Hey Arnold: The Movie (Hey Arnold Bonus Review 1) - 'Toon Reviews 34

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Now that I've reviewed all five seasons of the sereis, it’s time to add on a few bonus reviews to officially wrap up my look at Hey Arnold as a whole.  They’re standalone works from the series proper noteworthy to its history, and even offer major closure to lingering plot threads.  Standing out even more is that they’re both feature-length. 

Starting off this special look is:

Hey Arnold: The Movie

(June 28, 2002)

Going into this movie, I think it would really help to consider a few crucial facts about its production.  The biggest one is that it was never intended to be a theatrical release, but rather a mere TV movie.  Around the time the Hey Arnold series had gotten a significantly long run on TV, it became eligible for feature length projects.  There was an idea for a theatrical feature developing which would be most beneficial for the series and its unresolved plot points.  That very idea will be further explained in the look at the other feature film for this series.  For now, the show was putting its focus on this TV movie that was to be a one-off adventure of Arnold and his friends saving their neighborhood from greedy developers.  It was basically treated like just another part of Season 5, being produced in the same manner as its typical episodes. 

Then everything changed when Nickelodeon discovered how big they could potentially make it with feature films.  In 1998, the feature film adaptation of their most popular animated series at the time, Rugrats, was released to an amazing financial success at the box office.  As a matter of fact, the success was so huge, that film made history as the first non-Disney animated film to gross over $100 million domestically.  Upon reaching similar success with Rugrats in Paris in 2000 and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius which served as a pilot for an eventual TV series in 2001, Nickelodeon got an idea.  They could make theatrical feature films out of many of their popular shows and it would be a very profitable venture.  This idea along with an alleged positive test screening of Hey Arnold’s feature film venture inspired that decision to have that film go from TV screens to the big screen.  Out of this move were three open half hour spots for the likes of “April Fool’s Day” and “The Journal,” meaning those works wouldn’t have existed if this film stayed a TV movie.  That’s kind of endearing and rewarding, mainly for the sake of “The Journal”. 

Unfortunately, when it was released in 2002, Hey Arnold The Movie was seen as a box office failure, grossing only $15 million worldwide.  Many factors can be considered for this outcome.  As I recall, the summer of 2002 was incredibly crowded with appealing family films. We had Lilo and Stitch, the live-action Scooby Doo, and franchise films for Star Wars, and Men in Black, all of which guaranteed to draw bigger audiences.  Plus, although the film only had a $3 million budget, from its many commercials and publicity stunts I remember seeing, the marketing far exceeded the actual film production.  Being someone who did see this film upon original release, young 8-year-old me enjoyed it greatly.  Now that I’ve gotten older and better at being critical, I can easily understand why this film was such a failure that ended up stopping production on all things Hey Arnold for a while.

When crafting an animated feature film for the big screens, I believe it’s necessary to have it go all out and stand as a grand experience playing to all emotions.  Truth be told, the idea of Arnold needing to save his neighborhood can lend itself to a big exciting story, even to a cinematic extent if given the right execution.  After all, this very neighborhood is the main setting of the series where so many unique and memorable characters young and old have grown and developed.  Seeing it on the brink of getting wiped out is a potentially huge blow to the very nature of Hey Arnold as a whole.  Plus the reveal that it’s historically significant for being the site of a historic revolt against tomato taxes is legitimately interesting, giving the story some good weight.  While all this may be true, the film really doesn’t treat this occurrence as anything huge or noteworthy, let alone worthy of being released to theaters. 

From the look alone, you can easily tell that it’s written, paced, and even edited like an episode of the TV series as opposed to an actual movie.  Without a huge emphasis on scope of situations needed to achieve a cinematic feel, it’s hard to shake off how fast everything happens.  The whole conflict of the neighborhood being in danger of demolition by a wealthy business owner called Scheck pops up in a small side conversation. Arnold just happens to overhear it while minding his own business and looking on the bright side of life, and eases into the serious matter without time to naturally process everything.  Then after a few random comments saying how bad Scheck’s commissioning of bulldozers to tear down the neighborhood is, everyone’s immediately ready for action.  Coming from a show that’s known to be atmospheric when it comes to dealing with problems, there's unease over of such quick escalation.  As a result, it’s hard to really take this production seriously as a movie or even a genuine work of Hey Arnold. 

The fast pace also opens up significant holes in the story, mainly one of exactly why the mayor is so quick to support Scheck’s plan despite how devastating it is to innocent citizens.  How can something so crucial to his actions never even get the slightest explanation?  Furthermore, what’s seen on screen doesn’t even match how fast things in the story move.  At one point, the neighborhood is shown to have 30 days to save itself, and following a montage that lasts a little over a minute, the time limit’s down to just a few days.  Did everyone seriously solely stick to generic means of protest like posters, rallies in a circle, and lackluster fundraisers for all that time?  I see no reason why they couldn’t get more creative with their attempts sooner.  The failed block party that destroys everyone’s spirits and reveal of the tomato incident could have happened way sooner in-universe than it did. 

If that’s not all, there seems to be a few things that make it feel like this film is desperate to prove itself cinema-worthy.  At one point, Arnold and Gerald are off looking for a key needed to uncover a document proving their neighborhood’s involvement in the tomato incident. The catch is that there’s a lot of emphasis on them posing as secret agents.  In other words, the film falls into a trap of appealing to what the general public considers cool to make itself seem like a crowd-pleasing action film instead of something all its own.  To be fair, the marketing is more to blame for the emphasis on such a generic film element, and the secret agent stuff can elevate the story to an extent.  Sadly, even in this getup and even with the gadgets Arnold and Gerald receive for the mission, the pace is still too fast to take the film seriously as an actual movie.  By this point, it becomes a sorry state of affairs that despite having some decent promise, this Hey Arnold movie is turning out to be a major disappointment.  I mean, several episodes of the series proper feel more cinematic than this.

There are at least a few successful attempts at achieving some sort of a cinematic feel in the story, mostly in areas where the pacing actually lightens up some.  Examples include an opening montage of people in the neighborhood enjoying life and having fun. The peace of the scene stops with the sight of machines from Scheck’s company, Future Tech Industries, already getting started with tearing things down.  It’s an honestly effective way of showcasing how meaningful this neighborhood is to the cast and easily allows the audience to take in the effects of its impending doom.  I should probably also mention that it’s all done without dialog. 

Emotional effects are also easily felt when Arnold’s attempts to rally for freedom with a block party backfires badly.  The pacing slows down to showcase how serious it is that everyone around Arnold is giving up and how even he is starting to question his values of looking on the bright side.  A few following scenes show people like Sid, Stinky, and Mr. Green lamenting over their prized neighborhood landmarks fated to be lost forever in the demolition. They’re also slow enough to showcase how huge this situation really is which isn’t really felt or seen anywhere else in the film.  This also applies to quick yet very apparent scenes of everything in places like Arnold’s boarding house getting put up for sale and everyone packing things up.  This is demonstrative of how real the threat of the neighborhood being torn down really is for these people with questions on where exactly everyone will go. 

Apart from these genuinely good plays on emotions, the rest of film goes as fast as a standard episode of the show, as I previously discussed.  That said, there are times when the pacing works to the film’s advantage, mainly in action scenes.  The best action is saved for the climax which comes with an exciting chase scene at the 11^th hour before the demolition.  You have Arnold, Gerald, and Helga needing to operate a runaway bus speeding through the neighborhood with Scheck chasing them in a limo trying to stop them.  It almost feels like something that could qualify for an actual action film and is an all-around fun scene to watch just before the conflict is resolved.  The fact that the this film can pull off cinema worthy moments such as these only makes it even more disappointing that it mostly just feels like a longer episode of the show.  Then again, that’s exactly what it was meant to be.

So this film isn’t exactly worthy of being released to cinemas, only happening because of misguided insight on the part of the higher ups at Nickelodeon.  However, does it work as a general production of Hey Arnold?  Honestly, it kind of does, but not really in a big way.  A big reason for that is that apart from the main players in the cast, a lot of the characters we’ve grown to know are relegated to the sidelines.  I mean, Arnold and Gerald are compatible friends to follow throughout the film, and Arnold’s grandparents have a few memorable sequences bringing genuinely strong comedy.  Grandpa leads the boarders in his own misguided attempt to stop Scheck while Grandma’s thrown in jail and goes through a crazy escape through the sewers.  These characters lead the film well, but only sticking to the show’s main characters limits the cast’s potentially unique approach.  Every other neighborhood citizen is only given a few lines pretty much at the beginning and end of the film and offer little to nothing of substance.  You can argue over what they’d be expected to do if they had more focus, but not getting a lot of them makes it hard to really make this film stand as a part of Hey Arnold.

Really, more time is given to characters who seem to only exist as an excuse to attract audiences with celebrity roles, a common marketing move for movies.  At least many of the one-off characters for this film have their own charm and appeal. 

There’s a nutty man who runs a morgue played by Christopher Lloyd who’s legitimately fun as he provides Arnold and Gerald with the location of the tomato incident document. 

Jennifer Jason Leigh plays a very attractive spy Gerald happens to know and serves her purpose by providing him and Arnold with the appropriate secret agent gear. 

While he has no big name voices to him, there’s also some good appeal to Murray, the driver of the bus Arnold and Gerald use throughout the film.  He seems like a typical downtrodden man who hates his job, but through lamenting over a fake leg and a broken heart, he turns out to be one of the film’s deepest characters.  That said, it feels unhealthy that he goes back to his ex-girlfriend when the day is saved.  How can he be so sure that his act of bravery means she won’t turn back on him again? 

Then there’s the main villain of the film, Scheck, one of the most legitimately frustrating elements.  For how deep the majority of this cast can be, it’s unfortunate that the main villain in a feature film for this series is so generic in nature and motivations.  He suddenly shows up wanting to tear down a neighborhood where people live and replace everything with a supermall for no real reason other than money.  There are hints for a potential reason for his actions from his constant tagline of how “change is good.”  Since change can have as many benefits as consistency and holding onto legacy, he could have a point and maybe even a deeper reason for wanting to change the neighborhood.  Sadly, nothing regarding his beliefs of change is ever touched upon apart from him saying so over and over, so his motives can only be chalked up to the shallow explanation of greed.  His only other motive is how retaking the neighborhood and tearing it down is him avenging his ancestors who were part of the tomato incident.  He may have lost his territory, but it was for a good reason.  Plus, his family got more success as him running an entire industry clearly shows, so there’s really no probable cause for trying to get back what he lost.  Basically, he's pathetically trying to get back something he doesn't even need.  Scheck isn’t even that fun to watch either, spending most of his scenes standing around with a smug look on his face saying one-liners that are mostly unfunny.  With how unbelievably generic he is as a villain, Scheck is just another weak spot in an already unremarkable film.

In this talk about the characters, there is at least one who makes this film slightly worth watching, at least as a Hey Arnold work, Helga.  Her love for Arnold is among one of the strongest reoccurring elements of the series, and one of the big reasons this film was made was to feature a big turning point for that.  In the usual fashion of plots involving Helga’s crush, she’s caught between supporting Arnold’s cause and the affluence that can come from supporting the opposing force.  Apparently, her father has made a deal with Scheck in getting a super beeper store if he supports the neighborhood demolition, making her family rich, until Big Bob finds a loophole.  Before that though, Helga is quick to determine what’s most important. For that, she sets out to do everything she can to help Arnold providing him with necessary information as a figure named Deep Voice.  The film tries to build the notion of Deep Voice as a huge secret, but the surprise factor really doesn’t work.  I mean, she hears some secrets in Scheck’s plan and his relation to the tomato incident document right before Deep Voice’s first scene. How can you not easily figure out that it’s her?  Regardless of the surprise factor, all the risks Helga pulls to make Arnold’s plan a success and ensure the neighborhood’s historical significance are of worthy mention.  It’s practically the strongest sign of health in her romance typically filled with stalking and excessive worship. 

All her actions build up to when Arnold ultimately discovers her to be Deep Voice, and through his questioning, she’s pushed to reveal the truth that she loves him.  This confession could be presented as a total highlight considering how much Helga’s love for Arnold has been one of the series’ staples since the beginning.  However, because of the story’s fast pace, it feels like something that just happens without time to process which really isn’t appropriate given the value of the romance.  In fact, Arnold flat out says all this is happening so fast and is quick to get back to focusing on saving the neighborhood.  If you were like me when the film came out, the confession isn’t even that huge since it was spoiled in a lot of the promos (go to 4:03 to see one). 

After Scheck is defeated, it’s actually fitting that Arnold sets Helga up to call her confession a heat of the moment deal to allow her to not follow through with it.  The way it was presented in this film is simply much to rushed to start a serious relationship even if it does beg a lot of questions about how Arnold feels about Helga.  That said, him smiling at Helga after she berates him does suggest that he’s kind of fine with knowing that she behaves a certain way around him out of love.  Ultimately, the film ends up giving only a small development towards Arnold and Helga’s relationship. It still has some significance even if the cinematic setup could have brought it so much more.

Hey Arnold The Movie really doesn’t live up to the potential the title suggests.  It is a mere TV film that should never have been released to theaters, and it shows from a story going too fast for theatrical productions and not enough emphasis on the series’ cast.  Yet, it’s still enjoyable for what it is with a couple standout moments of emotion, comedy, and action.  Plus, even if it’s not huge, I do give credit that it does offer the slightest bit of development to one of the show’s lingering plot points involving Helga.  It’s overall generic and basic as it is despite some efforts to stand as something huge. Still it’s passable as a film by itself and good enough for Hey Arnold fans, even if it’s well below the series at its best.

Worth a Look

Next time is the final Hey Arnold review for MC Toon Reviews, a true feature length event that's been a long time coming for fan satisfaction and the overall story, a grand exciting adventure set to wrap up everything.  That film is Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie.


If you would like to check out other Hey Arnold reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.