Anyone of a certain age will have a particular fondness for the bizarre cast of characters from Nickelodeon’s NickToons line-up. It had been reported last year that Paramount were looking to bring these characters together for an Avengers/Justice League-style team-up, and now its being reported that they’ve found a director in the man behind Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre.
Jared Hess has been hired by Nickelodeon and Paramount Pictures to helm the movie, which will bring together characters from Rugrats, Ren & Stimpy, The Angry Beavers, Aaaah! Real Monsters and Rocko’s Modern Life. At present these are the only titles involved, but Nickelodeon could always use characters from other franchises such as Doug, Hey! Arnold, CatDog and SpongeBob Square Pants. According to Deadline, the movie is set to be Paramount’s answer to Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
This is not the first time the cast of Rugrats have graced the big screen, having starred in The Rugrats Movie in 1998, Rugrats in Paris: The Movie in 2000 and Rugrats Go Wild in 2003. SpongeBob Square Pants has also starred in two movies, including last year’s The SpongeBob Movie 3D: Sponge Out of Water.
Hess’ latest movie Masterminds, starring Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, Owen Wilson, Zach Galifianakis and Kate McKinnon, was meant to be released last year before Relativity Media went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Originally published January 28, 2016. Updated April 14, 2018.
