Getting to Paris may have been easy for the Rugrats: all they had to do was hop on a plane. But setting up the whole enterprise took two years of careful planning and meticulous draughtsmanship by Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon movies who - just as they did two years ago on The Rugrats Movie - teamed up with the series’ creators Klasky/Csupo to make the trip a reality.

“After my second child was born, I wanted to stay home and take care of both my boys,” explains Arlene Klasky of the origin of the Rugrats phenomenon. A Cal Arts grad who started her career as a designer for A&M Records, Klasky could hardly have expected that her move into animation would spawn the most successful kids’ series of the nineties (viewing figures run to 23 million after nine series). Surrounded by her own rugrats, Klasky set up a production company with Gabor Csupo in the spare room of their apartment. And, like Van Gogh with his sunflowers, she drew inspiration from what was in front of her.

The horrible Coco La Bouche - Cruella De Vil's wickeder sister, who speaks with the voice of Susan Sarandon - finds a worthy adversary in Angelica Pickle during the Rugrats’ visit to the City of Light (and EuroReptarland).

“I’d been immersed in raising little babies for a few years, and that was my world,” she explains. “I found them very humorous and I needed somehow to tie in their humour with art, because I am an artist also. It seemed like the perfect marriage, so I jotted down a few lines and we got together this treatment about, if babies could speak, what would they say and what would be their visual perspective?” Klasky and Csupo began to develop a series of storyboards, which they eventually took to cable TV channel Nickelodeon. Nick got it immediately, and the rest is history.

If you don’t believe the impact they’ve had, listen to screen legend Debbie Reynolds, who danced with Gene Kelly the time he didn’t go to Paris. But, despite starring in the greatest screen musical of all time and being a Las Vegas legend to boot, Reynolds was still just ‘Grandma’ to her granddaughters - until, that is, the chance to voice Lulu Pickles (Grandpa Pickles’ new love interest) came along.

“I was very excited when I received the call, because Rugrats is my granddaughter’s favourite programme,” says the star. “I don’t have a chance to watch a lot of animated shows at my age. But when I told her I was going to be in the new Rugrats movie, she was beyond excited.” Other stars lending their names (and voices) to Rugrats in Paris are British-born Broadway star Tim Curry (as the Sumo Singer) and Top 40 Countdown legend Casey Kasem (as, fittingly, a DJ).