Wednesday, June 13, 2018

'Toon Reviews 16: Hey Arnold Season 3 Episode 12: Best Man/Cool Party


Best Man









The overly competitive Coach Wittenberg is back in this cartoon, and while in many ways, he’s still holding onto his old habits, he’s still fairly enjoyable and thankfully has more respect for Arnold than before. 
Remembering all the help Arnold gave him in his past coaching jobs, the coach appoints him to be his best man at his wedding.  Actually, interestingly enough, it’s a remarriage to his wife, Tish.  It’s a bit confusing as to how this remarriage even works since we never saw them divorce or anything like that.  It could relate to the fact that Tish did kick Coach Wittenberg out for constantly losing jobs in a previous cartoon, but I personally don’t get how you get having another wedding out of deciding to let him come back.  Maybe it’s just my lack of knowledge on how these things work. 
Anyway, while Arnold goes along with Coach Wittenberg’s occasionally cheap, but clearly devoted plans for the wedding, we get some background on his relationship with his wife herself.  Although their only major appearance together featured them as a tense couple with Coach Wittenberg having a hard time maintaining a job and he and Tish coaching different teams for the sole purpose of one-upping each other, as Tish explains, they both value each other over anything else.  As she explains to Helga, her bridesmaid, her husband may value winning a lot, but one time when he let her win at something proved to her that she truly loves him, and her belief in this is genuine enough to make where she’s coming from clear.  It should also be noted that these scenes are also aided in engagement by Helga fantasizing her own wedding to Arnold, humorously doing so out loud and being quick to cover her romantic emotions. 
Regarding Coach Wittenberg, given his inability to truly offer the best amenities for the wedding and constant talks of winning and being number one, that’s an indication that maybe what Tish says about him isn’t really true.  The final straw comes when Tish overhears him having a hard time deciding whether her or winning is the most important to him, and given how sure she was of him loving her the most, she’s easily sympathetic in this case.  Understandably, things slowly get tense between Coach Wittenberg and Tish.  Following wedding practice, they both get engrossed in random frivolous competitions with Coach Wittenberg desperate to be the best, and his attitude leads to them calling off the remarriage, and instead going for an air hockey match to decide who’s really Number 1.  It’s a clear test in morality here which hinders a potentially nice couple, though it does feel concerning that Coach Wittenberg’s ego would be this big when his family’s on the line.  Thankfully, his good side wins out in the end. 
During the following day’s air hockey match, after much suspense of the match that ends up attracting everyone, even kids we didn’t see participate in the wedding practice, Coach Wittenberg heeds Arnold’s earlier advice and lets Tish win, proving that he truly does love his wife more than being the best.  It further sells the heart of this couple which is nice, and also imaginative that this flashy arcade game leads us to the wedding built up through the runtime.  True, it’s followed by them immediately going back for a real competition when Tish guesses that Coach Wittenberg lost on purpose, but since their love has proven itself, it’s fine to accept the competitiveness as part of their chemistry. 
It makes the cartoon a strong performance for the Wittenberg couple playing to their strengths and development. 9/10


Cool Party








This cartoon is especially great for two reasons.  It follows the high-spirited convention of getting a lot of distinct characters together for a party which is always a ton of fun.  Also, it provides an interesting commentary on discrimination. 
Throughout history people have been excluded from certain things for a variety of reasons like skin color, religious beliefs, sexuality, etc.  Fortunately, in every era, even if it’s not all gone, more people realize the problems with discrimination and become more inclusive, including presenting them more in TV shows.  Regarding this cartoon, it features discrimination to a smaller extent, but is still poignant with it as a theme. 
The character initiating the plot is Rhonda, a rich big-shot who’s judgmental about anyone in a lower social class.  Behavior like this would make her one I normally wouldn’t like, but since her stuck-up ways always lead to karma getting her to see sense, I’m able to enjoy Rhonda just fine.  She’s throwing a party and only invites kids she deems “cool,” and Arnold is one of them.  Everyone else is deemed a geek in her eyes for their weird fashion sense, oddball personalities, and in Gerald’s case, beating her at something.  In other words, any kid deemed a geek is being discriminated against.  What Rhonda does demeans others for being who they are, and that is simply not right, one of the biggest flaws of the real world, and the kids’ constant complaints about not being invited illustrate this.  In addition, Rhonda’s party turns out to be completely dull with nothing to do except eat and listen to Rhonda talk about stuff.  The discrimination shows itself again when after Arnold decides to leave the party, Rhonda labels him as a geek for that, another take on an unfortunate element of society regarding conformity. 
With Arnold now out of that party, the cartoon gets really fun when he convinces his friends who are still ticked at being called geeks to use their pent up hurt feelings to have a party of their own on the boarding house roof.  The remainder is nothing but a wildly fun party with distinct characters all hanging out together.  Nearly every shot of the party has something brimming with animated energy with characters dancing and doing something fun all set to incredibly catchy background music.  The party also shines for being an accepting place where everyone can be themselves, contrasting to Rhonda’s rigid party built on conformity especially as more people are drawn to join the "geeks", including those at the “cool” party.  This leaves Rhonda to ponder that her calling everyone else a geek for not sticking with her has left her all alone, and that her customs weren’t the right ones to follow. 
Thankfully, she does something about this in the end when she lets go of her discrimination and declares herself a geek to join the rest of Arnold’s party, the moment staged as a big moment with the party stopping just for Rhonda to do so and starting again when she does.  It ends up being another example of Rhonda’s behavior putting her in an unfortunate position that gets her to see sense, enhancing her appeal, which is especially big for how it also shows how wrong discriminating is.  For this much power in its message, this is one party you don’t want to miss out on.









Now let’s free the animals from the zoo! 10/10
The Ranking
  1. Helga Blabs it All
  2. Harold the Butcher
  3. Cool Party
  4. Crabby Author
  5. Mr. Hyunh Goes Country
  6. Helga Vs. Big Patty
  7. Hey Harold!
  8. Curly Snaps
  9. The Aptitude Test
  10. Pre-Teen Scream
  11. The Pig War
  12. Olga Gets Engaged
  13. Oskar Gets a Job
  14. Phoebe Takes the Fall
  15. Best Man
  16. Career Day
  17. Gerald’s Tonsils
  18. Rich Kid
  19. Dangerous Lumber
  20. Casa Paradiso
  21. Arnold’s Room
  22. Helga and the Nanny
  23. Stinky Goes Hollywood
  24. Arnold Betrays Iggy
The next Hey Arnold review shows how Sid isn't always that great as a lead when he thinks he killed Principal Wartz, and straight man Arnold gets stuck with overly-optimistic Eugene on top of a roller coaster.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is another Steven Universe review, this one covering "Historical Friction."
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