'Toon Reviews 7: Hey Arnold Season 2 Episode 14 + Final Thoughts

Arnold’s Halloween

Closing this season is a Halloween special and a highly unique one at that.  When you think of most Halloween specials, they're about characters simply celebrating the holiday with favorite activities. There's  picking costumes, holding parties, or trick-or-treating with detours into something spooky like a haunted house.  While some of those elements are present here, the real focus and fright factor relates to how it pays homage to one of the most famous media events in history.  In 1938, Orson Welles did a radio broadcast of a reading of the famous science-fiction novel War of the Worlds. Everyone who heard the broadcast was convinced that real aliens were invading Earth causing panic throughout America.  You might be wondering what this has to do with Halloween.  Well, for one thing, the broadcast took place around Halloween. The very thought of the end of the world from something like an alien invasion is perhaps the most horrifying thing imaginable. This is especially the case if it seems like there’s strong evidence to support it.  That’s what makes this Halloween special stand out.  It doesn’t pride on frightening images and events, but rather on fear itself through its tribute to the Orson Welles broadcast. 
Like Orson Welles, Arnold and Gerald pull a prank on the boarding house’s Halloween party where they stage a phony radio broadcast of aliens invading Earth.  Beyond just the broadcast, they also have visual evidence for their prank. The water tower is disguised as a mothership and their classmates are dressed in convincing alien costumes.  Then the prank is blown out of proportion when the broadcast is picked up by a reporter of an alien watch TV show modeled after Orson Welles and is spread through the city. 
From there the sense of fear is felt.  Several scenes following the prank broadcast reaching the city as well as the power going out consist of innocent people running in terror, some even wanting to surrender to the aliens.  The fear is very believable, effectively magnifies the big scope of the prank, and is a good interpretation of how the radio audiences must have felt back in 1938. 
This emotion can also be applied to Arnold’s classmates while they’re dressed as aliens with permanent face paint.  They’re chased by an angry mob who think they’re real aliens no matter what they say and want them dead.  They literally have to run with their lives on the line. The danger increases when Helga’s dad, an avid believer of aliens after a freak encounter years ago, pursues them with violent defensive means.  The scene of him threatening to beat his own daughter dressed as the chief alien is the pinnacle of horrifying here. 
Naturally, everything works out in the end when creative circumstances reveal the whole alien invasion as the hoax it is.  Still, for the characters and the audiences, it’s clear that the fear felt from this simple prank will not be forgotten.  With an emphasis on the legit fear of the victims and instigators and interesting historic background for the Halloween atmosphere, this is a one-of-a-kind Halloween special. By extension, it's an amazing end for this show’s second season. 10/10

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“Welles Scares Nation – Oct 30, 1938.” History.com. A&E Television Network, 2017. Web. 29 Oct. 2017.

<http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/welles-scares-nation>.

The Ranking

1. What’s Opera Arnold?
2. Arnold’s Halloween
3. Rhonda’s Glasses
4. Harold’s Kitty
5. Helga’s Love Potion
6. Monkey Business
7. Eugene’s Pet
8. Freeze Frame
9. Steely Phil
10. Gerald’s Secret
11. Save the Tree
12. Phoebe Cheats
13. Gerald Moves Out
14. New Teacher
15. Eugene Goes Bad
16. Eating Contest
17. Mudbowl
18. Quantity Time
19. Ms. Perfect
20. Big Caesar
21. Ransom
22. The Big Scoop
23. Best Friends
24. The High Life
25. Hooky
26. Arnold Saves Sid
27. Longest Monday

Final Thoughts

In many respects, the second season of Hey Arnold is strong for the same reasons as the first time around.  There are many strong entries here that show off the vastness of the city setting making it feel very believable to life.  There are a few basic plots of Arnold and the gang doing a kid-friendly pastime like running a newspaper, spending time with younger siblings, playing football, or taking part in eating contests.  However, there are considerably less cartoons like this than there were in the first season with plenty of cartoons with bigger themes made more appealing like the characters involved.  We experience subjects like obsession, plagiarism, prejudice, paranoia of possible diseases, and dealing with the death of someone you’re close to with each one executed in a tasteful manner and blended in perfectly with the down-to-earth atmosphere.  Plus, we also see a lot of creative story ideas come into play which give the viewing of this season an even larger variety of experiences such as cartoons consisting of opera dreams or conflicts filled with inspiration from infamous radio broadcasts that actually occurred in real life.  This season’s heavier emphasis on big themes as well as willingness to step out of its comfort zone for bigger, more creative stories is a clear sign that this is the type of show that’s striving towards its full potential becoming more engaging than ever with a major incentive to keep looking into what’s to come.

Further aiding in the show’s full potential is how it expands on more of the characters in the cast.  While Arnold is still a major focus in much of the season with this being his show, the amount of time devoted to the supporting characters this season gives the whole environment many more dimensions to it.  We see the depths of Harold’s soft side as he cares for a kitten, how big Helga’s love for Arnold is as well as more of how bad she has it at home, Gerald’s family life and personal anxieties, and Eugene reach certain breaking points to his optimistic world view in his world of pain.  In addition, characters who only played small roles in the previous season start showing off their star power with this season such as Sid being majorly obsessed with little things (which can often get annoying), Rhonda needing to learn to be more considerate towards people in lower status than her, and Grandpa being led to face his past.  Basically, the characters appearing in the spotlight give a good feel of their primary character traits and what to expect from them as they star in more cartoons for the rest of the series.  There are even new characters added to the cast which honestly vary in appeal.  We have a charismatic and spirited teacher with Mr. Simmons who turns out great, a total personification of literal perfection with Lila who’s mixed as a character especially when her depths are never explored past her debut, and Wolfgang and the 5th graders who leave very unfortunate stereotypes when they appear, especially when they come out on top.  Even with a few missteps with characterization, when a character turns out great with a lot in terms of personality, the season and the show it’s part of stand out as something special.

If you like what you see in the first season of Hey Arnold, you’ll be thrilled to know how Season 2 capitalizes on everything great about its storytelling and characterization which makes its world more engaging than that of the average slice of life show.  With more top-tier entries, you’re sure to be completely sold on the greatness the series can offer and just be begging to see more Football Headed escapades.  So move it and check out the season via your favorite media format if you haven’t already.

Highly Recommended

That covers another season of Hey Arnold.  Next time, we'll return to another series I previously reviewed with the Peanuts specials of the 1970s.  Until then:

Stay Animated Folks!

'Toon Reviews 7: Hey Arnold Season 2 Episode 13

Eugene Goes Bad

It’s astounding how much this season has expanded on many of the supporting characters even going as far as giving cartoons to characters who never took the spotlight before.  This cartoon continues the trend of expanding on side characters by giving an interesting direction for a usually good-natured kid like Eugene to take.  At the start, he’s shown to be a huge fan of a TV show called The Abdicator and is very influenced by and admirable of the titular superhero, making it seem like he thinks the Abdicator is really real.  However, when he goes to see the shooting of an episode that takes place in the neighborhood, he’s abhorred to see that the Abdicator is just an immature, rude, and whiny Hollywood actor who can’t do his own stunts, nothing like he is on the show.  On one hand, it’s kind of silly for Eugene to be this deeply affected by this because everything he’s seen of the Abdicator was just part of a show that isn’t even real.  On the other hand, the way he reacts to the actor’s behavior really shows how much Eugene has valued his work and how he always looked up to the Abdicator to do good.  To see that the Abdicator is nothing like he appears to be is clearly not what he would want to discover.  Even if Eugene’s change of heart isn’t perfectly understandable, it makes enough sense.  Plus, the scenes of Eugene going bad offer an interesting change of pace.  We’re so used to seeing him being so positive and chipper even when constantly hurting himself, so seeing him go through life as a bad kid spices his scenes a lot, including one of him deliberately pulling the fire alarm without a probable cause, a twist to the events of Season 1’s “False Alarm.”  However, through being a bad kid, it becomes clear that Eugene really has become a reflection of the Abdicator, acting nice and happy while watching his show only to go bad after discovering that his hero is not what he seems.  The latter point is especially reflective of him when a random little kid who conveniently has always looked up to Eugene despite us never knowing him before this cartoon decides to go bad just like him.  However, as soon as the little kid goes bad by going out past his bedtime, the influential cycle is brought to an end where even in his bad streak, Eugene is far from heartless.  He rushes to action when he finds the little kid hanging from a fire escape in danger.  It’s here where the real Eugene shines again where he rushes to do right only to get in danger himself.  Then, it’s the Abdicator actor, who amazingly decides to better himself after Eugene’s rant and saves him and the kid deciding that everyone really does need a hero.  Ultimately, despite its questionable motives and plot conveniences that don’t affect much later on, this is a solid story of what it’s like to have idols and interesting new directions for the characters involved. 9/10

What’s Opera Arnold?

When it comes to entries in this series that break from the slice of life norm, this cartoon is really the only one of that kind.  As a result, it takes the time to put the characters in something creative and show off some impressive music and visuals in the process, and the final result is an amazing experience.  In terms of story, there’s not exactly much to it.  Arnold and his class go on a field trip to the opera, and Arnold and Helga daydream while listening to it.  The same can be said for the dreams themselves which involve both of them trying to impress their love interests which by the way show that Arnold still has some hots for Ruth McDougal even after learning she’s really not what she seems back in “Arnold’s Valentine.”  However, the lack of weight to the story doesn’t matter because, as is customary for the animation medium, it takes the barebones concept and mines it for many grand, creative, and memorable sequences.  A lot of the appeal of what goes on has to do with how well the opera concept is initialized in the dreams that take up the majority of the cartoon.  Largely revolving around the opera, Carmen, we have the kid cast of the show from the main players to the background characters populating the scenes of the show.  They revel in the opera environment by singing all their lines to the tune of famous pieces not just from Carmen, but also other famous operas like Pagliacci and Ride of the Valkyries.  Moments like these are easily the cartoon’s highlight with the kids’ vocal performances as well as the speed and timing of the animation on them matching the music pieces perfectly and getting across their emotional tone.  Some memorable ones include the sorrow of Harold dressed as a clown singing from Pagliacci when Arnold first finds himself in the opera dream, the fury of Helga as she rages at Arnold crushing on Ruth instead of her to Ride of the Valkyries, and the excitement when Curly appears to propose himself to Helga and later duel Arnold for her.  There’s also a charm to these operatic performances with the many visual cues on how all that’s happening is a stage production.  It’s felt through Arnold suddenly changing clothes to fit the Carmen scene, Ruth being thrown down a trap door to below stage giving Helga a chance to fill the leading lady role, the action stopping for Helga to don the Carmen costume, a shot of the actual orchestra at one point, and the scene and props coming down as the show, and Helga’s dream end.  All these elements of the opera dreams put together give the cartoon the status of a big event making it seem almost like a real opera and one to inspire you to look into operas.  In fact, the cartoon is so impressive in that regard that you wish that the show would step out of its comfort zone more often.  However, that just makes this amazing animated work truly special. 10/10

The Ranking

1. What’s Opera Arnold?
2. Rhonda’s Glasses
3. Harold’s Kitty
4. Helga’s Love Potion
5. Monkey Business
6. Eugene’s Pet
7. Freeze Frame
8. Steely Phil
9. Gerald’s Secret
10. Save the Tree
11. Phoebe Cheats
12. Gerald Moves Out
13. New Teacher
14. Eugene Goes Bad
15. Eating Contest
16. Mudbowl
17. Quantity Time
18. Ms. Perfect
19. Big Caesar
20. Ransom
21. The Big Scoop
22. Best Friends
23. The High Life
24. Hooky
25. Arnold Saves Sid
26. Longest Monday

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the last episode of the season, the creatively structured and truly frightening Halloween special, "Arnold's Halloween."

If you would like to check out other Hey Arnold reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

'Toon Reviews 7: Hey Arnold Season 2 Episode 12

Eating Contest

This cartoon fits into the category of Arnold doing a basic life activity, but like most cartoons of this kind, it makes its basic setup feel like so much more with the characters involved and the quality of the storytelling.  As the title implies, a food festival is coming which includes a contest where all contestants are challenged to eat large assortments of food.  These types of activities always astounded me growing up, though I’ve grown to realize that eating contests are good ways to make a fool of yourself especially since shoving piles of food into your mouth isn’t exactly healthy.  It’s one of those things best suited for animation.  Anyway, the appeal of the first part of the cartoon is how the contest presents a conflict for Arnold.  He writes it off as something ridiculous to even try and doesn’t even see the point of trying to win when he hears of the reigning champion, Seymour “The Disposal,” who can practically eat everything without trouble.  At the same time, he’s constantly told of how competing in the eating contest is the family legacy as shown in an adorable flashback of Grandpa impressing his father through winning the contest in his youth.  Basically, Arnold has good reasons to take part and to not take part.  Although his final decision to be in the contest anyway is a bit on the manipulative side involving Grandpa fake-napping, the following scenes of Arnold training are fairly entertaining anyway, especially considering that they involve Arnold needing to eat a lot.  The intensity is also appropriate when you consider what Arnold’s put himself up against.  Then everything seen in this cartoon comes down to the actual contest.  It’s a fast-paced breeze through different meals from tacos and kielbasa to more bizarre ones like peppers apparently stuffed with socks aided by the music and animation of everyone eating and dropping out in their own way.  Speaking of dropping out, each time a contestant loses the urge to keep eating, the stakes are higher for Arnold to win, especially with Seymour still feeling fine.  When they reach dessert though, Seymour finally makes himself full, and the moment of him passing out in the ice cream cake makes for a dramatic moment of the supposed unbeatable meeting his demise, though he’s most likely still alive....right?  As for Arnold, he wins it all with just one bite while feeling full himself.  Overall, everything the contest provides shows that it was worth the build-up and is full on memorable moments with so many feels mined from something as simple as Arnold and the contestants eating a lot.  It may be basic and not all that important, but the cartoon is executed as a helping you’ll never forget. 9/10

Rhonda’s Glasses

This cartoon is where Rhonda starts getting material completely devoted to her, and that’s great because she’s an interesting character to write for.  True, she does fall into an archetype that makes rich and popular people look bad coming off as vain and judgmental to anyone who isn’t in her status, but that poses as a strong basis for her to be taken down a peg and improve herself.  The opening scene here demonstrates this as she talks down to one girl for her appearance, particularly her glasses, and makes her sit in the back of the bus with other kids she deems geeks.  Then, Rhonda’s attitude gets the better of her when she ends up needing glasses herself.  As a result, she falls victim to all the judgmental practices she set up herself such as sitting in the back of the bus, grouping with the rest of the geeks, and being ridiculed from joining the other cool kids.  Although Rhonda did bring her hardships onto herself, it’s still easy to feel for her.  The taunting she receives from the kids for her glasses as well as other ways she messes up her appearance while trying to get by without her glasses really is no better than what she gave the geeks.  In fact, in some ways it’s harsher from the kids.  She never tries to redirect the taunting and is capable of understanding how hard the geeks have it since they’re excluded to good bus seats, good lunch tables and playground areas.  All the suffering she lives through and witnesses others live through are a major driving force to Rhonda realizing everything wrong with how kids are judged and excluded for their appearances and deserve equal treatment.  It shows that amidst her opinionated persona brought about by her rich status, she really does have a heart and is capable of learning acceptance.  This side of Rhonda’s is especially put to the test when she refuses to go to the back of the bus despite qualifying as a geek.  Once she makes her point of how being judged is wrong, everyone agrees that all kids should have a right to sit where they want, with Rhonda even letting the “geeks” sit in the front with her, further demonstrating her appeal despite her vanity.  One other major thing to note about what Rhonda goes through is how well it ties into the real-world issue of prejudice.  While some might not be aware, people are constantly being judged not just for their appearance, but also race, religion, and sexuality among other things.  It’s only oppressed members who are brave enough to take a stand to push for equal rights throughout history that stands a chance.  Material like this cartoon serves as a strong reminder for anyone dealing with prejudice today to keep fighting the good fight, and that’s why it’s so amazing.  Sure, Rhonda’s glasses themselves don’t appear again, which strongly hints that she went on to get contacts, but that hardly matters given how inspirational it is by itself.  It’s a great first starring role for Rhonda, and its relatability to anyone suffering prejudice out there make it one of this show’s most powerful entries. 10/10

The Ranking

1. Rhonda’s Glasses
2. Harold’s Kitty
3. Helga’s Love Potion
4. Monkey Business
5. Eugene’s Pet
6. Freeze Frame
7. Steely Phil
8. Gerald’s Secret
9. Save the Tree
10. Phoebe Cheats
11. Gerald Moves Out
12. New Teacher
13. Eating Contest
14. Mudbowl
15. Quantity Time
16. Ms. Perfect
17. Big Caesar
18. Ransom
19. The Big Scoop
20. Best Friends
21. The High Life
22. Hooky
23. Arnold Saves Sid
24. Longest Monday

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode when "Eugene Goes Bad" after seeing what goes on behind the scenes, and the show takes a creative and musical turn in "What's Opera Arnold?"

If you would like to check out other Hey Arnold reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

'Toon Reviews 7: Hey Arnold Season 2 Episode 11

Steely Phil

Arnold’s Grandpa has always been one of the most entertaining parts of this show from the beginning.  Not only is it unique for the main protagonist of a show to be brought up by grandparents, but Grandpa has quickly proven to be one of the greatest grandparent characters in animation.  He has his own style of giving his grandson advice, can easily relate to him when it comes to his pastimes despite his old age, and is skilled in a lot more things than one might expect.  With all these entertaining layers to Grandpa, it’s great that we start getting cartoons focused on him with this one.  Arnold learns that his Grandpa used to be a master of Chinese checkers under the nickname of Steely Phil.  However, despite all his skills, he let the pressures of winning get to him while playing against another Chinese checker master called Robbie Fisher and blew a perfect chance to tie the game.  Now that he’s come across Robbie Fisher again, Grandpa gets the opportunity to try and beat him in an upcoming Chinese checkers championship.  During the time preparing for the championship, we’re introduced to a relatable insecure side to Grandpa.  We’re so used to seeing him be so confident and laid-back when looking after and spending time with Arnold that it turns out to be such a big deal to hear how unconfident he is to try Chinese checkers again.  However, with a good, determined grandson like Arnold, he slowly fights through his anxieties.  It’s especially felt through an exciting training montage where he falters a lot at first through basic exercises, but as the montage continues, he starts making some significant improvements just as the scene’s music ends with a triumphant note.  It may not be much different from other training montages TV shows and movies tend to use, but it’s a favorite common convention that’s always welcomed in telling a story.  Even with the progress, Grandpa still doesn’t have enough confidence to compete going on to talk to Arnold in the middle of the night.  This scene also shows that his lack of confidence doesn’t just apply to Chinese checkers when he tells Arnold that his confidence that he could do certain things given to his grandson was on the off chance everyone else would lose.  Even with this reveal, Arnold still is all for encouraging his Grandpa to compete and conquer his fears.  All this training proves to pay off when the Chinese checker tournament comes, Grandpa makes it to Robbie Fisher, and just when it looks like he’s about to lose the same way he did all those years ago, he remembers to have the game end in a tie.  It’s a well-deserved victory that pays off Grandpa’s relatable conflict making this cartoon a solid start to his many starring roles.  It’s an instance where a character’s old age makes him all the more engaging. 9.5/10

Quantity Time

This cartoon is a prime example of how bad Helga has it at home.  Being raised by a fortune-obsessed dad and a drug addict mom both of whom clearly show more favor to her perfect older sister, it’s no surprise that this lifestyle is the source of her meanness.  Unfortunately for her in this cartoon, everything bad about her family infringes on her spring break from school.  It all happens when her break as well as her dad, Big Bob’s, break from running his beeper emporium become known to her mom, Miriam.  Miriam takes the initiative to get out of the house infringing on her alone time for a whole week under the guise of taking care of her sick mother, suggesting that Helga and Big Bob bond while she’s gone.  Not only are her actions a clear sign of neglect, albeit one she tries to keep subtle, but Big Bob is a major detracting factor to his time with his daughter turning out good.  He expresses clear disdain towards spending quality time with her and treats it like a chore instead of something genuine.  In fact, in all his actions, there’s nothing genuine at all in his attempts to bond with Helga.  He purchases foods she either hates or can’t eat when grocery shopping, drags Helga along for his monotonous errands against her will, and when she complains that they’re just doing things he wants to do, he ropes her into activities she’s long grown out of.  Big Bob just goes through the motions of his life, thinking that he and Helga can bond just because she’s with him when he’s doing his things, showing no believable love for her in the slightest.  It’s mean and uncaring of him, but it makes the life Helga lives somewhat fascinating as it’s a fine example of how dysfunctional some families can be.  True, it’s common to see some dysfunction in most TV shows, but what Helga has to put up with goes beyond the usual standards given what we see of Big Bob here.  Also, we also see that while Big Bob truly is a bad parent, he’s not one-dimensional.  When Helga’s complaints of him failing at bonding don’t get to him, her lamenting to Phoebe of how she can’t see the one thing she wanted to see the most during her break does.  Big Bob actually shows regret for his daughter’s misery and takes it upon himself to get her tickets for the event.  In an interesting turn of events, the tickets he gets are for a stage musical advertised on the back of the ad of what Helga really wanted to see, a wrestling match.  Despite the mess-up, it finally gets Helga and Big Bob to bond while riffing on how stupid the musical is.  It’s both a hilarious and heartwarming way of showing that even the worst events in life have something good to them.  While Big Bob may turn some people off, the look at Helga’s less-than-ideal life and the charm of the ending bond are considerably worth watching. 9/10

The Ranking

1. Harold’s Kitty
2. Helga’s Love Potion
3. Monkey Business
4. Eugene’s Pet
5. Freeze Frame
6. Steely Phil
7. Gerald’s Secret
8. Save the Tree
9. Phoebe Cheats
10. Gerald Moves Out
11. New Teacher
12. Mudbowl
13. Quantity Time
14. Ms. Perfect
15. Big Caesar
16. Ransom
17. The Big Scoop
18. Best Friends
19. The High Life
20. Hooky
21. Arnold Saves Sid
22. Longest Monday

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Arnold enters an "Eating Contest," and we see an interesting take on one of the most famous civil rights acts in history in "Rhonda's Glasses."

If you would like to check out other Hey Arnold reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.