When viewers first tuned in to Hey Arnold! in October 1996 they probably thought that it was going to be another silly kids show to pass the time, but as the episodes went on it started to stand out as something more than that. Hey Arnold! began confronting real issues that children have to deal with and showed them that life isn’t always perfect and that’s ok. Over 20 years later the topics and lessons are still very much relevant, hence why new installments continue to be released, the latest being the feature Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie. One of aspects of the Hey Arnold! world that continues to garner recognition is the score by composer Jim Lang, whom many critics say was children in the 90’s first introduction to jazz. We decided to speak with Lang about his ground breaking score and what it was like to recently revisit these beloved characters, musically, through Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie.
Do you have a favorite episode you scored from Hey Arnold!? If so, why is it your favorite?
Wow. Out of a hundred it is hard (impossible) to choose just one. Big Faves:
Downtown as Fruits. Best first episode ever. Pure Arnold in so many ways.
What’s Opera Arnold. Best recording session of the series- Everybody with a pulse got pulled into the room to sing the Opera stuff. Really great solo performances from the whole cast too. And Craig’s hilarious lyrics.
Arnold’s Christmas. A really beautiful script. And if I remember correctly, the actor who played Mr Hyunh actually fled Hanoi during that period. Powerful stuff. Also the beautiful woodwind work on the score was the great Jon Clarke who is no longer with us. A really soulful flue and oboe soloist.
Eugene, Eugene! Our valentine to kid musicals. More great performances from all the cast and Tim Curry singing “Nice Guys Finish Last.” A high point of my career!
Helga on the Couch all the way through I’m really happy with the way this score works with what was another really well written script. All that Helga and Arnold backstory. And the end title is the full on Helga love theme- the only time in the whole series it is heard in its entirety.
A few critics have said that your Hey Arnold! score introduced a lot of children to jazz music. What do you say about this?
I love it. I get tons of email both from people who are pursuing music as a career and also from folks who just like to listen to jazz who say that Hey Arnold! was their gateway drug. That is unbelievably humbling. I certainly don’t think of myself as a jazz musician, but if what we put on the air made people curious enough to go check out the amazing jazz musicians and jazz music that are out there that makes me SO happy! And it is amazing to see YouTube videos of peeps playing the Hey Arnold! theme and other tunes from the show. Beautiful!
When you were first creating the score for the show how did you decide on the jazz vibe?
Craig and I had both been digging Jason Bentley’s show on KCRW in LA. He was playing a lot of Acid Jazz at the time, and we felt like the combination of drops from classic jazz records and beats would be a great fit for the urban environment in Arnold’s world.
Why do you think Hey Arnold! has become such a cult classic project?
First off, you don’t get to be a cult classic without your cult. We have amazingly loyal- and vocal -fans.
As to why that is- I think there was something wise about the way the show addressed the darker aspects of childhood. I don’t mean dark in a violent way, but in the sense that as you grow up you begin to be aware of the dissonances in your world. And at a certain point you start to try to process that stuff. Arnold was a hero in the sense that he was kid who, regardless of the dissonance, pretty much did the right thing, and our audience found that relatable.
Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie was recently released by Nickelodeon. What was it like to revisit these characters, musically, over 20 years ago from when you were first introduced to them?
It was like going home. We were fortunate to have a LOT of the original cast to work with. Francesca Smith, Dan Castalanetta, Tress MacNeille , Maurice LaMarche, Anndi Macafee, Olivia Hack, Dan Butler, and Justin Shenkarow to name a few. And Mason Vale and Benjamin Flores, Jr. were fantastic as Arnold and Gerald. Given that those character voices are the most important instrument in the movie- that was huge.
As for the score, at one point I made a list of the themes from the original show that I quoted in the movie and there are probably fifteen or so that make an appearance, some many times. I felt very responsible to the faithful not to mess that up. I went back and listened to a lot of the music from the series, and tried to get back in that space with the new material too. There are a couple of spots in the movie where I felt like I really got it, but there’s nothing like doing the same show for five years to really get you in the groove.
There is a lot of new technology that has been released since 1994, did you modernize any of the character’s themes in this most recent film?
Well, I used a lot of new tools. What I did with a roomful of synths back in the day I did mostly with my laptop this time. But I wanted to make the music feel as comfortable and familiar as I could, so no, no modernizing. But if we get to make more Hey Arnold!– then I’ll have to bust out some 21st century beats!
Was there something you always said you would do differently if the project were to get another installment, that you finally got to do with The Jungle Movie?
The thing I longed for was to do another feature length Hey Arnold! piece with live orchestra, and fortunately Nickelodeon was excited about that prospect too. (The last time we did that was for Hey Arnold! The Movie which we recorded on the lot at Paramount on the famous Stage M which, by the way, has gone the fate of many a great Los Angeles recording venue and been turned into office space.) I love my synthesizers and my computer, but there’s nothing like getting a whole mess of people in a room together to make music.
Do you think there is going to be any more Hey Arnold! projects in the future?
Yes, please! All the faithful have to start bugging Netflix and Hulu now!
Thanks to Jim Lang for taking the time for the interview.
