'Toon Reviews 16: Hey Arnold Season 3 Episode 5: Helga Blabs it All/Harold the Butcher

Helga Blabs it All

The thing that makes Helga such a dynamic and complex character is how she acts like a bully, but is really a decent human being and hopeless romantic.  We know how deep her love for Arnold is, and considering her neglectful and overachieving family, I’d say she can gush over him as much as she pleases.  Even more interesting is how Helga is aware of the downsides of her near-obsessive love and uses her mean behavior picked up from the stress at home to cover it.  The lengths she goes through to hide her feelings show how strong her love is and are entertaining to watch.  The things she does to keep her secret safe in this case are especially entertaining right down to the creative way it’s put at risk. 

While getting a cavity filled at the dentist, Helga is subjected to a large quantity of laughing gas.  The gas does what it’s meant to do, but it also has an effect commonly associated with most drugs by making Helga feel unusually happy and light-hearted, leading her to discuss in detail about Arnold.  It even offers a little background on her love when she states that she’s known him for six years. This is expanded upon in the following season.  Anyway, Helga becomes so positive from the gas that she calls Arnold, and gives a long, passionate soliloquy expressing her true feelings, in front of a crowd of patients, which ends up on the boarding house’s answering machine.  It’s only after Helga sends the message when the laughing gas wears off and she realizes what she just did. To prevent humiliation, she takes action to get rid of the answering machine's tape. 

Being a cartoon, this is the perfect place to unleash wild imagination for the insane things Helga has to do to simply retrieve a tape. In animation, there’s nothing stopping you from bringing completely anything to entertaining life.  We start with Helga ambushing a Campfire Lass and stealing her uniform to get into the boarding house, and making up excuses to people and hiding anywhere close by just when she’s about to get the tape.  It doesn’t sound exciting at first, but then there’s exactly where Helga ends up hiding.  It’s in the air vents of the boarding house, a place you don’t usually see people hide in, which is a major example of a ridiculous situation made believable by the animation medium.  It’s staged believably too with Helga looking cramped while hiding in the small vent as she watches over the answering machine and people passing it.  Adding to the suspense is a close call where it seems like her secret will be revealed, but she’s saved by Arnold’s grandma humorously mishearing the message.  The crazy creativity expands even more when after Helga gets the tape, her escape leads her through the pipe and rafter-filled walls of the boarding house which is another place we hardly see in shows and real life for that matter.  Then it’s all capped off in with hilarity where she ends up in Arnold’s room and walks out in front of him and his friends…and no one cares.  So, Helga’s secret is safe and the mission is all over but the consequences for stealing that uniform. 

It all results in an intense and highly creative mission to prevent a potentially embarrassing discovery with one exciting moment after another and a great multi-layered character like Helga to follow. 10/10

Harold the Butcher

One of the more fascinating characters in the show is Harold.  He may look and act like a one-dimensional bully character, but a frequent trope with him is that he’s a vulnerable, misguided individual.  This cartoon offers more of this trope as he finds his true calling. 

It starts off with his typical misguidedness when his hunger leads him to steal a ham from Mr. Green the butcher.  It’s interesting enough that Harold would be dumb enough to go this far with getting food, but the story goes the extra route by adding to the seriousness of his act when Harold’s religion gets involved.  When he’s sent to the rabbi, Harold learns that in addition to it simply being wrong to steal, him stealing a ham is even worse because it’s a forbidden food to Jewish people (though I’m sure there are Jews out there who eat ham anyway).  However you look at it, this is still a thought-provoking observation on Harold’s crime, more detailed and fleshed out than how most thievery is portrayed and a strong way to bring on the bulk of the plot. 

To teach Harold a lesson , it’s decided that he should work at Green Meats for a week.  There’s a natural progression to how Harold feels about the job.  At first, he dreads working despite bringing it on himself like what one would expect from kids with Harold's maturity being punished, and is a major pain for Mr. Green to deal with.  As the days go by, Harold complains and messes up less, and learns interesting things about meat, sharing what he learns wherever he goes.  When the week is nearly over, Harold is already researching how to become a butcher on his own and fantasizes about being one.  It’s all a natural and believable progress anyone deciding what to do in life can go through starting on rough terms but then growing to love the trade, and given Harold’s primary traits, this is strong development for him uncovering a hidden talent. 

His newfound love of meat is so strong, it’s easy to feel for him when the week is up and Mr. Green allows Harold to go.  Harold goes to many lengths to get Mr. Green to let him keep his job, even by stealing another form of meat for the sole purpose of working in the shop again, but even that doesn’t change Mr. Green’s mind, and through it all, Harold is fully sympathetic.  It’s clear that he’s passionate about meat and just wants to do more with it.  Fortunately for him, and even Mr. Green, Harold gets a chance to use his knowledge of preparing and serving meat when he helps Mr. Green through a huge meat sale, and it goes by faster and easier than it would if Mr. Green was all by himself.  Also, after so much time of getting annoyed with Harold even after he improved, Mr. Green realizes Harold’s talents and makes him his apprentice butcher, making for an admirable ending that gives hope for even people like Harold to find their true purpose.  It would be great if we see more of Harold being a butcher after this cartoon, but at least nothing ever implies that it isn’t happening off screen. 

As it stands, we’re left with one of Harold’s best starring roles which ends up being inspirational, insightful, and relatable. 10/10

The Ranking

1. Helga Blabs it All
2. Harold the Butcher
3. Crabby Author
4. Curly Snaps
5. The Aptitude Test
6. Pre-Teen Scream
7. Olga Gets Engaged
8. Oskar Gets a Job
9. Rich Kid
10. Stinky Goes Hollywood

After talking about two great Hey Arnold cartoons, the next review is going to cover a really low point of the series, "Arnold Betrays Iggy." On the plus side, it comes with a slightly better review of a cartoon about Helga getting a nanny who forces many customs on her despite her good intentions.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is a high point of Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 2, "Shiro's Escape."

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