Chuckie Finster

Chuckie Finster
File:Chuckie.jpg
First appearance	Rugrats "Tommy's First Birthday" (1991)
Last appearance	All Grown Up! "Brothers Grimm" (2008)
Voiced by	Christine Cavanaugh (1991–2001) Candi Milo (2001-2002) Nancy Cartwright (2002–2008)
In-universe information
Relatives	Parents: Chas and Melinda Step-mother: Kira Finster Step-sister: Kimi Grandparents: Marvin Finster and Shirley Finster

Charles Crandall "Chuckie" Finster is a fictional character from the Nickelodeon animated television series' Rugrats and All Grown Up!. He is Tommy Pickles' best friend. The character was originally voiced by Christine Cavanaugh until 2001 when Nancy Cartwright took over the role following Cavanaugh's retirement. Cartwright had previously guest-starred in the Rugrats episode "Showdown at Teeter-Totter Gulch" as the voice of the "Junk Food Kid" in 1992.

He has red hair and his catchphrase is "I don't know; maybe this isn't such a good idea.".

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 original Rugrat who is left-handed until Dil Pickles was shown to be left handed in All Grown Up, and the only one besides Angelica and Susie who has spoken an intelligible word to adults during the Rugrats series (he said "No" during the movie Rugrats in Paris).

In Rugrats

One of the original five main characters introduced in Rugrats, Chuckie sports uncontrollable red hair, glasses and bucked teeth (which was later lost in All Grown Up!), and is left-handed, as revealed in Chuckie's a Lefty (first US tx: February 19, 1999). Chuckie commonly wears a blue T-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, 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, Chaz, 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 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 (it is mentioned by Stu in the episode Real or Robots? (first US tx: January 5, 1992) that Chuckie's "mom and dad will pick [him] up in the morning"). Also in the episode Chuckie vs. The Potty (first US tx: September 13, 1992), Chuckie refers to when his mom puts him on the bottle. Then states how not even his mom can put him on the potty. In the Mother's Day (first US tx: May 9, 1997) episode, Chuckie finds a box filled with some of his mother's things, including a picture of her which he shows to Chaz. Chaz then decides that it's time for Chuckie to know about his mother. He also reads to him her diary and the last page she wrote before she died was a poem for Chuckie, explaining that she's never far from him and is everywhere he looks. However, in the second episode of Rugrats, Barbecue Story (first US tx: August 18, 1991), while Tommy's father, Stu, starts to video tape everyone, he comes across a woman with Chaz who very much resembles him and Chuckie. It was never confirmed that this is Chuckie's mother, but by the resemblance you could make that inference. Though, like the other babies, he cannot communicate with adults (except Angelica and Susie), since Rugrats in Paris, he has been able to say "NO", which the adults can hear. He has congestion problems. Since Chucky vs. the Potty, Chuckie has been the only one of the original four Rugrats that has been potty-trained.

In the Rugrats films

• The Rugrats Movie – Chuckie gets puked on by Tommy's new little brother Dil. Chuckie 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.

• Rugrats in Paris: The Movie – Chuckie is the main protagonist of this film and develops a hero in him; 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, Chaz. He carries a teddy bear named Wawa that his late mother made for him. Wawa is Chuckie's teddy bear, attachment or travel companion, like Angelica and her doll, Cynthia. He ended up with a new mom Kira and a sister Kimi.

• Rugrats Go Wild – Chuckie gets lost in this film and runs into the Thornberry's Tarzan-like child 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 episode "Susie Sings The Blues" in All Grown Up! and before that in the episode "All Growed Up" in Rugrats). 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 the episode "Saving Cynthia"). Notable storylines for Chuckie include partnering with Angelica on a social-studies project (As seen in the episode "Project Chuckie"), entering the safety commissioner election against an imaginary friend, inexplicably dropped without even mentioning the final result (As seen in the episode "Izzy or Isn't He?"), and dragging in what looked like a trashed Christmas tree (As seen in the episode "The Finster Who Stole Christmas"). Chuckie also admits in TP+KF that he has always been jealous of Tommy, and it started sometime around his seventh birthday.

Love interests

In the episodes All Grown Up! & "Susie Sings The Blues", it is mentioned that he first had a crush on Angelica Pickles's friend, Samantha Shane. He also had a crush on Nicole Boscarelli, dropped after the first season (as seen in the episodes "Chuckie's in Love" and "It's Cupid, Stupid").