What '90s Nicktoons Would Look Like Rebooted

Ever wanted to see Rugrats' Tommy Pickles as a hardened criminal? Well that's a strange and oddly specific wish, but lucky for you, it has finally come true. Cartoonist Mady G. over at Dorkly has made that image a reality in a series of movie posters for hypothetical "reboots" of '90s Nickelodeon cartoons. Seeing the Nicktoons all grown up is pretty jarring and could, as the Internet says, "ruin your childhood" (although if pictures of children's cartoons is what ruins your childhood, you're probably doing just fine). But it makes sense for the medium. Mady G. interprets each cartoon as a different genre: Doug becomes a superhero movie, Hey Arnold! becomes a romantic comedy, Rugrats becomes an action thriller, Rocko's Modern Life becomes an indie drama, CatDog becomes a horror movie.

These reboots don't look like the shows we know and love. But then again, neither do the recent reboots that have become sort of a trend in entertainment. Although these reboot posters are intended for the silver screen, many retro cartoons have been getting small screen reboots: the current version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the impending resurrections of both The Powerpuff Girls and Sailor Moon. So what are the chances that these shows will get similar reboots?

CatDog

Certainly not like this; the poster is appropriately nightmarish. CatDog is one of the less-remembered shows of the Nicktoons heyday, never quite reaching the canon status of its peers. Sure, the titular character(s?) would probably look great rendered in the CGI style that seems to be the template for almost all reboots. But it's not worth it to get the CatDog theme song stuck in your head again.

Rocko's Modern Life

The time is ripe for a Rocko's Modern Life reboot. The show's dual weirdo humor, targeted at both children and adults, is the predecessor of similar cartoons today like Adventure Time and Regular Show. As long as a reboot didn't stray too far from the show's rough-around-the-edges, 2D animation and surreal humor, it'd probably welcome at the cool kid's table of hit shows over at Cartoon Network.

Rugrats

Everyone remembers Rugrats. In fact, the show already technically had a reboot in Rugrats: All Grown Up (which was shorter lived for a reason). But as long as any reboot brought back the babies and the show's signature, unsteady animation style, it'd surely be a hit with nostalgia hungry millennials.

Hey Arnold!

Unlike the babies of Rugrats, it'd actually be pretty interesting to see what happened to the kids from P.S. 118 (hopefully, they look a little better than the ones in this poster). And of course, Arnold was a bit of a hipster before the word became popular again, so he'd fit perfectly into 2014. Plus, the show has a lot of questions to answer: What is Arnold's last name? What happened to his parents? And the most important question of all, will Arnold and Helga ever get together?

Doug

As great a show as Doug is, it's hard to imagine how it would translate into a reboot. It's a show best remembered in its time period. Plus, the voice of Patti Mayonnaise is a little busy these days...

Images: Mady G.