Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Big Gino / Jamie O in Love (Hey Arnold Season 4 Episode 4) - 'Toon Reviews 28


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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
  1. Dinner for Four
  2. Stinky’s Pumpkin
  3. Big Gino
  4. Phoebe Skips
  5. Eugene’s Birthday
  6. Student Teacher
  7. Jamie O in Love
  8. 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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