Ransom
Some of the best, and potentially strongest, bonds to portray
in a film or TV show are family bonds, mainly because the people involved with
them are those who are a part of you for life, so them finding a way to get
along is what’s the most worth seeing from them. However, siblings can get on each other’s
nerves, especially when they’re very different, such is the case with Gerald
and his younger sister, Timberly. While
he’s usually isolated from her to hang with his friends, Timberly is usually
just what you’d expect from a cutesy little sister who also has a
particular fascination for a TV show character called Wally, whose show
honestly feels more like a commercial given his theme song just tells viewers
to buy his toys. Anyway, right at the
start, it’s made clear that Timberly wants nothing more than to hang out with
her brother, but Gerald doesn’t want anything to do with her. On one hand, you can get Gerald’s feelings
since Timberly is being a pest when he’s in the middle of something,
but since there’s nothing really bad about her behavior, her feelings are
understandable too. This conflict is a
significant force in the main plot which soon gets going when Timberly’s Wally
doll goes missing with a ransom note in its place and Gerald and Arnold are
roped into helping her find it. The
three are led into an entertaining detective case with a lot of interrogations
with everyone they come across. We have
the debut of a kid called Chocolate Boy, serving as an interesting allegory for
addicts, who talks when he’s fed malted milk balls, Harold being pushed to talk
while he eats while also revealing he has his own Wally doll with an eye
missing, and Curly getting out of his rather tense interrogation by revealing
he does ballet. These moments greatly
display the appeal of these characters and are easily the highlight of the
cartoon. As for the resolution, when
Gerald and Arnold feel that the only way to get Wally is to pay the ransom,
they eventually discover that Timberly rigged the whole kidnapping so she could
hang out with them. While Gerald is
unhappy that his sister lied this whole time, it’s nice that he understands the
reasons for her actions which further showcases the appeal of sibling
bonds. It begs the question though that
if Timberly lied about Wally being kidnapped, where did the doll go? Plus, at the last minute we get a squabble
that undermines the sibling bond only just witnessed, but it’s nothing compared
to moments between Gerald and his other sibling who's older than him, but those are for looks at
later seasons. Overall though, despite
its basic setup and little moments, this is a well put together and perfectly
entertaining cartoon of sibling bonds. 9/10
Ms. Perfect
This cartoon is the introduction of a girl who would become one of
the most prominent kids in the cast, Lila.
Right when she enters the main 4th grade class, the cast, as
well as the audience, gets a good taste of what she’s like. She’s essentially every positive trait you
can think of, being friendly with everyone, smart whenever there’s a question
to be answered, knowledgeable on humorous anecdotes to share with everyone, and
looking oh so adorable in appearance.
It’s no surprise why these qualities make Lila one of the most divisive characters
to fans of this show. A character with
so much positivity with little to no flaws at all is not one most people can
relate to making them feel unbelievable and at times grating especially with
her constant usage of phrases like “ever so.”
For her debut appearance though, Lila seems to be utilized fairly well
for this story. Her unbelievably
positive demeanor makes her seem perfect thus making other girls in the class
like Helga, Phoebe, and Rhonda feel inferior and overshadowed, so they spend
much of the cartoon going to incredibly harsh means to ruin her perfect
image. A lot of them backfire in hilarious
ways, mostly leading to Helga getting beaten up by a student called Big Patty,
but then they finally have a successful attempt that gets Lila covered in
garbage. When she refuses to come to
school the next day and the other girls offer to bring over her homework,
that’s when Lila’s appeal really shines through. They discover that Lila lives in a poor part
of the neighborhood with a decrepit house and little food, and her single
father is struggling to get a job. This
sad background gives a whole new layer to Lila’s positive outlook. It must be hard for her to remain this
positive when her home conditions are so poor, and all she really wanted was to
fit in and make friends, and because of the other girls’ cruel prank, she’s now
without any hope to move forward. One
thing even better than this layer to Lila’s character is how this reveal
genuinely gets the other girls to feel bad for how awful they were to Lila,
especially shown through Helga giving an overdramatic speech about it. They make amends with Lila just as
her life slowly begins to turn around, and when she’s back at school, they all
start accepting her perfect demeanor.
While this cartoon brings interesting background to Lila’s character,
the background is unfortunately never developed further during the rest of the series with
her enjoying her perfection for the sake of it, especially when Arnold (by the way, it's worth noting that this is the only cartoon in the series where he never speaks) gets involved. So, for this being the only time Lila’s
perfect persona is given depth, this cartoon is all the more exclusive. 9/10
The Ranking
- Harold’s Kitty
- Save the Tree
- New Teacher
- Ms. Perfect
- Ransom
- The Big Scoop
- Hooky
- Arnold Saves Sid
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Helga is put through a major emotional experience when she thinks she has a money-related disease in "Monkey Business" and Arnold and Gerald go fishing for the urban legend known as "Big Caesar."
If you would like to check out other Hey Arnold reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
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