This cartoon is pretty much the
ultimate look into childhood and that’s the biggest reason why it’s charming
and appealing. When you’re a kid,
Saturday is seen as the best day of the week.
It’s the official start to the weekend where you’re off of school and,
depending on the procedures of your classes, you have the whole day to do the
things you like to do. This basic idea
of what Saturdays mean for kids everywhere is greatly embodied in this story
that follows Arnold put together a list of all the fun ways to spend a
Saturday. You can really admire his
ambition to have the ultimate Saturday.
The list has a lot of legitimately fun activities that we all enjoyed
doing at several points in life, maybe even at our current ages; watching
cartoons, playing catch with every kid in the park, riding bikes, and seeing
movies. This is another example of how relatable
this show can get, and since the list has a lot of favorite pastimes, that’s
all you need to want Arnold to have his great day. Then, you end up noticing the real theme of
this cartoon regarding expectations vs reality.
We see Arnold expect to have the best Saturday a kid could ever have
based on his list, but the cartoon consists of nothing but all his attempts of
having fun going wrong. The power goes
out in the boarding house preventing him from watching cartoons, a jerk steals
the ball he’s playing catch with, his bike gets stuck in wet cement, and even
the movie he’s seeing ends way too abruptly.
I might also add at the latter point is led into by Arnold showing off a
more human side by getting into the movie by sneaking in without paying. Anyway, while it is sad that things only
seemed to go wrong for Arnold, it does give this cartoon a lot of credit by
showing off a hard sad truth that in life, things don’t always go our way. At the same time, it keeps itself from being
too depressing by showing that even bad days can have a bit of good in
them. It does so by ending the cartoon
with Arnold having a moment with Grandma who had spent the whole day trying to
get a piano in the boarding house, only to later decide to put it on the
roof. It even features a lively musical
number called “Look Up” which is a fun and great song to give power to the idea
of bad days having some good. It does
its job to lift Arnold’s spirit, and I’m sure it’ll do the same for anyone else
watching. This cartoon is not only a
relatable look at childhood, but it’s also honest for not being afraid to show
how wrong things can go and uplifting to show that things going wrong aren’t
always that bad. It’s an animated work
that really gets you to think about life. 9.5/10
Haunted Train
Most of
what we’ve covered from this show are simple slice-of-life stories that give a
look into the lives of the people in Arnold’s neighborhood, usually the kids,
which the audience can relate to.
However, when the show decides to put simple stories aside, they pull
out all the stops making the stories they tell stand out as something grand,
creative, and truly unforgettable. Most
of these stories tend to be spooky ones revolving around urban legends Arnold
and his friends hear. The urban legend
they hear this time around after Grandpa notices they’re bored is about a train
whose driver drove off the tracks straight to Hell after going mad and every
year on the anniversary of the train’s last ride, it returns to lure
unsuspecting passengers to Hell with a collection of signs. It’s an interesting story to say the least
with a good indication that the crew behind this show is willing to try out any
story idea imaginable, even if it might be scary and nightmare-inducing to some
people, proving themselves worthy of using animation as a storytelling
tool. Anyway, the plot really gets going
when Arnold, Gerald, and Helga decide to do something about their boredom and
investigate the truth behind the story of the haunted train. The moment a mysterious
train pulls into the abandoned station when midnight strikes, that’s when the
stakes really raise and the characters and audience are taken for quite a ride,
so to speak. The big thing about the
sequence is how everything we learned about the haunted train starts to come
true. The kids are pulled onto the train
by a white light, the lights in their coach start flickering on and off,
there’s an endless smell of rotten eggs, and as the ride goes on, it just keeps
getting hotter. This show clearly put a
lot of effort into building a scary atmosphere, and when you combine it with
occasional jokes, and charm from the kids working off of each other, that
really helps make the story stick out.
Yes, all these scary and intense moments lead to a reveal that the train
the kids got on was meant to go to the steel mill and there’s explanations for
all the signs they saw, but it’s fitting given that this show is still grounded
in reality. That said, it still keeps up
its awesome spooky atmosphere with an ending that suggests that despite what
Arnold and his friends encountered, there still could be a haunted train out
there. Ultimately, with greatly pulled
off intense scary scenes, a creative premise, and lovable characters, this
cartoon is one of the most impactful and memorable entries of this season and
series. 10/10
The Rankings
1. Haunted Train
2. Stoop Kid
3. Arnold’s Hat
4. Helga’s Makeover
5. The Baseball
6. The List
7. The Vacant Lot
8. Downtown as Fruits
9. The Old Building
10. Field Trip
11. 6th Grade Girls
12. The Little Pink Book
13. Snow
14. Eugene’s Bike
15. Heat
16. Operation Ruthless
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the 9th episode of the season: "Mugged/Roughin' It."
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