EDITORIAL: The Problem With Hey Arnold The Jungle Movie

It's been 2 and a half years since the long awaited film Hey Arnold The Jungle Movie camp out. When it was released it has met with almost unanimous praise from critics and longtime fans including me myself.

I watched the film the fifth time today, I watched it for the first time on November 25, 2017, watched foe the second later that day, the third exactly two weeks later after I finished writing the script for Christmas Wishes and the fourth around the beginning of February last year.

What I came to realise it that with each watch, I liked the film less and less and I think a big factor in it is that I noticed a lot of flaws with this film. I will say that I still enjoy this film and I think the first 20 minutes are great if not a little bit rushed, they really nailed the Hey Arnold aesthetic down to a T, but the second and third acts? Not so much.

The first problem is that I feel the movie especially in act 2 and 3 seem to kind of go against the rules of the show. They really seem to lean on the supernatural aspect with the Green Eyed people and the prophecy, were these really needed? No. 

This is most prominently shown when Arnold has the amulet around his neck glowing. Again I know Hey Arnold may have had some supernatural aspects happening but they were either for a quick joke at the end or it was just a mystery. Here they really lean on it and the sad thing is it didn't need to be this way.

Here's how I'd fix it, just have the amulet work the way it does in that it let's Arnold see the hidden parts of the Journal to find the Green Eyed people, you don't need to make it obviously supernatural. Also the prophecy wasn't really needed, it kind of does make Arnold into a pseudo god when you think about it, I mean Arnold is supposed to be just a good natured kid who could be anyone. 

I just feel these two things are the biggest problems with the movie and it kinda seems that the writers wanted to do this stuff just because they wanted it to really be cool, but sadly completely went against the established rules of the show. Yes I know it's a cartoon but even in a cartoon you still need to follow the rules you established with the show (unless it's for some quick jokes that usually don't amount to much) otherwise it makes you as a writer or creator look lazy.

Another problem I have with this movie is that it completely retcons/rewrites the Green Eyed people. In Parents Day and especially The Journal it is said that these people were dying from the illness, but here they were just sleeping the whole time, well the adults of course since the sickness didn't affect the children. WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED? Did anyone go back and watch these episodes?

Here's how you fix it. You can have it where there's only a few people left. You can have it where the king and queen of the green eyed people are and the 'Girl Queen' is the acting leader of the few people left and she wants Arnold Gerald and Helga to help make the serum to wake her parents and the other people who are dying of the sickness.

And you may be asking what about Arnold's parents?, weren't they stuck the sleeping sickness? 

Well, here's how I'd do it, just have them be captured by La Sombra whilst they were lost in San Lorenzo. I mean Arnold's dad didn't take his Journal with him, it makes perfect sense they'd be lost and later be captured by La Sombra and his crew because they wouldn't tell him where the La Corozon is. 

You can have it where La Sombra tells Arnold he needs to get the  Corozon or he won't release his friends and especially his parents. But at the same time like in the movie the scenes play the same where La Sombra uses Arnold to get the Corozon. 

And then you can have the scenes play that La Sombra lied to Arnold and will not release his friends and after La Sombra's death, Arnold sits there and accepts that he's never gonna find his parents, and has his spirit lifted up by the fact that he can stop another kid's parents (Girl Queen's parents) from dying and with his friends make the antidote which later gets released waking the parents up.

That scene you can have Arnold parents show up and them having a reunion that's longer than the one in the jungle movie and them having to explain how they got there, the biggest reason is that they secretly followed La Sombra and his gang after the other kids found them and released them off screen and we then see all the gang coming together.

Then you can have it all play out as it did the actual film.

I understand that there were scenes cut and time constraints but you could have removed/rewrote a few other scenes such as the gang turning on Arnold and Arnold and Gerald's tested friendship, those scenes were really underdeveloped and should have not been in the movie at all.

Also I feel that the movie should have started out showing Arnold and his life in a quick 1  minute montage before getting us thrown into San Lorenzo in Arnold's dream at the beginning of the film.

See I, a fan made up a more coherent, more down to earth film that makes more sense that the professional writing team at Nickelodeon did. Talk about irony

It really seems like they threw a bunch of ideas that seemed cool but didn't realise that this is based on a show that rarely had any supernatural moments in it.

Again I still really enjoy this movie but at the same time I still recognize that there are a lot of flaws with this film especially in the second and third acts.

I would probably give this film a 7/10