Phil & Lil’s Mom Will Be Openly Gay In The Rugrats Reboot

Paramount+ recently revealed a trailer for the Rugrats reboot with a new announcement. 

Betty DeVille, who played Phil & Lil’s mom on the famous cartoon Rugrats will be rebooted as an openly gay character.

Betty who was initially voiced by Kath Soucie will now be played by Natalie Morales who is openly gay and uses they/them pronouns as well as she/her.

Betty was originally married to Howard in the original cartoon and wore shorts with the female gender symbol on them.

Natalie said, “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,”

They also mentioned that cartoons were hugely influential to them as a kid and were excited to portray a progressive representation of a gay character on tv.

“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.”

The Rugrats reboot itself however has received mixed reviews with people missing the old animation style.

With people being nostalgic for the old style of 2D hand-drawn animation, they are skeptical of how good the 3D will look.

The reboot has a lot to live up to in comparison with the original which ran for 9 seasons and 13 years. It was also highly awarded, winning Kid’s Choice awards, Emmys and even having its own star on the Walk of Fame in LA.