Grandpa’s
Birthday
This cartoon has a pretty interesting premise given the
title. Rather than focusing on a mere
birthday, more emphasis is put on what the birthday means for the person in question, and it
really pays off as funny and heartfelt watch.
With his birthday coming up, Grandpa is in a particularly bad mood,
getting tense with every little thing that happens. I find these moments enjoyable for how
exaggerated they are, not to mention when Arnold investigates Grandpa’s
behavior, it turns out that there’s a legitimate reason for it. His upcoming birthday is his 81st,
and no one in his family has ever lived past 81 creating a family curse, so
he’s preparing to “buy the farm.” He may
not seem sickly, but considering how old he already is and his background, it
does make some sense for Grandpa to feel the way he does. He has a
lot of energy when he’s berating others, and does incredibly well at
his physical, but even this isn't enough to convince Grandpa to not worry so
much. To him, age 81 is when his time is
done, and no amount of good strength is enough to change that.
Now while Grandpa’s beliefs in the family
curse mostly consist of comedic outbursts towards difficult people, there’s
also time for heartfelt moments. One of
them is one of the quieter moments of the cartoon where Grandpa discusses to
Arnold some of his most pleasing memories in which he sounds like he’s talking
from the heart to someone he has a good relationship with while still holding
onto the death anxieties that drive his angst.
His memories come into play when Arnold tries to take Grandpa’s mind off
of the family curse by taking him on a day of fun to give Grandpa a chance to
relive his glory days. It’s a very
pleasing montage of any fun thing imaginable set to an old-time music piece
that instantly makes you think of being with a grandparent. It could be said that this turns out to be a
great way for Grandpa to spend what’s apparently his last day on Earth,
especially since despite having a good time, he hasn’t forgotten that he’s
supposed to croak in accordance with the family curse.
So, you can imagine the mood whiplash when
after such a nice montage, we cut to the whole boarding house come to watch
Grandpa pass at the stroke of midnight.
The eerie mood of everyone watching with an organ playing and a storm
outside is perfectly fitting for the drama of the moment capped off with a bell
tolling for every individual reaction just as a bedside candle blows out with
Grandpa’s last breath. It’s a chilling
yet greatly constructed way to bring about a death…at least until Grandpa
suddenly gets up, hilariously shocked that he’s still in the boarding
house. It turns out there was a simple
mathematical error in the family curse (he was 10 years off in fact) which
leads to a great cause for celebration and annoyances from the boarders who
stayed up so late for nothing.
It does
leave a mystery if the family curse is real and if Grandpa will buy the farm at
age 91, but through his range of feelings on the matter and resulting memorable
moments, what we have is a great way for him to appreciate the good health he
has at such an old age. With all this
said, we’re left with a birthday cartoon unlike any other. 10/10
Road Trip
Cartoons focusing on Helga’s family life are worth looking
forward towards. They give interesting
background on Helga’s mean behavior, and show potential for development from
her parents beyond just being neglectful, and in this regard, this cartoon is
no exception.
Helga is roped into going
on a cross-country road trip with her mother, Miriam. Now, Miriam’s usual neglect is being driven
to make and drink “smoothies” which make her lackadaisical resulting in her being
anti-social, passing out a lot, and especially not providing her own daughter
the care she needs. It’s no wonder why
Helga has many problems with Miriam and is not pleased with being trapped in a
car with her.
During the road trip
however, Miriam does prove to have some likable qualities. She makes genuine attempts to socialize with
her daughter such as recounting stories of her past, and attempting
to show she enjoys being with Helga. These
moments show that even if Helga’s parents are bad at being parents, they’re not
neglectful on purpose and can show effort at being good parents, and
this is easily seen in Miriam. Still her
faults are on full display as Miriam is very careless through dropping and
spilling things, leaving her purse on top of the car causing it to fall off and
get run over, and losing the directions.
To top it all, Miriam fails to pay attention to the road, and through
veering out of the way of a huge truck, she drives off the road, through a
field, into mud, and what an awesome crash scene it is. Even if she means well,
it’s clear that Miriam’s neglect is very prominent in everything she does,
allowing the cartoon to be blunt about how unqualified she is to be a
parent.
At the same time, Helga is
presented very well. She’s clearly
annoyed by everything her mom does which understandably prevents her from
seeing Miriam’s attempts to bond with her, yet doesn’t go too far with her
angst. Even when they’re at their lowest
point with a broken down car, no money to fix it, and being stranded in the
middle of nowhere, she restrains herself from getting too mad or hurtful and is
simply blunt with the hard truth that Miriam is a lousy mom. However, because of her earlier good
efforts, it’s easy to care when Miriam finds a way to redeem herself. In an interesting turn of events, she finds
an ad for a mechanical bull riding contest and enters it to get the money
needed to fix the car. It makes
sense that Helga wouldn’t think her mom could do it after all the trouble she
caused and can’t bring herself to watch Miriam.
The scene of Helga walking out on the competition is particularly
touching, with no dialog and only a simple music piece to take in the lonely
and hopeless feel of what’s happened and how she has to take on the
responsibilities her mother can’t. It’s
truly one of Helga’s most sympathetic moments.
Then comes a surprise when Miriam ends up with the best mechanical bull riding
time and wins the cash, proving she CAN do something right after all, and it
even makes for a nice ending as she and Helga have a nice civil conversation
all the way home.
The only problem with
this is that Miriam’s shining moment is hardly expanded upon after this with
her going right back to her old habits in her next major appearance. Fortunately, this cartoon by itself is a
great heartfelt character-driven adventure. 9.5/10
The Ranking
- Helga Blabs it All
- Harold the Butcher
- Cool Party
- Grandpa’s Birthday
- Crabby Author
- Mr. Hyunh Goes Country
- Road Trip
- 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
- Roller Coaster
- Stinky Goes Hollywood
- Sid’s Revenge
- Arnold Betrays Iggy
The next Hey Arnold review covers the start of a running trope of Arnold crushing on the cute girl, Lila, along with a more slice-of-life driven cartoon about a grand prix.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the Steven Universe episode "Sadie's Song."
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