For the most part, this cartoon is
another one of those typical plots where Arnold and his friends take part in a
certain activity, in this case building a float for an upcoming parade. To its credit, it shows off the imagination
of the kids, particularly when it comes to Arnold’s idea for a float. It’s a big representation of their home city
as a big amusement park, and it’s worth admiring for how different attractions
stand for different parts of the city.
What’s just as nice is that it’s Helga who does something nice for
Arnold by getting her dad, Big Bob, to give the money needed to fund the float. It’s interesting that she can do something
nice for Arnold and still keep her love for him a secret. Then we get a sequence dealing with the
process of putting the float together including running out of supplies,
finishing it off by getting more, then having it jerkily rejected by Big Bob
who, along with his business partner Nick, turns it into a giant beeper. The big catch is that all the kids, except
for Arnold and Gerald, are OK with this unfair change all because Big Bob
offers them a chance to ride on the float.
This just makes the kids feel shallow for just ignoring the fact that
their hard work is being wasted because of petty matters. At least Helga has some regret for the
decision as it really ties into her conflict of trying to show her love for
Arnold and being devoted to her overbearing father, not unlike what she went
through in “Spelling Bee.” Anyway, the
cartoon really starts getting interesting when the float is put into action at
the parade and it goes out of control due to it being too top-heavy. This leads to an exciting chase sequence
where Big Bob, Nick, and the kids hang on for their lives as the float
travels at dangerous speeds running into the rest of the parade with Arnold
trying to catch up to everyone on a bike to try and reach the float’s emergency
brake. There’s some appropriate suspense
that keeps building throughout the chase, fun sight gags from the parade, and a
great moment of heroism on Arnold’s part for relying on a common bike to catch
the big float. I will say that you have
to wonder why Nick, who’s said to be an expert on floats, didn’t think to take
any precautions to prevent this runaway from helping. Shouldn't he have known that the giant beeper was too top-heavy? Despite that, I always appreciate a nice
runaway to make a climax, and the whole scene does have Big Bob realize that
taking the float from the kids was a bad idea and everyone in the crowd praises
the original design shown off due to what happened. In the end, we have a fine and basic story
made exciting by an awesome climax. 9/10
Partners
As you can see, the first season of
Hey Arnold has had a lot of cartoons
to cover, but now we’ve come to the final one to talk about, and it’s quite a
way to close off the season. The story
revolving around Arnold and Gerald struggling to come up with an act for an
upcoming talent show causing a strain in their friendship in the process seems
a bit too basic to gush over, but what makes it extra special is the subplot
that emulates the main plot, mainly through how it’s constructed. Now, remember Dino Spumoni, the lounge singer
who made his first appearance in “The Old Building”? Well, this cartoon features him in a much
larger, and more interesting role. Plus,
it adds on a really welcome respect for music into the plot, especially since
it gives us his most well-known song to fans of this show, “You Better Not
Touch My Gal” during a look back at his career.
Dino’s story is that he’s renting a room at the boarding house to focus
on forming a new album away from his songwriting partner he’s fallen out with,
Don Reynolds. However, Don rents a room
too with the same intentions and when he finds Dino there, their tensions just
escalate. The clever thing about this
part of the story is how it shows that great partnerships should not be messed
with as shown through how both songwriters can’t get by without each
other. Dino’s songs are shown to have
catchy melodies but poor lyrics while Don’s songs have well-written lyrics but
bad melodies. These moments effectively
get across the benefits of partnership even if it takes a while for the men to
realize them, and at the same time teach what makes a good song, that’s already
a lot to take from this cartoon. Anyway,
regarding Arnold and Gerald, while they do get into an argument that forms a
rift, I appreciate that unlike in “Part Time Friends” where their flaws that
tear them apart appeared at just the right time, Arnold coming up with random
talent show ideas and Gerald not coming up with anything were slowly built up
to their rift here. That way, I can
accept their argument. Plus, it nicely
ties into Dino and Don’s part of the story whose argument is in a similar vein
and observing it gets them to make up in the end. Likewise, the talent show act Arnold and
Gerald come up with does a lot of good too.
It has Arnold sing Don’s lyrics and Gerald play Dino’s tune on piano,
making for the great song “Nothing Without You.” It’s a great showstopper for the audience as
it ends the cartoon, gets Dino and Don to make up, and it nicely reflects the
partnership theme. While we end the
season with a basic plot, its execution with the character relationships and
tribute to music, to me, make it a great cartoon to go out on. 9.5/10
The
Rankings
1. Pigeon Man
2. Arnold’s
Christmas
3. Harold’s
Bar Mitzvah
4. Haunted
Train
5. Stoop Kid
6. Arnold’s
Valentine
7. Arnold’s
Hat
8. Wheezin’ Ed
9. Spelling
Bee
10. Helga’s
Makeover
11. Mugged
12. Partners
13. False Alarm
14. Magic Show
15. Tutoring
Torvald
16. The
Baseball
17. Olga Comes
Home
18. Teachers’
Strike
19. Four-Eyed Jack
20. The List
21. Das Subway
22. The Vacant
Lot
23. Downtown as
Fruits
24. The Old
Building
25. Field Trip
26. The Sewer
King
27. Runaway
Float
28. Tour De
Pond
29. Coach
Wittenberg
30. Hall
Monitor
31. Sally’s
Comet
32. Roughin’ It
33. Gerald
Comes Over
34. Crush on
Teacher
35. 6th
Grade Girls
36. The Little
Pink Book
37. 24 Hours to
Live
38. Abner Come
Home
39. Arnold as
Cupid
40. Snow
41. Eugene’s
Bike
42. Biosquare
43. Door #16
44. Heat
45. Helga’s
Boyfriend
46. Part Time
Friends
47. Benchwarmer
48. Operation
Ruthless
49. World
Records
Final Thoughts
Even after all these years, the
cartoons that make up season 1 are a good indication that Hey Arnold really holds up in this modern day and age. Just about everything about it from the
storytelling and characters make it feel timeless and memorable to viewers of
all ages. Each cartoon offers something
different to experience which entice you to keep on watching the show to see
what you’ll get out of it. I always
believe that a good animated product is one that can leave a wide variety of
impacts. In the case of season 1, while a
good number of the cartoons are basic ones that follow the kids taking part in
simple childhood activities such as going on field trips, going on camping
trips, playing sports, doing school projects, finding lost pets, or having friends
over, they mostly work due to how likable the characters are. There are a lot of characters in the cast
such as the main characters, the kids at school, the shopkeepers of the city,
the residents of Arnold’s boarding house, and the strange inhabitants of
the city. Usually with a cast of many
major characters, it would be hard to flesh strong personalities out of them,
but practically all the characters present have their own appeal, and every
different character present in each cartoon brings out a unique feel every
time.
What’s more, a good number of the
stories in this season offer a lot of interesting subject matters that make the
show as appealing as it is. Sometimes,
they take simple moments of life like ducking out of a play or investigating
who pulled the fire alarm and execute them with a lot of creative scenarios
that happen in the process or a lot of passion to make you take what’s going on
seriously. Other stories take advantage
of the city setting by giving a believable look at life in such a place. Those kinds of stories also go out of their
way to show the negative aspects most people should be aware of such as some
forms of transportation having poor condition that seat you with random people,
people who could jump out and mug you at any time, and even some people who are
poor or even homeless. With this in
mind, it’s also great to note the major themes that the cartoons of this season
tackle which is perhaps best reason why this series is loved as much as it
is. In this season alone, we’ve seen
stories revolving around ill views of society towards people who think
differently, people affected by war, loss of identity, living with parents who
aren’t good for the role, following religions, and what it really means to find
true love. These themes really help this
show stand out from most slice-of-life series.
There may not be an over-arching plot between all the stories present,
but they effectively represent life.
It’s full of moments that leave a meaningful impact by giving us a true
view of the world.
What really makes the
themes work is that when they’re presented, they’re never watered down for the
audience and make their point through simplicity of what the characters
involved get up to. It’s also worth
noting that one of the reasons the themes presented stand out so much is that
most of the time, they add layers to the characters’ personalities, which in
turn makes them an endearing part of the show.
Basically, the most impressive qualities of Hey Arnold season are the cartoons that have interesting themes and
ones that develop the setting and characters.
Those cartoons are so strong that they make the more basic cartoons feel
inferior. However, this is forgivable
since this is only the first season and it’s clear that this was just the crew
testing to see what really worked. Plus,
the good news of all this is that the more interesting types of cartoons would
become more prominent in future seasons, but those are all topics for future
posts.
For this season though, while it’s
a bit less interesting than what’s to come, it has enough qualities to make Hey Arnold a major crown jewel of
Nickelodeon and a must-watch animated series.
So, check local listings for reruns, and find it on DVD separately or as
part of the Complete Series box set sold all over Walmart or purchase the
highest rated cartoons in this post on digital.
It’ll be a worthwhile watch, not to mention that it, along with the
whole series for that matter, is sure to drum up excitement for The Jungle Movie, coming later this year. You
really won’t regret it, Football Heads.
Highly Recommended
This concludes this series of reviews for Season 1 of Hey Arnold. Now we'll move onto a different animated TV series and return to this one at a later date. So join me again tomorrow as we begin a series of reviews of the Cartoon Network mini-series Over the Garden Wall. Until then:
Stay Animated Folks!
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