Chuckie Finster

Charles "Chuckie" Crandall Finster III is a character from the hit Nickelodeon animated shows Rugrats and All Grown Up!.

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, green shorts, and red shoes with untied shoelaces. He is scared easily, but is still friends with Tommy Pickles and the DeVille twins. Among his fears are adventures, Santa Claus, clowns, and the "guy on the oatmeal box" (a parody of Quaker Oats). He is loyal and often brave, facing his fears (albeit briefly) to come through for his friends. Chuckie doesn't like misbehaving, but his friends often get him into trouble.

Some have suggested Chuckie shows signs of autism and Asperger's Syndrome, but his timid personality seems natural for someone who lost his mother at an early age and whose physical traits mark him as different. In Rugrats he is usually the main target of Angelica's bullying.

A new step-sister
In Rugrats in Paris: The Movie, Chuckie's father Chaz got married to Kira Watanabe. As well as gaining a step-mother, Chuckie also gained a step-sister - Kira's daughter Kimi. Kimi and Chuckie get along well, except for the fact that Chuckie is still afraid of a lot of things. Chuckie also began talking to his parents in the same film, albeit with an extremely limited vocabulary ("no" is the only word he knows).

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. 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 commisioner 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).

The Fans' Standpoint
In Rugrats, Chuckie was one of the most popular characters, as he represented a timid boy who had many challenges before him, and, despite his fear, would always overcome them. He was a truly original character that had a lot of potential story-wise. His character was greatly explored throughout the series, eventually culminating in him being the focus of the Mother's Day episode (where the fate and identity of his mother, Melinda, was finally revealed) as well as the second Rugrats movie Rugrats in Paris, where he not only gained a new stepmother and stepsister, but also spoke his first word (which was "No!")

In All Grown Up, however, Chuckie has been critically panned by the fans as being a boring character, as he fails to truly stand out in some significant way (unlike characters such as Dil Pickles, whose off-beat and wacky personality made him one of the most popular characters on the show.) As of late, he has been somewhat typecast as a stereotypical "comic book geek", where he is seen obsessing over things such as trading card games (seen in the spoof episode "Yu-Gotta-Go!"). However, the final nail in the coffin for fans came when several episodes previewed by Klasky-Csupo's Cooltoons newsletter featured Chuckie as the main focus of each episode continuously for 5 episodes, not leaving many for the others. One of those upcoming stories ("Trading Places") is also supposed to be a Kimi storyline. In that aspect, Chuckie has even already "hijacked" two Kimi storylines ("Bad Kimi", first US tx: November 29, 2003; "Memoirs of a Finster", first US tx: June 12, 2004). In response, a petition (which has since gone off-line) had been erected to temporarily retire Chuckie's character, as many felt he was hogging the spotlight. In many fans' eyes, the overload of Chuckie-centered episodes was one of the low points for the series.

Voice actress
Christine Cavanaugh voiced Chuckie between the start of the series and early 2002 (including the All Grown Up! pilot), when she retired from her profession. Since then, Nancy Cartwright (most famous as Bart Simpson) has provided his voice.

Trivia

 * Chuckie's full name is Charles Crandall Finster III, according to the All Grown Up! pilot. However, in the Cooltoons Newsletter's preview for the episode "Rat Traps", this has apparently been retconned to be Charles Randall Finster (although this could be a simple typo.
 * A running gag with Chuckie in Rugrats is his fear of various things, in particular, clowns and "the guy on the oatmeal box".
 * Chuckie was once an avid "Yu-Gotta-Go" player (a trading card game spoofing the Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game in the episode "Yu-Gotta-Go", and even progressed to be a top ranking player in the school. It is unknown if he still plays (he is seen putting away his cards 'for good' in the ending, but he later receives one of his most sought after cards, the 'Red Mirror Dragon' from a pack his dad bought him.)
 * Has had a crush on various girls throughout the All Grown up series. This includes Samantha (The All Grown Up pilot,)and Nicole Boscarelli ("Chuckie's in Love",).
 * One common fan pairing is Chuckie and Angelica.
 * Chuckie is the president of the audio-visual club at school ("It's Karma, Dude!", first US tx: April 14, 2005).
 * Popular theory of his name: His red, frizzy hair and name are supposedly based off Chucky, from the horror movie "Child's Play".