'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!