San Diego Comic-Con is officially underway, and one of the most exciting parts so far has been seeing our Nickelodeon-infused childhood come back to life right before our eyes.
Let’s be real, if you grew up in the ’90s and had access to cable then you probably watched Nickelodeon’s cornucopia of cartoons. And if you did then Rocko’s Modern Life and Hey Arnold! are probably on your radar.
Thanks to the ”90s and millennials’ raging nostalgia taking over the media, we can look forward to not just one classic coming back to life, but two! Both Rocko’s Modern Life and Hey Arnold! will be coming back to the small screen in 2018 with their own TV movies.
‘Rocko’s Modern Life’
Fans at San Diego Comic-Con were treated to all new footage of the new TV movie, Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling, on Thursday, along with a panel consisting of the show’s creator Joe Murray, director Cosmo Ferguson, and Carlos Alazraqui (Rocko), Tom Kenny (Heffer), Doug Lawrence (Filbert), and Charlie Adler (Mr. & Mrs. Bighead).
The panel began with new footage, and luckily Nickelodeon has released the trailer so you can get a look for yourself!
After the footage the cast and creators talked about Rocko’s Modern Life going from ’90s classic to modern revival, as well as what we might expect from the TV movie coming in 2018. Here are a few of the best things we learned!
- When asked how this revival started, Murray explained that Nickelodeon approached him with the idea of bringing Rocko’s Modern Life back. He and Ferguson were not too sure about it at first. “It all came to an end too soon,” Murray said of his original series. “Let’s not do it because we were asked, let’s do it because there’s a purpose to it.”
- Everyone is adjusting to modern life very differently, but they love it. Except Rocko. Predictably, he gets the worst of it all and accepts the modern changes but is still nostalgic for the ’90s.
- Filbert, an extreme introvert, loves social media! Lawrence explains, “He never liked interacting with people, and now he can without having to wash his hands.”
- In an effort to stay true to Rocko’s Modern Life the creators convinced Nickelodeon to let them hand draw the entire movie. And just like the original, every background you see is hand painted!
‘Hey Arnold!’
Another one of our favorite ’90s classics is also coming back to our living rooms: Football head! Nickelodeon brought creator Craig Bartlett and principal cast members Francessca Marie Smith (Helga), Aandi McAffee (Phoebe), Lane Toran (Arnold) and Jamil Smith (Gerald) to SDCC.
Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie will follow Arnold and his friends as they win a trip to tropical San Lorenzo, the very same place Arnold’s parents disappeared. He and his friends are on a mission to find out exactly what happened to his parents, and they learn a lot more along the way.
Sadly, Toran and Smith are now too old to reprise their roles because their voices changed, but Bartlett struck gold when re-casting and introduced Mason Vale Cotton and Benjamin Flores, Jr. as the new Arnold and Gerald. And they’re perfect.
Take a look at our favorite moments from the Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie panel, along with a scene that is sure to pull at your ’90s heartstrings.
- Despite not reprising their roles as Arnold and Gerald, Toran and Smith are still in the movie. Their characters will meet the gang in the jungle, but who they are exactly is still unknown.
- Bartlett cleared up a few of those internet rumors that have been circling around since the show’s departure. Most viral is the theory that Pigeon Man actually fell off the roof and committed suicide. In actuality, Pigeon man is alive and he’s in Paris! We get a chance to see this in the scene below.
- This movie is “fan heaven,” according to Bartlett. He’s aware of what the fans need to know and what questions we have, so you can look forward to getting a lot of closure with this movie.
- Arnold does have a last name! There was no crazy theory or reason why it never got revealed in the series, but Bartlett thought it was funny that we never got Arnold’s family name. Luckily, we’ll be able to find out what it is in the movie, and no it is not Football Head.
- Stoop kid is back! And everyone else! Bartlett went to great lengths to reintroduce all of our favorite characters, from Olga the bully to Pigeon Man and Herald.
And you don’t have to wait until 2018 to see all your favorite characters, you can just watch the clip below! The scene takes place after Arnold comes back from one of his long, sad walks and is greeted by a surprise from his friends. All his friends.
