Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie
Promotional release poster
Genre	Action-adventure Comedy-drama
Written by	Craig Bartlett Joe Purdy Laura Sreebny Justin Charlebois
Directed by	Raymie Muzquiz Stu Livingston (co-director)
Starring	Mason Vale Cotton Francesca Marie Smith Benjamin Flores Jr. Anndi McAfee Dan Castellaneta Tress MacNeille Alfred Molina
Music by	Jim Lang
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Production
Executive producer(s)	Craig Bartlett
Producer(s)	Lizbeth Velasco Raymie Muzquiz (supervising producer)
Editor(s)	Christopher Hink
Running time	81 minutes
Production company(s)	Snee-Oosh, Inc. Nickelodeon Animation Studio
Release
Original network	Nickelodeon
Original release	November 24, 2017 (2017-11-24)

Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie is a 2017 American animated television film based on the Nickelodeon series Hey Arnold!, which was created by Craig Bartlett and originally aired from 1996 to 2004. Following the 2002 film Hey Arnold!: The Movie, The Jungle Movie expands on the fifth season two-part episode "The Journal".

The film serves as either the definitive series finale or as a prelude to a potential revival. It answered questions left after the original run ended, including the whereabouts of Arnold's missing parents. It originally aired in the United States on November 24, 2017, on Nickelodeon, while also being simulcast on Nicktoons and TeenNick. In 2018, it won an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation.

Plot

During the summer after their fifth grade year, Arnold and his best friend Gerald plan to make a humanitarian video to win a trip to San Lorenzo, a Central American country, where Arnold's parents were last seen. They try to record themselves making a home out of junk for one of their friends, eccentric Monkeyman, but it backfires, leaving Arnold heartbroken.

Helga, who secretly has a longtime crush on Arnold, uses various footage she's compiled over the years showing Arnold's good deeds, and everyone in town surprises Arnold with the video. Arnold's teacher Mr. Simmons reveals to everyone that Arnold's video won the competition and he, his classmates of P.S. 118, and Helga's older sister, Olga, fly to San Lorenzo.

While on the plane, Arnold's pet pig Abner stows away in his backpack. When everyone arrives in San Lorenzo, they are greeted by Arnold's parents' old friend, Eduardo. Aboard a ship, Eduardo privately warns Arnold of the jungle's dangers and gives him an amulet said to lead them to the "Green-Eyed People", the residents of San Lorenzo's lost city. Later that night, Helga tries to confess her feelings to Arnold, but the boat is attacked by pirates. After learning the secret that Arnold kept from them, Gerald and the others shun him.

When the group reaches a base camp, "Eduardo" reveals himself to be a mercenary named Lasombra, who disguised himself as Eduardo to deceive Arnold and the others. He and his men imprison everyone, explaining that the contest was a trick to lure Arnold to San Lorenzo so he could use him to find the lost city and its treasures and reveals the whole class the deal he and Arnold made, causing them to shun him even more. After hearing Arnold cry for his parents and realizing he had nothing to do with Lasombra’s plot, Helga and Gerald manage to escape and free Arnold, and use Arnold's father's old journal to find the city; unbeknownst to them, Lasombra anticipated this and placed a tracking device on Arnold's green eyed necklace. Arnold and his friends manage to evade the lost city's traps, while Lasombra pursues them, sacrificing most of his men to the traps.

Meanwhile, Abner escapes and makes it back to Arnold's grandparents, Grandpa Phil and Grandma Gertie, who see this as a sign that Arnold is in trouble. The two meet with Helga's parents Big Bob and Miriam at the airport, who had received an SOS message from Helga's intelligent best friend, Phoebe. The group flies a rental plane to San Lorenzo, where they help the other kids defeat Lasombra's gang.

Arnold and the others reach the city, finding it populated by children due to a "sleeping sickness" that has left its adult population comatose for nine years. The group finds a statue said to contain the Corazón, a treasure that may lead to a cure for the sickness. Lasombra corners them, taking Arnold hostage and stealing the statue. While Gerald and Helga give chase, Lasombra forces Arnold to open the statue using the amulet. When Lasombra tries to take the Corazón within, the statue's defense system shoots him in the forehead with a poisoned dart, sending Lasombra over a cliff.

A mysterious man arrives and reveals himself to be the real Eduardo, who explains that the pirate "attacking" them earlier was him trying to rescue the group from Lasombra. Lasombra climbs back up from the cliff and gets into a brief scuffle with Eduardo, knocking the Corazón off the cliff, before succumbing to the poison and plummeting to his death. The group returns to the city, and Arnold finally sees his parents, Miles and Stella, who have also contracted the sleeping sickness. Without the Corazón to release the cure to the infected population, Helga uses her locket containing a photo of Arnold as a replacement. The temple releases the cure and the infected are revived. Arnold and the city's children reunite with their parents. Arnold thanks Helga for her loyalty and finally realizes the depths of her feelings for him, and the two share a kiss.

A few months later, life as normal has resumed at Arnold's grandparents' boarding house, though now with Miles and Stella living there as well. Arnold says goodbye to his parents as he heads off for his first day of sixth grade with Gerald, Phoebe, and Helga. Gerald and Phoebe are seen holding hands walking to school together, while Arnold and Helga are also implied to be a couple despite Helga pretending to remain hostile towards Arnold once in public. Arnold's parents walk with him and his friends to school and Arnold promises his mom and dad that they'll see him at 3:30 as the doors close behind him, ending the film and the series.

Cast

Characters: Arnold, Helga, Gerald, Phoebe

The voice cast for the film is made up of 20 actors from the original series, and 11 new cast members to replace former actors who retired, grew up, or died.

Production

Writing

According to Bartlett, the story of The Jungle Movie was originally written and produced between 1998 and 2001 by Steve Viksten, Jonathan Greenberg and himself. Storyboards were drafted by Raymie Muzquiz and test footage was produced.

In the years following the film's cancellation, Bartlett confirmed many plot points of the film, like the revelation of Arnold's name during the opening sequence and that Arnold still had the map of the jungle of San Lorenzo that he found in "The Journal". He also revealed that Lasombra was searching for La Corazón, a fabulous jewel and sacred relic of the Green-Eyed people, the tribe that Miles and Stella helped in the past. Helga's and Arnold's relationship would also take a next step, after Helga kissed Arnold in the climax of the Hey Arnold!: The Movie. Craig Bartlett mentioned in an interview that The Jungle Movie was the first thing he pitched when he came back to Nickelodeon.

In June 2016, Bartlett confirmed that the TV movie was written to take place with the kids going into the fifth grade, one year after the ending of the original series. In July 2016, Variety showed various artworks of the main characters.

As revealed in a promo during the NickSplat premiere, the script for the film was originally twice as long. One particular gag that was cut was the parade sequence in San Lorenzo in which Olga appears on a parade float, and Helga appears on another dressed as a monkey. In the final version, there is only a very brief shot of the parade.

Casting

On June 13, 2016, it was reported that Francesca Marie Smith, Anndi McAfee, Justin Shenkarow, Olivia Hack, Nika Futterman, Dan Butler, Dan Castellaneta, Tress MacNeille, Antoinette Stella, Carlos Alazraqui, Dom Irrera, Maurice LaMarche, Kath Soucie, Danielle Judovits, Danny Cooksey, Jim Belushi and Hey Arnold! creator Craig Bartlett himself were attached to reprise their respective roles as Helga, Phoebe, Harold, Rhonda, Olga, Mr. Simmons, Grandpa, Grandma, Stella, Eduardo, Ernie, Bob Pataki, Miriam, Big Patty, Stoop Kid, Coach Wittenberg and Miles; while Lane Toran and Jamil Walker Smith, the original voices of Arnold and Gerald, were attached to return, but as the voices of San Lorenzo tour guides, while being replaced by Mason Vale Cotton and Benjamin Flores, Jr. respectively; and Alfred Molina was cast as Lasombra, the film's main antagonist. The next day, it was reported that Gavin Lewis, Jet Jurgensmeyer, Aiden Lewandowski, and Laya Hayes were respectively cast as Eugene, Stinky, Sid and Nadine.

Release

Marketing

On July 10, 2017, Nickelodeon released an "exclusive first look" at the new character designs narrated by Bartlett. Eleven days later, on July 21, to coincide with the Hey Arnold! panel at San Diego Comic-Con, a short scene from the film was released, in which Arnold is presented with a special film about all the good deeds he has done for his neighborhood. The film's official trailer was released on October 6, 2017. An additional trailer was released on the NickSplat YouTube channel on November 7, 2017.

During the month of November, NickSplat (a programming block on TeenNick that regularly features the series) aired Hey Arnold! episodes every night from 12:00 to 1:00 AM (ET/PT). From November 17 to 24, NickSplat aired a marathon of all the episodes of the series, nightly from 12:00 to 6:00 AM (ET/PT).

Distribution

The film premiered on YTV in Canada on January 5, 2018, and had a limited theatrical premiere in Australia during February 2018 exclusively to Hoyts cinemas, before airing on Nickelodeon Australia on March 2, 2018 and probably coming soon for movie premiere on 9Go!.

On March 9, 2018, the film received a one-day limited release at select Showcase Cinemas locations in the United States.

Home media

The television film was released on DVD in Region 1 on February 13, 2018 by Paramount Home Entertainment. It was then released on DVD in Region 2 on August 13, 2018 by Paramount Home Entertainment.

Streaming

The television film was released on Hulu on October 1, 2019. Later, it was released on Netflix on November 1, 2019, along with other Nickelodeon TV shows and movies, marking a return of Nickelodeon content on Netflix since 2013. The film would later be added to Paramount+ (at the time CBS All Access) in September 2020.

Awards and nominations

• Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie on Netflix

See also

In Spanish: Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie para niños