'Toon Reviews 7: Hey Arnold Season 2 Episode 2

Arnold Saves Sid

One great thing about this season is that it allows more supporting characters chances at the spotlight for the first time.  In this case, the supporting character getting a starring role alongside Arnold is Sid.  Before, he’s had a few small roles in cartoons mainly introducing Gerald’s tall tales, but we never got a true feel of his character.  Starting here, we get an establishment of him as an obsessive kid who frequently freaks out with excitement or nervousness even over the smallest of things.  Sometimes, he’s enjoyable like this, but other times, it can get rather grating, making his cartoons not rank very high, and this cartoon is one of them.  It gets going when Arnold drags Sid out of the way as an old chicken sign falls towards him.  Sid sees this gesture as life-saving and feels that the only way to repay Arnold is to be his eternal slave.  That may sound great, but it turns out to be really annoying for Arnold.  All of Sid’s favors for him like making him breakfast and lunch, getting him the perfect seats, and answering questions for him in class are just him getting in the way of things Arnold really doesn’t need help with.  They’re not even entertaining in execution, so it doesn’t help that the audience has to sit through several minutes of Sid constantly barging in on Arnold’s life.  It gets especially frustrating when Arnold sits Sid down to explain that he really doesn’t have to be his servant, and the next day, for some unexplained reason, Sid just keeps on doing what he’s doing just further showing why he’s such a problematic character.  Arnold decides he has no choice but to accept his fate, and that’s a believable response to someone put in the situation as well as allowing Arnold to see the good in something so annoying.  However, at some point, Sid finally decides that he shouldn’t be serving Arnold anymore and that they shouldn’t even be friends, claiming that Arnold is just taking advantage of him.  I never like irrationality, and Sid really displays a lot of that here.  He barged in on Arnold’s personal life on his own accord by giving him help he never needed, and when he’s had it enough, he just turns everything around to make it seem like Arnold’s to blame.  Seriously, there’s no appeal to this little pest.  Still, we get a nice conclusion where Arnold makes up by offering Sid a coupon of a diner he wanted to eat at when the inciting incident happened, the perfect thing to make them even in the first place.  The cartoon has its good moments, so it’s a fine one to sit through, but Sid and his pesky attitude really should be taken with a fistful of salt. 6/10

Hooky

Everyone is only human, especially kids, so I think it’s only natural that they’ll break the rules every now and then and I’m fine with that being portrayed in the media.  However, there are some rules that are just too stupid to attempt breaking because there are high chances that they’ll either fail or get you caught, and in this cartoon, Arnold and Gerald break a rule of that kind.  Yes, it’s natural that they’d get fed up with school, all kids feel that way all the time, but then they decide to get around this by playing hooky for a day.  I know that playing hooky exists, but most people would be pretty stupid to try and do it.  Chances are really high of an authority figure catching and reporting you since they’re practically everywhere.  If you’re caught, the consequences could ruin your life, especially since Arnold and Gerald mention that one kid who played hooky wound up in juvenile hall.  Well, as stupid as their plan is, Arnold and Gerald pull off their round of hooky attempting to assure that they won’t get caught with fake excuse notes, and even a hilarious moment of Arnold perfectly imitating his grandpa’s voice as he calls in sick.  They then set off all around the city with all kinds of fun things to do like going to Dino Land amusement park, a baseball game, and the movies, but they all showcase the obvious reasons why playing hooky was a bad idea with Arnold and Gerald always needing to narrowly avoid getting caught costing them their fun.  The moments are so easy to see coming that it makes you wonder why Arnold and Gerald decided on doing what they did in the first place.  What’s more, the scene of them at the baseball game is foreshadowed to go all over TV, indicating that they’re doomed to get caught by everyone, and nothing is said about that after that scene.  Anyway, we do get a humorous moment where they attempt to disguise themselves while they play hooky and get briefly arrested when they’re mistaken for criminals dressed like them.  It’s a comedy of errors hard to see coming even if it is eerily similar to the cartoon that started it all.  Then, at the end, they realize they played hooky for nothing when they learn the school had a surprise carnival day.  I can buy them being mistaken for criminals, but there’s no way a school would invest much of its budget on a carnival.  If you want to teach that playing hooky is bad, don’t work in missing an event that’s highly unlikely to happen.  It’s enough that Arnold and Gerald almost got caught several times.  However, even with the stupid plot initiative and unbelievable conclusion, the cartoon is still decent enough with little bits of humor and still giving good enough reasons why playing hooky is not a rule worth breaking. It’s problematic for sure, but not that bad. 7/10

The Ranking

1. Harold’s Kitty
2. The Big Scoop
3. Hooky
4. Arnold Saves Sid

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Big Bob Pataki's intentions for deforestation prompts Arnold and his friends to try and "Save the Tree" and we're officially introduced to one of the cast's most prominent characters in "New Teacher."

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