Questions[]
DestineyJen
- Hi Craig!
- A few of us fans who are working on the TJM and TP projects have been sending in questions for me to send to you in an attempt to have an e-mail interview with you that we hope to make a usual thing every four months. We don't really want to bother you too much by hounding you with a ton of questions at once, so we have chosen the top ten TJM questions in the first asked set and sent them to you. We are hoping to get our facts straight for our projects – but if there is any question that you do not want to go into detail with in your answer, that is perfectly fine. We understand that you would like to keep parts of the movie secret from us so as not to spoil it just in case you get to make it into novel form. Our projects, LiveJournal community, and the website are only mere ploys to get Nickelodeon's attention to let them know that the HA! fans still exist, are still going strong, still love the show just as much as they always have, and to let them know exactly what we want (TJM in novel form along with DVD boxed sets of all seasons).
- We know you are busy and because of this very reason, you can take as long as you need to answer. There are only 10 questions in the set. As will all future sets of questions will be only 10 top chosen questions per set.
Genaminna
- 1. What happened to Arnold 's parents and why haven't they been in contact with him? Have they tried to? Were they physically unable?
- 2. Is Eduardo on the bad guys' side? X0
- 3. Does Abner play any particular role in TJM?
Quiet_Seeker
- 4. Did Nick really lock the TJM script up in a lock box? Or was that a rumor?
- 5. Will Olga have any part in this movie?
- 6. Why does Wartz tag along with Arnold and co.? I can understand Simmons because he is the teacher, but why Wartz?
- 7. Earlier, it was mentioned that "The Journal" episode was Oct 5th. This means that TJM took place after that...if so, does this mean Simmons continues to teach the class after 4th grade?
DestineyJen
- 8. I've heard that Rhonda and Nadine are supposed to have a separate storyline in TJM, any details you can give us on that or can you at least tell us what it had to do with?
- 9. Can you elaborate on why the Green Eyes revered Arnold so much? The football-shaped artifacts in their architecture that you mentioned in the chat, how exactly are they connected to the ethnicity/heritage and life of the Green Eyes?
SeraphimKiss
- 10. I might be mistaken, but didn't you say the Green Eyes thought Helga was like a "Goddess" (and Arnold like a "God") to them? Arnold has a football-shaped head - this is the reason you mentioned for why the GE's "worship" him, but what distinct characteristic does Helga have for why they also "worship" her? Goat ears? Pigtails that stick out at 90-degree angles from her head? :P
Answers[]
- Hi! Here are my answers:
- A couple things about the Jungle movie...
- First, we worked on it from around 1998 to 2001. Then "Hey Arnold, the movie" (our first movie, created to be a TV movie) came out in theaters in 2002. In fall 2001, the last of my crew was laid off. In the months last months before HATM came out, I was finishing "The Journal," which Nickelodeon ordered as a "prequel" to the Jungle movie. But HATM didn't do enough business, so that was the end of any hopes of bringing back the crew to do the Jungle movie, and it was also the end of any further Arnold development. I was already moved out of Nick studios by then, and they never called me back.
- So the movie only exists in various drafts, written versions that are now 6 or 7 years old. And of course it would have gone through many more changes if Nick/Paramount had actually greenlit it. I have a pretty vague memory of where the story stood in 2001. I really had to move on, start new projects, make new connections in the animation world.
- And yet, if I answer some of the questions below, they would be serious spoilers. I still may have the chance to do the Jungle movie as a book, or graphic novel. (a pretty slim chance, but...) And I hope that I might have a working relationship with Nick again sometime. So I really can't answer question 1 or 2.
- 3. No, Abner did not go along.
- 4. Nickelodeon and Paramount own the rights to the film and the story. It wasn't literally locked up -- forgotten is a better word for it.
- 5. Yes, Olga goes to Central America too, and drives Helga crazy.
- 6. Wartz just kind of tags along. I guess he always wanted to go to Central America.
- 7. Yeah, I guess. Maybe he teaches 5th grade now. These are the kind of reality notes that we writers mostly ignore.
- 8. The Rhonda/Nadine storyline is that Nadine is in heaven, since there are so many species of bugs there. And Rhonda is in hell. All her technology won't work, and she hates everything about the trip.
- 9 and 10. The Green-eyes think that Arnold is devine, because (in "The Journal") when he was born, he silenced all of nature. Also the whole architecture, design motif/football head coincidence. The Green-eyes also think very highly of Miles and Stella, because they've all saved each other's lives before, many times. When the Green-eyes meet Helga, they are so impressed with her ferocity, they think very highly of her, too. Not of the demi-god status that Arnold has, but up there.
- Hope this answers some questions!
Best,
Craig