After a 15 year long wait, Hey Arnold! unanswered questions and mysteries are finally solved. Taking place (apparently) a year after the events of “The Jungle Book”, Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie takes a fifth grade Arnold and his classmates to the jungle where he, Gerald, and Helga learn the truth surrounding the disappearance of his parents and the sickness they planned on curing upon their expedition.

Hey Arnold! is a 1996 animated sitcom it is produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studios, the film finale “The Jungle Movie” aired on Thanksgiving weekend.

The boys are back.

After fifteen years, Arnold is back this time in the long in-development hell film “The Jungle Movie” based on a proposed series finale film which series creator Craig Bartlett had proposed to Nickelodeon back in 2003, but due to the box office failure of the theatrical Hey Arnold! film. Nickelodeon became hesitant to release film projects based on their animated properties and the project was subsequently shelved, another issue was Nick wanted Bartlett on an exclusivity deal and due to the mass popularity of Hey Arnold! even after it’s fifth season, multiple studios were contacting him for projects. This of course would lead to Bartlett leaving Nick and the cancellation of Hey Arnold! with no resolution to it’s major questions.  Despite this, however Bartlett remained hopeful in the film eventually seeing the light of day, often revealing new, yet small bits of information about the film’s direction over the next decade plus. On November 24, 2017 the film finally made it’s premiere and it’s one of the greatest moments of closure you could ever ask for.

Arnold’s friends from Hillwood send him to San Lorenzo

THE GOOD: As most 90s kids know by now, Hey Arnold! isn’t for everyone. In an era of animation where basically every setting and character were unrealistic, Hey Arnold! was very much based on real-life with humanized and emotionally driven characters surrounded by very real drama. Main character Arnold was essentially a foster child living with his grandparents after his parents went missing at around age three. They went off in search for a cure to an illness that effected a village of people for years and hadn’t been seen or heard from since. After winning a contest to San Lorenzo (where his parents were last seen), Arnold and his friends go off to find them.

Arnold’s trip becomes much more dangerous than anticipated.

Pretty much every long-running story thread is finally closed. Arnold & Helga’s relationship status, Gerald & Phoebe’s relationship status, Arnold’s last name, and others are finally answered. And knowing that most of those attached to the series around the time of it’s debut and cancellation are well into adulthood, Nickelodeon toned the film accordingly. This is a much darker version of Hey Arnold! than you remember, it’s violent and people actually die on screen. Admittedly the new animation takes some getting used to, as well as the modernization of the show, but Nick was smart not to throw it in our faces.

The longest running 90s love story comes to a close.

THE BAD: It’s a little fast paced and not every character gets some story centered around them, but this could be saved for a proposed sixth season.

Modern r otherwise Hey Arnold! still works.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: In what could be a true finale for the animated sitcom, Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie does it’s job of answering questions that needed closure and reunites our hero with his parents. Otaku Dome gives Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie a 95 out of 100.