The Revolutionary Animation Behind Hey Arnold!

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When Craig Bartlett first created the television series Hey Arnold! in 1996, it started as a spin-off to a successful short he had debuted as part of Pee-Wee's Playhouse. But quickly, the football-headed fourth grader took on a life of its own as Arnold explored the streets of Hillwood, a city that resembled both Brooklyn and sections of the Pacific North West. Through human conflict in cartoon form, the show featured moments of growth, pain, and tribulations as the kids came to terms with adulthood and responsibilities. Whether it was stoop kid learning to leave his comfort zone, or monkey man managing to find a balance between nature and civilization, there was almost always a poignant moral that would tie in Gerald's gift for storytelling with Arnolds ability to teach.

The show referenced a variety of art and culture ranging from the opera Carmen to Orson Well's War of the Worlds radio program, and managed to pack in Greek mythology, Shakespeare, and A Clockwork Orange all into one episode. The success of the shows animation, storytelling, and style culminated in two feature films that lived up to their year-long anticipations. It was through Bartlett's direction of talented animators and writers that the show was able to define its own style featuring lopsided characters with physics-defying hair and emotionally intelligent hero's journey arcs. The shows ability to touch on humanity, to embrace both children and adult audiences together, and to maintain their vision through several feature films made the show one of the most successful and genre-defining cartoons of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The Human Element

One of the most integral elements of what made Hey Arnold! special was the shows ability to capture the human moments of each individual characters life experiences. During one Christmas special, the show dedicated an emotional flashback to one of Arnold's boarding house tenants, Mr. Hyunh. The episode centered around Mr. Hyunh's escape from Viet Nam during the war, a decision that resulted in him leaving his daughter behind. When Arnold is tasked with providing a Christmas present for Mr. Hyunh, nothing will suffice but a reunion with his daughter. Instead of focusing on the often imperial-lens of what the US lost during the war, the show was able to switch perspectives and offer a glimpse into what several Vietnamese families lost during the conflict and the trials they were forced to overcome.

Another harrowing tale of the television series involved Pigeon Man, a notoriously conspicuous citizen of Hillwood that inspired rumors and fables from kids throughout the town. Seen as an outcast and outsider, Pigeon Man was feared by the children of P.S. 118 because of his anonymity and strange habits. As Arnold befriended the outsider, it was quickly revealed that his compassion for Pigeons outweighed his compassion for humanity. A hurt individual who got too close to the truth, Arnold restored faith in Pigeon Man, all before Harold and accompanying bullies destroyed his pigeon palace atop his roof. With no energy left to put into disappointment, Pigeon man shrugged off the ignorant actions and flew the coup. With his own struggles of hubris and complacency, Pigeon Man represented Icarus of Greek mythology, escaping Hillwood instead of Crete. And in an homage to the idiom, Pigeon Man ended his appearance by waning Arnold with the same message of advice, "don't fly too close to the sun."

Embracing the Intellect

The incorporation of Greek Mythology is just one of many intellectual elements weaved into the fabric of the children's cartoon. Many of the shows poetic monologues came from Helga G. Pataki, a star-crossed lover with a secret affection for her football-headed friend. Her poetry presented itself in Shakespearean sonnets dedicated to her boy with the cornfield hair. Her struggles at home also contributed to her intellectual prowess. During one emotional episode, "Helga on the Couch," Helga was able to offer a critical commentary on the representation of women in the works of Edward Hopper that seemed to come almost straight from the pen of New York Magazine critic Jerry Saltz. In between discussions of Freud and psychoanalysis, Pataki proved herself as a thoughtful child in an episode that can be enjoyed by both adults and children, who may only passingly understand the references being tossed around.

The show was delicate and careful with its knowledge and unlike other cartoons, it never talked down to its viewers. Instead, it lifted them up with a helping hand to engage in a culture with knowledge they were being exposed to for the very first time.

Together, the students of P.S. 118 were able to put on productions of Romeo and Juliet and the fictional broadway production Eugene, Eugene, Dino Spumoni was able to introduce a fictional Frank Sinatra and big band music to a younger audience, and even fellow boarding house tenant Oskar Kokoshka has his name derived from one of the great Austrian artists, poets, and intellectuals of the 20th century. Arnold's grandma Pookie was able to introduce the Tao te Ching, and several instances of race, class, and were able to be subverted through explorations of Phoebe's culture, Rhonda's interest in fashion, Big Patty, and Harold's bar mitzvah where he was able to become a man. Other heavy themes that provided both exposure and commentary included Chocolate boy's struggles with addiction which included references to Reefer Madness and A Clockwork Orange, to Curly's ball monitor position which featured Full Metal Jacket allusions that explored war, isolation, and a Heart of Darkness style fervor that showcased the internal horrors of humanity. Always engaging but also informative, Hey Arnold! was one of the few explorations of existentialism in animation to date.

Hey Arnold! at The Movies

The show was also able to carry its influence from the small screens at home into the big screens of cinema. The original Hey Arnold! Movie: "The Neighborhood" was first released in 2oo2 and was greeted with positive reviews, including from Scott Foundas of Variety which called it, "undeniably smart and appealing in its depiction of everyday superheroes rallying behind a noble cause."

While the show's original run had ended in 2004, the cast was able to reunite under the direction of Bartlett one last time for the 2017 film Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie. In a bittersweet offering of nostalgia, the film featured the now-adult cast members in an exploration into Arnold's missing parents. Packed with the intellectual curiosities of the original season, along with the human elements that made the show unique, the return of Hey Arnold! was a successful accomplishment that earned the praise of Dave Trumbore of Collider who called the film, "a lot more mature and even darker in tone than the original series, which is saying something considering that Hey Arnold! was one of the best animated depictions of life as a 90s kid."

With more than 100 animated programs on the air currently (not counting streaming), and with easy access to YouTube videos and iPads that serve more as a pacifier than a surrogate for knowledge, animation has taken steps down to reach younger audiences without creating the same intellectual engagement for their parents, who now disappear behind the scenes, avoiding watching the shows their children do. As a result, the watered-down content lacks the emotional understanding needed for early childhood development. And while parents might get a passing sense of relief when their children are occupied by their monolithic screens, if the content scrolling across them fails to educate, empathize, and engage, then not only are the children suffering, but our future is as well. Shows like Hey Arnold! have done more than provide a respite for children coming home from school, they served a much greater purpose that we all may have taken for granted.

Sources: MSN, StandardMedia, Uproxx, MovieFone, ColorWebMag, TheOdysseyOnline, SportingNews, Bloomberg, AVClub, Bustle, Collider, Variety, IMDb, TheMovieDB