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"No Bones About It" is the first segment of the ninth episode of Season 2, and the fourty-second Rugrats segment overall.
Characters[]
Introduced[]
Synopsis[]
When Grandpa Lou takes the Rugrats to the Natural History Museum, they accidentally cause the entire place to come crashing down while looking for a treat for Spike... in the dinosaur bone display!
- - Description from Klasky-Csupo
Plot[]
Grandpa Lou is preparing to take Tommy, Chuckie, Phil and Lil to the natural history museum. However, they're insistent that Spike, the Pickles' dog, join them. A saddened Tommy reluctantly accepts that Spike can't go. Tommy is upset because he can leave the house, but Spike can't. However, there are bigger problems in store. After Lou gets distracted by a couple of attractive women of roughly his age, Tommy, Chuckie, Phil and Lil roam freely inside the museum, trying to find a present for Spike. They come across a skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex, deciding that one of the bones would be perfect as a gift for Spike (it's a nice thought, but they aren't aware that the bones are fossilized and thus inedible to Spike).
Lou, meanwhile, has found out that Tommy, Chuckie, Phil and Lil are missing. He frantically tries to find them, but he runs afoul of the mean and strict Chief of Security named Sally Payson, who believes his antics are causing trouble in the museum.
After visiting various exhibits, including a diorama of a jungle featuring a stuffed lion, Tommy and the others come across an exhibit of a collection of ancient tribal masks from New Guinea and decide to play. A tour guide is showing some people around including the two ladies to whom Lou was talking earlier and tells them that legend has it that each mask contains a spirit that springs to life every thousand years to indulge in a cannibalistic feast. As Tommy and the others move forward, still wearing the masks, the tour guide and the others are soon scared to death and flee, believing the legend to be true.
Eventually, the babies reach the T. rex exhibit again on the lower floor and decide which bone to get for Spike. Just as Tommy removes one of the T. rex's toe claws, Lou arrives and takes the bone away, only to be caught by Payson and ordered to leave. Despite Lou warning her to put the bone back, she refuses to listen and keeps telling him to leave, which he does. However, as Lou expected, the skeleton soon comes tumbling down on top of Payson and a stray humerus (upper arm bone) lands in Tommy's hands. Lou then flees.
Back home, Stu and Didi are discussing their admiration for Lou watching Tommy, Chuckie, Phil and Lil. Didi is reading a newspaper that describes Payson's dismissal of her duties. Lou meanwhile is dozing in the living room.
Outside, Tommy, Chuckie, Phil and Lil give Spike his bone. Tommy and Chuckie dig a big hole for Spike to bury it and Spike gives Tommy a lovable lick.
Trivia[]
- The theropod dinosaur (possibly a Tyrannosaurus) shown in the museum heavily resembles what scientists used to think it looks like (standing like a kangaroo).
- It's strange that the dinosaur skeleton shown isn't that of an Apatosaurus; otherwise, Lou could've remarked that its neck alone was "at least 15 feet long"², and that its mass was "at least 15 tons"¹. Unlike Tyrannosaurus, which was from the Cretaceous, Apatosaurus was actually from the Jurassic.
- The scene where Spike licks Tommy's face at the end in this episode was also used in the last minutes of the "Rugrats Rap" music video.
- Lou's license plate number (California): IMOLD
- The "Tribal Chant" sound effect used in the prehistoric zone is the same vocalization that appeared in The Walt Disney Company's 1945 Goofy short "African Diary", a 1954 Walt Disney Cartoon Short "Social Lion", and a 1956 television special "On Vacation with Mickey Mouse and Friends".
- Morals:
- Always stay alert.
- Don't jump to conclusions.
- Respect public property.
Errors[]
- As the skeleton collapses, dozens of the bones look like the humerus that bounces into Tommy's hands.
Citations[]
1. Ash, Russell. "GROWTH AND AGE". Incredible Comparisons, edited by Tim Hetherington et al., DK Publishing, Inc., 1996, pp. 52-53.
2. McIntosh, John S., M. K. Brett Surman, and James O. Farlow. "Sauropods". The Complete Dinosaur, edited by James O. Farlow and M. K. Brett-Surman, Indiana University Press, 1997, page 282.