Starting off with the characters, Arnold, our main hero is a more watered down version of the one from the show. Now I'll admit, though he is the title character of the show, Arnold was not the most interesting character of the bunch, I found his supporting cast far more interesting. But there were a good handful of episodes that gave him good character development that did make him interesting. Here he is pretty one-dimensional, and that's because the audience, those who know him from the show and those who don't, never are allowed to be introduced to him. Now let's compare this situation to a much better animated family movie, Disney's Aladdin. In that movie, during the introduction of our titular hero and his song "One Jump Ahead", that he is an orphan living on the streets of Agrabah who has to survive in hot and harsh streets with his pet monkey by stealing food from vendors. But we also learn in that in a scene in which he feeds a couple of very young street orphans the bread he stole and protecting them from the harm of a bratty prince, he has a heart of gold and looks out for the smaller guy. We also learn that he longs for a chance to prove to others that he is not just a worthless, thieving street rat. This makes his adventures and the scenes he interacts with other characters compelling and fun to watch. Here, it's just "this is Arnold, Arnold sees mean man try to destroy his neighborhood, Arnold says no and tries to stop him", that's it, we learn nothing else about him. Some of the fans might know a little about Arnold from past TV episodes, but the rest of the people who do not watch the show sure as hell don't. Plus they had several upon several episodes to develop his character, here we only got about eighty minutes, and they chose the lazy way out by thinking everybody knows who Arnold is, so we don't have to develop him. Maybe if we got to know more about him and his relationship with the other characters, maybe we would have cared more about him saving the neighborhood. Then we have Gerald, Arnold's best friend....and that's it he's just Arnold's best friend. Yes, in the show there is definitely more to Gerald than being Arnold's best friend, but here he is just the yes man sidekick to our hero. He says nothing interesting, or do any thing interesting. Well I take part of that back, he is involved in a chase scene in which he is driving a bus, but that's about it. The two don't have a conflict of interest, there is not a moment where they risk a life to save the other, not a moment where their close friendship is put to the test, nothing. Then we have Helga, who because the voice performance and due to some decent writing is the most interesting character in the movie. Lucky for me, because she happens to be my absolute favorite character of the show. In fact my favorite episode is "Helga on the Couch" in where she talks to a child psychiatrist about why she feels the way she feels about her family and most importantly Arnold. But back to the movie, Helga is the only character I have interest in because her whole arc revolves around being this "Deep Voice Whistle Blower" to Arnold, helping him stop the villain, and also her intention in finally confessing her love for him. But even then she is not even enough to save the movie. Then we have our villain, Scheck, a greedy corporate real estate developer. GEE, HAVEN'T SEEN THIS GUY IN A MOVIE YET, ESPECIALLY IN A MEDIOCRE KIDS MOVIE! I'm serious I am so tired of these type of villains in kids movies that always want to tear down some beloved neighborhood or landmark for there corporate greed and our heroes have to stop them. The only time I've seen it work is in 2011's The Muppets, and that's because the villain was actually funny, also they poked fun of and did a clever satire on this overused cliche in family movies. This guy is boring! All he does his twist his mustache in that bland business suit he has on (he does not have mustache but you know what I mean). He is not funny, he is not interesting, he is not even balls to wall evil. They don't take a risk with this guy. Since it's a family movie make him REALLY funny or go all out, make him REALLY evil and messed up, pull a Darth Vader or something! What about the other supporting characters we know from the show? Barely a mention or anything to do. Yeah, I'm serious the colorful, funny, and memorable supporting cast of kids we got from the show, they barely do or say anything. Phoebe, barely anything, Harold, barely anything, Sid, barely anything, Stinky, barely anything, Lyla, barely anything, Rhonda, barely anything. Heck, we don't even get Stoop Kid! All my Hey Arnold! fans remember him! This movie just wastes a lot of potential for these great characters and replaces it with uninteresting story arcs.
I will say that the animation is kind of nice for a theatrical release. It is not the best animation I have seen in my life, but you can tell there was some effort put into the traditional animation to make this film presentable as a theatrical movie oppose to a TV episode. That is all I can say about that.
Now back to the bad stuff, probably the most painful and disappointing element of this movie is sadly the most important part of it is the story. Why is this movie about Arnold trying to save his neighborhood from a land developer. I know the neighborhood and its characters are something special and mean a lot in the show, but why this overused plot. And if they were going to use this plot, why not make it different, a little more interesting, a little more satirical, a little more funnier. You know things that the show itself was actually good at! By movie standards, it does not even go to a grander scale of a theatrical movie. My ruling if a TV show is going to have a theatrical film, it MUST have a story and scale that fits for a full length theatrical film as oppose to an 11-22 minute episode. This just feels like an extended episode that could have aired on TV. A REALLY BAD EXTENDED EPISODE! In fact this was originally supposed to be just an extended episode to air on TV. The original Hey Arnold! movie was suppose to be about Arnold winning some school contest with the prize being that he and his classmates get to go on vacation anywhere in the world. Arnold chooses South America, because it was revealed in an episode that his parents are lost in the Amazon jungle. And it was going to have Helga be the one who finds Arnold's parents, and by the end the two would fall in love. There is also a plot of some poacher/graverobber who plans to steal an ancient treasure hidden in the jungle. And on top of that not just Gerald, but the rest of the supporting cast would be along for the ride. Pheobe, Rhonda, Harold, Stinky, Sid, Eugene, Chocolate Boy, that weird kid with the glasses and black hair whose name I can't remember at the moment. they were all going to be a part of it, and not just thrown to the side like a certain other movie. This was going to be Indiana Jones, but with kids, and not just any kids, the characters from Hey Arnold! which of course is awesome! But no, the executives at Nickelodeon thought that the boring and stupid story about a greedy corporate land developer was far more profitable as a film than an Indiana Jones-style adventure in the jungle in which the loose ends of the story arcs for our favorite characters are finally tied to a satisfying conclusion. Obviously these executives do not like having a lot of money. So yes, this is the movie we got and sadly it is flatter than a football head. Even Tom Brady's. (mic drop).
GRADE: CR
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