The ‘Rugrats’ artist drew what the characters look like all grown up

Do you ever find yourself daydreaming about what Tommy Pickles would look like as an adult? Yeah, us too.Well, wonder no more. Thanks to one of The Rugrats’ original storyboard artists, we’ve got an answer. Forget the other “all growed up” Rugrats renderings you’ve seen because this one is the real deal.

Eric Molinsky worked as a storyboard artist at the animation company behind Rugrats, Klasky Csupo, from 1999 to 2002. There, he helped draw a handful of our late ’90s faves, including Rugrats, The Wild Thornberrys, Rocket Power, and As Told By Ginger. Molinsky also worked on the Rugrats TV-movie, All Growed Up, that had the baby gang imagine themselves ten years older. So, needless to say, Molinsky knows a thing or two about aging Tommy, Chuckie, Phil and Lil.

During a segment on NPR’s Studio360, Molinsky, now a public radio producer, shared that while he welcomes seeing others interpret the Rugrats as adults, it “bugs” him, because “the Rugrats did not all grow up to be fashion models or self-confident hipsters. Especially not Chuckie. They probably grew up to be average if not slightly lumpy looking people — just like their parents.”

“We referred to them as lumpy babies for a reason,” he continued. So instead of letting the hipster Rugarts take over the Internet, Molinsky decided to draw them himself — in all their their awkward, aged glory.

Tommy looks exactly like his dad, right down to the facial stubble, while Chuckie continues to look nothing short of absolutely paranoid. Some things never change.

Phil now has a duck tattoo on his arm (you do you, Phil), and Lil’s still wearing a pink bow in her hair. The best one might be Angelica, in her pantsuit and purple platform shoes, probably being a #GirlBoss. Do you think she’s talking (yelling) at Cynthia over the phone?

(Images via Nickelodeon, Studio 360 Instagram and by Eric Molinsky)