'Hey Arnold!' filmmakers fumbled the chance to do more

It was inevitable that "Hey Arnold!," one of the most popular and positive TV cartoons for kids, would follow in the big-screen footsteps of its Nickelodeon sibling "Rugrats."

MOVIE REVIEW

HEY ARNOLD! THE MOVIE

DIRECTOR: Tuck Tucker

CAST: Voices of Spencer Klein, Jamil Smith, Francesca Marie Smith, Paul Sorvino, Dan Castellaneta

RUNNING TIME: 76 minutes

RATING: PG for some thematic elements (such as cartoon children in peril)

WHERE: Bella Bottega, Cinema 17, East Valley, Everett 4-10, Factoria, Galleria, Grand Cinemas, Issaquah 9, Kent 6, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Metro, Monroe 12, Mountlake 9, Oak Tree, SeaTac North, South Hill Mall, Valley Drive-in, Woodinville 12

GRADE: C

The everyday adventures of a can-do Brooklyn boy whose head resembles a football is a mix of '50s sitcom innocence and modern culture. There's a gentleness to its look at life in an idealized inner-city neighborhood of old brick buildings, homey corner stores, friendly neighbors and racial harmony, right down to the soothing warmth of its palette of colored-pencil hues.

So why, after eight years on the air, couldn't they have come up with something more inspired for his feature debut than this underdog story of school kids taking on an evil corporate giant?

A voracious CEO plans to raze the old neighborhood where Arnold lives with his feisty, fun-loving grandparents. Paul Sorvino voices the villain with the calm tone of a condescending adult that barely hides his greedy cackle.

"Change is good!" shouts his Big Brother-ish video billboards. Upbeat Arnold answers back, "What's wrong with old things?"

Arnold and his best friend, Gerald, suit up as junior-league "Men in Black" to infiltrate corporate headquarters, with the help of a mystery informant who uses the moniker "Deep Voice," for the evidence needed to save their homes.

Yet this Scooby Doo-ish high-tech spy fantasy isn't nearly as clever as the emotional tug-of-war roiling in Arnold's pigtailed schoolmate Helga. Hiding her secret love for him (not to mention some borderline-disturbed altars to his likeness) behind snarling insults and a perpetual scowl, she offers adolescent confusion to the idealized harmony.


	The football-headed hero of TV-cartoon fame makes the leap into the movies in the uninspired but enjoyable "Hey Arnold! The Movie."

Playing less like a feature than an expanded half-hour cartoon with a few colorful guest appearances (Jennifer Jason Leigh as an urban secret agent with civic sensibility, Christopher Lloyd as a cadaverous coroner), "Hey Arnold! The Movie" delivers few moments of inspiration amid the bland animation and simplistic story.

That may be enough to keep the kids bobbing along -- and there are worse heroes for a kid to have than Arnold -- but apart from the shenanigans of civil-disobedient senior citizens, this movie offers little to keep accompanying parents interested.