Paramount Plus’ CGI-animated Rugrats revival series can’t compare to the original Rugrats—’90s nostalgia can rarely truly be duplicated—but in the case of Betty DeVille, being different this time around is the point.
Betty was and still is the mother to twin babies Phil and Lil. In the original, she was married to Howard. Now, Betty is openly gay and voiced by queer actor Natalie Morales.
Morales shared an exclusive statement with The A.V. Club about Betty’s more authentic character development because “anyone who watched the original show may have had an inkling Betty was a member of the alphabet mafia”:
“Betty is a single mom with her own business who has twins and still has time to hang out with her friends and her community, and I think it’s just so great because examples of living your life happily and healthily as an out queer person is just such a beacon for young queer people who may not have examples of that. And yeah, Betty is a fictional cartoon, but even cartoons were hugely influential for me as a kid and if I’d been watching Rugrats and seen Betty casually talking about her ex-girlfriend, I think at least a part of me would have felt like things might be okay in the future.”
In the first episode of the revival series, which debuted on Paramount Plus today (May 27), Betty is seen wearing her same iconic wardrobe and tossing the football around with the babies’ dads. Later in the episode, Betty tosses out a gay joke with Didi Pickles before mentioning her “one ex-girlfriend who still kind of scares me.”
