Cartoon crazy

A bit more adult than the Rugrats, Hey Arnold! The Movie is a spin-off from the cable TV cartoons. It's set within a few blocks of a city with little corner shops, populous tenements, once-gentrified brownstones with their front stoops, and water-hydrants to keep kids cool in summer: in short, blue-collar friendly and multi-ethnic tolerant.

To retain such cosy decay in the face of Scheck, the greedy property developer (voiced by Paul Sorvino) and his wrecking ball, is the guerrilla mission of Arnold (Spencer Klein) and his rasta pal Gerald (Jamil Walker Smith). Arnold has a head like an American football - that's to say, an English rugby ball - and Gerald has an Afro smokestack.

The draughtsmanship (handdrawn) is low-tech, but sophisticated. The animation's flatness possesses a wall graffiti appropriateness. It's fast, jaunty, jokey. Digs at Men in Black, Mean Streets and All the President's Men (a "Deep Voice" character) will go over most kids' heads, but titillate their escorts. I'm less sure about the non-stop dialogue.

Though the civics lesson in good-neighbourliness and community conservation is primary-school level, the sheer quantity of wordage may strain a very young child's attention. Upwards of aged eight, I'd say, is optimum viewing.

Released 20 December.

Hey Arnold! The Movie
Cert: certU