It’s Halloween in the Pickles household, so the adults have setup a haunted house for trick or treaters, and the babies don’t understand what’s going on! Angelica then boasts to the little tykes about getting Reptar bars, telling them that they won’t receive any, but Tommy realises that older kids are going into the haunted house, and are coming out screaming while holding Reptar bars, so he knows what to do!

The endearing charm to this Rugrats episode is seeing how the babies react to Halloween traditions, each wondering what is going on, while none of the adults are explaining the reasons behind the spooky decorations or why they’re dressing up as monsters. Throwing Halloween into the Rugrats formula makes for a fascinating dynamic, because it’s the weirdest holiday to introduce to babies.

The grown ups ponder whether the babies are ready for their first haunted house, because it might give them nightmares. The Protective Deedee is being against them coming in, and old fashioned Lou insists that kids their age are brave enough. It did make me think, when SHOULD you introduce Halloween to infants? But I guess it depends on the child; only their parent will know them well enough to decide.

Angelica’s bratty boasting makes us root for the babies, because her mean spirited “You can’t have this” attitude is so harsh, and we also know much the babies love the Reptar bars. We cheer them on in hopes that they’ll get to have green tongues too, putting Angelica’s selfishness to shame.

The grown ups seem to be having lots of fun building their haunted house (which is really just a tent in the garden), each adult being very proud of their contributions. It’s cute seeing people this age getting so into the Halloween spirit – especially for the sake of making many kids’ Halloweens special. They could have just waited at the door with a bowl of candy, but the Pickles went the extra mile, taking creative pleasure in pulling it all off.

Although, I do wish that someone made sure an adult was looking after the kids, seeing as everyone is outside distracted with the haunted house gimmicks, particularly if Deedee doesn’t want the kids to come into the haunted house. Heck, the garden is open to the public, all the adults are busy scaring kids, AND it’s obvious that the backdoor isn’t locked, doesn’t that seem risky? Even if they are close. However, maybe I’m being overcautious after watching creepy true story videos on Youtube all week haha!

I get that the episode wants to setup a chance for the babies to get out, but why make it so easy? It takes away tension, and portrays the adults as irresponsible. Here’s my idea for how this could have been done better:

Grandpa Lou seemed to have the least input for the haunted house, so surely he could have babysat the babies? He could have accidentally fallen asleep, the babies would have then crawled towards the backdoor, noticed it was locked, and inspiring Tommy to make a tower to reach the keys on a hook, giving Tommy and friends a chance to get into the garden. Yeah, it would have made Lou look a little bad, but at least it could have showed that the grown ups at least tried.

Putting all that aside though, the haunted house itself is really fun. You can tell that a lot of imagination went into it, and I would have loved if my parents had a tent like this in our back yard at Halloween. Things take a comical turn too, when the babies’ antics in the haunted house create scary illusions for everyone, making Grandpa claim that the haunted house is REALLY haunted. After all the talk of the babies being too afraid of the adults’ tent project, it’s the rugrats themselves that end up scaring the adults. That’s pretty funny!

As far as I know too, this episode was the debut of the Reptar bar, a candy that became synonymous with this show, to the point where a company recently tried to sell them as real products, even including the novelty of it being able to turn your tongue green. I’ll confess, the episode does make Reptar bars look great, so maybe I’ll order a pack someday haha!

To Conclude, this is a cute Halloween special, with the heart of it’s charm coming from the babies’ reactions to spooky traditions, surprisingly To Conclude, this is a cute Halloween special, with the heart of it’s charm coming from the babies’ reactions to spooky traditions, surprisingly sparking me to think about the ethics of introducing Halloween to babies. Not to mention, it makes a dinosaur shaped chocolate bar look like the coolest thing ever, helping us to see WHY the babies want one so much.

However, the adults’ lack of precaution for protecting the babies, doesn’t make them look very responsible, and the show already has common criticism against it’s adult characters’ poor parenting. This maybe a childrens’ show, but mums and dads will sometimes watch it with their kids, and the grown ups are the characters they are going to relate to.
Despite that setback, it’s still an adorable wholesome take on Halloween – one that’s perfect for kids that are too young for scary movies in October!

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