Hey Arnold! The Movie

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Hey Arnold! The Movie
Hey Arnold! What was the point of putting the group of you and the kids in the poster if they aren't going to do anything?
Genre: Adventure
Starring: Spencer Klein
Francesca Marie Smith
Jamil Smith
Dan Castellaneta
Tress MacNeille
Paul Sorvino
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Christopher Lloyd
Photography: Color
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release date: June 28, 2002
Country: United States
Sequel: Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie


Hey Arnold! The Movie (Originally Arnold Saves the Neighborhood, see "Production" section for info.) is a 2002 animated feature film based on Nickelodeon's animated series Hey Arnold!, produced by Nickelodeon Movies and Snee-Oosh, Inc. at Nickelodeon Animation Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures.

Plot

Arnold and his pal Gerald learn their beloved neighborhood is about to be torn down by a greedy developer named Scheck to build a mall. While the adults come up with a dodgy scheme, the friends try a more practical approach to the problem with the help of Helga. The kids discover their neighborhood was designated as a historical landmark but they must prove it before Scheck moves in with his crew.

Production

Invite for a cast screening of "The Neighborhood" - featuring a screenshot before it was turned into a theatrical film.

In 1998, when Nickelodeon renewed Hey Arnold! for a fourth season, they also came to an agreement with show creator Craig Bartlett for two feature-length movies based on the series. One theatrical release, and one made directly for TV and video. The original plan was for the theatrical feature, known as The Jungle Movie, to be about Arnold going on a search for his lost parents; while the TV movie, originally titled Arnold Saves the Neighborhood, was about Arnold saving his neighborhood from being torn down by developers. The Neighborhood was written and recorded in 1999-2000, along with most of Season 5, and was treated as the last three half-hours (98, 99 and 100) made for television. It was originally set for a Spring 2001 release date. According to Craig Bartlett, Helga confessing her feelings to Arnold face-to-face was specifically saved for this movie.

However, in late 2000, after the massive success of The Rugrats Movie (1998) and Rugrats in Paris: The Movie (2000), as well as successful test screenings, executives at Paramount and Nickelodeon decided to give Arnold Saves the Neighborhood a theatrical release, hoping it would have a similar success. When this decision was made, Nickelodeon also ordered three more half-hours to fill in the now-open gap in Season 5's production schedule, which became the episode "April Fool's Day" and the hour-long special "The Journal".

According to Jim Lang, the decision to convert the TV movie into a theatrical film was made when the project was mostly complete, so the production crew spent time raising the TV movie's production values and technical aspects to make it look like a theatrical production. Jim Lang even used his own entire paycheck for the project to hire a real orchestra! However, the film also suffered from this transition, as the finished animation and backgrounds originally made for SD video were upscaled to a 720p widescreen film format. Only Arnold, Helga, Gerald, and Scheck received an animation upgrade, while nearly every other character looked exactly the same as in the regular episodes. The title of the film was also changed to Hey Arnold! The Movie to appeal to a wider audience.

Small Qualities

  1. The main problem with this movie is that the storyline is rather convoluted, clichéd and poorly-executed, and the film feels more like a regular half-hour episode of the TV series rather than an actual script for a theatrically-released movie.
    • Not only that, the plot for this movie is for Nickelodeon to copy what Recess: School's Out's plot did, in fact, it had a better plot than Hey Arnold: The Movie
  2. The character development is almost lost in the film, especially from Helga, Gerald, and Arnold themselves.
  3. There are many lazy attempts to set the mood for each scene, particularly Helga's confession on the FTI building.
  4. The film has a lot of unneeded filler, particularly Eugene singing an out of place song number, in some case, that song he sings is awful and pretty boring too.
  5. The main antagonist, Alphonse Perrier du Von Scheck, is a paper-thin, one-dimensional and over-the-top villain. Also, he feels very out of place in anything related to Hey Arnold!, as the series never featured any kind of villain in any episode and only featured just unsympathetic human beings who faded to make mistakes and whose backstories allowed viewers to feel sorry for them.
    • He is also not a threatening villain, and his goal to turn the neighborhood into a shopping mall makes no sense, given that the government probably wouldn't allow a shopping mall to be built in a neighborhood.
  6. Abysmal production values, considering that the film was originally a made-for-television and direct-to-video movie called Arnold Saves the Neighborhood, which only got a mainstream theatrical release at the last minute (Because Nickelodeon wanted to capitalize on the success of their previous theatrical films.) with only few adjustments to give it a more theatrical feature film quality, such as the computer-animated vehicles, which unfortunately didn't even help.
    • This explains why only Arnold, Helga and Gerald, as well as Scheck recieved shading and animation upgrades but not the minor characters apart from the beginning.
    • The film's transition from 4:3 to 16:9 suffered for a couple of cropping errors, for example, when Grandma (or Pookie) is on the roof and jumps on the bulldozer, the camera scrolls too far from the right as the right side of the screen has nothing but the undestroyed overpass, and the rightmost overpass looked like it was supposed to be at the edge of the screen.
  7. The computer-generated imagery is not that great, especially the ones used for the vehicles, as mentioned above.
  8. Similar to Doug's 1st Movie, the pacing is really slow and feels way too long.
  9. Intelligence-insulting marketing in many scenes, particularly Helga's confession on the FTI building.
  10. Most of Arnold's friends and classmates, especially those who are fan-favorite characters, have been reduced to extras that don't do anything to progress the plot.
    • In particular, Abner, Nadine, Peapod Kid, Campfire Lass, Connie, Maria, Ruth, Edmund, Ludwig, Stoop Kid and Pigeon Man are absent in this movie and aren't even mentioned.
  11. Misleading poster: Instead of trying to save the neighborhood, Arnold's friends do nothing to progress the plot, save for Gerald and Helga (even though they appear in the theatrical poster and home media cover).
  12. Overusage of pop-culture references, particularly when Big Bob becomes a Hulk-like creature and when Scheck says "I would've gotten away with it if it wasn't for that meddling football-headed kid!" which is a reference to Scooby-Doo.
    • Furthermore, the only reason why Scheck said the Scooby-Doo reference was because Hey Arnold!: The Movie was released the same month as the first live action Scooby-Doo movie was (In fact, Hey Arnold!: The Movie was released only 8 days after the first live action Scooby-Doo).
  13. It was practically the reason why Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie got cancelled (though that film was eventually revised and released in 2017).
  14. False Advertising: the teaser trailer for the movie shows Helga dressed up as a spy, but whatsoever, she never dresses up as that in the film.

Big Qualities

  1. The animation is decent, even if it's the same as the TV show only with minor adjustments.
  2. The voice acting is neat and decent, thanks to the cast reprising their roles from the show.
  3. The ending is pretty good and touching.
  4. Some characters are likable, such as Arnold, who still is a great character. Bridget, the head of the secret organization who helps Arnold and Gerald to bring Von Scheck to justice, is also a great character.
  5. There were no plot holes in the movie.
  6. Big Bob does have a good moment by getting revenge on Von Scheck for his treachery and defects to the good guys in time to stop FTI's bulldozers.
  7. Some funny moments here and there.
  8. Christopher Lloyd is a great choice as the voice of the coroner.
  9. It had a made-for-TV movie followup, titled Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie, which is a big improvement over the 1st one.
  10. If you view it as a TV movie (as it was originally intended), the film can be really good.

Trivia

  1. This was the last Hey Arnold! project to feature Steve Viksten as the voice as Oskar and Vincent Schiavelli as the voice of Mr. Bailey, as they both passed away after the release of the film.
  2. This was the first Nickelodeon movie based on a Nicktoon to receive a PG rating from the MPAA.

Reception

Hey Arnold! The Movie got mixed-to-negative reviews from critics and fans from the show alike, as it currently holds a 29% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 78 reviews. The critic consensus reads: "Bland, unoriginal, and lacking the wit of the TV show, Hey Arnold! is a 30-minute cartoon stretched beyond its running time." Metacritic scored a 47% rating based on 23 review, indicating "mixed or average reviews."

Despite the mixed to poor reviews from critics, the movie has received a fair amount of praise from the Hey Arnold! fandom and has been considered to be underrated among cartoon fans. However, it is also widely agreed that this film should've stayed as a TV film, as it was originally planned.

External links

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