Films with Faceless: Hey Arnold The Jungle Movie

If I were to describe my thoughts on Hey Arnold the Jungle Movie in a single word, I believe the best term would simply be.....Satisfaction. I feel that perfectly articulates my thoughts and probably the thoughts of anyone who sees this movie. Even though anyone will also tell you the movie is flawed, at the end of the day, after 15 years of waiting, I can safely say that I feel content after watching this film.

As someone who grew up in the 1990s and early 2000s, Hey Arnold was one of my favorite shows, be it Nickelodeon or any other network. With a good balance of comedy, drama, solid characters, creative and relatable stories, it was one of the most balanced and engaging shows you could watch, whether you were a kid or an adult. I watched the series from it's first episode all the way up to the series finale "The Journal" and part of me thought that the series would end on that cliff hanger. But when I found out there was a movie intended to explain everything I was angry to find out it had been cancelled. Yet a part of me never lost hope and I would often check wikis and any source I could for information about the movie, hoping it would finally be made. And after almost two decades, it happened and these are my thoughts.

Spoilers Ahead

The movie seems to take place, probably a couple of months after Arnold first found the Journal, looking for any leads on his parents, with little success. Yet, as is by fate itself, as school is about to end for the summer, Arnold is told of a contest where whoever is able to showcase the greatest example of humanitarian efforts in their community, they will be able to go to San Lorenzo to take part in a sort of Habitat for Humanity event. And Arnold, seeing an opportunity to find answers about his parents takes the initiative.

To keep things a little short, with some help from his friends, mainly Helga, they manage to win the contest by basically revisiting all the instances Arnold helped someone over the course of the series, essentially an easter egg parade for fans of the show. And naturally the are on their way to San Lorenzo, where they manage to meet up with the friend of Arnold's parents, Eduardo, who promises to help Arnold find his parents, by finding the Legendary Green Eyed People.

However, things won't be so easy as an old enemy, La Sombra, is after Arnold and will go to whatever lengths necessary to find him and regain an ancient treasure that Stella and Miles, Arnold's parents in case you forgot, managed to keep from him. All the while Helga is at odds with her feelings towards Arnold which leads to some decent emotional payoff and one insanely clever moment that will have you wanting to pat the creators on the back, just because of how damn ingenious it is.

Good v. Bad: What I liked and Didn't Like Major Spoilers

Good: As said before there is a lot of good here. Most of the original voice cast returned and is still in fine form, pretty much as if the show never ended, with the replacement actors doing solid work. The Movie itself also shows a surprising amount of teeth and dark elements to it. No joke, this movie is actually pretty shocking, with actual on screen deaths, kids being threatened and held at machete point, and one guy actually getting shot in the head, with a dart mind you, but still just damn. Plenty of emotional chatarsis with both Arnold and his Parents, along with Arnold and Helga. Also La Sombra is actually shown to be a pretty cool villain, he's ruthless and cruel, but also insanely smart, pretty much always being one step ahead of Arnold and his friends. Dude's also relentless, which certainly makes him more memorable than you'd think he'd have any right to be.

However, probably my favorite things, were the insanely clever little details they added to the movie. which are the following and again spoilers

1. Arnold's Last Name: Yep, after years of wondering just what the hell his last name is, we finally learn what it is and the answer will actually surprise you. It is...Shortman. No I'm honestly not kidding, that little nickname Grandpa always calls Arnold, turns out it actually had more significance than we thought. And while some might think of this as a cop out, it actually made me laugh, like I actually couldn't stop chuckling at this. Good on you writers.

2. The Locket: Okay if you don't want the biggest twist of the movie spoiled again STOP HERE NOW! Alright, good. Anyway after a long adventure we learn that Arnold's parents have been missing for all this time because they were afflicted with the same sleeping sickness that affected the Green Eyes and have basically been in a coma for 9 years....don't think too much on that. Anyway it turns out they had more or less developed a cure for it, that would be administered through an ancient Green Eye device. However, for that to work they needed the ancient treasure, The Corazon, a gold heart that needed to be placed in a special chamber. Said heart was kept in a special box that Arnold could only open, but while he does open it, it falls into a ravine and it seems like hope is lost. However, in probably the most ingenious moment in the series, Helga's locket, which has been around since episode 1 and is the literal symbol of Helga's love for Arnold and one of the most iconic images of the series, is used in place of the Corazon and ultimately revives his parents. Yes, Helga's love for Arnold, metaphorically and literally to some extent, gave him his greatest wish of all time.....That is BRILLIANT!

I mean damn, the symbolism in that alone is insane but also just the context and what it means for long time fans. I can't help but gush about it. It's essentially like what Helga did for Arnold back in the Christmas episode, giving something of her's to make Arnold happy. Damn, I loved this moment and it leads to probably the two most heartwarming moments in the series.

The Bad: As I said before, this movie isn't perfect and has some problems. Main one is the pacing, the movie feels insanely fast, which you expect for an 80 minute movie. But it does feel like some scenes were skipped over. Like when Arnold thinks of what to do to win the contest, they almost immediately think of what they can do to win the contest, short montage, and it's complete. Or near the end, Arnold's parents wake up and they smile, hug him and that's it. I mean, shouldn't they be a little more shocked since their son is 10 as opposed to being only 1 when they last saw him.? Shouldn't they be a little horrified over the fact they lost pretty much a decade of their lives? Also sad we didn't get to see a scene of Arnold's parents reuniting with his Grandparents, I mean it's built up how much they miss the pair to, I wanted to see the old crazy grandparents cry damnit.

However, a more obvious problem is that La Sombra essentially pretends to be Eduardo and you immediately know he's pretending. Granted it's not as painfully obvious as it could have been, but they don't do a good job of making it truly surprising. Honestly I thought a better twist would have been that Eduardo actually was La Sombra the whole time, I mean we never actually saw his face before and it could easily have been argued Stella and Miles didn't either. That actually would have been a clever twist.

Also I had more than a few questions on how they hell a, what looks like pretty primitive society, along with another more daming detail but I won't go into that, were able to keep Stella and Miles, alive for 9 years, while they were in a coma. I mean I didn't really want them to be dead, cause how depressing would that have been, but my suspension of disbelief only goes so far.

However, these issues are so minor I can easily forgive them. Unlike Samurai Jack's final episode which was clearly rushed and full of plot holes that made me feel betrayed. This movie, gave me everything I wanted to see, and more, and felt like a fitting conclusion to a series I loved watching as a kid.

Final Verdict: Hey Arnold the Jungle movie isn't perfect, it's not a masterpiece either, but it's not meant to be. It's meant as a love letter to fans of a series that helped define a generation of animation fans. It helped answer questions we'd been waiting to hear the answer for after over a decade of patience. I think Craig Bartlett did a fantastic job with this movie and I couldn't be happier with how it ended.

I give this movie an A and while I don't think any additional Hey Arnold stuff is required, if they were to finally make that spin off, The Patakis that was planned back in the day. I'd be game.

Well that's all I got to say, hope this film as good for you as it was for me. I'm out.

Comments

[RNBW]

Wow, an actual character death? When it was the last time that a lighthearted cartoon did that?