Trivia / Hey Arnold! The Movie

• Acting for Two: All over the place:
  • Jamil Walker Smith voices both Gerald and the Rasta Guy in the bulldozer.
  • Craig Bartlett voices Brainy, Murray the bus driver, Grubby and Monkeyman.
  • Maurice LaMarche voices Big Bob Pataki and FTi's Head of Security.
  • Kath Soucie voices Miriam Pataki, Murray's girlfriend Mona, and the Reporter.
  • Dan Castellaneta voices Grandpa Phil, The Jolly Olly Man and Nick Vermicelli.
  • Tress MacNeille voices Grandma Gertie, Mayor Dixie, and Scheck's assistant Red.
  • James Keane voices Mr. Green and one of the cops.
• Celebrity Voice Actor: Paul Sorvino as Scheck, Jennifer Jason Leigh as Bridget, Vincent Schiavelli as Mr. Bailey and Christopher Lloyd as the coroner.
• Descended Creator: Producer and writer Craig Bartlett provides the voices for Brainy, Murray, Grubby and Monkeyman.
• Executive Meddling: In a rare case where an executive and creators see eye-to-eye on a former's decision yet it doesn't pay off. Following the success of The Rugrats Movie, Paramount was hungry for more movies based on Nicktoons and Hey Arnold being Nick's second most-popular show meant that it was ripe for the feature film treatment and was developed as such. Eventually, Paramount and Nickelodeon grew impatient with Craig Bartlett's slow progress and, absolutely wanting a Hey Arnold movie out for the summer of 2002, proposed taking the already in-production Made-for-TV Movie Arnold Saves the Neighborhood and releasing that as a film, which would buy more time for the other actual Hey Arnold film which could also now act as a sequel film. Bartlett agreed with the idea and Arnold Saves the Neighborhood became the theatrical Hey Arnold! The Movie. Due to the film's low budget, Paramount and Nickelodeon chose not to invest much in the film's promotion assuming it'd break even quickly either way. It opened to middling reviews and, while it did break even, only made a tenth of what The Rugrats Movie made four years earlier, leading to what would have been surely bigger-budgeted Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie being cancelled until it was revived 13 years later as a TV movie, thus having both films debut in the opposite way they were intended to.
• Franchise Killer: Despite making five times its budget (it only cost $3 million to produce and grossed $15.2 million), it was still considered a financial disappointment and earned poor reviews from critics. The failure of this film is why The Jungle Movie was in Development Hell for over a decade and likely why the remaining episodes of Hey Arnold! were aired sporadically and Out of Order until the final one aired in 2004, three years after production of the series was completed.
• The Original Darrin: While Andy Dick voiced Monkeyman in his self-titled episode, Craig Bartlett voices him here.^note Bartlett voiced Monkeyman during his minor appearances in the original series.
• The Other Darrin: Alex D. Linz, who would portray Arnold in the post-movie episodes "April Fool's Day" and "The Journal", voiced Arnold in the film's teaser trailer because the teaser was made long after the film's actual voicework was recorded, and Spencer Klein's voice had changed by the time the film was selected for a theatrical release.
• Preview Piggybacking: The DVD release contains a preview for the direct-to-video sequel Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure and the "Meet the Animals" interactive game from said sequel's own DVD (which, aside from Hey Arnold! 's theatrical trailer, is the only bonus feature included on the Hey Arnold! DVD release).
• Recycled Script: Hey Arnold! The Movie shares quite a few similarites to "Save the Tree"^note Big Bob and Nick Vermicelli working together, Arnold and the gang fighting to save something, Helga choosing Arnold over her father, Grandma stealing a bulldozer, and a visit to the tall Government Building first seen in "Arnold's Christmas" (though it's incorrectly depicted as being City Hall in "Save the Tree"), only the movie is much bigger in pretty much every aspect. To a lesser extent, it also shares some similarities to "The Old Building" where Arnold once again fights to save a historical landmark from being demolished.
• Role Reprise: All of the characters from the series are voiced by the same actors, with Arnold being voiced by Spencer Klein, the same voice actor from Season 4 and all Season 5 episodes produced before the movie.
• Screwed by the Network: The film got poorly advertised, had a trailer that spoiled Helga's confession on the FTi rooftop, and was released in the summer, right next to other much higher-profile movies (such as Scooby-Doo (2002) and Spider-Man), so it stood no chance. This subsequently led to the second film, The Jungle Movie being cancelled until it was finally put back into production in 2015.
• What Could Have Been: Shares a page.