There are actually some rather funny moments to the story that kept me entertained including Arnold's grandmothers attempts to escape from a jail, grandpa's efforts to stop the industrialists, and Arnold and Gerald's mis-adventures attempting to keep their neighborhood from being demolished. There are some funny scenes including Gerald fainting after looking at a dead body, Arnold and Gerald's attempt to catch the eye of the sexy spy Bridget (Jennifer Jason Leigh), and Big Bob's obsession with his contract looking for errors or hidden guidelines.

I'm a fan of the original "Hey Arnold!" television animated series which is often pretty funny and quite entertaining but I wasn't a fan of this film. What the animated series thrived on was the large cast of magnetic characters from the neighborhood, but this fails to bring anything truly magnetic to audiences to watch. What can you expect from a director named Tuck Tucker? A half-assed effort that does no justice all around to a truly entertaining cartoon.

What many of the executives at Nickelodeon do with their products when making them into feature films is completely take away what made the cartoon so likable to begin with. The "Rugrats" films are terrible, especially the first film which was mean-spirited and surprisingly grim, so "Hey Arnold!" becomes a major faux pas as it takes away the large cast of characters that drew me to the cartoon to begin with.

There's no Harold, no Stinky, no Sid, barely any scenes involving Arnold's eccentric and hilarious grandparents or the charming eccentric apartment building denizens, yet it solely focuses on the character of Arnold who was never really an interesting character, and Gerald who is really funny, but hardly enough of a character to focus on.

While there a very few memorably funny scenes in the story, none of it seems to click and you begin to wonder why it wasn't shown directly on television. This is more of a blatant attempt to market on the forgotten series' name, a momentum clearly lost during the viewing. No one barely remembers "Hey Arnold!" anymore so it's difficult to get people to watch this. What also becomes annoying during the story is the immense amount of violence added to the story context; there's a cringe inducing and rather violent fight between Big Bob and his slimy agent in his apartment which made me question why it was included, there's even a scene involving a morgue in which Arnold and Gerald must seek council from an eccentric and creepy mortician (Christopher Lloyd) and we actually manage to see some of the dead bodies. What?! Why are you showing dead bodies on a children's cartoon? Isn't that content more suitable for "The Simpsons" or "Family Guy"?

Why would the writers even think of including such a gruesome scene? Also there are surprisingly some sexual references which parents won't enjoy including one scene where Helga finally confesses her love to Arnold to which forces him to say "I have to lie down", her reply being "I'll join you". I wouldn't be surprised if parents shuts this off at that scene due to the fact that it's so suggestive and perverse to suggest two kids would want to sleep together. Otherwise, the writing is very poor; there's some truly annoying and dull scenes that try to thrill but ultimately fail in its delivery; there is a bus chasing scene and a contrived robbery scene that try hard but is D.O.A.

There are some truly talented actors cast as characters in the film that are wasted, including Paul Sorvino as the villain Scheck, and Jennifer Jason Leigh as secret agent Bridget. There's simply no need for this to be a film other than to gain some money; unfortunately the film wasn't successful in the box-office further proving why there was little need for a film on this cartoon.

This is probably one of the worst and most bland adaptations of a great Nickelodeon show and borders on a PG-13 rating which is pretty disgraceful for a cartoon aimed at children.

• Was originally scheduled to air on TV as 3 half hour episodes that would end the "Hey Arnold!" cartoon television series.
• A store sign has the name "Viksten" on it, a reference to co-screenwriter Steve Viksten.
• Scheck's henchman orders two Bartlett's in the restaurant, a reference to co-screenwriter and "Hey Arnold!" creator 'Barlett, Craig' .