Best Man
The overly competitive Coach Wittenberg is back in this
cartoon, and while in many ways, he’s still holding onto his old habits, he’s still
fairly enjoyable and thankfully has more respect for Arnold than before.
Remembering all the help Arnold gave him in
his past coaching jobs, the coach appoints him to be his best man at his
wedding. Actually, interestingly enough,
it’s a remarriage to his wife, Tish.
It’s a bit confusing as to how this remarriage even works since we never
saw them divorce or anything like that.
It could relate to the fact that Tish did kick Coach Wittenberg out for
constantly losing jobs in a previous cartoon, but I personally don’t get how
you get having another wedding out of deciding to let him come back. Maybe it’s just my lack of knowledge on how
these things work.
Anyway, while Arnold
goes along with Coach Wittenberg’s occasionally cheap, but clearly devoted
plans for the wedding, we get some background on his relationship with his wife
herself. Although their only major
appearance together featured them as a tense couple with Coach Wittenberg having
a hard time maintaining a job and he and Tish coaching different teams for the
sole purpose of one-upping each other, as Tish explains, they both value each
other over anything else. As she
explains to Helga, her bridesmaid, her husband may value winning a lot, but one
time when he let her win at something proved to her that she truly loves him,
and her belief in this is genuine enough to make where she’s coming from
clear. It should also be noted that
these scenes are also aided in engagement by Helga fantasizing her own wedding
to Arnold, humorously doing so out loud and being quick to cover her romantic
emotions.
Regarding Coach Wittenberg,
given his inability to truly offer the best amenities for the wedding and
constant talks of winning and being number one, that’s an indication that maybe
what Tish says about him isn’t really true.
The final straw comes when Tish overhears him having a hard time
deciding whether her or winning is the most important to him, and given how
sure she was of him loving her the most, she’s easily sympathetic in this
case. Understandably, things slowly get
tense between Coach Wittenberg and Tish. Following wedding practice, they both get
engrossed in random frivolous competitions with Coach Wittenberg desperate to
be the best, and his attitude leads to them calling off the remarriage, and
instead going for an air hockey match to decide who’s really Number 1. It’s a clear test in morality here which
hinders a potentially nice couple, though it does feel concerning that Coach
Wittenberg’s ego would be this big when his family’s on the line. Thankfully, his good side wins out in the
end.
During the following day’s air
hockey match, after much suspense of the match that ends up attracting
everyone, even kids we didn’t see participate in the wedding practice, Coach
Wittenberg heeds Arnold’s earlier advice and lets Tish win, proving that he
truly does love his wife more than being the best. It further sells the heart of this couple which
is nice, and also imaginative that this flashy arcade game leads us to the
wedding built up through the runtime.
True, it’s followed by them immediately going back for a real
competition when Tish guesses that Coach Wittenberg lost on purpose, but since
their love has proven itself, it’s fine to accept the competitiveness as part
of their chemistry.
It makes the cartoon
a strong performance for the Wittenberg couple playing to their strengths and
development. 9/10
Cool Party
This cartoon is especially great for two reasons. It follows the high-spirited convention of
getting a lot of distinct characters together for a party which is always a ton
of fun. Also, it provides an interesting
commentary on discrimination.
Throughout
history people have been excluded from certain things for a variety of reasons
like skin color, religious beliefs, sexuality, etc. Fortunately, in every era, even if it’s not all
gone, more people realize the problems with discrimination and become more
inclusive, including presenting them more in TV shows. Regarding this cartoon, it
features discrimination to a smaller extent, but is still poignant with it as a
theme.
The character initiating the plot
is Rhonda, a rich big-shot who’s judgmental about anyone in a lower social
class. Behavior like this would make her
one I normally wouldn’t like, but since her stuck-up ways always lead to karma
getting her to see sense, I’m able to enjoy Rhonda just fine. She’s throwing a party and only invites kids
she deems “cool,” and Arnold is one of them.
Everyone else is deemed a geek in her eyes for their weird fashion
sense, oddball personalities, and in Gerald’s case, beating her at
something. In other words, any kid
deemed a geek is being discriminated against.
What Rhonda does demeans others for being who they are, and that is
simply not right, one of the biggest flaws of the real world, and the kids’
constant complaints about not being invited illustrate this. In addition, Rhonda’s party turns out to be
completely dull with nothing to do except eat and listen to Rhonda talk about
stuff. The discrimination shows itself
again when after Arnold decides to leave the party, Rhonda labels him as a geek
for that, another take on an unfortunate element of society regarding
conformity.
With Arnold now out of that
party, the cartoon gets really fun when he convinces his friends who are still
ticked at being called geeks to use their pent up hurt feelings to have a party
of their own on the boarding house roof.
The remainder is nothing but a wildly fun party with distinct
characters all hanging out together.
Nearly every shot of the party has something brimming with animated
energy with characters dancing and doing something fun all set to incredibly
catchy background music. The party also
shines for being an accepting place where everyone can be themselves,
contrasting to Rhonda’s rigid party built on conformity especially as more
people are drawn to join the "geeks", including those at the “cool” party. This leaves Rhonda to ponder that her calling
everyone else a geek for not sticking with her has left her all alone, and that
her customs weren’t the right ones to follow.
Thankfully, she does something about this in the end when she lets go of her discrimination and declares herself a geek to join the rest of Arnold’s party, the moment staged as a big moment with the
party stopping just for Rhonda to do so and starting again when she does. It ends up being another example of Rhonda’s
behavior putting her in an unfortunate position that gets her to see sense,
enhancing her appeal, which is especially big for how it also shows how wrong
discriminating is. For this much power
in its message, this is one party you don’t want to miss out on.
Now let’s free the animals from the zoo! 10/10
The Ranking
- Helga Blabs it All
- Harold the Butcher
- Cool Party
- Crabby Author
- Mr. Hyunh Goes Country
- Helga Vs. Big Patty
- Hey Harold!
- Curly Snaps
- The Aptitude Test
- Pre-Teen Scream
- The Pig War
- Olga Gets Engaged
- Oskar Gets a Job
- Phoebe Takes the Fall
- Best Man
- Career Day
- Gerald’s Tonsils
- Rich Kid
- Dangerous Lumber
- Casa Paradiso
- Arnold’s Room
- Helga and the Nanny
- Stinky Goes Hollywood
- Arnold Betrays Iggy
The next Hey Arnold review shows how Sid isn't always that great as a lead when he thinks he killed Principal Wartz, and straight man Arnold gets stuck with overly-optimistic Eugene on top of a roller coaster.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is another Steven Universe review, this one covering "Historical Friction."
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