We finally know what happened to Arnold’s parents from “Hey Arnold!”
If you’re a ’90s kid, you probably still have some burning pop culture questions leftover from your childhood. One, why would any kid who valued their life go on the terrifying show Legends of the Hidden Temple? And two, what really happened to Arnold’s parents on Hey Arnold!?
Well, thanks to the monetary value of ’90s nostalgia, we finally know! On Thursday, November 23rd, Nickelodeon released the first new Hey Arnold! content in more than a decade with Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie. The new movie follows Arnold on a class trip to San Lorenzo, a fictional Central American country, which just so happens to be the place where his parents were last seen. As we know, the reason why Arnold lives with his grandparents is that his mom and dad disappeared while on a humanitarian aid mission. Warning: spoilers ahead!
In the movie, Arnold battles pirates to find his parents. It turns out they’re ill with sleeping sickness. Arnold, Gerald, and Helga somehow figure out the cure for the illness. They save his parents and the whole village, and he finally brings his parents home to the boarding house in New York. Happy endings all around! And hopefully, this won’t be the end of the beloved ’90s Nickelodeon TV show.
Series creator Craig Bartlett hopes that Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie will set the stage for a reboot of the show.
“I’ve been saying this all along: The movie’s been made to act perfectly as closure so that everybody feels satisfied that all of the storylines got wrapped up,” Bartlett said in an interview with The AV Club. “And also, at the end of the movie, they’re starting sixth grade, so season six is also my hope.”
He also said that as Nickelodeon was evaluating what ’90s projects could be rebooted, Hey Arnold! was a natural fit thanks to its cliffhanger ending.
“I’ve been thinking about this unfinished business of The Jungle Movie for 15 years,” Bartlett continued. “In my case, when I first came in and was talking to them, I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve got a Jungle Movie I need to make. I’ve got this cliffhanger that never got resolved. I’ve got millions of adult fans who were really mad that it got left in this cliffhanger. I would love to do a reboot.’ So I just felt I was really lucky in that way. I had the perfect project for them.”
Fingers crossed for more Football Head — now with parents!
