I may be setting myself up for flames and indignant rage, but I need to make this known; this movie is good, but not as good as we believed it to be. There's a lot of praise for it because of nostalgia and finally properly the Hey Arnold series after years of speculating a proper finale movie. In a way, that alone deserves praise. But in other ways, "Hey Arnold The Jungle Movie" should not have been made at all. I'll assume that everyone has seen it already, so big warning; SPOILERS.
At first everything flows nicely, as there's a plot easy to understand. Arnold is feeling upset that his parents are still gone, and after waiting too long for them to come back, decides that maybe he should go look for them. On the last day of school, Simmons tells everyone that there's a humanitarian contest where the winner will get a whole class trip to San Lorenzo. Helga, touched and moved that Arnold only wants to see his parents again, decides to help make a movie promoting his good deeds at the last minute.
This is where the movie starts to fall apart. First, Helga has seen Arnold do EVERYTHING and RECORDED EVERYTHING, even the scenes she had no right or reason to have seen, like releasing Lockjaw the turtle or helping Rhonda and Nadine make up. This effectively puts Helga in sue status and takes her obsession/stalking on Arnold beyond suspension of disbelief.
The contest turns out to be pointless anyway. In a nice attempt to reconnect old characters for cameos, it is revealed that the villain La Sombra made it rigged just to lure Arnold out to help his parents and the Green Eyes. And speaking of Green Eyes, screw them. It’s one thing to believe how La Sombra knew of Arnold’s very existence through rumors and word of mouth, but this movie basically turned Arnold into something he never should have been; a Chosen One.
The sleeping sickness that Arnold’s parents were sent to cure ended up being more serious than they thought. All but the Green Eyed children were affected, and Arnold’s parents, Miles and Stella, ended up comatose just as they finished making enough medicine. And how was this supposed to work? By making Arnold the Chosen One and putting some gold rock into a stone.
This was not what Hey Arnold was about. Arnold usually saved the day because he had common sense and empathy, telling people to just be themselves or offer simple advice. The real “specialness” and “uniqueness” stated by Mr. Simmons in the whole class is about being true to yourself, not tasked with saving some Lost Boy rejects.
And in the end, it wasn't even ARNOLD that saved everyone. It was all HELGA. She got Arnold to San Lorenzo, she helped Arnold to escape, and she even had the proper substitute to use the rain machine.
I suppose it's nice to have closure, but if this was what Craig Bartlett and his team had planned for years on their movie, then maybe it should have stayed in Development Hell. And I'm saying this as someone that grew up watching Hey Arnold.
This movie is actually pretty awful
I may be setting myself up for flames and indignant rage, but I need to make this known; this movie is good, but not as good as we believed it to be. There's a lot of praise for it because of nostalgia and finally properly the Hey Arnold series after years of speculating a proper finale movie. In a way, that alone deserves praise. But in other ways, "Hey Arnold The Jungle Movie" should not have been made at all. I'll assume that everyone has seen it already, so big warning; SPOILERS.
At first everything flows nicely, as there's a plot easy to understand. Arnold is feeling upset that his parents are still gone, and after waiting too long for them to come back, decides that maybe he should go look for them. On the last day of school, Simmons tells everyone that there's a humanitarian contest where the winner will get a whole class trip to San Lorenzo. Helga, touched and moved that Arnold only wants to see his parents again, decides to help make a movie promoting his good deeds at the last minute.
This is where the movie starts to fall apart. First, Helga has seen Arnold do EVERYTHING and RECORDED EVERYTHING, even the scenes she had no right or reason to have seen, like releasing Lockjaw the turtle or helping Rhonda and Nadine make up. This effectively puts Helga in sue status and takes her obsession/stalking on Arnold beyond suspension of disbelief.
The contest turns out to be pointless anyway. In a nice attempt to reconnect old characters for cameos, it is revealed that the villain La Sombra made it rigged just to lure Arnold out to help his parents and the Green Eyes. And speaking of Green Eyes, screw them. It’s one thing to believe how La Sombra knew of Arnold’s very existence through rumors and word of mouth, but this movie basically turned Arnold into something he never should have been; a Chosen One.
The sleeping sickness that Arnold’s parents were sent to cure ended up being more serious than they thought. All but the Green Eyed children were affected, and Arnold’s parents, Miles and Stella, ended up comatose just as they finished making enough medicine. And how was this supposed to work? By making Arnold the Chosen One and putting some gold rock into a stone.
This was not what Hey Arnold was about. Arnold usually saved the day because he had common sense and empathy, telling people to just be themselves or offer simple advice. The real “specialness” and “uniqueness” stated by Mr. Simmons in the whole class is about being true to yourself, not tasked with saving some Lost Boy rejects.
And in the end, it wasn't even ARNOLD that saved everyone. It was all HELGA. She got Arnold to San Lorenzo, she helped Arnold to escape, and she even had the proper substitute to use the rain machine.
I suppose it's nice to have closure, but if this was what Craig Bartlett and his team had planned for years on their movie, then maybe it should have stayed in Development Hell. And I'm saying this as someone that grew up watching Hey Arnold.