Reel critics

Dennis Piszkiewicz

My kids told me that they wanted to see “Hey Arnold! The Movie,” and

since it didn’t star either Britney Spears or Adam Sandler, I figured

that it couldn’t be all bad.

If you have cable TV and kids, you probably already know that

Nickelodeon’s animated series “Hey Arnold!” has been around the little

screen for a couple of years, and kids think it is a lot of fun. Arnold

and his pals are a bunch of preteens who live in an inner-city

neighborhood populated by eccentrics of all ages, and they have to cope

with both growing up and navigating a city where everything but the

vacant lots are paved and, if they want to go anywhere, they take the

bus.

In “Hey Arnold! The Movie,” Future Tech Industries has conned the city

into declaring the neighborhood a redevelopment zone so that it can

bulldoze all the old buildings and build a mall. “Progress is good,” says

the president of Future Tech. Arnold and his good buddy Gerald think

otherwise, and make it their mission to stop Future Tech and save their

neighborhood.

On television, “Hey Arnold!” tells quirky little stories that make you

feel good. On the big screen, the story takes on the elements of an

action-thriller. The producers at Nickelodeon shamelessly appropriated

elements from “Men in Black,” “Mission Impossible” and a character from

“All the President’s Men,” now called “Deep Voice.” To me, this bulked-up

story line was not an improvement. I thought the animation was subpar and

the story overdone, but what do I know? This movie was made for kids. So

I asked my resident critics what they thought.

My daughter Samantha said, “I thought it was great.” I asked how it

compared to “The Emperor’s New Groove?” She said, “Better.”

“How about, ‘Atlantis?”’ She said, “‘Atlantis’ stunk.”

I asked, “What about ‘Toy Story?”’ She said, “Just as good.”

Then I asked, “What was the best part about ‘Hey Arnold!?”’ She said

“Bridget.”

I needed a reminder. Who was Bridget? “She was the one who gave Arnold

all of the neat spy equipment.”

My son Andy was still laughing when I asked him what he liked best

about the movie. He said, “Eugene. He’s funny.” Who was Eugene, I asked.

“He’s the kid who did the singing.” And, I remembered, Eugene did some

dancing too.

My wife said she thought the best part was “Big Bob signing the

contract without reading it. That and grandma breaking out of jail.”

Interesting. My resident experts liked the movie, and they thought the

best parts were the eccentric characters and their efforts to save their

community. Nobody mentioned the oversized story. Maybe “Hey Arnold! The

Movie” was better than I thought it was.