Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie (Hey Arnold Bonus Review 2) - 'Toon Reviews 34

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One thing that should be made absolutely clear about the first Hey Arnold movie is that it was never intended to be the show’s big theatrical debut.  When given the opportunity to make a feature-length work of his show, creator Craig Bartlett had something much bigger and cinema-worthy in mind.  This particular film would be a true grand-scale adventure taking Arnold and his friends outside of their neighborhood to an exotic jungle setting.  Above all, it would be the work to answer everything the show couldn’t. As a follow-up to Season 3’s “Parents Day” the most important thing it would answer was of what happened to Arnold’s parents.  Although Craig was busy brainstorming on this movie, it wasn’t long before Nickelodeon decided to have the other Hey Arnold movie released to theaters.  This meant that Craig’s project would have to be put on hold, and would only go in production again after the first Hey Arnold was released.  However, that movie didn’t do well at the box office and other animated theatrical Nickelodeon releases like The Wild Thornberrys Movie and Rugrats Go Wild met similar fates.  This along with the fact that the Hey Arnold series had ended production convinced Nickelodeon to shelve that more substantial and ambitious film. In going through with this move, Hey Arnold ended up feeling unresolved and abruptly finished.  I mean, given how effective things like Arnold missing his parents and Helga’s crush on Arnold are, closure was absolutely necessary especially for such dynamic characters. 

Going through the 2000s straight into the 2010s, the rise of social media showed that fans of nostalgic 90s cartoons, including Hey Arnold, felt the same way.  For years, fans have drawn awareness of how there was supposed to be another Hey Arnold movie and showed desire for it to be made.  There were innumerable petitions, groups on sites like Facebook, and causes of any form of media possible to convince Nickelodeon to make the film.  I actually first learned of the film from these sources myself in fact.  At that time, the rise in interest and awareness of how powerful nostalgia truly was soon got to Nickelodeon. They started promoting their old shows, Hey Arnold included, in ways they never did before with a block called The 90s Are All That, later renamed The Splat or nickSplat.  Then DVDs of seasons of those old shows started getting released by Shout Factory to great profit.  Even Craig Bartlett, who had long given up on this film ever being made, was starting to become hopeful over the rise of the interest.  Finally, the voice of the fans was officially heard, and Nickelodeon allowed the film to be made and therefore give Hey Arnold the ending it deserved.  Its name being:

Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie

(November 24, 2017)

The very idea that this movie could be made in an age where it seems like the world has moved on from 90s cartoons is very hard to believe, but it happened.  It’s also telling of just how powerful nostalgia can be and how the modern age has allowed it to be noticed.  As a result, this film is not just effective in answering nearly all the unknown questions of the series. It also transports audiences to an era not seen for many years for something truly unforgettable.

Right from the art style, you can tell that for a product of the 2010s, its aesthetics pretty much nail the old school world of the original Hey Arnold series.  In the early scenes at Arnold’s neighborhood, the look of the setting is instantly recognizable.  Also, while many characters have a few slight alterations to their looks, they’re completely recognizable too from their voices, personalities, and general appearances.  Any change they do have can be justified due to how much time has passed in universe, a year after the original series ended in fact.  You might say that they grow up alongside the original fans, which shows just how personal this film is to anyone who has ever cherished Hey Arnold. 

This feel also reflects how technology has changed, mainly through how the Patakis fall on hard time with Big Bob’s stubbornness to accept that beepers are now obsolete.  That said, the phones, which are shown prominently in the film, feel more like they’ve adapted with our times than the show’s time if this movie takes place a year after the series.

No matter how much this world and the Hey Arnold fan base has grown, it feels right at home with its roots.  This isn’t only applicable to the look of the film, but in the storytelling as well.  It’s quick to pick up where the series left off by showcasing the effects of the biggest mystery on Arnold himself considering that it involves his long lost parents. The opening scene is a dream sequence of flying off to the jungles of San Lorenzo to find them.  Once he does, they barely reunite when they’re suddenly called on another mission, leaving him again with a hole in his heart to show how he feels without them around.  It’s a big way to start the film to showcase what that one unresolved question is doing for Arnold as he gets nowhere in finding his parents even with that uncovered map. 

Nevertheless, it’s impressive that he manages to remain upbeat and friendly as he goes through areas of his life, all of which reflective of the original series.  The residents of his grandparents’ boarding house as well as his grandparents are their eccentric old selves.  Helga uses the same aggressive quirks to hide her intense crush on Arnold.  The students of Mr. Simmons’ class are also true to their roots as he does what he can to keep the learning experience enjoyable for everyone.  It’s a familiar and distinctive world with a lot to take in, and despite his internal problems, Arnold never lets them overpower his pure heart. 

In fact, it’s that pure heart that gets him the progress he needs in his goal to find his parents.  There’s a contest to go to San Lorenzo where the winner must prove to be a good humanitarian.  When Arnold’s attempts prove fruitless, Helga’s mad affection for him takes care of everything.  The film takes her habit of stalking Arnold to a whole new level by revealing she’s filmed practically everything he’s done, including his tendencies to help people no matter what.  Nevertheless, her painstaking efforts to help him and general devotion show as she stops at nothing to put it all together. 

The result is an amazing tribute to Arnold’s general role in the series as we know it.  It comes in the form of a montage of recreated scenes of memorable moments and interviews of members of the cast major and minor.  To make the tribute feel especially authentic to the series, there are even interviews with legendary one-off characters like Stoop Kid and Pigeon Man.  For the latter figure though, you have to wonder how Helga managed to get footage in France.  Nevertheless, you couldn’t ask for a better tribute to the element of Hey Arnold that basically defines it all.  While it’s solid in context for being what wins Arnold the contest and chance to find his parents, it’s also strong out of context to convince outsiders to check out the series.

At this point, it’s worth mentioning that unlike the first movie, this movie is much more successful at giving a cinematic feel.  While it starts off simple, it allows enough time to take in the emotional effects of things like Arnold missing his parents, how his world’s changed, and the tribute to Arnold.  This is what’s needed to smoothly transition into more ambitious storytelling once Arnold and his class set off on their trip to San Lorenzo.  It all starts with adjusting to new surroundings of this strange new jungle setting, the experience highlighted by the different personalities of many familiar characters.  Arnold’s classmates are given many memorable moments here fitting to how fans of this show know them.  Harold is constantly asking about food.  Curly is a frequent stalker and nutcase in an already wild environment.  Eugene has comedic allergic reactions to exotic fruits leading to many calamities while he’s over inflated as a result which is honestly a bit too cartoonish for this show.  Rhonda has several comedic outbursts over the jungle environment messing with her fashion.  Even Nadine, who’s usually given next to nothing to do, has a lot of standout moments relating to her interests in bugs.  These supporting characters’ roles are small, but their prominent enough to define this film as a true Hey Arnold work.

Of course, driving everything is Arnold himself whose thoughts of his missing parents really shows being in the very place they disappeared.  As a result, he naturally comes off as much more flawed than his pure of heart tribute video suggests.  The trip is led by a man claiming to be his parents’ old friend Eduardo, though there’s always some suspicion surrounding him.  Believing he could lead to their whereabouts, Arnold puts the utmost trust in Eduardo despite only just meeting him.  Very slowly, the consequences of this move reveal themselves as everything good Arnold already has in his life unravels.  First, his trust in Eduardo causes his best friend and loyal partner Gerald to feel betrayed. 

Then, when Helga finally sets out to tell him her true feelings of him and find out how he feels about her much more genuinely than in the first film, he blows her off.  You know this move is serious when Helga is led to tear up the heart-shaped picture of Arnold in her locket as a result.  Arnold’s alliance with Eduardo really tears things apart when he agrees to press forward into dangers to find his parents despite having the option to safely turn back.  While it’s exciting to watch with a high-stakes chase from pirates down roaring rapids, it horribly inconveniences everyone by getting them shipwrecked and lost.  If that’s not enough, after a grueling trek through the jungle, it’s revealed that Arnold never should have trusted Eduardo. He’s actually a notorious river pirate seen only briefly in “The Journal” called La Sombra who imprisons this innocent class.  While it is harsh to see everyone, including those closest to Arnold, turn their backs on him for this, it does show the humanities of Arnold.  Had he not put so much trust into someone he only just met, these hardships probably would not have happened.  In addition to being a big-scaled and intense trek through the wild, all these events show that even someone as nice and mature as Arnold can mess up.  Really, all of us are capable of great faults when doing literally anything to satisfy our deepest desires.

Still, heart shines through as the story allows room for understanding despite the problems brought by Arnold’s rashness to find his parents.  Helga, whose aggression to Arnold is genuine following her failure to confess her feelings to him, can see that he was just desperate to find his parents.  Also, she’s to blame for selfishness as much as Arnold was back there since she was thinking too much of her desires and not of his.  Honoring her love for him, she puts what’s happened aside and convinces and rallies everyone to help him escape to accomplish what he set out to do in San Lorenzo.  For how hardly everyone has taken Arnold’s actions, understanding is the best route for the story to go it as it makes for many exciting moments for the rest of the film.  While Phoebe’s high IQ takes charge in a fun character driven jailbreak from La Sombra’s guards, Arnold, Helga, and Gerald break free to the wild for the real high stakes.  With the aid of the map in his dad’s journal and an amulet from the mysterious Green-Eyed People, the three come across many surprises selling a believable feel of the setting. It’s actually lucky they have these tools or else they’d be no match for dart onslaughts, dangerous falls, or cave-ins after making a wrong move.  The Green-Eyed People are just that well-hidden.  Speaking of the Green-Eyed People, there’s welcome insight to them and their society after only being heard of but never seen back in “The Journal.” 

While the look of their hidden city isn’t spectacular for sticking out as a painfully obvious CGI element, it is impressively grand scale.  Even more noteworthy is how it’s only inhabited by children which demonstrates the creative world building of this mysterious tribe. Keeping true to established events of the series, there’s a good reason for this because of the effects of the sleeping sickness Arnold’s parents, Miles and Stella, came to cure.   

It also works in a callback of a major natural phenomenon of the original series of a volcano silencing the second Arnold was born.  That’s all the reasons the Green-Eyed People need to believe that he’s the one to retrieve a sacred artifact called the Corazon to potentially cure the sleeping sickness.  While it’s already confusing for Arnold, it only becomes more difficulty because of La Sombra.

This would easily be a good time to talk about La Sombra, the main villain of the film.  Character wise, he’s almost as basic as Scheck from the first Hey Arnold movie, acting simply out of greed and having no deep reason to get this one treasure, the Corazon.  Yet, he’s still someone worth loving to hate.  When revealing that he was posing as Eduardo, he delights in messing with Arnold and his friends, treating them like total saps as he plays with his fake mustache.  In addition to being delightfully evil, La Sombra is also genuinely evil, his premise raising the stakes of the jungle setting.  While his greed is very shallow, it’s also very dangerous to the point where he’s even willing to leave his henchmen for dead to get that Corazon.  Those little moments show that when he catches up to Arnold at the Green-Eyed People’s city and threatens the lives of Helga and Gerald if Arnold doesn’t come along with him.  As his friends end up dangling off a bridge, Arnold is left to open a compartment holding the Corazon, which only lets those with a pure heart view it.  Eventually, his friends are freed, and they’re all open to fight La Sombra for what belongs to the Green-Eyed People.  Even so, La Sombra can’t even get to the sacred treasure as he’s clearly not pure of heart, the compartment shooting a poison dart at his forehead in response.  Keeping him as a true threat, he isn’t killed right away and keeps on fighting for a good while. 

However, when the poison finally does take him, he certainly goes out in style as he falls off a cliff, dying the way he allegedly lived, full of poison.  Overall, La Sombra is one of the biggest strengths of the film as a basic yet still entertaining villain.  That said, it turns out to be a very big deal that the Corazon goes over the cliff with him as one big question is answered shortly after La Sombra’s demise.

With the help of the real Eduardo, Arnold, and by extension the audience, finally learns the truth of what happened to his parents.  For years, people couldn’t help but wonder exactly why they never came back when leaving for their mission in San Lorenzo.  Was it child neglect? Did they become obsessed with the spirit of adventure?  Well, as it turns out, they never came back because they had no choice in the matter. 

Along with the adult green-eyed people, Miles and Stella were also victims of the sleeping sickness, laying in a coma for almost 10 years.  This circumstance is very in line with how genuinely loving of their son they were shown to be in all past appearances.  Being something out of their control practically justifies their absence and making this answer legitimately understandable albeit heartbreaking for poor Arnold.  There is a slight contradiction to established effects with “The Journal” claiming the sleeping sickness to be deadly only to now be downgraded to putting victims into a coma.  I suppose that maybe it already did kill a few Green-Eyed People and all remaining survivors are part of an outbreak the butterflies Miles and Stella tested their cures on got.  Even so, there’s little to no hope of them waking up without the Corazon which means Miles, Stella, and the other Green-Eyed People might as well be dead.  That is the case until Helga gets an idea. 

The Corazon may be gone, but she has a gold heart of her own, her locket.  The fact that it works turns out to be very telling of the standout elements of Helga’s character. 

An earlier scene showed her look at the Corazon and its compartment didn’t shoot a dart at her showcasing her heart as pure.  She may not show it, but the lengths towards winning the contest, escaping La Sombra, and now awaking all these people are telling of her devotion and care to others. 

For that, it’s simply beautiful that her locket fits into a machine filled with a cure for the sleeping sickness. That leads to the curing of the disease’s victims and some long awaited moments for the series. 

Arnold seeing his parents wake up after their long coma is perhaps the best way to see this loving family reunite after an entire childhood apart.  This heartwarming moment also leads to a long awaited culmination for Arnold and Helga’s relationship. 

After everything that’s happened, Arnold notices all the effort Helga has gone through to make the success of his mission possible.  With that, he comes to the conclusion that she loves him, something he himself has grown to suggest near the end of the original series.  All the devotion, caring, and fact that her locket worked as something pure enough to cure his parents and the Green-Eyed adults has Arnold respond to Helga with true love’s kiss.  As an interesting turn of events, Helga ended up never needing to tell Arnold her true feelings with him finding out everything and starting the couple on his own. After so much action and drama, you really can’t think of a more satisfying way for these characters to earn their happy ending.

It’s after this scene where there’s an effective way of showing the adventure’s effects.  Suddenly cutting back to Arnold waking up in his room, you get the impression that the whole thing was just a dream. By extension all the anticipation of the film, story and production wise, feels put to waste right down to a repeat of the beginning of the film. 

All it takes is an appearance of Miles and Stella helping out around the boarding house to prove the contrary to heartwarming effect.  As a result, every moment of this film has reshaped this show’s universe for the better and everyone is put in a good place.  Arnold and his friends are now starting sixth grade, the highest grade at PS 118.  Arnold and Helga are finally an official couple even if Helga still has an aggressive way of showing affection.  Best of all, Arnold is happy to have a complete family with his parents now able to really always be there for their child.  While this is probably the best way to leave this series, resolved plot points and all, there’s also an impression that this new setup can lead to future ideas.  Although it’s been rumored that Craig Bartlett has some such ideas, I’d personally be satisfied if this is the last of this series, though more seasons of this setup would be nice too.  With every major character of the cast truly happy, that’s really all one can ask for at the end of all things.  There is a consequence of being left wondering exactly how all of Arnold’s friends escaped La Sombra’s fortress though.  Thankfully I can overlook that for how well the ending plays out for making the audience think it was all a dream only to reveal that to not be so immediately after.  It shows how badly resolution for these lingering plot points was wanted and brilliantly showcases the satisfaction of finally getting it.

Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie is one of the biggest TV animation miracles not just of the decade, but of all time as well.  After years of being shelved, many desires to see it made were heard and resulted in an exciting adventure with an updated yet nostalgic flair.  In the end, there’s satisfying closure to all of the series’ unresolved conflicts that make this appealing world finally feel whole.  It being made and coming out so good is a true testament to how well-constructed and timeless Hey Arnold is as a series, no matter what era it’s from.

Highly Recommended

With this, my look at Hey Arnold is now officially over.  It can be said with no doubt that it is one of a kind as a slice-of-life show.  With unbelievably deep messages and character development, it will forever be known as one of, if not, the strongest of that genre. True, as a few works showed, many of them coming from the last season, it’s not always pleasing, but they don’t mean a thing against those works that are.  The fact that it successfully generated enough interest to come back for one movie to resolve what was left unsolved in the original run proves how engaging it truly is.  You simply can’t ask for anything better than that.  So, in conclusion, it’s a series I’m proud to grant must-watch status, especially for those looking for an appealing series specializing in highlighting what life has to offer.

Stay Animated Folks!

Be sure to stay tuned for more reviews of Xiaolin Showdown Season 2, and a new review set for weekdays on Rocko's Modern Life Season 3.  See you then!