'Toon Reviews 16: Hey Arnold Season 3 Episdoe 13: Sid's Revenge/Roller Coaster

Sid’s Revenge

By now, it seems that cartoons about Sid are not likely be the show’s strongest.  His overreactions to things can be entertaining at times, but most of his roles emphasize them. This makes them grating thus making him look unintelligent and pathetic.  Even as a supporting character, Sid is far from a joy to watch through mostly causing trouble for others.  Ultimately, this cartoon that stars him has a lot working against it, and while it’s not the show at its worst, Sid and his faults hold it back from being anything truly great.  As a matter of fact, the conflict Sid gets himself into offers little to know reason to root for any side. 

Principal Wartz slips on some fake vomit, and despite not having any proof towards the claim, singles Sid out for the prank and punishes him with a week of after-school detention.  These actions are unbelievably harsh on account that Principal Wartz randomly calls out Sid for a prank Sid honestly did not pull. The punishment he gives him of cleaning the cafeteria with a weak toothbrush does not fit the deviant act whatsoever.  He even calls the prank “harmless” so how could these consequences possibly be considered fair?  Anyway, this at least makes it easier to sympathize with Sid at first and understand his frustration of wanting to get back at Principal Wartz.  His way of doing so adds to the unintelligent aspects of his character, as he makes a profile of him out of a bar of soap as a means to curse the principal based off what he hears on TV.  With this being Sid’s way of attempting to resolve his problem, it’s hard to take it seriously, at least as an older viewer. 

However, it becomes harder to take Sid seriously for the rest of the cartoon when the next day, he finds that Principal Wartz hasn’t come to school and is even in the hospital. When Sid makes his way there, he learns that Principal Wartz has been “checked out.”  So, a lot of time is spent on Sid panicking that his soap bust somehow killed Principal Wartz up to the point of Arnold needing to lead him to various places to convince him otherwise despite Sid seeing something to encourage what he believes.  All throughout this sequence, it’s hard to side with Sid’s anxieties because on a few occasions, we constantly see a figure walking about who looks and sounds like Principal Wartz.  True, they don’t show his face, but it’s really hard not to deduce that this is him.  As a result, there’s no suspense, and no real reason for Sid’s panics.  At times, they can at least be enjoyed for how over-the-top they are, but having a clear idea of the truth gives them very little justification which makes them frustrating. 

As it turns out, this truly is the case when in the end, Sid finds out that Principal Wartz is alive and well, just being in the hospital for nose surgery, and everything else Sid saw wasn’t what he thought it was.  Then, just as the cartoon is about to end on good terms, both sides of the issue show they didn’t learn anything when Principal Wartz holds Sid to his detention for the even more petty act of making busts out of soap (which doesn’t even belong to the school) and Sid wanting to enact revenge on Principal Wartz after all the stress the first attempt caused him. 

This leaves us with a cartoon which, while having a few good and humorous moments, is held back by a lack of true suspense and characters not learning anything.  It’s somewhat enjoyable, but it is another cartoon that does not work in Sid’s favor. 6/10

Roller Coaster

No matter how old you are, amusement parks are some of the most fun places to go , so when a cartoon takes place at an amusement park, it has potential to be a lot of fun.  This amusement park cartoon features Eugene, a character known for causing a lot of misfortunes yet remains upbeat and happy in background appearances and many of his starring roles. 

The gang is hesitant to enjoy themselves at the amusement park, Dinoland, knowing that a jinx like Eugene is with them and could join them.  This even applies to awesome rides they’re excited to go on, a roller coaster which is allegedly the world’s tallest (in the context of this show).  While the other kids are ridiculously cautious on riding with Eugene, Arnold is more reasonable by not letting any old superstition get in the way of going on a fun ride.  Normally, this would be the most logical mindset, and it does start out that way with Arnold experiencing many roller coaster thrills no one else allows themselves to despite riding with a jinx. 

Then, the other kids’ fears prove true when the roller coaster stops at the highest drop and the rest of the carts break away leaving Arnold and Eugene alone.  Admittedly, unlike most of Eugene’s calamities which are usually plausible cases of bad luck, this one is extremely hard to believe since all the other carts went down via gravity, which is how real roller coasters work, yet somehow two stay where they are for hours.  It’s such a mindboggling occurrence.  Now, even if what happens is something very hard to suspend disbelief towards, it’s admirable that the whole thing is treated like the big deal it is. The roller coaster crew keeps all focus on finding a way to start the carts and saying everything’s fine when they really don’t know what to do, and the other kids, while constantly saying they were right about Eugene, keep watching their friends to ensure they’re ok. 

There’s also Eugene continuously staying positive, buying into the claims that the ride will be fixed soon, beaming at the prospect of him and Arnold getting rescued by a cherry picker, and never letting on how bad the situation is.  It’s nice that he’s able to keep this calm, but Eugene’s hopeless optimism makes him look oblivious to the big picture and blind to how long he and Arnold are stuck and what bad things could happen to them if they don’t get down soon.  That’s not even counting how cloying he can get by just sitting back and singing children’s songs for the whole ordeal.  Eugene does get some endearment when he confides to Arnold how he feels about everyone calling him a jinx and thinking they’re right proving he’s not totally unaware of how bad the trouble he gets into is.  Because of this, it’s a shining moment for him when his optimism helps their rescuer when his cherry picker breaks, and he even brings him to safety with a rope hanging at the end of the tunnel (which clearly was not there before) just as the roller coaster rolls again, allowing for some much needed excitement after seeing two kids stuck up there for so long.  Plus, it even continues when one more misfortune from Eugene ends the cartoon with several runs through that roller coaster. 

On the whole though, this isn’t the most exciting amusement park cartoon for mixed reactions from Eugene’s eternal optimism, and the all-too unbelievable occurrence for the plot, but the positives are still in place which make it a nice one to check out. 8/10

The Ranking

1. Helga Blabs it All
2. Harold the Butcher
3. Cool Party
4. Crabby Author
5. Mr. Hyunh Goes Country
6. Helga Vs. Big Patty
7. Hey Harold!
8. Curly Snaps
9. The Aptitude Test
10. Pre-Teen Scream
11. The Pig War
12. Olga Gets Engaged
13. Oskar Gets a Job
14. Phoebe Takes the Fall
15. Best Man
16. Career Day
17. Gerald’s Tonsils
18. Rich Kid
19. Dangerous Lumber
20. Casa Paradiso
21. Arnold’s Room
22. Helga and the Nanny
23. Roller Coaster
24. Stinky Goes Hollywood
25. Sid’s Revenge
26. Arnold Betrays Iggy

The next Hey Arnold review covers an interesting birthday cartoon where Grandpa expects his 81st birthday to be his death day, and Helga gets some legitimate bonding with her mom while on a road trip.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is another entry in the saga of Voltron: Legendary Defender "Escape from Beta Traz."

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