the following year. Only The Rugrats Movie materialized in November 1998. In 1996, when Disney bought Jumbo Pictures along with the cartoon, they decided to revive the project for the Doug film. This film was originally planned as a direct-to-video release under the title The First Doug Movie Ever as shown in trailers, but due to the success of The Rugrats Movie, they decided to make it a theatrical release. This is the last American theatrical animated film to use traditional cels, in which the title sequence of the film used digital ink and paint. Release The film was theatrically released with the short "Opera Box", featuring Donald and Daisy Duck, from the television series Mickey Mouse Works. Critical reception The film garnered a 26% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with 9 of a total 34 reviews being determined as positive. The critical consensus reads, "Doug's 1st Movie may entertain very young fans of its main character, but essentially amounts to a forgettable feature-length episode of his show." Critics were harsh to Doug's 1st Movie when it was released theatrically. Many noted that the film felt too much like an extended episode of the show (story and animation-wise) and many mention that the film should have stayed a direct-to-video release. Most of the criticism came from the plot, writing, and music, though they praised the animation, voice acting and ending. Screenit.com awarded the film 4 out of 10, determining that it was mediocre and did not have "that magic or cinematic feel to warrant the big screen treatment" and it felt like the regular series. Roger Ebert gave the film 2½ out of 4 stars, quoting "Doug's 1st Movie is a thin and less than thrilling feature-length version of a Saturday morning animated series, unseen by me. Chatter on the Web suggests it was originally intended to go straight to video, but was rechanneled into theaters after the startling success of The Rugrats Movie. Since Doug originally started on Nickelodeon, where Rugrats resides, the decision made sense – or would have if this had been a better movie." Box office Doug's 1st Movie opened at #5 in its opening weekend with $4,470,489, for an average of $1,971 from a very wide 2,268 theaters. While this may be deemed as low for an average Hollywood film, Doug only cost $5 million to make due to its direct-to-video budget and a somewhat