Credit: Nickelodeon

Synopsis (Nickelodeon): Republic City is everything that Avatar Aang and Fire Lord Zuko fought for when they ended the Hundred Year War. With balance restored to the four nations, benders and non-benders can live together in peace, in this thriving metropolitan area. But even the steampunk paradise of Republic City has its problems, as the next Avatar discovers. When Avatar Korra arrives in Republic City to master her airbending, she comes face to face with criminal bending gangs as well as members of a vocal anti-bending revolution. Before long, Korra’s Avatar skills are put to the test when she encounters a group of Chi-blockers led by the charismatic and mysterious Amon, who threatens the city and all the benders in it. Despite the immense danger, Korra vows to fight the growing anti-bending revolution. But will she be able to stop Amon before he rises to power and makes his vision of a bending-free world a reality?

My thoughts: I’m a huge Avatar: The Last Airbender fan. I’m so committed to this series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko (even though I’m contrary to the popular pairing and am a Zutara fan–those in the know understand what that means), and to hear that a new series was coming out was so exciting. Finally seeing the episodes is like a dream come true.

The funny thing is that I thought Avatar was the height of animation. Turns out Korra has topped even Avatar in terms of artistic ability and fluidity. The fighting scenes are just as intense as the ones in Avatar (probably a little bit more intense now that we have the fun element of Pro-bending) and there’s just as much heart, humor (airbending master and Aang’s son Tenzin (J.K. Simmons) and his wife Pema (Maria Bamford) has a little boy, Meelo (Logan Wells), who steals the show) and awesome action as there was in the first series.

The new Avatar, Korra (Janet Varney) is way more of a spitfire than Aang was, but just like Aang, she’s free-spirited, fun, and has a direct sense of justice. Her headstrong manner is the main thread of this series–similar to how Aang had to come to terms with his life’s calling, Korra has to come to terms with how to get in touch with her spiritual side in order to fully become the leader she was meant to be.

Other characters I can’t leave this review without noting include the character Mako (David Faustino), named after the late voice actor Mako* (who voiced Zuko’s uncle Iroh in Avatar as well as Aku in Samurai Jack). Mako the character is this series’ Zuko–an extremely handsome, brooding, fire-bender. He and his brother Bolin (P.J. Byrne) are Pro-benders who have lived the rough life on the streets but aim to make a name for themselves through the world of sport. Bolin is this series’ Sokka–a fun, cute jokester–but instead of being a “normal” person, Bolin is an earthbender. I’m sure there’s a story behind how Mako and Bolin’s relationship and how they acquired their different bending abilities (could both of their parents have been benders? Could they not be related at all and only think of themselves as brothers having lived together for so long?), and whatever it is, I can’t wait to hear it.

I also feel like we’ll hear more about Zuko’s mother, especially since Tenzin’s oldest daughter Jinora (Kiernan Shipka) asked Katara about it in the first episode. The mystery of Zuko’s mother is like my personal Al Capone Vault mystery, and I’m hoping that either they address it in this series or dedicate an entirely new series to that rich side story. (Fan favorite Dante Basco, the voice of Zuko in the first series, is supposed to be back in future episodes as a voice, so hopefully this means we’ll get to see Zuko searching for his mother!)

I really love the musical direction in this series. That’s not to say that Avatar’s musical direction wasn’t good, because it was stellar. However, I feel like just like how the animation has somehow turned it up to 11, so has the musical direction. It feels a lot more focused, and the use of the zhonghu and erhu throughout the musical pieces is really exciting–those are two of my favorite instruments, and to have those two classically Chinese instruments throughout the musical pieces really grounds the series, since a lot of the music also takes cues from the 1920s (we are in a more culturally cohesive, Steampunkish-1920s world now instead of the more rural, disparate world of Aang and Katara). These instruments provide the structure for the music almost in the same way drums do in music. These instruments also serve as the definitive link between Avatar and Korra. (Make sure to read the interview Racebending.com did with the musical team behind Avatar and Korra, The Track Team, by clicking here.)

As I alluded to, the world Korra lives in is even more exciting than the adventurous one Aang lived in. For the most part, everyone lives in peace, no matter if they’re a bender or non-bender, and the different nations are part of the same unified nation now, with the heart of it being Republic City. In the show, it’s pretty clear Republic City is based on New York City, especially with the inclusion of the huge park that seems to span the length of the city, similar to Central Park. Perhaps there’s a bit of San Francisco in there with a Golden Gate-looking bridge, but it could be the Brooklyn Bridge. In any case, the cool thing about Republic City–and the world, for that matter–has one foot in the “present” (the 1920s) with radios, cars, the addition of Pro-bending etc, and one foot in the past, with traditional foods and teachings. It’s a very thrilling world to see on television.

I really can’t find much to fault here. Someone can bring up the fact that the voice actors aren’t Asian, but you can take a look at how the blogger behind “My Boyfriend is Asian” addressed that complaint. To bounce off what her article is about, I personally don’t have that big of a problem with it, since, unless there’s an obviously racial stereotype being made in the voice characterization (i.e. Apu from The Simpsons), voice acting is pretty much a different animal than screen casting. Basically, don’t look to me for answers on that front.

However, if there’s one thing that makes me sad, it’s that there are only going to be about 13 episodes. Why so short? I realize Korra only has to learn air, but couldn’t we get some more time? I don’t want to go back to life without an Avatar series!

Overall, this is a great show for junkies of animation, martial arts, cultural blending, and/or epic storylines. Just watch this please–it’s Miyazaki level work, and you won’t regret a second.

The first two episodes of Korra are online at Nickelodeon right now! On television, Korra comes on each Saturday at 11 a.m. eastern /10 a.m central. 

*You can also learn more about Mako’s career as a prominent screen actor by clicking here.

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For those of you who don’t like going to the movie theater on a film’s opening day (I used to be one of those people), here’s the first five minutes of Megamind, thanks to Nickelodeon. I was already on Megamind’s side, but after seeing this movie, Metro Man is now Public Offender #1 on my “Cartoon Characters I Love to Hate” list. Gee whiz, talk about being too perfect! And as I said in my other Megamind post, sure, Megamind was raised in a prison(which is ridiculous in and of itself) but he looked so sweet and nice and friendly! Shame on you, kids and teacher for not recognizing he was trying to fit in just because of his circumstances (and his blue complexion and bigger-than-average head)! While Megamind’s time in school is obviously an exaggeration of real people’s time in school, this section of the film does hit quite a nerve of what school is like, especially high school.  Anyway, here you go:

It’s probably a good thing that I waited until the hate-spree died down before seeing this film. However, that doesn’t mean that I’m going to let up on spreading the hate.

The plot of this film is, roughly, the same from the show–in a world where nations are divided by the elements (earth, fire, and water) and where people know how to utilize said elements in a martial-arts form, a special boy, the last of all the air nomadic monks, has the power to control all of the elements and must restore the balance, which has been taken over by the ruthless Fire Nation.

That’s about all that is the same, though. Really, I’m not going to waste too much time on reviewing this movie; the film itself really doesn’t have anything worth talking about, which is a shame, considering what television series it came from (one of the few animated series in the league of such greats as  Samurai Jack, The Justice League, Batman: The Animated Series, Hayao Miyazaki films and Grave of Fireflies in my and other people’s opinions).  I’m tired from watching this film, so I’ll just run through the main points:

1) Exposition and narration was horrible. The way it was inserted into the film was also choppy and inconsistent with the dialogue. Sometimes, the dialogue would reiterate what the narration (led by Katara, played by Nicola Peltz) had just told the audience.

2) The action sequences were way too slow and too orderly for action sequences. All of them were shot in slow motion, making the movie seem even slower, not to mention the horrible special effects.

3) The acting, for the most part, was atrocious. Peltz and Jackson Rathbone as Katara’s brother Sokka were more than wooden; they were basically trees. Poor Noah Ringer, his first time in a big-budget movie, reeked of “acting noobie” throughout the entire movie. The Fire Nation, comprised of main characters Dev Patel (Zuko) Aasif Mandvi (Commander Zhao) and Cliff Curtis (Fire Lord Ozai, Zuko and Azula’s father), Summer Bishil (Azula, Zuko’s maniac sister), and Shaun Toub (Zuko’s uncle Iroh) actually had the best acting in the whole movie, and out of that group of people, Patel, Bishil, and Curtis were the cream of the crop–and Bishil only had one line! I do think, however, that a lot of the blame for the drab acting lies squarely on the shoulders of Shyamalan himself–as a director, he should know what he wants out of his actors and how to make the audience like them, especially if the characters his actors are portraying are already popular characters with already popular traits.

4) The pronunciations in this movie throw fans of the show out of whack. “Aang” is pronounced “Ahng”, “Sokka” is pronounced “Souka”, etc. It’s pretty moronic to do that to characters who are known by the Americanized pronunciations of their names. I know that he was trying to make stuff seem true to certain cultures by doing this, but really? This is the area you want to make true to certain cultures? Which leads me to one of the craziest things about this whole crazy movie:

5) Racebending. It’s one thing to have all of your main “good” characters be white, even down to Sokka and Katara’s grandmother (Katharine Houghton) with an English accent! But it’s also a completely different thing to have said white characters be surrounded by a sea of INUIT PEOPLE! Every extra in the Southern Water Tribe is ethnic, just like how in the ’40s and ’50s, every extra in a movie set in an exotic locale were locals while the main characters were white. I’m not making this an issue just to have something to gripe about. The level of misunderstanding the importance of race in entertainment, especially movies, is beyond me. Shyamalan is a student of old-school film. He loves Hitchcock, so he knows the method for making gripping movies. He should also know how whitewashing is apparent in film history.

Along with changing the main good characters, the “bad guys” are all Indians (except for Taub, who’s Persian, and Curtis, who’s a Kiwi). I don’t know what that means to Shyamalan (who says that Zuko is the actual star of the movie–that is debatable, to be sure), but to me, it seems like he’s reiterating what a lot of people think about dark-skinned people in film history, which is, if you’re dark, you’re automatically evil.

But aside from that, Shyamalan included ethnicities that aren’t even in the original series. While I appreciate his thought to put an African tribe in the film and cast Monk Gyatso as a black man (Damon Gupton, to be exact), it doesn’t make sense in the realm of the series. The series is based in Asian and Inuit culture. Not Caucasian culture, not a culture from one of the many African countries–it’s strictly Asian culture and Asian philosophy. The point is this–he could’ve cast a full Asian cast to respect the series, but even still, we’d have the other parts of this film I’ve already mentioned to contend with.

Overall, this film was a real letdown. As a fan of the series, it was a double whammy. I was angry over being bored, then I was depressed because the action and storytelling was much better in the series and how I’d rather watch any one of those seasons again than watch this movie. After a while, my brain shut down, as if it was protecting itself from the awfulness of this film. Watch it if you really want to experience the brute force of this movie, but in all honesty, you’ll end up like me–tired, bitter, disgusted, disturbed, and ultimately saddened.

EDIT–By the way, in the film, Aang’s story arc is that he has to accept his role as the Avatar and make peace with the fact that he caused the deaths of his Air monk brethren by running away all of those years ago. In the series, this is not the case; he’s a 100 years in the future, yes, but he was put in the iceberg by the monks so he could be protected from the Fire Nation who were raiding the Air Temples. Aang always knew his destiny as the Avatar. He had already accepted it as fact. He didn’t have to grow into it, so to speak, aside from learning how to master the other elements. And neither did the Fire Nation have to have lanterns and pots of fire with them in order to bend fire. Fire came OUT OF THEIR APPENDAGES! There. I am done.

Who’s going to indulge their inner magic nerd and go to Universal Studios’ Magical World of Harry Potter? Well, if you’re like me, you probably wish there were more theme parks based on awesome places from movies, Disney Parks not included (but even Disney missed a few movie places that would make killer parks).  Here are a few key locales from movies and television that should exist in real life:

Kuzcotopia (The Emperor’s New Groove)

After watching The Emperor’s New Groove as a kid, I wished there was a real Kuzcotopia, mostly because I wanted to see how Kuzco would build it if he was still in his selfish stage. I bet it would be lavish. However, for the real world application of Kuzcotopia, the meaning of the word would have to be expanded to include the entire kingdom-this way, we could also go to the crazy diner that has everything “swimming in gravy”, the precarious bridge above the ravine, Yzma’s lair and Pacha’s house and the pool Kuzco built (along with his not-so-lavish vacation home).

The Wonka Factory (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)

Any way you slice it, the Wonka Factory would be a scary place. Whether you include the trippy, vomit-inducing boat ride and the creepy orange Oompa-Loompas from the ‘70s version or Willy Wonka’s page haircut from the ‘00s version, this potential theme park could be one that both scars your children while simultaneously pleasing them with complementary chocolate bars.

Wonderland (Any incarnation of Alice in Wonderland, particularly the recent version by Tim Burton)

I believe Disneyland had Wonderland for a while, so this one isn’t totally new to the theme park idea. But, with the recent resurgence of Wonderland love due to Tim Burton’s incarnation and the viral release of the 103-year old British film (the first time Wonderland had been committed to film), a new Wonderland theme park is in order. There is high potential for this park to be extremely scary and unpalatable, what with the Cheshire Cat and the creepy blue Caterpillar (the book is rumored to be based on drug trips, anyways), but the food court would be fun-guests could buy petit-fours with “Eat Me” written on them, dainty china cups of tea, and “Drink Me” vials filled with some sort of delicious, sweet liquid.

Gotham City (Batman comic books, Batman: The Animated Series, Batman movies, in particular Batman Begins and The Dark Knight)

This theme park might be more for the adults. From the first mention of the city in the Batman comics, Gotham has been a scary, seedy place. Key locales such as Arkham Asylum, the Batcave, and the hideouts of resident crazies like the Joker, the Penguin, and the Riddler would be best suited for a Halloween celebration, so the park might only be open during October nights. Thinking of running up on the Joker alone is enough to strike fear in the hearts of the most burly of men! The biggest draw, however: having Batman legend Kevin Conroy’s voice booming through speakers as the Bat himself.

Metropolis (Superman comic books, Superman:The Animated Series, various television shows)

I’m not as versed in Superman-lore as I am Batman-lore. But still, it would appeal to the journalist in me to see what The Daily Planet looks like. Other key locales: the Kent farm, Steel’s neighborhood, and Lois Lane and Clark Kent’s city residences, simply because I don’t think we’re ever given a glimpse as to where they live in Metropolis.

The Hall of Justice or The Watchtower (DC Comics, The Superfriends, The Justice League)

While you can pretend the Cincinnati Union termial is the real thing, it would be need to see a true life Hall of Justice. The Hall of Justice has the classic briefing room that was shown in almost every episode of The Superfriends, and similarly, The Watchtower has the monitor womb, a.k.a. the room J’onn J’onzz is always in during the later seasons. The Watchtower wouldn’t be in space, of course, but think of walking up to the structure itself-it’ll be like walking to those incredible and scary-looking Ripley’s Believe It or Not museums. You would be intimidated and awed at the same time. And inside, there would be cool rooms displaying “vintage” costumes, memorabilia, and, of course, the monitor womb, where you could see what was happening around the world and the universe (i.e. Gotham, Metropolis, Darkseid, perhaps). It would also be really cool if you could actually meet the Justice League (double pay for the guy who has to wear the green makeup and prosthetics to be J’onn J’onzz). Ditto all of this for The Hall of Justice. Would Darkseid make a good theme park?

Crystal Tokyo (Sailor Moon manga, Sailor Moon anime)

There really isn’t a specific locale in Crystal Tokyo, but just the idea of being able to visit the mythic Crystal Tokyo would make a lot of Sailor Moon fans’ dreams come true, especially if they actually got to meet Queen Serenity, Princess Serenity/Sailor Moon and the Sailor Scouts/Sailor Princesses (all played by actresses, of course).

The world of Dragonball Z (Dragonball Z manga, Dragonball Z anime)

While most of the show took place in deserted areas, there are a few places fans would know from the show. Capsule Corp. (especially Vegeta’s hyperbolic chamber), Kami’s Lookout, Master Roshi’s Kame House, and key planetary sites like Planet Namek, King Kai’s planet and Planet Vegeta would be great to have (“traveling” to the planets would take place in one of those stationary simulation rides that would mimic traveling into outer space). What would also be cool: seeing the Afterworld. (More like the Elysian Fields and Tartarus in Hades from Greek Mythology, this world was simply called “Hell” in the manga and unedited version of the cartoon, but it was stupidly renamed “Home for Infinite Losers” or “HFIL” by American dubbing company Funimation. It would not be called “HFIL” in theme park form).

The world of Avatar: The Last Airbender (Avatar: The Last Airbender cartoon, Nick Magazine comic strips)

Talk about labor-intensive! The builders and designers behind the Magical World of Harry Potter have spent years developing and painstakingly working the area down to the minute details. For anyone who has seen the show, think how much more work would have to go into creating the Four Kingdoms! Every kingdom in the show is lavish and detail-oriented, and there are too many important locales to list in this article. Definitely, the project crew would have to limit the locales down to a workable list, but the definite places of interest would be Katara and Sokka’s village, Princess Yue’s ice castle, Zuko’s war ship and fire palace, the island of the Kiyoshi Warriors, Boiling Rock prison, The Cave of Two Lovers, the swamp, and the remains of Aang’s air monastery.

Starfleet Academy (Star Trek television, book, and movie series)

Any self-respecting Star Trek fan (or Trekkie/Trekker, if you’re really hardcore) wants to at least see Starfleet Academy, if not go inside and actually attend class. Just like the Magical World of Harry Potter, Starfleet Academy would be a complete immersion into the world of futuristic San Francisco. There would be an initiation session that would determine what your concentration would be (Engineering, Command or Science) and actual “classes” to take. Also, the cafeteria would have out-of-this-world cuisine, like infamous Cardassian Sunrise and plomeek soup.

What movie locales would you like to see as theme parks?

PHOTO: ‘Dinosaur Train’ Creator/Writer/Director Craig Bartlett speaks during the Cable portion of the 2009 Summer Television Critics Association Press Tour at the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel on August 2, 2009 in Pasadena, California.

More Hey Arnold goodness is here at moniqueblog! You might recall that I recently interviewed Hey Arnold!‘s music man Jim Lang. Now, the creator of Hey Arnold!, Craig Bartlett, has been gracious enough to provide insight into his creative style, the vision behind his new PBS show, “Dinosaur Train”, and how Seattle and the grunge movement influenced Arnold and co.’s sensibilities.

Moniqueblog-How did you become interested in drawing?

Craig Bartlett-It was something I was always pretty good at, as long as I could remember. My parents encouraged me, my grandmother always gave me pencils and drawing tablets for christmas, so I felt that it was my “thing” from the very start.

Before you worked on Hey Arnold, you worked on Rugrats, Jim Henson projects, Ren and Stimpy,and wrote Arnold comic strips for Simpsons Illustrated. What was it like working on these projects?

All those jobs were fun to do in their own way — they were all an introduction to Hollywood and TV production, and each place had a different approach. I got a lot out of comparing their styles, and when I got the chance to do Hey Arnold! I tried to take the best production styles from each job I had done.

While doing research for the interview, I read that you worked on Mystery Lodge at Knott’s Berry Farm. What was working on that project like, especially since it included so many multi-media elements?

All the jobs I did for Bob Rogers were like that – he works in formats and venues that are different from regular film and TV. His jobs usually involved travel to exotic locations – Mystery Lodge meant doing research flying up to the north end of Vancouver Island in Canada, which is a really beautiful place, like where I grew up in Washington, but even more pristine and remote. I grew up on the Swinomish Indian Reservation, and the Kwakwalla-speaking Indians of Canada had similar but way deeper traditions, more connected to their past. And Bob’s jobs usually involve an installation part, where I would stay at the site every day and put the media into the show space, which in the case of Mystery Lodge was going to Knott’s every day, and that was weird and fun, a very Southern California setting.

How did you come up with the story for Party Wagon?

I really like history in general, and the history of the settling of the American West in particular — I was always fascinated with the Oregon Trail, how people often ran away from their past lives and reinvented themselves out West. Party Wagon was my first movie after Hey Arnold! and I wanted to get all that crammed into a coming-of-age story… the main character Randy starts out in Maine, and ends up in the Pacific Northwest, which is what my ancestors did. Only in Party Wagon, it’s way goofier, and meant to be a comedy. I really hoped that Cartoon Network would let me make a series of it, but they weren’t into it at all after Linda Simensky left, it was kind of an orphaned project.

What is the idea behind Dinosaur Train?

I’ve wanted to make Dinosaur Train since my son Matt was 3 or 4, and playing with tons of dinosaurs and piles of trains simultaneously. I’d see him putting his dinosaurs onto his trains and making up little adventures for them, so I told my wife, “If I made a show that put dinosaurs on a train, I’d have all 4-year-olds at hello!” And all these years later, I finally did, and it’s working like nuts. I’m just glad I got it made before someone else thought of it!

Most children’s shows that feature animals doing unrealistic or human things do not explain to children that animals don’t actually behave this way. Do you feel that Dinosaur Train-due to the inclusion of Mr. Disclaimer,  Dr. Scott Sampson, and realistic dinosaur drawings-makes your children’s show unique among others?

I know that when we set out to make it, we knew that we’d be trying to give real information about what paleontologists know or hypothesize about dinosaurs — like their size, the way they moved, and their behavior, but we’d also have them riding trains and speaking English and singing and dancing and lots of other crazy non-scientific behavior, so we decided to have “Mr. Disclaimer” say the bad news (like dinosaurs did not play Dinoball) and Dr. Scott concentrate on the enthusiastic, fun parts, after every episode.

I read that you were born in Seattle, Washington. It might be stereotypical of me to ask this, but since Seattle is seen by many as a mecca for alternative culture (and Arnold’s flannel-looking plaid shirt), did the alternative mindset influence you at any point during the inception and development of Hey Arnold? Or, I guess a better question would be: how did Seattle influence you as you created Hey Arnold! ?

Oh, I’m very much a son of Seattle. I’m used to the gloomy weather and the fresh air that smells like the sea and wearing layers of flannel and digging the funky old buildings. I can certainly relate to poor Kurt Cobain and his growing up a punk in Aberdeen, Washington. I went to high school in another little grungy town called Anacortes, and it was a town where you got your ass kicked for dressing weird and acting arty, so I found the whole grunge movement very easy to relate to. So I wanted “Hey Arnold!” to have a little bit of that vibe.

When designing the characters, what prompted you to give some of them head shapes based on objects?

Matt Groening [creator of The Simpsons] told me early on that you should design your characters to be easily recognized from far away or in silhouette. So I’ve kept that in mind, especially on Hey Arnold! I tried to base their heads on simple geometric shapes.

The stories featured on Hey Arnold always have some level of maturity not seen in children’s animation often. There are many episodes I could cite to back up my opinion, but the Christmas special is one that stands out the most in mind at the present. I think for me, HA! left a void in Nickelodeon’s programming for shows with well-crafted storytelling; lately, the only show that was on Nick to have mature storytelling was Avatar: The Last Airbender. How do you go about constructing your stories?

Thanks, I love the Christmas special, too. We really wanted to tell true stories about how it feels to be a kid — not necessarily true in the factual sense but true to our feelings, our emotions. And we used real kids for the voices because that felt more emotionally authentic. We (the writers) all felt like childhood is tough, that we all grow up feeling alienated, that almost no one understands us, that even the “cool” kids feel that way inside. Arnold is really wise, though, and a really good kid. So it’s kind of romantic and idealized. I guess we just wanted to make the stories as entertaining as we could. Also, I never wanted to make really “cartoony” shows – our storytelling was more realistic than the stuff Nick is making now.

A few of the most intriguing characters on HA! is Helga and her family. What prompted you to create Helga, her family, and their various hiccups (Bob’s parental neglect, Miriam’s inferred alcoholism, Olga’s incessant perfection)?

The more the Pataki family is over-the-top bad, the more the audience will sympathize with Helga. Since she is so mean, so hard on Arnold, we really wanted to make her home life horrible, so the audience could forgive her, and get on her side. I think that Helga gets a lot of “instant karma” payback for her actions – she will hatch and evil plan, and it backfires, for our amusement. She gets her bad habits from Big Bob, I think.

Just as interesting are Arnold’s grandparents and the tenants in the Sunset Arms. What were the inspirations behind those characters?

We wanted Arnold to be the calm center of his universe, with these wacky characters all around him. He has no parents, he’s an only kid in a boarding house of adults, so we made all the adults ridiculous, like little children emotionally, so Arnold would seem like the wisest and “together” character in the whole place. I really like the grandparents – they were such a gas to write for. Dan Castellaneta was like a secret weapon – he was my favorite actor of all, maybe after Franny Smith. They were like super-granparents, with all kinds of special talents, huge back stories… they pretend to be goofy but deep down are very wise and smart and have Arnold’s back… they are my dream grandparents.

Curly is the one character that both made me laugh and scared me simultaneously, and I mean that as a compliment What was the inspiration behind him?

I knew a couple kids like Curly, who sat silently in the back and then, under pressure, revealed that they were completely nuts. Paranoid, crazy, conspiracy-theorists. Once we wrote a couple Curly episodes, he was a great kid to have around. He’s a lot of kids’ favorite. Like Helga says, “Watch out for the quiet ones.”

There are still legions of HA! fans who regularly re-watch the show  and still wish they could’ve seen your proposed Jungle Movie and The Patakis. What have your experiences with your fans been like? Also, if everything worked out just right and the planets were in alignment, would you ever consider relaunching Hey Arnold! and/or try relaunching The Jungle Movie and The Patakis?

The fans are great, but I’m sorry to say that their hopes of a revived series and a Jungle Movie and The Patakis are pretty much impossible dreams. Nick doesn’t really have anything to do with me – I’ve been out on my own, making a living on whatever else I can come up with, for lo these nearly 10 years now.  I’ve also tried going in to meet with Nick execs, and pitched other ideas, and none have gone anywhere. So I’m pretty much over it, y’know? But I’m really glad that Hey Arnold! has fans, and I’m moved that it really mattered to so many people. I know that people really love Helga and Arnold and the rest of the gang, and it’s very gratifying.

Any final thoughts?

I feel very lucky that I found this career here in L.A. I grew up training to be an artist, but I segued over to animation, and especially writing for animation, and this role of storyteller has suited me very well. I have the right constitution for this kind of work: I get along well with others, I can collaborate with large groups (essential for TV-making) and I can watch my stuff over and over and still laugh at all the right spots, which some people cannot. Because, like Kurt Cobain says, I am “easily amused.” I really like my job.▪

I think it’s safe to say that practically every kid growing up in the 1990s watched “Hey Arnold” on Nickelodeon. During-and after-its run on Nick, it has been hailed as a success in storytelling and still has fans who (im)patiently await its return. I had a chance to converse with Jim Lang, the composer for the show.

Moniqueblog-When did you first realize you wanted to have a career in music?

Jim Lang-I started playing in bands in Junior High School.  But I started doing theater then too, and pursued both throughout High School. When it came time to go to college, I went to Northwestern University to study theater. I left Northwestern to take a job with the Chicago Free Street Theater, and while I was in that company I became music director. From that point on I did more and more music, and eventually moved to Los Angeles.

MB-In doing research for the interview, I read on your website that you once played with musical greats like Todd Rundgren, The Four Tops, Smokey Robinson, and The Pointer Sisters. What was it like to work with these musicians?

JL-I have been really fortunate to play alongside some extraordinary folks. It has become a commonplace to say that one is “blessed” by these associations, but really that is the way it feels to me. Making music with others yields these extraordinary moments of deep connection to something larger- a groove, an audience, one other person, the whole universe- And those moments stick with me and nourish me constantly. I also have to say that for every memorable moment in big venues with the famous artists I have worked with there have been a multitude of times with not-so-famous folk in not-so-glamorous joints that were every bit as cool and memorable.

MB-A large chunk of my childhood consisted of watching Nickelodeon and Saturday morning cartoons, so much of your music from Lloyd in Space, Hey Arnold, and Hey Arnold-The Movie has had a large impact on me on as kid growing up in the ’90s. Have you had many fans write to you or tell you stories similar to mine? If so, how does that make you feel?

JL-A few years ago as the Hey Arnold! generation began to percolate through the internet and the url for my website went up on a few of the HeyA fansites, I began to get quite a lot of correspondence from fans of the show. It is wonderful to hear that people think of the world of the show as a welcoming and familiar place, and that the music touched them. That is what I hope for when I write for picture, but it isn’t often that I get the kind of direct feedback from people that I have from Hey Arnold. And I am really touched by the fact that not a few of the people I hear from are studying music themselves and cite the score from the show as an early influence. That is wonderful.

MB-What was the main idea behind the music you created for Lloyd in Space? How was the music for this show different than the music created for Hey Arnold ?

JL-The creators of the show, Paul Germain and Joe Ansolebehere, had gotten some music ideas from Disney, among which was an album called The Moog Cookbook- a bunch of pop tunes done entirely on retro synthesizers. We all thought this was a cool jumping-off place, and I did as much over-the-top synthesizer knob twisting as I could in every episode. It is perfect cartoon instrumentation- bendy and stretchy and kinetic.
MB-What was the inspiration behind the theme song for “Hey Arnold”?

JL-I actually wrote the melody in the late 70s. I always though it would make a great Dunkin Donuts commercial, but I was too chicken to play it for my friend Donnie Rosenberg, whose father started Dunkin Donuts in Boston. Years later when the executives at Nick began groaning out loud when Craig and I sang them our original idea (which eventually got used as a promo: “Arnold! You crazy cat!”) I knew I had to come up with a catchy alternative, and that melody just popped back into my head. Recycling.
MB-Many characters on the show had their own theme music, like Helga, for instance. How did you come up with her theme?

JL-I tried to get inside Helga’s head when she was having those private ecstatic moments where she allowed her self to just let her overwhelming love for Arnold flow. In every story that featured Helga there was what we came to call a “Helga Moment” where she would do that. And Frannie (Francesca Smith who played Helga) had such a perfect way of doing it, so syrupy and with a beautiful little shuddering sigh at the end… the violin was the perfect voice and the music pretty much wrote itself. And of course, every time we did the bit she would get interrupted unceremoniously, usually by some off screen mouth breathing from Brainy.

“Helga on the Couch”, an example of “Helga’s Love Theme” in play (and it’s one of the best “Hey Arnold” episodes. The full theme is in the end credits)

MB-Which character’s theme was the most fun to make and why? By the same token, which character’s theme was the hardest to make and why?

JL-They were all fun to make because, like the Helga theme, they grew out of scenes in the show that featured the character.  There were a few strong themes, notably for Arnold and Helga and Grandpa, but there were also themes for the city and certain emotions that recur a lot through the course of the show. One piece that was wicked hard was the marching band music in “Runaway Float” where the marching band gets run down by Big Bob’s float. I just about had a heart attack when I read that script. We didn’t exactly have a budget to hire a marching band, let alone crush and replace all their instruments!  I can’t remember exactly how I faked the sounds of the instruments getting crushed, but I do remember I made the cue play faster and more out of tune as the float bore down on the band and they marched faster and faster and finally fled in terror.

MB-The “Hey Arnold Christmas Special” was pretty memorable to me, both in terms of the story and the music. What was the inspiration behind the music created for the special?

JL-The actor who played Mr Hyunh on the show is Vietnamese, and the story of his journey from Vietnam to the US has a great deal in common with the story in the script. So starting right there the special had big emotional resonance for everyone who worked on the show. Add to that a really terrific script and great performances from all the actors and you have a really powerful piece.  With all of those elements are working together, the music practically wrote itself. It was really a joy to write that score and the Christmas special is right near the top of my list of favorite episodes. Another note:  the wonderful wood flute performances of Mai’s [Mr. Hyunh's daughter] theme were by a superb musician, Jon Clarke, who was well loved by every composer who ever wrote for him because he played with such tremendous emotion and made the notes on the page come alive so beautifully. He has since passed away and is sorely missed.

MB-What were some of the best and worst parts about working on the music for “Hey Arnold-The Movie”?

JL-The hardest part of that whole project for everyone on the crew was trying to make something that was written and animated to be shown on television look and sound like it was always intended for theatrical release. I can’t remember how far along we were in production on The Neighborhood.  My recollection is that the voices and animation were already mostly done when Nick and Paramount decided that they would release it as a feature-length movie. Animation is a complicated process and there are a number of technical and story decisions made all along the way that fall one way or the other  depending on what the final product is going to be. We all had our hands full trying to bring the production values up to something that looked like a movie.
For my part I used the same music I had written for the story in its TV incarnation, but I decided to pay to record about 20 minutes of music with a real orchestra instead of just using the synthesizer orchestra we used for the weekly episodes. It ate my entire paycheck for the whole project to pay for the musicians. Boy did it sound good, though!

MB-As you probably already know, Craig Bartlett wanted to create another “Hey Arnold” movie- now known to everyone online as “The Jungle Movie”-where Arnold goes to Central America in search of his parents. He also wanted to create a spin-off featuring Helga and her family called “The Patakis”. Both of these ideas were never greenlit by Nickelodeon. How did you feel when “The Jungle Movie” and the spin-off “The Patakis” weren’t greenlit?

JL-We were all disappointed- the prospect of continuing to collaborate with the great crew Craig had assembled for Hey Arnold! was a really cheery one, and the initial drawings and storyboards for the jungle movie looked fantastic. “The Patakis” also looked very funny, although there was far less development time put into that concept than the jungle movie. But the thought of following Helga and her family into Helga’s goth future still makes me laugh.

MB-If Bartlett’s “Hey Arnold” Jungle Movie came to fruition, in what direction would you take the movie’s score? Also, in what direction would you take the music for, “The Patakis”?

JL-Big adventure for the Jungle Movie. You can get the idea if you listen to the score for “The Journal,” although I was never happy with the way much of that score turned out. And The Patakis? I think some kind of heavy metal shredder music for Helga- married to updated versions of Big Bob’s Beepers theme and Helga’s mother’s Leave-it-to-Beaver sitcom score.

MB-What can your fans expect from you now? In other words, what projects are you currently working on?

JL-I’ve been away from TV since Lloyd wrapped, getting back to my live action composing- doing some Independent films. Although I did do three animated DVD features (“Unstable Fables”) for Henson/Weinsteins. I hope to get another chance to work with Craig in the future.  Meanwhile I’m doing more studio work and playing with some fun bands including a great LA soul-jazz collective called Build An Ark.  Our album “Love” is just out. Also made a really fun album of elctro-acoustic music with my good friend Patrick Gleeson call “Jazz Criminal” If you’re interested that is available from CD baby.  You can check it out on MySpace Music too.

MB-Any final thoughts?

JL-Just this: HUGE THANKS and shout outs to all of the Hey Arnold fans for all the great emails and love.  It’s a good feeling to know that the show lives on in your hearts.  It is certainly one of my favorite projects, ever! ▪

You can visit Jim Lang’s website at knobworld.com.