Hey guys, sorry it's been so long. I keep running into the issue of the movies I watch don't really offer anything for me to rant about. Plus finals for the Summer semester took a lot out of me, and work sucks, and yada yada yada, life stuff, ya know....
Anyway, tonight I was babysitting a 4 year old, and I needed Uncle Television for a few hours, but I didn't watch to watch the standard 4 year old fodder, because you can only take so much of it. I was flipping through Netflix, and found Hey Arnold The Movie, so I put on my nostalgia goggles, and pressed play...
I do need to predicate this by saying, I was never a big fan of Hey Arnold growing up, but as an adult, I realize it's actually pretty good, I don't think it's a genius show or anything, but it's better than I gave it credit for as a kid. That being said, most of the episodes I've watched have been as an adult, so I've noticed, something very common in cartoons, the amount of innuendos. Every cartoon has them, do they bother me? No. I find them funny...but Hey Arnold (both the show and the movie) have more innuendos than Spongebob Squarepants, and each episode of that show has about a million and four.
While we're on the subject of innuendos...everyone has seen The Little Mermaid, right? I hope so, anyway. I'm sure anyone above the of 12 knows that when Ariel and Eric get married they priest (I assume it's a priest, anyway) get's a boner...right? Okay, when I found that out...I immediately went to my VHS player, and tried to find it, I did...but it took about 12 times of rewinding.....if it took me, a 12-13 year that long to find it, what small child watching the film is going to catch it? Probably none. My point is, people, stop freaking about sex jokes in kids films....it's not like they're a new concept.
But I digress. Hey Arnold. The film is based off the show, yada yada yada, the score for the film is by Jim Lang. I don't personally recognize him from anything except Hey Arnold and Dinosaur Train. (talk about 4 year old fodder...that one is on the top tier, and not in a good way)
The basic plot of the this movie is...Arnold and best pal Gerald are walking home one day after getting beaten at basketball, and see bulldozers around the neighborhood, come to find out, the neighborhood is going to be torn down to put in big corporations (sounds just like the United States right now doesn't it? But more on that in a minute). But turn out, the Tomato Incident of the Revolutionary War (a parody to the Boston Tea Party) happened in the neighborhood, making it a national landmark, which means, it can't be torn down. The problem? There's no documentation to prove A) it happened in the neighborhood B) it happened at all, and isn't just legend. But Scheck, the big corporate guy, looking to make a few (million) bucks off the deal, has the documentation locked away in a safety deposit box, and Arnold and Gerald have to go retrieve, they get caught a few times, but ultimately get Scheck on tape burning the document, thus....the neighborhood stays. Yay.
The movie, even though making back nearly 5x it's 3 million dollar budget was still considered a bomb, and no, it's not the most original idea out there...I seem to remember Recess Schools Out, doing a very similar thing the year before, and doing a better job at it.
I think the problem with the film, is that it tries too hard to be a big budget film, from a 30 minute show, it doesn't have the wit or humor the show did, but at the same time, I'm sure it's hard to adapt a 30 minute concept (Well really, 15 minutes since there's 2 episodes per viewing). Can it be done well? Sure, I think the Jimmy Neutron does just fine, can it be done crappy...ever heard of the Smurfs?
I think the Hey Arnold movie looses something in translation, and it happens. I don't think it was a horrible movie, but it wasn't that great either.
It does however, do one thing pretty well. Even 11 years later, it is still very relevant to today, especially post 2008.
"Big corrupt corporations will do anything to make a few (million) bucks, even if that means destroying people's lives". All I could think of anytime Scheck was one screen was "Walmart, Walmart, Walmart"...or a few times, "Government in general". Naturally, kids are just going to see a generic villain, while adults see what I mentioned a moment ago...that was probably the redeeming quality to the film, it's aged pretty well.
I say, you honestly don't need to mess with it, unless you're just a fan of a show. I found it pretty bland.
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