June 28, 2002 | Unless someone sets fire to your living room, there’s no pressing reason to leave home to see Hey Arnold! The Movie at your friendly neighborhood megaplex. Little more than a typical TV episode writ large for theatrical consumption, this extremely mild spin-off from the popular Nickelodeon animated series should be opening soon at a video store near you.
Even so, the little ones in your household may demand to see their young hero on the big screen. If that happens, well, grin and bear it. And try not to think that, not too long from now, the kids will want to see R-rated sex comedies instead.
Much like the TV show, Hey Arnold! The Movie focuses on a title character with a creative imagination, a sense of fair play – and a football-shaped noggin. Arnold loves his ethnically and culturally diverse inner-city neighborhood, which appears to be inspired by movies set in ’50s and ’60s Brooklyn. But a ruthlessly greedy land developer – is there any other kind of land developer, in any kind of movie? – wants to tear down the decrepit shops and boarding houses, to make way for a spanking new shopping mall.
So it’s up to Arnold – with a little help from Gerald, his best buddy, and Helga, a girl who only pretends to hate him – to find a document that would prove the neighborhood is a federally protected historical landmark. After many close calls, the good guys prevail. How nice.
Most grown-ups – and quite a few sharp-eyed children – will be unimpressed by the dreary and herky-jerky hand-drawn animation, to say nothing of the formulaic plot and overall charmlessness of Hey Arnold! The Movie. On the other hand, adults might be mildly amused by the pop-culture references – the movie alludes to everything from Speed and Men in Black to The Incredible Hulk and All the President’s Men – and the grown-up notables who provide voices for supporting characters. Listen closely, and you’ll hear Jennifer Jason Leigh as a well-armed adventuress, and Paul Sorvino as the big, bad land developer.
