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54 minutes ago, Kevin said:

These just need to come out right now! My hype meter is off the charts!

Wow, this came out better than expected!

Spoiler

I did not cry when they brought up Pigeon-man, shut up you're the baby!

Edit: So with Cell Phones replacing Beepers... is Big Bob jobless now?

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I hate the way they modernized two beloved shows from my childhood in a way that pays respect to the original without pandering to my nostalgia.  I hate the way that the animation is an enhanced version of the original instead of being replaced by an ugly geometric style.  I hate that the jokes are actually funny and not just a bunch of references to human excrement.  I hate that everyone is in character and not horribly bastardized, one dimensional half shells of who they used to be.  Most of all, I hate how this makes me feel like I'm six years old again while simultaneously appealing to my adult sensibilities.

Absolutely terrible.  Bad move, Nickelodeon.  Keep up the good work.

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Wow, these both look better than I expected. I'm actually really excited for both of them.

10 hours ago, Balding Spider said:

Wow, this came out better than expected!

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I did not cry when they brought up Pigeon-man, shut up you're the baby!

Edit: So with Cell Phones replacing Beepers... is Big Bob jobless now?

Big Bob's BlackBerrys

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Yo damn, these are awesome! I really hope they get dubed around here, as I'm not used to the english cast of both Rocko and Arnold xD

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  • 4 months later...

So the Hey Arnold! movie aired here over Thanksgiving weekend, and I sat down to watch it.  I'm happy to say that despite some glaring problems with the narrative, I did enjoy the movie overall and found it to be a nice conclusion to a much-loved series.  Spoilers here so don't read if you don't want the spoilers!

Starting with the presentation, it's more or less fantastic.  The digital animation does a wonderful job at preserving the style of the original show while prettying it up for modern standards.  The characters all look like their 90's counterparts with some minor tweaks that are mostly attire-related.  The backgrounds are all familiar but seem to have a fresh coat of paint.  Lots of throwbacks to old episodes that are noticeable but not thrown in your face Sonic Generations-style serve as a really nice treat to long time fans of the show while still making it (relatively) approachable to newcomers.  But as beautiful as the animation is, there are moments where the digital animation becomes... obvious.  Sometimes a scene will appear very under-developed, using only a base coat for coloring or having a really stiff animation cycle.  Other times, a character will look just a little too detailed by comparison to the rest of the cast.

The music follows a similar trend of hitting all the right notes.  The funky jazz fusion style of the original show makes a return, giving a sense that almost no time has passed.  It's actually a relief to know they didn't try to incorporate things like modern pop in to the mix, even when there are characters whose personality it would probably fit.  From beginning to end, it remains stylistically in tune with what the series was, updating only what was necessary and deviating only to establish a mood.

Then there's the voice acting, which is for the most part fantastic.  They clearly went out of their way to get as many of the original voice actors to reprise their roles, and even now they still fit into those roles like a glove.  Hearing Arnold''s grandparents again after so long is so satisfying.  Even now, they probably have the best delivery, offering a performance that manages to be both hilarious when it needs to be as well as heartfelt during the softer moments.  The flipside to this is that when a VA is either replaced or doesn't quite fit into their role as they used to, it's extremely obvious.  For the most part, though, they did a good job finding replacement actors that sound very similar, and even the ones that are a little more noticeable still do their characters justice.  It's just that long-time fans will definitely miss the old cast.

But the writing, at least far as dialogue and characterization, are concerned, is where the film really shines.  The style of comedy is exactly as you'd expect from a Hey Arnold episode.  Very dialogue-driven with a pinch of physical humor thrown in sparingly for good measure.  The characters are all who they were in the original.  Arnold is still the stoic, but kind and emotionally troubled, boy we know and love, Gerald is still the cocky, wise-cracking best friend, Helga is still the lovestruck yet abrasive fangirl that we all remember.  I don't really recall anyone being particularly out of character, except maybe Phoebe's "genius" levels are stretched to absolutely ridiculous levels at times.  In the original, she was certainly bright and definitely what you would call book smart, but they really give her a little too much power in this.
The plot, unfortunately, is where I think things take a bit of a downward turn.  Don't get me wrong; most of it is perfectly fine.  And maybe if I were younger, I'd probably not even be paying attention to many of these little problems.  But as an adult, there were a few things that just fell short for me.  For example, I thought the elements of mysticism and prophecies was a little much for a show of this scope.  For the most part, it's handled all right, but it still comes across as jarring.  Also, for a Hey Arnold movie, it gets... surprisingly violent in places.  Like, there's no blood or anything, don't get me wrong.  But towards the latter half of the film, we see...

Spoiler

 

  • A man killed after becoming victim to a barrage of arrows
  • A man impaled by spikes
  • Several men crushed by rocks
  • A man who is poisoned, thrown off a cliff, climbs back up the cliff only to succumb to his poison and die, then falls off the cliff again.

 

 

 

I'm not saying it's a bloodbath or anything.  But is this the kind of action I expect coming from a Hey Arnold movie?  Not necessarily.  I mean, the show is certainly no stranger to dark humor or implying that a character may have met a grim fate, but as far as I remember, it's never been this direct.  And it's usually not the result of a violent action sequence or something like that.  It just feels... off.  I guess you can forgive it if you look at it from this angle:  It's a movie.  The stakes are up.  They need to keep it exciting to justify the added runtime.  And that's all well and good, but there's a big problem with this.

The movie is very tonally dissonant.  At some points, it's a down to earth film that's not afraid to acknowledge the inevitability of death.  Heck, the movie teases us for half the film about Arnold's parents possibly being dead.  Not sent to the Shadow Realm or whatever, but just plain dead.  At various points, Arnold is preparing himself for the worst.  But then towards the tail end of the movie, it becomes extremely saccharine, giving everyone (who wasn't a villain) an indisputably happy end.

And this happy end comes at the expense of actual plot focus.  The film treats finding Arnold's parents as the ultimate goal.  Who they were as people, playing catch up after ten years of absence, just giving us a solid reason to care about their well-being aside from the simple fact that they are Arnold's parents is tossed aside in favor of the final end goal of actually finding them.  Once they are found, that's... pretty much it.  Movie's over.  I mean, yeah, there's a little more to it than that, but in terms of impact on the status quo, it's pretty minimal.  Which is why I'm sad to say that the mystery of Arnold's parents is very unsatisfying.  Disappointing, because that was the entire point of the film.  The film's focus on Arnold's relationships with his friends and family was actually the more interesting part of the story, and for the most part they're pretty strong.

But it shares perhaps a few too many similarities with 1999's The Rugrats Movie, I think?  In general, you can't help but draw parallels between this movie and other Nick movies, considering Nick had such a fixation on the idea of stranding the characters in the jungle and eventually turning on each other in the late 90's and early 2000's.  Don't get me wrong; this movie still stands well on its own.  It's just something you notice more if you grew up with the other Nick movies.  On that note, while I praise the actual characterization, I hope you really like Arnold, Helga, and Gerald, because the film pretty much forgets about everyone else towards the tail end of the film (and I mean outright forgets that they exist).  So basically, if you were hoping this would be a fond farewell to the entire cast... well, you'll be feeling just a little disappointed.

There are times when the film really pushes my suspension of disbelief.  Again, might just be adult me thinking a little too hard, and to the film's credit, the writing is pretty tongue-in-cheek about it without being obnoxiously self-aware.

Basically, in short, I think the plot is honestly a bit of a confused mess that has its priorities slightly skewed.  But it's still highly enjoyable, because of its top-notch characterization and humor.  The film does a great job updating Hey Arnold and bringing it into the 21st century without pandering.  Seeing smart phones and other modern technology feels natural, like the writers er... actually knew what social media was instead of using the fact that it exists as some kind of selling point.  It's written from an informed point of view that has a foot firmly in both the 90's and the modern times.  And the film is brilliantly delivered because of it.  Almost all the jokes are a hit, the sad parts are really sad, and the cute moments are really cute.

As a summary, this is a great film, and I think anyone who grew up with the original series should find something to appreciate here.  Unfortunately, I feel like with the sloppy pacing and ill-focused plot, it's not something I would use to introduce people to Hey Arnold.  This kind of movie might have worked better if it had been released in the late 90's and early 2000's as intended, but even with all the updates, it still feels a little too much like a relic of its time to really entice new people into it.  I'd definitely be curious to see what someone who has never watched Hey Arnold would have to say about it.

tl;dr, good movie, but not without its share of problems.

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  • 2 months later...

I'm surprised no one has brought this up yet. After 20 years, animation legend Butch Hartman has officially left Nick. For those that don't know, he's the guy that created Fairly Odd Parents, Danny Phantom, T.U.F.F Puppy, and Bunsen is a Beast. 

While Fairy Odd Parents hasn't been very good in a long time, that seems to have gone down to Nick more so than Butch - who's confirmed that Nick is the reason Sparky, and later Chloe had to be introduced into the show, to keep things "fresh". On top of that, it seemed Nick was cutting down FOP's animation budget, given the cheap and terrible looking Flash animated that inflicted the later half of Season 10. 

This came as a surprise too, because just a few months ago, Nick released this:

Regardless, Butch has left to move onto bigger and better things, and with that leaves a legacy at Nick. Fairy Odd Parents is likely heading straight to cancellation given the animation cut and Butch now leaving, and Butch has confirmed that Bunsen will not be getting renewed for a second season. It appears for now, Butch Hartman's animations at Nick has been officially retired. 

 

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As an average fan of FOP, I feel like I'd give out my thoughts on Hartman and how I've grown to appreciate him.

 

Spoiler

Fairly Odd Parents had been a favorite of mine growing up. I actually watching less TV when I started getting into the internet and more video games. I did hear all the complains of the show's first decline in quality once they added Poof, even though I still watched a few of those episodes anyway. I didn't really feel such a disconnect myself at that point, I was merely concerned. My thoughts on this show had developed from just another cringy TimmyXTrixie fan to a guy who simply watched this show for decent enjoyment. I had stopped caring about how the characters really acted, I just followed the show for some nice, silly stories that occur.  It may had not have gotten a lot of real big laughs out of me, but I found the show to be relaxing and allowed me to wind down from the then current problems that surrounded me.

 

Eventually, I simply stopped watching TV all together, turning my whole focus on my electronics, as well as school. I did pick up the original Avatar series on DVD since I felt ready for more mature styled series. I did later found out about the criticism surrounding things like Sparky and the live action movies. I personally agree that he was a bad idea, but by then I had grown out of the show to really worry about the show's status. I still feel like that I would still enjoy the show from it early seasons up to the Wisholgy season. Though it did give me a slightly wrong impression on Hartman.


I find Butch Hartman to be a very nice guy, especially when he started drawing fanart in his artstyle. But while he is a very terrific artist, I didn't feel the same for his director roles. I had felt that he has responsible for Sparky and Chloe and that he didn't have as good of a grasp on Danny Phantom as 

Steve Marmel did. (Or so I've heard, I never watched Danny.) The thing that bugged me the most was his work on the US dub of the Magic Roundabout, even though I only heard that it was drastically changed.

But I now realized I was wrong about him. Once I heard that he left Nick, I learned that none of these problems were really his fault. I now realize it was Nick that pressured him to make a third Danny season despite Marmel's absence, and add all these shark jumping gimmicks to FOP.  He said the same thing about Doogal before, as well. I had already felt sorry for him that his Nick shows nowadays aren't as good as before, and now I understand why. This makes me feel less guilty about still looking up to him, now that I know that his shows' weaker quality wasn't something he had control of. At least Nick can now let FOP burn up and rest after so long, since it's getting better with it's other shows.

I hope for the best for Butch's future plans. He still might not be the best writer or director, but I want him to find another chance at making better shows again. And considering what Cartoon Network's going through right now, I don't think it'll be easy for him.

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I've learned to appreciate Butch a lot more since I subscribed to his YouTube channel. However you might feel about his work, the dude has a huge passion for the field he's part of, and as an aspiring creator myself, I find his passion infectious. Really makes me want to give it my all to make my creative endeavors a reality someday.

I wish him the best. I'm sure he'll do well. 

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Despite the declining quality of some of his cartoons, Butch himself always seemed like a pretty nice person, so I hope he'll be successful.  Hopefully, FOP can finally get the ending it deserves.

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3 minutes ago, Tara said:

Despite the declining quality of some of his cartoons, Butch himself always seemed like a pretty nice person, so I hope he'll be successful.  Hopefully, FOP can finally get the ending it deserves.

Unfortunately, I doubt it ever will. Last episode was one of the worst in the series from what I heard, and had some of the most atrocious animation to date, and that seemed to be a year or so ago. Without Butch, it's likely FOP will simply be silently cancelled and forgotten.

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2 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

Unfortunately, I doubt it ever will. Last episode was one of the worst in the series from what I heard, and had some of the most atrocious animation to date, and that seemed to be a year or so ago. Without Butch, it's likely FOP will simply be silently cancelled and forgotten.

At this point, deciding to end it at all would be giving it the ending it deserves in my opinion lol.

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Just now, Tara said:

At this point, deciding to end it at all would be giving it the ending it deserves in my opinion lol.

Yeah, although it is a shame, given the other finales. IIRC, Channel Chasers or another one of the TV movies was meant to be the original finale, then Wishology was meant to be another one before they revived it again for Season 8 and introduced Foop.

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Channel Chasers would make a fantastic finale. It's about as perfect an end to the story as you can give it.

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  • 5 months later...

I would have dismissed this as yet another nostalgic relaunch that fails to capture the spirit of the original, with not even the original creators being enough to inspire faith in me.  But that Hey Arnold movie as well as the Rocko's Modern Life short was so on-point that I feel a bit more optimistic about this.

I am curious who will be playing Stu, since I can't picture anyone but Jack Riley in the role.  It's going to be hard to replace him.

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I first heard of this series from a Splatoon Splatfest and when I first saw the character designs, I immediately thought, “Holy crud, they look terrible.” I thought their character designs would only be for the Splatfest, but boy am I wrong. Turns put this will be a new series for Nickelodeon soon. I’m most likely not gonna watch it because of how awful it looks.

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  • 1 year later...

Rocko's Modern Life Static Cling and Invader Zim Enter the Florpus are now both Netflix Originals, and will be debuting on August 9th (Rocko) and August 16th (Zim).

I really am beginning to wonder if Nick might be entered into a streaming deal with Netflix. They used to be heavy supporters of Netflix years ago (to the point they had a ton of their older catalogue like Rugrats, Hey Arnold, etc on the service), and it seems weird to me that we have only now finally gotten word of these movies again after a ton of waiting, but they're now complete, and about to hit Netflix worldwide. It's weird as well, given The Jungle Movie which was the first announced revival movie did air properly on Nick.

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Rocko looks pretty good.  Some shots look very underdeveloped, but otherwise, I am enjoying how the digital animation seems to update the aesthetics of the original rather than completely changing it.  If they continue down this route, there's a good possibly the Rugrats reboot will also be worth watching.

Seriously, very shocked that Nick of all companies is doing the retro revival thing innumerable times better than other companies, particularly Cartoon Network.  That is to say, Nick, the same company that has been pretty complacent with mediocrity for over a decade, is doing better than the company that while not without its flaws is still churning out okay-ish shows when they're not shoving 20 hours of Teen Titans Go in your face.

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27 minutes ago, Tara said:

Rocko looks pretty good.  Some shots look very underdeveloped, but otherwise, I am enjoying how the digital animation seems to update the aesthetics of the original rather than completely changing it.  If they continue down this route, there's a good possibly the Rugrats reboot will also be worth watching.

Seriously, very shocked that Nick of all companies is doing the retro revival thing innumerable times better than other companies, particularly Cartoon Network.  That is to say, Nick, the same company that has been pretty complacent with mediocrity for over a decade, is doing better than the company that while not without its flaws is still churning out okay-ish shows when they're not shoving 20 hours of Teen Titans Go in your face.

Yeah, the only cartoon so far besides Nick that done a retro revival right, IMO, is the DuckTales reboot.

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5 minutes ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

Yeah, the only cartoon so far besides Nick that done a retro revival right, IMO, is the DuckTales reboot.

And even that I sort of have to look at on its own merits due to its more polarizing departures from the source material.

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2 minutes ago, Tara said:

And even that I sort of have to look at on its own merits due to its more polarizing departures from the source material.

At least I can tell it was made with actual effort and love by the crew and cast. They do their research and put new spins on familiar stories and characters, which I (usually) like. IMO, it's better that it has any right to be.

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