Film Reviews

Hey Arnold

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Jennifer Jason Leigh
• Details: US / 76 minutes / (G).

Another knock off of a Nickelodeon television series, Hey Arnold: The Movie is a fairly non descript excursion, a bland animated effort that will probably please its targeted audience but shows no ambition in enchanting anyone else. There's no edge to the animation, and the script - beyond making thinly veiled references to other Hollywood movies - shows little or no regard for the sanity of watching adults.
The plot revolves around Arnold (voiced by Spencer Klein) and his pals' efforts to save their street from an industrial tycoon, Scheck (Sorvino) who wants to build a shopping mall. After learning that their neighbourhood may have historical significance, Arnold and his mate Gerald (Smith) set out to find a historical document, which will halt Scheck in his tracks. Scheck knows about this document, too, but Arnold is about to get some help from an unexpected source.
Although I'm not familiar with the television series, there's nothing in Hey Arnold! The Movie to inspire me to investigate it any further. Conventionally scripted and animated in a terribly amateurish fashion that borders on the juvenile (well, at least compared to most other big screen cartoons), Hey Arnold is strictly for hardcore fans only.

Review by Garreth Murphy