'Toon Reviews 1: Hey Arnold Season 1 Episode 1

For our first set of reviews, move it Football Heads, because we’ll be looking at the first season of, what I feel, is the best of all the classic Nicktoons:

 

Hey Arnold (Season 1)

BASIC PREMISE

 

If there’s any Nickelodeon show that comes close to the quality of the shows of the Avatar franchise, it’s Hey Arnold.  For over 20 years, this animated TV series has been a fan-favorite in the eyes of many people who come across it, whether in reruns, the occasional upload on a video-streaming website, and DVD and digital releases.  As for me, I’ve been a viewer of this show ever since the 90s, and as I got older, I found myself respecting it a lot, even going so far as to call it one of the best.

 

This is as much of a slice-of-life show as you can get, but it’s still a really great show of that kind.  The series follows a kid named Arnold who lives in his grandparents’ boarding house in the city and he and the other people in the neighborhood get up to a wide variety of adventures.  These adventures can be of characters going about their day, looks into the lives of some of the strange inhabitants of the neighborhood, quests to find the truth of many urban legends, and even some heartfelt stories of a character’s past.  Aided with a cast of many distinct characters, both kids and adults, the cartoons that make up this show get you to feel a large variety of emotions, with enough material to hold your interests thereby cementing itself as something great.  To see just how impactful this series is, expect several overviews of the cartoons of the show’s many seasons, starting with this one of the first season.  Considering that this year, we’ll be getting a TV Movie called The Jungle Movie set to tie up the loose ends of the show,  there’s no better time to start than now.  Anyway, let’s get a look at life in the big city with an overview of Hey Arnold season 1.

 

 

Now, on with the review:

 

 

Downtown as Fruits

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As far as premiere cartoons go, this is a good one to let the audience know what they’ll get out of this show.  The premise of this cartoon is a rather off-the-wall scenario that feels very believable and enjoyable because of the characters we follow.  It’s about Arnold’s class putting on a play about the four food groups directed by Helga with Arnold and his best friend Gerald playing the fruits.  However, due to lack of interest in the play as well as being fed up with Helga’s bossy attitude as director, they decide to bail out of the play by riding the bus past the school auditorium.  The catch is that Arnold and Gerald end up riding the bus all the way downtown and get lost in the middle of nowhere dressed in fruit costumes, and the only money they have to use is a bag of money meant to be given to thieves who also happen to be disguised as the exact same fruits.  This ridiculous nature of what Arnold and Gerald get up to works because they acted without thinking of the consequences, them given appropriate reactions to being stuck downtown and getting money from a random guy, and using the money they get for fun like one would expect kids their age to do.  There’s also a heart to what goes on here when through their escapades, Arnold and Gerald realize the harm not showing up to the play has caused and successfully make things right by showing up at the play in time to give it quite a finale which closes the cartoon in style.  As you can see, the story is well-done by effectively balancing the humor of the main issue and the heart of Arnold and Gerald growing to realize they never should’ve bailed, but also, since this is the first cartoon of the series, it’s a solid introduction to the main kid characters.  Arnold may have easily given in to doing the wrong thing, but is still moral enough to understand when things go too far, Gerald while keeping his cool and not always thinking things through works as a good companion to Arnold, and the scenes at the play humorously display Helga’s appeal as an emotional wreck as she shifts between being a bully and a secret admirer of Arnold.  As for the other characters in the main cast, they’re mostly there for short lines and cameos during the play, but we don’t really get a sense of their personalities which are thankfully shown in many future cartoons.  As for here, we still get some memorable personalities from the folks Arnold and Gerald run into downtown such as the thieves who were supposed to get the money bag and a psychic who’s clearly a scam artist but gets Arnold and Gerald to realize the trouble they caused.  Overall, this is a solid introduction to the show which is a great way to prepare the audience for the imagination and attention to characterization that lies ahead. 9/10

 

Eugene’s Bike

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A major strength of this show is that it has such a huge and distinct cast of characters, yet is able to flesh appealing and entertaining personality traits out of all of them.  The character in focus for this cartoon is Eugene.  His shtick is that so many bad things happen to him no matter what he does, yet he remains so positive and happy-go-lucky despite being dubbed as a jinx by the other kids.  It’s a pretty cute characterization, but I feel like there’s so much emphasis on things going wrong for Eugene here that you find yourself pitying him more than enjoying the cartoon.  This particular cartoon features Eugene getting a new bike that he’s very proud of, but given what his character is like, the bike gets brutally destroyed shortly after, and this is one of the few bad things that negatively affect his emotions.  The rest of the cartoon follows Arnold doing everything he can to make things up to Eugene, but everything just keeps on going wrong.  He fixes Eugene’s bike, but forgets the brake cable which causes Eugene to be seriously hurt, he accidentally closes Eugene’s hospital door so hard that the room number changes and Eugene gets an unnecessary tonsillectomy, and when he takes Eugene out for a day of fun sometime later they can’t do anything without trouble for Eugene.  It really is great as to how understanding and friendly Eugene remains despite all the pain the world brings him.  Just as great is Arnold’s moral and caring side as he stops at nothing to make things better for his friend.  As a result, it’s nice to spend a good chunk of this cartoon with the two of them.  Still, it’s somewhat sadistic and mean-spirited that we also have to put up with poor Eugene getting so abused especially when he’s done nothing wrong.  Fortunately, this convention would be utilized a lot better in later cartoons making for stronger stories.  However, if you can get past the tone set by the pain Eugene constantly gets from life, this is still a nice little cartoon since he, and Arnold for that matter, have enough likability through it all. 8/10

 

The Rankings

1.      Downtown as Fruits

2.      Eugene’s Bike

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the second episode of Hey Arnold Season 1: "The Little Pink Book"/"Field Trip."