So far, what we’ve seen of Helga’s
best friend, Phoebe, has portrayed her as a loyal, soft-spoken friend who’s
usually quick to give a highly intellectual response to what goes on. That gives her enough appeal to enjoy her as
a character, so it’s great that we start getting cartoons centered on her
with this one. It’s about her
getting chosen to be hall monitor after Helga’s time in that position has run
out. Considering how bossy and demanding
Helga is already, it’s easy to see that Phoebe is left with a lot to live up
to. However, if you’re aware of what
she’s like, it’s easy to guess that she’s a total pushover at first. Following that though, we see more of what Phoebe
and Helga’s friendship is like. While it
is true that Helga’s bullying nature can often make her overbearing of her
friend, this cartoon shows that she can be a good friend too. When Phoebe is about to throw in the towel of
this whole hall monitor thing, it’s Helga who steps in and assures her that she
can get the hang of it and even offers to teach her all there is to know. The good thing about this is that Helga’s
teachings actually work in turning Phoebe into a better hall monitor, and it’s
actually pretty fun to watch a usually nice and quiet person like Phoebe as a
strict rule enforcer to all the students.
Then we come to the catch of Phoebe becoming a better hall monitor. She may be a lot better at enforcing the
rules now, but she becomes too good at that, and she punishes students for the
most frivolous of things preventing them from their best made plans. Heck, to make things even crazier, half of
the class ends up in detention because of her, including Helga, the very person
who taught her to be a stricter rule enforcer in the first place. I should point out that it’s at this point
where Helga starts to realize that she may have made a mistake by molding
Phoebe to be a hall monitor just like her.
It’s kind of shallow that she didn’t realize the effects of her teaching
until she was directly effective even if Helga isn’t the most considerate
person out there. Anyway, the conflict
is resolved the way you’d expect it to when all the kids in detention say that
they like the old Phoebe better, even if we do get a fun jump scare moment of
Phoebe seeing herself as Helga out of this predictable outcome. Still, I
give the moment credit for giving the cartoon the most appropriate ending it
could receive. The story may be very
basic, but the moments from the characters involved make it enjoyable. 9/10
Harold’s
Bar Mitzvah
Sometimes it’s easy to overlook
that the Jewish culture is rarely represented in the media, especially family
media. Usually, when the subject does
come up, it’s shown in the background with very little done with it. For example, a Christmas special can have a
side character mention that they celebrate Hanukah just to show that people are
diverse, but we don’t get elaboration on that afterwards. Basically, the Jewish religion is hardly ever
the main focus of a show or film which is unfortunate. What is fortunate is that this show has a
cartoon focused on the Jewish culture, specifically Bar Mitzvahs, and rather
than use that idea to show the diversity of people, it’s used to show what it
means for a specific character. The kid
having a Bar Mitzvah here is Harold which reveals that he’s Jewish and implies
that he was held back a couple years since he’s in fourth grade, yet boys have
Bar Mitzvahs when they’re 13. Since
Harold has been established as a simple-minded kid with a somewhat immature
world view, it’s not surprising that he seems only fixated on the materialistic
side of Bar Mitzvahs which include parties and presents. His rabbi and his friends show concern that
he’s not focusing on what the event is really about which is becoming a man
with lots of responsibilities and adhering to righteousness, charity, and
prayer. The great thing about this is
that instead of brushing everyone’s worries off, Harold takes them to heart
showing that he isn’t as immature as he seems.
After a nightmare of him giving water to camels that effectively show
what his Bar Mitzvah will lead to, Harold gets to thinking that maybe he’s not
ready for this big event and spends the day of his Bar Mitzvah attempting to
run away from it and what it comes with.
In a clever form of storytelling though, we see little ways of how
Harold does have the traits of someone about to have a Bar Mitzvah. Him reuniting a kid with his mom demonstrates
righteousness, giving up a popsicle to settle a fight demonstrates charity, and
praying to fend off a thug demonstrates prayer.
It’s little things like these that effectively show that even though
Harold may not act like it, what he does in life show off that he can be a man. It’s a pretty insightful look into his
character. This insight helps make the
moment where Harold comes to his senses and finally arrives at his Bar Mitzvah
to recite the Torah a powerful end to his arc as well as one last look of
Jewish culture for the cartoon. There’s
a lot of great things to take from this cartoon through the positive
representation of Judaism and what it does for Harold’s character. As a result, this is another winning entry
for the season. 10/10
The Rankings
1. Pigeon Man
2. Arnold’s Christmas
3. Harold’s Bar Mitzvah
4. Haunted Train
5. Stoop Kid
6. Arnold’s Hat
7. Wheezin’ Ed
8. Spelling Bee
9. Helga’s Makeover
10. Mugged
11. False Alarm
12. Magic Show
13. Tutoring Torvald
14. The Baseball
15. Olga Comes Home
16. The List
17. Das Subway
18. The Vacant Lot
19. Downtown as Fruits
20. The Old Building
21. Field Trip
22. The Sewer King
23. Hall Monitor
24. Sally’s Comet
25. Roughin’ It
26. Gerald Comes Over
27. Crush on Teacher
28. 6th Grade Girls
29. The Little Pink Book
30. 24 Hours to Live
31. Abner Come Home
32. Arnold as Cupid
33. Snow
34. Eugene’s Bike
35. Biosquare
36. Door #16
37. Heat
38. Helga’s Boyfriend
39. Part Time Friends
40. Benchwarmer
41. Operation Ruthless
42. World Records
43. Cool Jerk
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the 23rd episode of the season: "Coach Wittenberg/Four-Eyed Jack."
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