-3 seasons, but not substantially worse than the later seasons. I would much rather see the ongoing animated adventures of watching our All Grown Up Rugrats aging further and further and experiencing the bland, monotonous horrors of everyday life growing up with the knowledge and realization that for the first time in at least a century, their ways of lives and standards of living are destined to be worse than those of their parents and grandparents.
Much like with each new cycle Battlestar Galactica, the actors change, but the roles stay the same. Some of the characters have changed; Jack Riley died in 2016 so they need a new voice for Stu Pickles. Other adult voices were replaced with entirely new actors. Betty has a new voice actor despite the original Kath Soucie still voicing Phil and Lil. Nancy Cartwright had replaced Christine Cavanaugh as Chuckie going all the way back to the last few seasons of the original show, and she does a phenomenal job of sounding almost exactly like her that it's genuinely difficult at times to tell the difference right away.
Basically, all the babies voices are the same, while all the adults' voices are new. Betty and Grandpa Lou probably are the most changed, with her now a single mother and Grandpa now too young to have been a World War 2 veteran, but old enough to be an elderly hippie boomer.
All of this is fine. None of it bothers me and none of it is detrimental to the show at all. The disparity in voices for an extreme long-time viewer is very disconcerting at times, especially with Michael McKean as Grandpa using his normal speaking voice rather than an amped up "old man yelling" type voice. It doesn't seem to fit, but not because it doesn't fit, but because the original engrained in our minds makes it seem not to fit.
The only major complaint I would have in this regard of the voices is the voice actor for Charles Finster doesn't seem to be doing anything with his character. Some of the other voice actors try to adapt the previous voices to try to sound similar to them, while making them their own. Others make them their own. The actor for Chas seems to be doing a half-hearted parody imitation of someone else, with a wildly goofy sound that feels like it belongs in a stale and unfunny SNL sketch parodying voice acting rather than being actual voice acting.
Beyond all those roughly superficial changes, it's basically the same type of Rugrats as the later seasons. Not as good as the first 2-3 seasons, but not substantially worse than the later seasons. I would much rather see the ongoing animated adventures of watching our All Grown Up Rugrats aging further and further and experiencing the bland, monotonous horrors of everyday life growing up with the knowledge and realization that for the first time in at least a century, their ways of lives and standards of living are destined to be worse than those of their parents and grandparents.