"Hey Arnold!" creator Craig Bartlett (who also co-wrote the screenplay for this picture) and director Tuck Tucker had their minds and hearts in the right place when they conceived of the plot for 2002's "Hey Arnold! The Movie." Instead of going over-the-top with road trips or wild adventures (like those of Arnold's animated counterparts from Nickelodeon starring in their own movies at the time) they would keep the show anchored in the animated New York City urban setting that gives the TV show its own low-key personality. Too bad that Bartlett and Tucker reached deep into the sack of cliché plots from decades past, and came up with one that's as ineffective on believability as the worn-by-overuse ticking-clock-to-Armageddon gimmick in your average James Bond or Lethal Weapon flick.

A wealthy industrialist named Scheck (Paul Sorvino), owner of Future Tech Industries, wants to tear down Arnold's neighborhood so he can build a fancy new mall (for which Sam Walmart has already paid the rent for two decades, but I digress!). He gets approval from City Hall, so it's up to Arnold (voiced by Spencer Klein) and best friend Gerald (Jamil Smith) to save the day and the neighborhood. While legally condoned methods are used (like a 'Blockapalooza' festival to save the neighborhood) Arnold and Gerald eventually have to sneak into FTI headquarters to catch Scheck on tape revealing his true intentions for what will actually wind up in Arnold's block. I remember a similar plot was used for an old Disney "Love Bug" movie in which an old lady was being evicted from her home in the middle of a re-development zone, but I also remember all the fun things Herbie (the Love Bug of the title) did and all the zany adventures he got into.

"Hey Arnold! The Movie" tries to pull a couple of similar feats of fancy behavior for its main characters to endure (a "Speed"-like bridge jump on a bus, "Men In Black" outfits, etc.). Like the TV show that inspired it though, most of "Hey Arnold! The Movie" is just lengthy conversations between the characters that often border on "Brooklyn Bridge"-caliber sentimentality. The two mistakes writer/creator Bartlett and director Tucker made with "Hey Arnold! The Movie" were (a) having it look almost exactly like the TV show its based on and (b) having FTI as the central focus of the plot throughout the length of the film. The animation might be clean and crisper than on TV, but Arnold's head still looks like a football and his grandfather (played by Homer Simpson his own self, Dan Castellaneta) still can only mumble unintelligible stuff that is hard to understand. And enough with businessmen and evil corporations as the villains of every Nickelodeon movie ever made (or a close facsimile to that). Jeez, you'd think Michael Moore was running the movie division of Nickelodeon from all the terrible things these guys do.

As in the TV show, only the amusing antics of Helga Geraldine Pataki (voiced by Francesca Smith, who also guest-starred in a memorable third-season episode of "The Secret World of Alex Mack" as a 12 year-old psychotic kid in need of grown-up approval) plotting to win Arnold's heart saves "Hey Arnold! The Movie" from taking itself way too seriously. Who knows? Maybe Arnold just needs to relax his guard, go out into the world beyond his six-block neighborhood and meet some chicks besides Helga. Who knows? She might just run into that cute "Alex Mack" actress with whom he co-hosted a couple of NoggleVision TV specials six years ago. Mmphh...

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