Hey Arnold! – Season 1 (Nickelodeon DVD)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: D Episodes: B-
HEY
NICKELODEON! Took you long enough?!
After years of waiting Hey
Arnold! as well as a slue of other older Nickelodeon series are starting to
arrive on DVD. In conjunction with
Amazon.com (exclusively), Nickelodeon has just released Hey Arnold!: Season One on DVD that features all 20 episodes from
the first season. Each ‘half episode’ is
listed on its own as an episode on the DVD, but true fans know better. The series after premiering in 1996 ran for a
total of five hilarious seasons. Hey Arnold! was created by Craig
Bartlett in the late 1980’s as a comic book before becoming a full fledged
cartoon on the Nickelodeon Network. As a
series that was a part of many peoples’ childhoods (including this reviewer’s) Hey Arnold! stands out as one of the
top animated series to ever appear on Nickelodeon and it is amazing that it is
finally arriving on DVD.
The
premise of the series is not all too detailed or deep, but it is fun. Hey
Arnold! follows the life of a 4th grader named Arnold as he
grows up in the city with his friends and grandparents. His friends come from all different walks of
life and Arnold is no different. Life
for Arnold is full of fun and games, but memorable lessens along the way as
well. What is great about Hey Arnold! is that it is a series that
balances creative animation, life lessens, good plots, and solid comedy all
into one. There was a golden age for
Nickelodeon cartoons and Hey Arnold!
was definitely part of it.
This
reviewer is not sure how the episodes were arranged for the purposes of this
release (i.e. - airdate), but here are the episodes which are included:
Disc 1:
Downtown as Fruits
Eugene’s Bike
The Little Pink Book
Field Trip
Arnold’s Hat
Stoop Kid
Helga’s Makeover
The Old Building
6th Grade Girls
The Baseball
Disc 2:
Heat
Snow
Operation Ruthless
The Vacation Lot
The List
Haunted Train
Mugged
Roughin’ It
Door #16
Arnold as Cupid
Disc 3:
Arnold’s Christmas
Cool Jerk
Das Subway
Wheezin’ Ed
Tutoring Torvald
Gerald Comes Over
Spelling Bee
Pigeon Man
Disc 4:
Olga Comes Home
Sally’s Comet
Abner, Come Home
The Sewer King
False Alarm
World Records
Magic Show
24 Hours to Live
Arnold’s Valentine
The
technical features on this 4-Disc set are truly surprising. The picture is presented in a 1.33 X 1 full
screen as it originally appeared on television and looks better than this
reviewer can ever remember. The picture
is bright, colorful, has little grain, and overall is excellent. The sound is presented in a strong and clear
Dolby Digital Stereo that is adequate for this particular animated series. There are sadly no extras, but fans at this
time should just be happy these episodes were ever released.
Now’s the
time to bring Helga, Geralda, Brainy, Grandpa, and especially that football
headed kid Arnold home with Season One
of Hey Arnold!
- Michael P. Dougherty II
