Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie is the second animated film based on the Nickelodeon animated TV series Hey Arnold!
Synopsis
Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie takes kids on the field trip of a lifetime: action-packed and full of adventure! They’ll join Arnold on a quest in which he’ll try to achieve his ultimate dream and finally find his missing parents. It all starts when Arnold and his classmates take a trip to San Lorenzo, Central America, which, coincidentally, is the last place Arnold’s parents were seen. Their trip takes a turn when pirates kidnap Arnold and his friends! From there it’s one jungle hazard after another, and the gang must put their heads together to get out of danger. As the leader of the journey, Arnold must make sure he and his friends survive safely, all while working towards a reunion he’s dreamt of his whole life.
Plot
Arnold and his best friend Gerald plan to make a humanitarian video during the summer to win a trip to San Lorenzo, where Arnold's parents, Miles and Stella, went right before disappearing years ago. They try to record themselves making a home out of junk for one of their friends, the eccentric Monkeyman, but that backfires as homeless people dismantle it; Arnold leaves heartbroken.
Helga, who secretly has a long-lasting crush on Arnold, uses recorded footage showing Arnold's good deeds over the years to make a video, and everyone in town surprises Arnold with it. Arnold's teacher, Mr. Simmons, reveals to everyone that Arnold's video won and he, his classmates, and Helga's older sister, Olga, get a plane ride to San Lorenzo.
While on the plane, Arnold's pet pig Abner stows away in his backpack. When everyone arrives in San Lorenzo, they are greeted at a dock by Arnold's parents' old friend, Eduardo. Onboard a ship, Eduardo privately warns Arnold of the dangers the jungle has to offer and gives him an amulet said to lead them to the residents of the lost city of San Lorenzo, the "Green-Eyed People". They eventually get attacked by another boat, and go through river rapids to lose them. After learning the secret that Arnold kept from them, Gerald and the group shun him.
When the whole group enters a base camp, "Eduardo" reveals himself to be the river pirate named Lasombra. He and his men imprison everyone, planning on using Arnold to find the lost city and its treasures. Helga and Gerald manage to escape and free Arnold and use Arnold's father's old journal to find the city. Unknown to them, Lasombra anticipated this and placed a tracking device on Arnold.
Arnold and the gang manage to evade the lost city's traps, as does Lasombra, sacrificing most of his men to the traps in the process. They manage to find the city populated by children. Meanwhile, Abner managed to make it back to the boarding house to warn Arnold's grandparents, Phil, and Gertie, about what happened and, along with Helga's parents, Big Bob and Miriam, who got an SOS message from Helga's intelligent friend, Phoebe, fly a rental plane to San Lorenzo, where they soon help the other kids defeat Lasombra's crew.
In the city, Arnold and the others realize that the residents of the city worship Arnold. The group find a statue said to contain a treasure that may lead to a cure for the city's sleeping sickness, that has contaminated most of the city's population. They are eventually cornered by Lasombra, who takes Arnold hostage and steals the Corazón. While Gerald and Helga catch up, Lasombra forces Arnold to use the amulet to open the statue. He succeeds, and when Lasombra tries to take the treasure from within, the statue shoots him in the forehead with a poisoned dart. Lasombra falls off the cliff below.
Afterwards, a mysterious man arrives and reveals himself to be the real Eduardo. Then, Lasombra climbs back up and gets into a brief scuffle with Eduardo (resulting with the treasure falling off the cliff) before succumbing to the poison dart and falling to his death. The group make it back to the city, and Arnold finally sees his parents, who have also been contaminated with the sleeping sickness. Without the treasure to release the cure to the infected population, Helga uses the locket of Arnold as a substitute. The temple releases the cure and the infected are revived; Arnold and the city's children reunite with their parents; Arnold later professes his gratitude for Helga and the two share their first romantic kiss together.
Arnold wakes up one morning, and rushes downstairs to find things seemingly back to the way it was before the trip, until his parents show up. The film ends with Arnold waving goodbye to his parents as he goes to his first day of sixth grade.
Background
Theatrical Development
When Nickelodeon renewed Hey Arnold! for a fourth season in 1998, they also gave series creator Craig Bartlett a chance to develop two feature-length movies based on the show. One made directly for TV and video, called Arnold Saves the Neighborhood, and another slated for a theatrical release. Nickelodeon asked Bartlett to do "the biggest idea he could think of" for the theatrical film.[1] After looking at the series, Bartlett decided to make the theatrical feature a follow-up to the episode "Parents Day", and have Arnold try to solve the question of what happened to his lost parents. This became known as Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie.
The story of The Jungle Movie was developed between 1998 and 2001 by Craig Bartlett, Steve Viksten, and Jonathan Greenberg, with the script reaching its 6th or 7th draft. Raymie Muzquiz was also involved, as the director of the film. While it was in pre-production, a number of materials were also made.
In 2000, executives at Nickelodeon and Paramount decided to give the made-for-TV movie Arnold Saves the Neighborhood a theatrical release instead, under the title of Hey Arnold! The Movie. Around this time, Nickelodeon also asked Craig to produce three more half-hours, two of which became the special one-hour "prequel" episode called "The Journal", which was planned to serve as a lead-in to the second movie. These last episodes were produced while The Jungle Movie was still being worked on. Craig Bartlett and his crew later left Nickelodeon when production on "The Journal" ended on December 7, 2001.
Cancellation
The first movie was released theatrically on June 28, 2002, but ended up being unsuccessful due to poor advertising and an unfortunate release date, and only grossed $15.2 million at worldwide box offices. This directly led to Paramount Pictures never green-lighting of The Jungle Movie and leaving the series in an unresolved cliffhanger ending. Most of the development materials were stored away at Nick when production was cancelled.
Interlude Years and Fan Interest
Over the years, Craig Bartlett revealed several details about the movie (listed below) through online chats and interviews, but refused to give out too many details, in case he someday got the chance to make it, though he never thought it would really happen. With these details, fans started making their own versions through fan art and fan fiction. Around 2009, fans started letter-writing campaigns and online petitions in an attempt to bring The Jungle Movie to fruition.
In 2011, Nickelodeon started a night block on the TeenNick channel called The 90s Are All That, featuring 90's shows. Reception was positive, and interest on Nick's old shows sparked. By 2012, interest on Hey Arnold! and its cancelled movie was loud enough to revive Bartlett's optimism for the project and catch the attention of Nickelodeon.
Revival
The highly positive reception to the TeenNick block sparked the interest of Nick executives, and they put Chris Viscardi, co-creator of The Adventures of Pete & Pete, in charge of mining the network's content library, and possibly bringing some of their older properties back for a new generation.
In 2013, Craig announced that he was now officially back at Nickelodeon working on a new show called Sky Rat, and still was interested in producing TJM. While Craig was pitching his ideas, he began talking with the Nick executives about the ways the characters from the old series continued to gain mentions in online forums, citing fan art and fan fiction to short films on YouTube. According to Viscardi, Bartlett came to the network with a "really clear and concise and beautiful continuation of the series" he wanted to tell. [2]
Signs of The Jungle Movie resuming production started popping up some time later. In a late 2014 interview on The Arun Mehta Show, Justin Shenkarow hinted that discussions between Nickelodeon and Craig had been going on about possibly green-lighting the second movie. Craig confirmed later that year that he was indeed going into meetings with Nickelodeon executives.
In 2015, production storyboards from the cancelled movie posted in Raymie Muzquiz's website back in 2012 were taken down for a "Mysterious Reason". In August, the official Nickelodeon Facebook page made a reply that directly referenced The Jungle Movie, creating a spike of activity among Hey Arnold! fans. Following this, Nickelodeon, Bartlett, and some of the original voice actors began dropping hints about TJM through social media.
Shortly after, Nickelodeon announced that it was planning to reboot some of their older properties[3], with Hey Arnold! being one option.[4] On November 23, 2015, Nickelodeon officially announced that they were developing a new Hey Arnold! TV movie which would pick up after the cliffhanger ending of the series and resolve unanswered plotlines; with Bartlett as a writer and executive producer[5]. The new TV movie wasn't directly stated to be The Jungle Movie but details provided in the announcement accurately represented the film's original plot.
Concept Art released by Nickelodeon
On March 1st, 2016, the day before Nick's 2016-2017 TV Upfront, it was announced that the new Arnold movie would be a two-hour TV movie, set for a 2017 debut.[6] Craig Bartlett confirmed that the movie had been greenlit for production, and confirmed that the new TV movie was indeed the long-awaited Jungle Movie.[7]
During Nickelodeon's panel in the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con, Craig Bartlett said that it was long-fulfilled dream of his to finally make this movie, and that the fact that many employees at Nickelodeon were 90s Nick fans was crucial in bringing the series back.
Revived Production
When the movie was first announced in November 2015, the project was in its very beginning stages and the script at the time had just recently been greenlit.[8] Prior to that announcement, Craig and the other writers spent three days breaking the story.[9] The movie later entered full-on production on March 2016, after the announcement made at Nick's TV Upfront. The main voice recording sessions and a table read with the cast were done around April/May, and storyboarding was done during the summer. By October, the movie was in the animatic stage, and the last rounds of voice recording were done in November. In January 2017, the movie's finalized materials and storyboards were sent to Saerom in Korea for final animation. The film began post-production a few months later, when finalized animation began to come back. The movie was locked and began being scored by October 2017. It wrapped up production in early November, about two weeks before its premiere.
Despite the 15-year long gap between production of The Journal and The Jungle Movie, many original crew members participated in the production of the movie, including Jim Lang (composer), Christopher Hink (editor), Raymie Muzquiz (director of the film back in 2000-2001), Steve Lowtwait[10] (storyboard artist), Joe Purdy (writer), and Michelle Lamoreaux (story consultant). A total of 20 voice actors from the original series also returned for the movie, though not all of them played their original roles. Other characters had their voice actors replaced, since their original actors were too old or had passed away.[11] Similarly, the rest of the production crew was made up of young animators and writers working at Nick who'd grown up on the show, one of these "superfans" being Stu Livingston.
The materials from the cancelled project were brought out of storage in 2016 after the movie's production was revived by Nickelodeon. However, Craig Bartlett decided not to use them and instead re-start from scratch, as many of his goals with the movie had changed over the last 15 years. While the new 2017 version of The Jungle Movie is different from the one Paramount cancelled in 2002; many ideas, sequences, and elements from the original were reused or modified to fit the new, re-written version of script (such as the crow's nest scene). The movie was also written with the intention to answer every question fans have sent over the years[12], while also introducing the characters to a new generation of kids age 6-11, Nickelodeon’s core demographic.
The new movie features a slight redesign of the show’s characters, since Bartlett wanted it to have a fresh, new look while still respecting the canon of the original TV series. The movie was developed in a way that it would serve as a series finale and tie up all loose ends. However, Craig also said that the film was made in a way that if it was very successful, it could actually open the way for a new season or series.
Characters
Characters that go to San Lorenzo
- Arnold: Now entering the sixth grade, he is on his quest to find answers to his parents' disappearance.
- Helga: Since the first movie, she still wants Arnold to forget that she ever loved him, will start to face facts over the course of the journey.
- Gerald: He being Arnold's best friend must tag along to help. His usual catchphrase towards Arnold is:"You're a bold kid, Arnold."
- Phoebe: She helps Gerald and Helga escape to help Arnold and helps her classmates escape.
- Harold: He does his usual bossy stuff with Stinky and Sid. "I'm the boss and I say we're doin' it!" (In the final film, his bossiness is overshadowed by his gluttony, his need for attention, and his constant bathroom breaks.)
- Sid: He tags along with Harold and Stinky.
- Stinky: He tags along with Harold and Sid.
- Rhonda: She totally freaks out in the jungle without her precious things and her hair.
- Nadine: For her, the jungle is like heaven. "There are 20,000 species of spider in San Lorenzo!"
- Eugene: He jinxes it up like crazy by getting severe allergic reactions (his body puffs up like a balloon) among other misfortunes.
- Curly: He's now in the 5th grade class (transitioning to 6th) with Arnold and others.
- Brainy: He helps Helga get her locket back in shape. Helga kisses him in return.
- Mr. Simmons: He is now the 5th grade teacher of Arnold's class.
- Olga: She will be volunteering as a chaperone for the field trip.
- Abner: He stows away in Arnold's bag, and later returns home to alert Phil and Gertie of Arnold's capture.
Other characters
- Miles: He is Arnold's father who went missing in San Lorenzo when Arnold was to remember him.
- Stella: She is Arnold's mother who went with Miles to help the Green Eyes but also disappeared.
- Eduardo: He is Miles and Stella's most trusted friend who witnessed Arnold's birth "silence all of nature" in "The Journal".
- The Green-Eyed People They are the original and mysterious inhabitants of San Lorenzo.
- Lasombra: He is an evil river pirate and treasure hunter; Miles and Stella's arch enemy.
- Grandpa Phil, Grandma Gertie, Big Bob Pataki, and Miriam Pataki later head to San Lorenzo to rescue the kids.
- Ernie Potts, Oskar Kokoshka, and Mr. Hyunh are featured at the beginning and end of the movie.
- Big Patty, Stoop Kid, Dino Spumoni, Pigeon Man, Coach Wittenberg, Monkeyman: Only play minor roles in a filmed montage.
- Chloe
- Chocolate Boy
- Don Reynolds
- Edmund
- Grubby Man
- Harvey
- Iggy
- Jamie O Johanssen
- Joey Stevenson
- Lila Sawyer
- Lockjaw
- Lorenzo
- Mai Hyunh
- Maria
- Mickey Kaline
- Mr. Green
- Mrs. Ryle
- Mrs. Vitello
- Officer Pudney
- Park
- Peapod Kid
- Robert
- Ruth P. McDougal
- Sheena
- Steve
- Torvald
- Tucker Wittenberg
- Tish Wittenberg
- Timberly Johansson
- Willie the Jolly Olly Man
- Wolfgang
- All appear during the party sequence with little to no dialogue.
Cast
| Arnold | Mason Vale Cotton |
| Gerald | Benjamin "Lil' P-Nut" Flores, Jr. |
| Helga | Francesca Marie Smith |
| Miles / Monkeyman / Abner / Brainy | Craig Bartlett |
| Stella | Antoinette Stella |
| Grandpa | Dan Castellaneta |
| Grandma / Homeless Woman | Tress MacNeille |
| Big Bob / Homeless Man #1 / Flunky Guard | Maurice LaMarche |
| Stinky | Jet Jurgensmeyer |
| Eduardo | Carlos Alazraqui |
| Big Patty | Danielle Judovits |
| Eugene | Gavin Lewis |
| Nadine | Laya Hayes |
| Oskar / Mr. Hyunh / Homeless Man #2 | Wally Wingert |
| Sid | Aiden Lewandowski |
| Phoebe / Newswoman | Anndi McAfee |
| Mr. Simmons | Dan Butler |
| Rhonda | Olivia Hack |
| Harold | Justin Shenkarow |
| Curly | Nicolas Cantu |
| Coach Wittenberg | James Belushi |
| Olga | Nika Futterman |
| Stoop Kid | Danny Cooksey |
| Ernie | Dom Irrera |
| Miriam | Kath E. Soucie |
| Pigeon Man | Stephen Stanton |
| Lasombra | Alfred Molina |
| Che / Pirate #1 / Guard #1 / Crewman | Lane Toran |
| Paulo / Pirate #2 / Guard #2 | Jamil Walker Smith |
| Dino Spumoni | Rick Corso |
| Girl Queen | Hope Levy |
Several of the characters' voices were replaced due to their voice actors growing up, retiring, or passing away. Most of child actors were replaced, with the exceptions being Helga, Harold, Rhonda, Phoebe, Big Patty and Stoop Kid, since their actors were able to reprise their roles and some of them still do voice acting. Wally Wingert replaces Steve Viksten and Baoan Coleman; the former passed away in 2014 and the latter retired from acting shortly after the first movie. Stephen Stanton replaces Vincent Schiavelli, who passed away in 2005. Toran Caudell and Jamil Walker Smith returned to voice San Lorenzo characters.
Gallery
See Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie/Gallery
Videos
Original Plot
Prior to the movie entering development in 2015, Craig Bartlett mentioned parts of the original movie plot in various online chats and interviews. However, when the film began production in 2016, the script was re-written from scratch, although many elements of the original plot remained.
Arnold's name is revealed in the opening scene. Harvey comes to the door of the boarding house with a package for him and he signs his full name.
The whole class, who are now in the fifth grade, go to San Lorenzo in Central America along with Olga, Mr. Simmons, and Principal Wartz (who is not in the 2017 movie), after Arnold wins the trip in an essay contest. However, he has his own secret agenda to go look for his parents with the map that he found at the end of the episode "The Journal". Thoughout the movie, each of Arnold's classmates has their subplots, including Rhonda freaking out in the wild while Nadine is in bug heaven, and Eugene getting allergies. (In this version of the movie, Abner did not go to San Lorenzo).
Some locations visited by the class in San Lorenzo, seen in concept art below, include a city named Puerto Claro, Eduardo's steamboat, river rapids, a pirate fort where the class ends up captured in, and a broken-down wooden bridge.
Lasombra, a character who was briefly seen in the episode "The Journal", is the main antagonist of the movie. He is a mercenary treasure hunter and the river pirate leader, who goes in disguise (presumably as Eduardo, as in one of the sketches he seems to be holding a fake mustache). Lasombra is after the Corazón, a fabulous jewel and a sacred relic of the Green Eyes, which can't be seen in the light of day. He interrogates Arnold in his hideout.
Arnold meets the mysterious Green Eyed people, the people his parents were helping. When he was born, he silenced all of nature (the erupting volcano), which prompted the Green Eyes to believe that he is divine. The Green Eyes have designed a motif that is shaped like a football head in all their architecture. They are also impressed with Helga's ferocity. This makes the Green Eyes semi-worship Arnold and Helga. The Green Eyes also think very highly of Miles and Stella, because they’ve all saved each other’s lives before, many times.
Arnold and Helga's relationship finally reaches the next level. While in the first movie she confessed her love for him, he dodged out of telling how he feels in return. In The Jungle Movie, he completes the conversation. At the start, she acts like she still hates him again. The two later have a major scene in the crow's nest. Around the middle of the story, Helga gives up, only to be helped in a big way by Brainy. In the end of the movie, Arnold and Helga share a short kiss (during a scene when they are in a hurry), but Gerald interrupts them. They make a really lame excuse and he says "Whatever you say". By that point, most of the characters in the movie would probably already notice what's going on between the two, and would start teasing them about it.
Craig Bartlett never revealed anything about the fate of Arnold's parents in the years after the original movie was cancelled, or after the movie's production was revived.
Original Production Materials
Raymie Muzquiz Storyboards
In July 2012, animation director Raymie Muzquiz launched his official website with examples of his work. One to those examples was a 53-page PDF document showing storyboards of a TJM scene.[13]
In the storyboards, Lasombra is revealed, turning out to be the blue-shirted river pirate shown in the original concept art. The scene starts with a monkey climbing over a long wall into the compound, with the text hinting to what happened in the previous scene. It pans into Lasombra's hut, where he has Arnold held captive.
Two of his thugs are also in the room. Lasombra instructs one of the thugs to open a plate of tasty-looking food, but Arnold ignores it. Lasombra persists, trying to get Arnold to tell him where the hidden city of the Green Eyes is, but Arnold again avoids the topic, arguing that if he knew that, he'd probably find his parents.
Lasombra grows angrier and orders his thugs to restrain Arnold. The same monkey from the opening scene follows in the background, watching the thugs capture Arnold and throw him in a storeroom. The map falls in after him. Lasombra explains how he thinks a good night's sleep might jog his memory. Plus, he'd hate to hurt Arnold's friends "on accident". Then the thugs close the door. Arnold runs to the door but it's locked.
Sometime in mid-2015, these storyboards were removed from Muzquiz's website, and replaced with a message saying "Removed for Mysterious Reason!". Craig Bartlett mentioned the following year that the sequence in Raymie's website would not be used in the new 2017 Jungle Movie.
Test Footage
Hey Arnold Test
In 2012, Vimeo user and Artist Brent Forrest posted a test clip for TJM on his account. The animation in this test footage is radically different from the artwork featured in the Hey Arnold! TV Series and also shows off some 3D effects, like the first movie. In 2014, Craig Bartlett confirmed the footage to be genuine on his Facebook page, and that it was produced by his studio in 2001.
The footage shows Miles and Stella on horseback chasing a masked Lasombra through the San Lorenzo jungle in the rain to get back the Corazón; referencing a scene that was shown in "The Journal", where they were running away from Lasombra after retrieving the Corazón. No version of this footage ended up in the final film.
Original Sketches & Concept Art
Trivia
- When Miles' journal appears at the very beginning of the movie (when it spins into view, and in Arnold's dream), several of the pages are readable entries previously read in "The Journal". One of the last pages says at the bottom: "We're going to have a baby!! I hope he's a boy, so we can name him Arnold, and he can have his own series, and make 100 eps."
- Craig Bartlett added Pigeon Man in the movie simply to completely debunk the fan rumors and speculation that he committed suicide.
- Pigeon Man's whereabouts are also meant to be a reference to the beginning of the comic story "Gerald's Urban Legends", where Gerald explained what happened to him.
- The inside of the temple in Arnold's dream resembles the boarding house hall. There are also statues of Phil and Gertie visible.
- When Lasombra's laptop detects Arnold's football head, the outlines of a fire hydrant, the state of Texas, a pineapple, an apple, a tea pot, a chicken, and a football appear.
- The movie's closing shot, of Miles and Stella in P.S. 118's stairs, mirrors a shot of an obscured Miles and Stella in Arnold's dream at the start of the film.
- The movie includes dedications in loving memory of: Steve Viksten, original writer and voice of Oskar, who passed away at the age of 53 due to a heart attack on June 23, 2014; Vincent Schiavelli, original voice of Pigeon Man, who passed away at the age of 57 due to lung cancer on December 26, 2005; and Kevin Iwaki, the film's archives coordinator, who passed away at the age of 30 due to acute leukemia on January 13, 2017.
- Also included is a Thank You to "all fans who wrote letters and signed petitions encouraging the making of this movie".
- As revealed in a behind the scenes promo during the NickSplat premiere of the film, a lot of the original script was taken out for time. The parade scene was originally longer in the storyboards, with Olga appearing on one of the parade floats, and Helga dressed as a monkey.
- Some finished animation was also cut for time. A shot of Arnold, Helga, Gerald, and Phoebe on the boat (posted by Craig Bartlett on his Instagram) and another shot of the airport's departure screen (shown in NYCC 2017) are not in the aired cut of the movie.
- This is the second Nickelodeon revival movie and the first one to be based off a Nicktoon.
- This film is rated TV-PG, unlike the TV series, which was rated TV-Y (TV-Y7 for later reruns).
- Compared to the original series, this movie has thinner character outlines, more vibrant colors and brighter backgrounds.
- Like Hey Arnold! The Movie, this film uses 3D models; for the city bus, the airplane, the ships, the Corazón, and the Green-Eyed People's city.
- To celebrate the film's premiere, NickSplat started airing episodes of the show every week, and began a Hey Arnold! marathon on November 17. The film aired simultaneously on the main Nickelodeon channel, the Nicktoons Network, and TeenNick at 7PM EST.
- In an interview with the A.V. Club, Franny Smith revealed she actually had to audition for Nickelodeon to show them she could still do the Helga voice.[14]
- This film officially reveals Arnold's last name, "Shortman".
- This is the first time Arnold cries (unless you count the flashback in "Parents Day").
- This marks the second time Arnold addresses Oskar by his first name, having before only addressing him as "Mr. Kokoshka". He previously referred to him by his first name in "Hookey".
- When Arnold is opening the Corazón, it's shown that he does indeed have green eyes, as stated by Helga in "The Little Pink Book".
- Mr. Hyunh, Mai, Torvald, the Jolly Olly Man, Monkeyman, and one of Lasombra's men can be seen in the crowd during the parade in Puerto Clara.
Cultural References
- The shot of Arnold ducking an airplane in the prologue is a reference to the Hitchock film North by Northwest.
- Gerald can be seen reading Heart of Darkness when he's walking outside the boarding house.
- Helga shows an Arnold-shaped signal in the sky, much like Commissioner Gordon showing the Bat-Signal to Batman.
- Helga has a Banana brand laptop, instead of an Apple Computer.
- The airline is named "Tuck Air" after longtime HA! director Tuck Tucker. There are also businesses in the background named after Stu Livingston and Raymie Muzquiz, the two directors of this movie.
- Che and Olga recreate the "I'm flying" sequence from Titanic, and Olga paraphrases Leonardo DiCaprio's line, "I'm queen of the world!"
- When playing with his fake mustache, Lasombra briefly does imitations of Abraham Lincoln and Mexican painter Frida Kahlo.
- When Curly jumps on top of Olga, he shouts, "Hi-ho, Silver!", a common misquote from popular radio character The Lone Ranger. (He actually says, "Hi-yo, Silver!")
- During the montage showing how Abner got back to Hillwood, a cartoon version of Craig Bartlett is sitting next to him in first class. He could also be seen in the background some shots of the city of Puerto Clara.
- Eugene rolls down the guards, stating he feels like "the ball from that movie", which was Raiders of the Lost Ark, which, most likely not coincidentally, featured Alfred Molina in his film debut.
Continuity
- The island from the dream at the beginning of "Parents Day" appears at the start of the movie.
- Several elements and plot points from "The Journal" play a major role in the story.
- The stone shrine Arnold, Gerald, and Helga reach when the amulet stops glowing is the exact same shrine Miles and Stella found when they returned the Corazón over ten years before.
- The confession from Hey Arnold! The Movie is referenced, albeit not explicitly.
- Helga, after running into Arnold and Abner near the start of the movie, says she's tried to tell Arnold her feelings, but hasn't received a response.
- Helga, on the crow's nest, tells Arnold: "Don't play dumb, Arnold. You know what I'm talking about."
- Arnold, while confessing to Helga, says: "I know you tried to tell me before, and I wasn't ready to hear it. But now, this whole thing; the trip to San Lorenzo...".
- Helga's video recordings of Arnold contain reanimated clips from the past episodes "Field Trip", "Part Time Friends", "Tutoring Torvald", "The Vacant Lot", "Best Friends", "The Baseball", "Eugene's Bike", "Harold's Kitty", "Mugged", "Downtown as Fruits", "24 Hours to Live", and "Steely Phil".
- During the home video, there are direct mentions of the events from "Stoop Kid", "Partners", "Pigeon Man", "Eugene's Pet", and "Eugene Goes Bad".
- Past minor and one-shot characters appear in the crowd, including Mai from "Arnold's Christmas" and Tucker from "Benchwarmer".
- Harold and Stinky moon the camera, just like they did in "Full Moon".
- Sid's Beatle boots from the episode "Monkeyman!" are destroyed while walking through the jungle.
- Curly frees the animals in the pirate hideout, referencing what he did in "Cool Party".
Story Analysis
- The one-year time skip between the original series and this movie is reflected in a few ways:
- Characters: The kids are now around 10 or 11 years old. The boys have grown up and are now taller, while the girls have started going through puberty.
- Setting: According to Bartlett, after the first movie's events [15], the neighborhood got discovered by hipsters and new businesses have been opened in old buildings that were sold to Scheck.
- Technology: Although this movie takes place about a year after the end of the original series, within that year, technology seems to have advanced several years compared to real-world standards: Wi-Fi is mentioned, and Rhonda has an iPhone-like cellphone (she's the only one, besides a background character early in the film, to have one, likely because she's rich, or because smartphones are new and she's an early adopter). In real life, Wi-Fi became widespread in the mid-2000s and the 1st generation of iPhones came out in 2007. Canonically, this movie likely takes place in June 2002, if you assume "The Journal" took place in 2001, the year it was produced.
- As a result of the aforementioned technological progress, Big Bob's Beepers seems to have gone through hard times, as beepers have been phased out in favor of cellphones and Bob refuses to adapt with the times. The store is seen having a clearance sale, and it's implied (by their mailbox and cars being outside the store, and Bob getting the morning paper there) that the Patakis' house has been repossesed due to financial struggles, and they live in the store now.
- Arnold being the one to open the Corazón, a literal heart made of gold, symbolizes his good, pure nature. Meanwhile, Helga's gold-plated heart locket being the object that actually reawakens Arnold's parents represents how it was her love for Arnold that saved the day (something that Arnold says when he confesses to her).
- While the sleeping sickness was described in "Parents Day" and "The Journal" as deadly, it is revealed in this movie that those who contract it (both humans and butterflies) do not outright die, but go into a permanent comatose state until a cure is administered to them, at which point they wake up shortly after.
- It's very likely that the Green Eyes misinterpreted the comatose state as death (like Arnold did when he first saw his sleeping parents), as their mural paintings depict skulls and bones above the infected, despite the disease proving not fatal.
- This might also explain why Miles, Stella, and Eduardo believed the disease to be fatal in "The Journal". The trio never saw an affected Green Eye, they were only told by the Green Eyes that many had "perished". It's also likely that the affected butterflies found by Stella at the stone shrine were comatose too, but were erroneously labeled as "dead".
- At the end of the movie, Arnold tells Helga that he wondered if she was mean to him because she loved him. This implies that even before the confession in Hey Arnold! The Movie, Arnold had wondered about the possibility that Helga liked him. This was suggested by Phil to Arnold in "Girl Trouble", and the dream Helga's confession in "Married" is strong evidence that, despite never believing it was true, the thought of Helga loving him had crossed Arnold's mind.
Errors
- When Arnold opens the journal during his dream, the entries are on the wrong order. The March 15 entry where Miles details how he met Stella is after the entries about their marriage and honeymoon.
- When the reanimated clip of "Field Trip" starts, Helga is wearing her new outfit instead of the old one.
- Before the home video starts, Eugene doesn't have the bandages and eye patch he has near the end of the video.
- In the reanimated clip of "The Vacant Lot", Sheena is wearing her new outfit despite all the other characters wearing their old outfits from the original series.
- In the reanimated clip of "Harold's Kitty", Arnold and Harold are in front of the Sunset Arms boarding house, instead of Harold's house.
- "Eduardo" says ¡Qué buen fortuna! when he meets Arnold at the dock. This Spanish phrase is gramatically incorrect, it should be ¡Qué buena fortuna!.
- There are several design inconsistencies and other errors during the act aboard the Doña Marina.
- The ladder to climb up to the crow's nest faces towards the ship's stern. But when Arnold looks up to see Eduardo using binoculars, and during the night, when Helga sees Arnold climbing up, the ladder is facing the bow.
- When Steve is fighting off the attackers, there's a ladder behind him which was not in any previous scene. And when Che is fighting off attackers, the stairway to the captain's room is not behind him like it should; instead there's two metal ladders like the one in the shot with Steve.
- When the boat speeds up and the class spills onto the deck, Curly, Stinky and Mr. Simmons aren't seen sliding even though they were seen falling down.
- While Curly is up in the crow's nest, the floor is missing the hole that leads to the ladder.
- When the 3D boat is going through the rapids, Nadine and Mr. Simmons are on the starboard side, while Helga, Gerald, and Phoebe are on the port side. But there are a couple brief shots where their positions are switched.
- The metal pipe that Phoebe grabs onto during the rapids scene was not previously seen on the boat.
- The underside of "Eduardo"'s hat is the wrong color for one frame after he kicks down the boat door.
Error with Helga's unibrow
- When the steamboat explodes, Helga has no unibrow. And after "Eduardo" reveals the river pirates were after Arnold, there's another error with her unibrow.
- When Arnold kneels to apologize, Gerald's nose is colored white and part of his head isn't drawn.
- In the scene after Big Bob tackles Che, Rhonda's hair looks already cut by a machete.
- The mook who gets knocked out by Grandpa with the portable toilet door changes shirt colors when the pirate habitat is viewed from afar.
- When Lasombra falls off the cliff for the first time, as he falls, he has scratches and his clothes are damaged, even though he was in perfect condition in the previous shot.
- Lasombra's pupils aren't red when he says "Always so presumptuous."
- During the fight scene with the poisoned Lasombra, there are two instances (when Lasombra has a bag over his head, and when he grabs Arnold by the collar) where Lasombra's skin isn't sickly green like it should.
- When Arnold is running to see if his parents are waking up, there's an error with one of the Green Eyes on the left side of the screen.
See also
References
- ↑ Interview With Hey Arnold's Craig Bartlett
- ↑ Don't worry: Nickelodeon will take good care of your beloved TV memories
- ↑ Nickelodeon Mulls Return of Classic Shows
- ↑ Hey Arnold! is coming back, and possibly Rugrats too
- ↑ ‘Hey Arnold’ TV Movie in Works as Nickelodeon Aims to Revive Classic Shows (EXCLUSIVE)
- ↑ Nickelodeon to Revive ‘Legends of the Hidden Temple’ as TV Movie (EXCLUSIVE)
- ↑ Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie Greenlit at Nickelodeon, Series Creator Confirms
- ↑ Nickelodeon is making a Hey Arnold! movie, might bring back other classic series
- ↑ Hey Arnold! creator Craig Bartlett charts the path to The Jungle Movie
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ Nickelodeon's Hey Arnold! 2017 Reboot Plot, Title Revealed
- ↑ Hey Arnold! movie will premiere on Nickelodeon next Thanksgiving
- ↑ Storyboards by co-director Raymie Muzquiz, from his official site.
- ↑ The creator and stars discuss how the new Hey Arnold! deals with 2017
- ↑ Why Hey Arnold! had the most amazing city on TV