Hey Arnold! is launching a new two-hour television special “Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie.” It's the natural progression of Arnold’s backstory, his parents were lost in the jungle and now he's going to find them. Cast and crew spoke during a panel at New York Comic Con about the project, and revealed more details about the story and the production behind this revival of the beloved animated series.
Before this panel, there was very little information out about the TV movie. There was the announcement trailer showing nearly all of the hey arnold universe, even stoop kid, wishing Arnold luck on his journey.
In the last episode of the series that aired on Nickelodeon, Arnold finds his dad's long lost journal and a clue to his whereabouts. Now he's finally going to find some answers.
“I purposely added the journal because I was daring Nick to make the jungle movie,” series creator Craig Bartlett said during the panel.
Arnold’s new story starts in the city, but soon moves to the jungle of San Lorenzo. Arnold won’t be alone, either. All the classic characters are back with (mostly their original voice actors, Gerald, Helga, and Stinky.)
Fans have been waiting to see the class back together in an insane new adventure for years. Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie has been in development for two years and features new character designs to look better in high def and to keep up with the rest of today’s animation. Bartlett explained that the biggest change seemed to be the makeup of Nickelodeon itself. Now the kids who grew up loving the show were working for Nickelodeon and in charge of big decisions. So he wanted to make sure he made something that pleased the fans (who are also kind of his bosses).
“I wanted to make it as satisfying as possible, it checks every box,” he said.
There have been some changes to the cast, too, in the years since they first created the show by sitting around a table recording all together like an old-time radio broadcast. Now Lane Toran no longer plays Arnold (Mason Vale Cotton has the role), he plays Che, Olga’s love interest (Olga is Helga’s older sister). As for Helga herself, actress Francesca Marie Smith says it took a long time for her to realize the impact the character had.
“At that time, I didn't really have a great sense of how Helga was landing, or how influential she was. It wasn't until the last five to ten years I got this feedback on social media. The things Helga does are stuff that shouldn't be done in real life, but her character represented who she was as a kid, she said. “She's someone you can relate to in tougher times.”
Anndi McAfee, the voice behind Phoebe, said that her character is basically the total opposite of who she is as a person in real life. She told a story about how, when she was a kid, she snuck into the Boy Scouts. Eventually they figured out she wa sa girl and she got kicked out, something the introverted Phoebe would never dream of doing.
“I'm not really a sidekick sort of girl,” she said.
It’s easy for the cast to talk about where they’ve been and what they’ve done over the last 20 years, but they had to think about what their characters would be doing if they were around today. Smith said Helga would be “a BuzzFeed blogger.” McAfee said Phoebe would be an app developer and Olivia Hack, who voiced Rhonda, said she’d grow up to be the head of a Fortune 500 company. But Bartlett said Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie won’t be about giving us the characters we already know without changes.
“All the characters are taken out of their comfort zone and put to the test,” Bartlett said.
During the panel, a new trailer (the first of several in the works) shown to the audience revealed some of the backstory for how the adventure will unfold. The class gets selected to go to San Lorenzo, but it’s clear Grandpa doesn't want Arnold looking for his parents so expect some tension there. As expected, the adventure starts to unravel Indiana Jones- style and we’ll get to see how Arnold and the gang survive San Lorenzo when hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie premieres on Nov. 24.
