Chuckie Finster

Charles "Chuckie" Crandall Finster is a fictional character from the Nickelodeon animated television series' Rugrats and All Grown Up!. He is Tommy Pickles' best friend. The character is voiced by Christine Cavanaugh. However, after Cavanaugh's retirement in 2001, Nancy Cartwright took over the role.

Chuckie is the third oldest out of the six main Rugrats at two. He is distinguished from the others by his irrational fear of particular objects, most notably the guy on the oatmeal box and clowns. He is also the only Rugrat who is left-handed, and the only one who has spoken an intelligble word to adults during the Rugrats series (he said "No" during the Rugrats in Paris movie). Chuckie's appearance comes from Rugrats music supervisor and former Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh.

Another inconsistency is the number of teeth Chuckie has in his mouth. In the early episodes, he is shown to have not only his trademark buck teeth, but also a full mouth of them. From late 1992 onwards, the mouth full of teeth is removed, and he has only the two buck teeth.

In Rugrats
One of the original five main characters introduced in Rugrats, Chuckie has uncontrollable red hair, glasses and bucked teeth, and is left-handed, as revealed in Chuckie's a Lefty (first US tx: February 19, 1999). Chuckie commonly wears a blue shirt with Saturn on it, purple square glasses, green shorts, and red shoes with untied shoelaces. He is scared easily, and at the first suggestion that he and the other babies should do something or go somewhere, he will always say, "Maybe this isn't such a good idea." All the same, he is still friends with Tommy Pickles and the DeVille twins. Among his fears are adventures, clowns, and the "guy on the oatmeal box with the scary hat" (a parody of Quaker Oats). He is loyal and often brave, facing his fears (albeit briefly) to come through for his friends, whenever there's a problem, Chuckie's there to help his friends get through it emotionally. Chuckie doesn't really like misbehaving, but his friends often get him into trouble. He is very close to his father, Chas, and is usually the main target of Angelica's bullying. Chuckie is the only character who does not come from a two-parent house hold (prior to The Rugrats in Paris). This, however, was not an original idea for Chuckie as seen in the episode where he first appears and talks about his mother (in the Rugrats Mother's Day episode we learn that Chuckie's mother, Melinda, passed away from an unnamed illness). Though he cannot communicate with adults like the other babies can, since Rugrats in Paris, he has been able to say "NO" which the adults can hear.

In the Rugrats films
In The Rugrats Movie, he is in a truck with the other Rugrats and he keeps bouncing in the air back and forth and he says "I don't know if I should throw up or throw down". He doesn't get saved by Tommy when he falls into the water because Tommy had to get Dil because Dil was only a baby and Tommy didn't want Dil to drown. He gets his glasses stolen by the monkeys and he accidentally steps on them a little bit when he finds them.

In Rugrats in Paris, Chuckie is the main character with a bigger role and hero; something that had rarely happened before in the series. His heroism is shown when he leads the babies on the giant Reptar to the church to stop Coco from marrying his father, Chas. He carries a teddy bear named Wawa that his late mother made him. Wawa is Chuckie's security blanket, attachment or travel companion, like Angelica and her doll, Cynthia.

In Rugrats Go Wild, he finds a friend in the water named Donnie, from the other Nickelodeon television show, The Wild Thornberrys. He starts posing and Donnie copies him until Donnie starts making his own pose and that scares Chuckie. Chuckie is mad at Donnie for leaving the water and later, his clothes disappeared (since he washed them in the water). He gets Donnie's clothes and he has just a pair of shorts. Donnie starts wearing Chuckie's glasses, his tennis shoes, his t-shirt and his shorts. Chuckie eventually gets his clothes back from Donnie.

In All Grown Up!
Since he got older, Chuckie has been wearing braces for his teeth (which is expected to be for "2.5 years", according to Chuckie's statement in the pilot for All Grown Up!). He still considers Tommy his best friend. One difference is that he is not as close to his dad as he used to be (as seen in "Saving Cynthia") Notable storylines for Chuckie have included his crush on Nicole Boscarelli, dropped after the first season ("Chuckie's in Love" and "It's Cupid, Stupid", first US txs: December 6, 2003 and February 14, 2004); partnering with Angelica on a social-studies project ("Project Chuckie", first US tx: November 27, 2004); entering the safety commissioner election against an imaginary friend, inexplicably dropped without even mentioning the final result ("Izzy or Isn't He?", first US tx: November 27, 2004); and dragging in what looked like a trashed Christmas tree ("The Finster Who Stole Christmas", first US tx: December 7, 2004) Also, in the pilot for All Grown Up, it is mentioned that he first had a crush on Angelica Pickles's friend, Samantha Shane. He is also the president of the audio-visual club at school, as seen in the episode "It's Karma, Dude!"

Charles-Edouard Fifrelin