Phil and Lil DeVille

Phil and Lil DeVille are characters from the hit Nickelodeon shows Rugrats and All Grown Up!, and were among the series' original characters.

Rugrats


Phil and Lil are fraternal twins, and in their Rugrats days, they were dressed to match: They both wore pink and black-striped shirts, and overalls with a polka-dotted hankerchief on the left side and a duck on the right, and both had a small amount of brown hair on top of their oddly-shaped heads. Phil wore blue shoes and shorts with white socks, and was drawn (for the most part) without ear lobes (episodes from 1996 to early 1999 and The Rugrats Movie show Phil with ear lobes). Lil wore pink shoes with white socks, a pink bow on her hair and no shorts (exposing her diapers like Tommy Pickles), and was always drawn with ear lobes.

They also shared the same interest: consuming gross stuff like worms (which they have often called "Chocolate Spaghetti") and toilet water. They often used their "full" names, Phillip and Lillian, especially when arguing. Their parents Betty and Howard often got them mixed up, despite permanent differences like the ears, as well as of course their sexes. It was revealed in one story that Lil is 2 minutes older.

All Grown Up!


Before All Grown Up!, a few Rugrats stories touched on attempts to either differentiate the twins personality-wise ("Twins Pique", 1993), or physically separate them ("Together at Last", 1992).

However, separating the twins only got serious in the new spin-off. Its premiere, "Coup DeVille" (first US tx: April 12, 2003), was focused on the twins. Lil strongly retaliated at being paired with Phil on a science project, as well as being treated "like a single package" with Phil, and even refused a trip to Twins Canyon with her family on that principle. This episode also repeated the "Lil is older" fact from the original series, and also revealed Lil to have an even longer name than was previously let on: Lillian Marie Jill DeVille. Lil moved to a separate bedroom in this episode.

Since then, the twins have evolved distinctly different personalities. Phil still enjoys repusive objects (although he is beyond eating worms and insects, he once won a science fair growing mold on cheese and socks), and has been referred to as "socially inept", while Lil is beginning to find interest in boys and become more social, and she has also picked up an interest in sports, in particular soccer (more on that below).

A new look
In season two of All Grown Up!, all the characters got new looks, and Lil and Kimi both received new hairdos. Lil's hairdo was similar to one the title character of As Told By Ginger wore in "Foutleys on Ice": straightened out with one streak dyed pink (the color has varied, however).

Fan criticism
In a second season ep of All Grown Up!, "The Big Score" (first US tx: April 25, 2005), Lil joined the school soccer team, and became the team's big star practically immediately. The main problem with this development is that, according to fans, not only was the DeVilles' interest in soccer almost unprecedented (the only previous reference was Phil being shown at soccer practice in "Chuckie's in Love" and "Fools Rush In", first US txs: December 6, 2003 and June 5, 2004), it also essentially contradicted Tommy's participation on the team, previously shown or mentioned in "Chuckie's In Love", "Brother, Can You Spare The Time?" (first US tx: January 17, 2004) and "Fools Rush In" (where he was even shown trying to teach Dil how to play soccer). The only time Tommy was shown at the soccer pitch in "The Big Score", he was filming Lil with his camcorder, as opposed to actually playing.

Despite this, what is notable is that her talent (and interest) for the sport has remained with the character, unlike other traits such as Susie's language skills, which only seem to appear just in the one story where it's brought up; but rather like other traits that have been associated with the show's characters from the first eps, such as Tommy being a videographer and Susie's singing talent.

Most characters in the show have been "paired off" at some point or another in the All Grown Up "fandom", inspiring fanfiction, fanart and (most commonly) fan-wars about which theoretical 'couple' is better. Most commonly, Phil is paired with Kimi Finster - though this is a relatively minor fan pairing in comparison to Tommy/Kimi it is still a popular pairing and produces some of the most popular fanfiction and fanart. Lil is most commonly paired with Tommy Pickles, but for quite some time there was a strong Lil/Chuckie community on fansites.

Voice actress
Phil and Lil are voiced by Kath Soucie, who also does the voice of their mother Betty (Firesign Theater's Philip Proctor voices their father Howard).

External link
The Tommy and Lil Love Home Page