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Big Gino
Shows can easily appeal to both kids and adults with a strong
use of stories and characters. A broader
approach is having a story star kid characters who also make references adults
are more likely to get. In this case,
the adult reference is of one of the most acclaimed films ever, albeit one I’ve
personally yet to see, The Godfather. This cartoon doesn’t just reference that
film, it has an interesting take on its tone by combining it with childlike
mannerisms and interests.
There’s a
Godfather-like kid called Big Gino, who’s actually quite small, with his own
personal mafia of schoolkids. Sid offers
to sell candy from him, and makes big bucks fast although he’s supposed to give
Gino some of the profit. Instead, Sid
uses all his earnings to buy a toy he’s always wanted, a rocking horse. For not holding up his end of the bargain, Gino
and his gang show they mean business via a G-rated version of the infamous
horse head scene from The Godfather.
At Arnold’s encouragement, Sid goes to Big
Gino to explain his mistake and try to work something out. Through hamming up the established homages
and references, Gino says the best way for Sid to repay his debt is for him to
be part of his gang. From there, Sid
joins the kid mafia by pressuring kids into buying things from Big Gino, and
enjoys the power and perks that come with it.
It’s a usual case that Sid would be easily swayed to do anything no
matter how extreme, and it’s interesting that he values Gino treating him like
a friend more than any money he gets.
That
said, it is kind of unclear if Sid does benefit monetarily from joining the kid
mafia. Arnold, the reasonable one, looks
into the situation logically as he watches Sid get easily swayed by Gino’s
influence. He brings up to Sid the
question if it’s really wise to consider Gino his friend. After all, since he did have Sid’s favorite
toy destroyed, he’s still not exactly the understanding type. Sid thinks nothing of these claims, but he
does get conflicted somewhat not long after.
Gino hears Arnold badmouth him, and assigns Sid to give him a swirly,
i.e. put Arnold’s head in the toilet.
It’s pleasing that Sid grows a backbone out of this through getting
conflicted over doing this. He even goes
up to Arnold, explains the truth on the matter, and asks him if he could give
him a swirly. Of course Arnold says no
to that, but it’s far better than the expected outcome of Sid being awkward
about the setup instead of open and honest.
It’s a welcome and logical change of pace coming from him.
However, he also repeats old flaws of
ignoring Gino who keeps checking up on him to see if he got the job done. You’d think Sid would know the consequences of
not listening to Gino by now. Then
again, Sid usually isn’t all that logical.
He’s caught by the kid mafia after a time asking Sid who he really
values. While it is at the last minute,
Sid does show some logic by choosing Arnold over Gino, even if it means getting
tossed out of the gang and getting a swirly himself. This probably would have happened if Sid told
the truth from the start, but it’s still great that he makes the right
decisions on his own accord.
So, in
addition to having a lot of nice class from what it parodies, this cartoon
benefits as a strong starring role for Sid, which is honestly pretty rare.
A
Jamie O in
Love
One big thing that typically works against something turning
out good is if it stars a character who’s one-dimensionally bad for no reason
and gets little to no consequences.
This is the case for Gerald’s older brother Jamie O. Prior to this cartoon, he’s mostly made
cameos with occasional scenes of his overbearing jerkiness. Now, it’s the catalyst for an entire cartoon
which already starts working against it.
There’s also no believable reason to why he treats his own brother so
badly other than a stereotype that it’s just what tough older siblings do. It’s frustrating to watch the innocent put up
with such one-dimensional brute force that no one bothers to do anything
about. Yes, siblings mess with each other,
but it’s usually balanced out with some form of love. They’re part of the same family, so they
should understand they need someone to look up to in life.
Then one day, Jamie O suddenly adopts a completely new persona where
instead of mercilessly bullying Gerald, he’s blissfully at his service. He’s making him deserts, buying him stuff,
and driving him places. Given how hard
Jamie O was unapologetically messing with Gerald at the cartoon’s start, this
is practically surreal, and also out of nowhere. It’s so strange that Arnold and Gerald spy on
Jamie O to see the cause for his change in behavior. Through picking up the details, it isn’t
because he’s seen the error of his ways.
It’s all because he’s in love with a cute looking girl named Cherice. Even if it’s great to see Gerald get served
this much from his brother, the fact that Jamie O is doing this out of love is
pretty shallow. Is there some sort of
code that tough boys are supposed to lay off their animosity because of a crush? Love for an outsider wouldn’t just
automatically get rid of another part of one’s character, bad as it is. It also doesn’t make sense that Jamie O would
be this willing to server Gerald. He
already puts in a lot of labor and money for Cherice, so how can there be this
much of them left to spare?
Then Gerald
notices a catch to the crush when Cherice reveals to her friend that she really
doesn’t reciprocate Jamie O’s feelings.
She’s just faking it so he’ll do stuff for him, also unfortunately
making her seem one-dimensional.
Gerald’s all set up to expose this fraud to his brother, but that would
be at the risk of losing the brotherly love he’s getting now. It’s honestly confusing as to what the right
thing for Gerald to do is. It’s bad that
Cherice is using him, but given how thuggish he was to Gerald, helping Jamie O should probably not be this pressing of a matter.
There also isn’t a good reason for this other than Jamie O’s his brother,
but even then, he never really made much of an attempt to respect him as a
brother prior to meeting Cherice.
Even Gerald can't stand to see Jamie O break down over failing to
get things done for a fraud, and that moment leads him to tell him the
truth. Jamie O later overhears Cherice
badmouth him, and is basically back to normal.
Fortunately, he does seem to mean it when he says he’ll treat Gerald
better as the cartoon ends with him expressing brotherly love, in his own
authoritative way though. At least it’s
some form of respect. The ending does
save the cartoon from being outright bad, but a presence of one-dimensional
jerks and shallow and confusing plot points leave a sting too big to ignore.
C-
The Ranking
- Dinner for Four
- Stinky’s Pumpkin
- Big Gino
- Phoebe Skips
- Eugene’s Birthday
- Student Teacher
- Jamie O in Love
- Full Moon
The next Hey Arnold review shows Helga's mom adopt a new role as the beeper queen bringing a great new home life for Helga...for a while anyway, and Oskar Kokoshka is revealed to be illiterate.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the first part of the "Time is Money" arc from DuckTales.
If you would like to check out other Hey Arnold reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
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