Well, to enjoy this film you first have to like and enjoy watching the original cartoon on Nickelodeon because it is just a big screen hour and half version of the 30 minute cartoon series. You would also benefit from understanding the relationship between Arnold (Spencer Klein voice) and Helga (Francesca Smith voice, A Bug's Life). What his grandparents are all about or that won’t make sense, and what kind of kids Arnold and Gerald (Jamil Walker Smith voice) are. If you already know these characters, then following the film will be no problem. I happen to like the cartoons on Nick and Hey Arnold is one of them.

The plot is simple, an industrialist is trying to squeeze out the people in Arnold’s neighborhood to knock it down and rebuild over it. But you know in movies there is more to revitalizing a neighborhood than what it appears. So it is up to Arnold and Gerald to find out what it is and save the day. Helga’s father, Big Bob (Maurice LaMarche voice) of Pager World is duped into helping, because he thinks he will get rich from the deal, only he will find out later that they were squeezing him out too. Helga is excited because her dad will be richer and she can have everything she has ever wanted, until she remembers all she ever wanted was Arnold, the love of her life and decides to secretly help him expose the plan. Just as in the cartoon series, Arnold’s grandparents get involved, but screw-up because they are crazy, but then come through in the end to help Arnold save the situation as always.

With any full length movie that is taken from a currently running series you have to be able to add to the story and not change the dynamics of the serial in the process. In The Rugrats movie, they introduced a new character to the Pickle’s household, Baby Dill so in the Nick cartoon’s they kept the new character and added Dill Pickles to the storyline. Well in Hey Arnold the introductions of a new character would not disrupt the series, but Helga professing her love for Arnold would change the dynamics of the cartoon series. So it was interesting how they handled that little situation. Other voices lending a hand to this movie were, Dan Castellaneta, Tress MacNeille, Paul Sorvino, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kath Soucie (Return to Never Land) and Vincent Schiavelli (Death to Smoochy) as well as a few others.  I thought the movie was a little long for a cartoon, and realized watching it on T.V. is much funnier and shorter. But if I was a child I am sure the extended length, and the excitement of a movie would make it more enjoyable. Therefore, I give Hey Arnold eight couches, but keep in mind you must already be a fan and or a child.

Last updated: Thursday, March 20, 2008 02:48:28 AM

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