'Toon Reviews 1: Hey Arnold Season 1 Episode 16

Abner Come Home

 

 

 

 

One of Arnold’s many unique aspects is that he has a pet pig.  However, as this cartoon shows, it’s one thing to have a certain animal for a pet that most people don’t, but it’s another to do something different with the animal from ones commonly kept as pets.  The thing about Arnold’s pet pig, Abner, is that he doesn’t seem to behave differently from other pets, namely dogs.  He begs and pants like a dog, enjoys playing fetch, and even has his own doggie door set up for him.  Basically, Abner may be a pig, but at heart, he’s no different from your average pet.  Still, the opening sequence of him and Arnold enjoying being together is very nice and it really demonstrates their strong bond which in turn gets you to feel for Arnold when Abner gets lost.  Then again, the way Abner gets lost is based around a pretty stupid move on the pig’s part.  Given that Abner behaves like a dog, he gets the urge to chase a cat in the middle of the night, resulting in him getting out of the boarding house and into the real world where he could easily be caught and made into food or a football.  All this because he felt that getting a cat was more important than his family.  This not only gives dogs a bad name, but it also builds the cartoon’s entire conflict on a dumb decision lowering the appeal.  Still, it’s got a lot of strong heartfelt parts throughout the duration.  Since the bond between Arnold and Abner has been established to be a strong one, there’s a genuine feel of despair and sympathy when Arnold realizes Abner is gone and is nowhere to be seen.  As more time is spent focusing on Arnold trying everything he can to find him akin to ways anyone would try to find a lost pet, it’s easy to get invested and hope he finds him.  There’s even a nice moment between Arnold and Grandpa where Arnold is given some nice strong advice on getting over his loss by remembering all the good times he had with Abner which inspires an admittedly clever idea to get Abner home involving creating a scent of his favorite things to follow.  Plus, Abner himself gets a nice moment of heart when he’s reminded of home after catching sight of one of Arnold’s “lost pig” signs.  These moments lead to a joyous conclusion where Abner finally follows the garbage scent back home and he and Arnold reunite while rolling around in garbage, which is an appropriate way of showing the happiness of them being back together with a touch of funny pig mannerisms.  This cartoon is pretty standard when it comes to lost pet plots, but it’s worth a watch for being told well and showing off why Abner coming home is worth hoping for. 8/10

The Sewer King

Here’s another cartoon that explores the out-of-the-ordinary yet highly creative and imaginative lives of the strange inhabitants of Arnold’s city, major emphasis on creative which is just what I like to see in an animated product.  The story gets off to a nice and simple start with Arnold being tasked by Grandpa to get a special pocket watch for him, which is a task he hardly entrusts to anyone.  After Arnold purchases the watch, the creative angle really starts to take effect.  It starts when Arnold and the kids come across a demolition team blowing a hole in the road, resulting in a long way down to the sewers of the city, which is something you certainly don’t come across every day.  Anyway, the watch falls down the hole into the depths of the sewer prompting Arnold and Gerald to venture down to try and retrieve it no matter what happens.  We’re treated to some impressive designs of the sewer which consists of pipe formations, waterfalls, and rats crawling throughout the darkness, all the makings of an adventure that takes you to places you could only imagine going to, in this case the sewers.  Then, we meet the titular Sewer King.  He has a rather interesting way of life, living in the sewers, having only rats for friends, and considers anything from the surface world his rats find to be a “royal icon.”  It’s because of these ways of life that the Sewer King doesn’t just give up the watch to Arnold and Gerald.  Then, of all things, the boys find that the only way to get the watch back is to beat the Sewer King in a game of chess.  Arnold does win every time, but the catch is that the Sewer King keeps making them play until he wins.  Eventually, Arnold catches on to the act and just up and grabs the watch from the Sewer King, resulting in an entertaining chase through the sewers culminating in an escape that reveals another interesting trait about the Sewer King.  He fears the light of the surface world, which could possibly be the reason why he lives the way he does.  So, our heroes escape with the watch that’s rightfully theirs.  Unfortunately, the story ends on way too strong of a downer note.  After all that trouble Arnold went through to get the watch, Grandpa accidentally drops it down the drain and it ends up back with the Sewer King making the plot of getting the watch back from him completely pointless.  Even more pointless is the plot of this cartoon in general as Grandpa later reveals a bunch of backup watches meaning there was really no reason for Arnold to do what he spent the entire cartoon doing.  Then, for his troubles, Grandpa gives him another task to do which really doesn’t seem appropriate.  Still, as much as a major downer the ending is, this is still a highly enjoyable cartoon for its creativity and likable characters. 9/10

The Rankings

1.      Pigeon Man

2.      Haunted Train

3.      Stoop Kid

4.      Arnold’s Hat

5.      Wheezin’ Ed

6.      Spelling Bee

7.      Helga’s Makeover

8.      Mugged

9.      Tutoring Torvald

10.  The Baseball

11.  Olga Comes Home

12.  The List

13.  Das Subway

14.  The Vacant Lot

15.  Downtown as Fruits

16.  The Old Building

17.  Field Trip

18.  The Sewer King

19.  Sally’s Comet

20.  Roughin’ It

21.  Gerald Comes Over

22.  6^th Grade Girls

23.  The Little Pink Book

24.  Abner Come Home

25.  Arnold as Cupid

26.  Snow

27.  Eugene’s Bike

28.  Door #16

29.  Heat

30.  Benchwarmer

31.  Operation Ruthless

32.  Cool Jerk

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the 17th episode of this season: "False Alarm/World Records."

'Toon Reviews 1: Hey Arnold Season 1 Episode 15

Olga Comes Home

This cartoon formally introduces Helga’s older sister, Olga.  The thing about Olga is that she’s pretty much as perfect as a person can get.  She’s very kind to everyone around her, has a lot of awards and accomplishments as previously shown in “Spelling Bee,” always gets straight As, and has many more qualities that make her the favorite daughter in the Pataki family.  With this in mind, it’s easy to see that all of Olga’s elements of perfection would have a negative effect on Helga.  It’s been established that her bad home life involves her family neglecting her or trying to build her up to be like her older sister even down to the point of calling her Olga.  With the way she’s brought up, it’s no wonder why Helga comes off as mean.  A family who openly favors one sibling over another is never destined to result in a lot of good including how the neglected sibling turns out.  This point is proven when you look at the plot of this cartoon where Olga returns to her parents’ home for a break from college and everything she does makes Helga feel inferior about lacking the perfection of her older sister.  Helga then gets a chance at revenge when she gets a hold of Olga’s grades and changes one of them from an A to a B+.  This one step of imperfection is enough to break Olga who’s moved to literally lie in bed and cry over her failure to uphold her perfect status.  Then, the cartoon goes on to focus on a set of scenes of Helga enjoying the treatment her parents usually reserve for Olga by taking the items they use to cheer Olga up after the older sister turns them down out of sadness.  I know Helga’s clearly in the wrong and I shouldn’t be fine with her enjoying her sister’s genuine pain and sorrow, but given what she puts up with because of Olga’s success, her behavior and actions are both understandable and watchable.  Plus, after realizing her plan did not stop her parents from favoring Olga over her and a dream involving Arnold convincing her to do the right thing, Helga does have a change of heart on the matter and tells Olga the truth about her grades.  When she does, we get a very nice moment between the two sisters when Olga reveals that she doesn’t really enjoy the display of perfection she puts on for her parents and that Helga’s lucky they don’t notice her.  It’s a great reveal and insight to Olga’s character, but it’s sadly not fleshed out much in future seasons with Olga being shown to enjoy her perfection.  Still, in the context of this cartoon, it gives her some good depth and is a nice concluding scene.  In the end, we’re left with an insightful cartoon that further explores Helga’s home life with a reminder that it’s strong family bonds that triumph everything. 9.5/10

Sally’s Comet

There’s a time in our lives when we have certain aspirations to do something and will go to any lengths to make it happen.  When you’re as old as Arnold and his friends, these aspirations could be to see something special, and in the case of this cartoon, Arnold and Gerald are shown to stop at nothing to get a chance to see Sally’s Comet, a natural phenomenon that passes by every 70 years.  Not only does seeing a comet sound cool, but the fact that it’s an once-in-a-lifetime event makes Arnold and Gerald’s actions to try and see it worth getting behind.  The cartoon has them do everything to make seeing the comet happen.  They go through several boxes of cereal to earn enough box tops and get a good telescope, eagerly wait for the mailman for several days until the telescope finally arrives, and most of all, get the city to turn off their lights so the comet will be shown.  The first two parts of the plan to see Sally’s Comet were easy compared to the latter part.  Since most of the neighborhood doesn’t really know or care about the comet, it really is a challenge to get everyone to turn off their lights.  Still, these kids are shown to have some real ambition to do what they set out to do here as they come up with great solutions to the problem.  They try going somewhere else to see the comet, and when that doesn’t work since other people who knew about the comet jam the roads and fill up the mountain area, a cleverer plan develops.  When they hear how popular the local radio station is, they decide to go there to suggest announcing the comet to the listeners.  Even though they’re denied, they humorously get the message out behind the DJ’s back, though it’s most likely Gerald’s announcing skills that really win the day for them.  Ultimately, the message gets across to the people and all of Arnold and Gerald’s efforts are rewarded with a chance to see Sally’s Comet in all its glory at the end.  It does make the people of the city kind of fickle since it took a radio show and not simple requests to convince them to cooperate in making the comet visible, but the cartoon is too good for this point to really ruin everything, and it’s still great that everything Arnold, Gerald, and even Grandpa who actually saw the comet when he was younger, went through get a good payoff.  This is a very basic story that may not be as engaging as other cartoons we’ve covered, but good characters, a well-told story, and solid entertainment and relatability make it worth watching. 9/10

The Rankings

1.      Pigeon Man

2.      Haunted Train

3.      Stoop Kid

4.      Arnold’s Hat

5.      Wheezin’ Ed

6.      Spelling Bee

7.      Helga’s Makeover

8.      Mugged

9.      Tutoring Torvald

10.  The Baseball

11.  Olga Comes Home

12.  The List

13.  Das Subway

14.  The Vacant Lot

15.  Downtown as Fruits

16.  The Old Building

17.  Field Trip

18.  Sally’s Comet

19.  Roughin’ It

20.  Gerald Comes Over

21.  6^th Grade Girls

22.  The Little Pink Book

23.  Arnold as Cupid

24.  Snow

25.  Eugene’s Bike

26.  Door #16

27.  Heat

28.  Benchwarmer

29.  Operation Ruthless

30.  Cool Jerk

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the 16th episode of the season: "Abner Come Home/Sewer King."

'Toon Reviews 1: Hey Arnold Season 1 Episode 14

Spelling Bee

We’ve already seen several times before that even though Helga may act like a bully, she does have a sweet good side within her as evidenced by her secret crush on Arnold.  As the show goes on, Helga gets more and more fleshed out as we see more reasons for her mean demeanor, making her the show’s most complex character, in my eyes at least.  This leads us to this cartoon where she and Arnold set out to compete against each other in the national citywide spelling bee.  While everyone around her sees her as a major spelling threat who no one, not even Arnold, has a chance against, Helga is shown to actually be dreading the spelling bee no matter what happens.  It all relates to the standards set by her own father, Big Bob.  One of the major aspects of this show set to be fleshed out more as time passes is Helga’s family life, which involves both her parents not giving her a lot of love or attention.  Not only is this a pretty sad part of her character, but it also gives Helga’s mean side a strong reason to exist.  A family that barely notices her and clearly shows more favor to her older sister, Olga, is bound to negatively affect Helga in some way.  This idea is shown in this cartoon with Big Bob overworking Helga by having her overkill with the studying for the spelling bee with the intent of building her to a mega-champ like Olga was, which poor Helga can’t take.  It doesn’t help that Big Bob set up a deal that customers at his emporium get free beepers if she doesn’t win the spelling bee, he’s that determined to make her win as if she wasn’t pressured enough.  Then, at the spelling bee, following a set of contestants competing and getting buzzed out that are both fun and add to the atmosphere, we get a meaningful climax for this cartoon.  When Big Bob starts to lose faith in Helga, he bribes Arnold to take a fall for Helga.  When Helga finds out about this, she does the healthy thing by purposefully flubbing her next word, giving victory to Arnold.  I must admit, since Big Bob stooped as low as he did to boost his winning ego, Helga’s actions are completely justified.  This moment of her taking the fall for Arnold really shows that she’s smart enough to realize that those who pressure people to suit their needs are just not worth serving family or not.  It’s a great way to demonstrate that there really is good in her, and you’re left satisfied that she’s in a good place, at least for now.  With that, I say that everything Helga goes through here makes this a great memorable entry for the show. 9.5/10

Pigeon Man

This is an urban legend focused story that introduces a character who goes through life differently from most people, yet is so relatable and endearing.  For that reason, it’s easy to see why this cartoon is so beloved, and why this show as a whole is said to be as great as it is.  The story has one of Arnold’s carrier pigeons get very sick.  He hears of someone called the Pigeon Man who could just be the very person to nurse the pigeon back to health.  The catch is that all the kids say that Pigeon Man is a very strange person that Arnold shouldn’t be around, but Arnold’s willing to do what it takes to save his pigeon.  At first, while Arnold’s a bit frightened by the strange surrounding of Pigeon Man’s place, as well as his pigeon-related mannerisms, he sees something appealing about him since he’s really just a sad, lonely, homeless man.  This is just what’s needed to make Arnold’s next visit to Pigeon Man even more meaningful.  This time, he’s more open to talk to Arnold and share personal information including why he lives the way he does.  When he first got interested in pigeons, everyone considered him weird and avoided him.  He grew to understand the ways of pigeons so much, he shut himself out from the outside world full of people to be with the pigeons.  These qualities are a great way to show that even though people think differently, they’re as human and multilayered as anyone else.  Plus, despite not trusting humans, it’s great that Pigeon Man sees some good in Arnold who considers him a friend, and even takes him for a day out.  As nice as this friendship is, the cartoon does not shy away from the hard truths that people who act differently are open to mistreatment, as shown when some kids break into Pigeon Man’s place while he’s gone and wreck everything.  They get what they deserve in the form of pigeon attacks, but the damage is pretty devastating, yet it leads to what makes this cartoon amazing.  After seeing what people did to his home, Pigeon Man decides to go somewhere new where he can be alone with his pigeons and help any birds in need.  He also says that he has hope that wherever he goes, he’ll find someone like Arnold.  This is a more powerful message than one may realize.  Life can be tough on you, especially if you’re different from others, but we must always remember that there will always be people who will support you as long as you’re open to accept them.  It’s a message people of all kinds need to hear so that even in their darkest times, they’ll be encouraged to keep going, and not make drastic decisions.  This message also makes the ending scene of Arnold watching Pigeon Man having his pigeon fly him into the evening sky to a new place just so impactful and beautiful.  With a well-told story, honest themes, Pigeon Man written as a really endearing character, and a universal message, this is not just one of this show’s best works, but a work that does serious justice to the animation medium. 10/10

The Rankings

1.      Pigeon Man

2.      Haunted Train

3.      Stoop Kid

4.      Arnold’s Hat

5.      Wheezin’ Ed

6.      Spelling Bee

7.      Helga’s Makeover

8.      Mugged

9.      Tutoring Torvald

10.  The Baseball

11.  The List

12.  Das Subway

13.  The Vacant Lot

14.  Downtown as Fruits

15.  The Old Building

16.  Field Trip

17.  Roughin’ It

18.  Gerald Comes Over

19.  6^th Grade Girls

20.  The Little Pink Book

21.  Arnold as Cupid

22.  Snow

23.  Eugene’s Bike

24.  Door #16

25.  Heat

26.  Benchwarmer

27.  Operation Ruthless

28.  Cool Jerk

 

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the 15th episode of this season: "Olga Comes Home/Sally's Comet."